He who travels alone is never alone. I’ve carried this motto with me since I was a child. My father was a train conductor, and as children, we traveled around Switzerland with him and to neighboring countries. I’m curious about how my own TCC sequence began — it is not entirely known to me what my order for visiting Germany, France, Austria, and Italy was. Still, I’m certain that those younger years with my family laid the foundation.
Curiosity was my middle name, and as a young man, I constantly questioned everything: What is truth? What is reality? What is the meaning behind things? What lies beyond? When hiking in the mountains, I always had to climb to the summit to see beyond the mountain peaks. That was the beginning of my philosophical journey. In the scouts, my nickname was “Frogi” for always asking questions. Philosophy led me to travel, and traveling led me back to philosophy.
The first trip I organized for myself was at the age of 14 on a bicycle tour through Switzerland, and then at the age of 18, I took my first international trip with a friend. The two of us hopped on our Vespa with a tent, and we headed east through Vienna, Austria, towards Yugoslavia — present day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzogovina. We returned via Venice, Italy over the Alps. Wow! These trips set the stage for a lifetime of travel with my eventual girlfriend, wife, family, siblings, and friends.
A quick snapshot of me, I was born in 1954, pursued mechanical and electronics engineering and have worked in computer science since 1964. What I didn’t know at the time was that a series of events would seem to line up and lead me to travel exclusively without stopping: I would get married, and in 1985, I started my own company and attained financial freedom later when I sold it in 2009. When my wife and I “happily” parted ways in 2014, I told myself: “Beat, you’re 63 and on your own.” With two children, three grandchildren, and still doing many family events together, we are simply better friends than partners — we help each other whenever it is needed.
On a trip to Vietnam in 2017 with my older brother, he told everyone he had visited 60 countries. That made me curious about how many I had visited. I created an Excel file from a Wikipedia country list &mdash still struggling with the order of those first four new countries — checked off the ones I’d been to, and realized I had visited 77 countries. The problem was that, from the list I was referencing, 140 countries looked interesting. So I started traveling almost exclusively — not to collect checkmarks, but to see as much as possible and satisfy my endless curiosity.
It wasn’t until 2020 that I first heard of the TCC and eventually became a member. I added new territories to my list and even included the Lonely Planet’s 200 most beautiful cities in the world. After all, why not? My story is not that much different from yours, as I currently stand at having visited 173 United Nations countries, 258 on the TCC list, and even on my list of 349, I’ve visited 270. Where my story might differ from yours is that since 2017, when I turned 63, I chose to travel full-time. For 1,700 days and 600 border crossings, at about ten stories a day, I’m most proud of the 17,000 stories to reflect on, connecting with locals in every country — kings, politicians, company owners and others. It is always fascinating. The most important thing was and is: I have spoken with over 10,000 people worldwide. Even when you travel alone, you are never alone.
If I keep traveling at this pace, I will see everything in about four years. But do we ever see everything? Once I reach my “completion,” I plan to revisit 120 countries, meet friends and explore more places in each country.
Remember that computer science background? I created an MS Excel file that is huge; it has 349 entries, 12 tables, and over 50 different statistics — a real monster. Thanks to it, I know exactly how many flights I’ve taken, from which countries, how many different hotels I’ve stayed in, and much more. I am, admittedly, a control freak. I have also collected about 15,000 KMZ points around the world—points used in geographic information systems like Google Earth. Every day during my travels, I upload photos to my WhatsApp status and later to my Dropbox. I have been taking photos since I was eight years old. I always say, “I see the world in pictures.” (Contact me for the link to view or download them.)
I have traveled alone for 98% of the time, rarely in groups, sometimes with my brothers. Starting in 2017, I organized flights, hotels, car or motorcycle rentals all by myself. On site, I sometimes booked tours through “Free Walking Guide.” During the pandemic, I visited 110 different countries and was featured in a local newspaper. Once again, he who travels alone is never alone.
In 2021, I traveled to Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, and more. For those trips, I found a good travel agency. In Kampala, Uganda, I met the owner of Diamir, the second-largest adventure travel agency in Germany. Since then, I have booked most trips through this agency. Now, I always do “group tours,” but I am usually the only participant in the group. I love discussing and sometimes philosophizing with my guide, and sometimes with the driver. Whenever I ask, “Are you satisfied with your government?” it always sparks good and interesting conversations.
When I made my list in 2017, I told myself it’s not about “ticking boxes,” but about seeing as much as possible. I endeavour to stay 5 to 14 days in a country, depending on its size. There are only 9 territories out of 270 where I have not stayed overnight — mainly Antarctic regions, islands, and the Vatican. In December 2024, I canceled a trip to the South Pole. Four checkmarks for the same money as 130 days traveling with a personal guide — it’s not about ticking boxes.
This brings me to 2025, where I will spend most of the year at home working on my philosophy book, Knowledge Makes Fear Pointless. In May, I attended the European TCC meeting and gave a talk on travel and philosophy. There is something to being a professional questioner. It is exciting to have conversations with more than 10,000 people around the world — so, let’s keep going and remember that he who travels alone is never alone.
