--- title: 27-Year-Old Now First Woman to Visit Every Country on Earth description: Cassie De Pecol, a 27-year-old traveler from Connecticut, just became the fastest person to visit every country in the world. canonical: https://time.com/4727632/cassie-de-pecol-every-country-first/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-12T21:02:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:57:50.304Z og:title: This 27-Year-Old Became the First Woman to Visit Every Country in the World og:description: She's completing paperwork to be recognized by Guinness World Records og:url: https://time.com/4727632/cassie-de-pecol-every-country-first/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt867702b1bfc29ca1/6988bfc50a4a22f76f9cd67c/1701324-expedition196-cassie-de-pecol.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: 1701324-expedition196-cassie-de-pecol og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This 27-Year-Old Became the First Woman to Visit Every Country in the World twitter:description: She's completing paperwork to be recognized by Guinness World Records twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt867702b1bfc29ca1/6988bfc50a4a22f76f9cd67c/1701324-expedition196-cassie-de-pecol.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This 27-Year-Old Became the First Woman to Visit Every Country in the World > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Cailey Rizzo / Travel + Leisure](https://time.com/author/travel-leisure/) ## Cailey Rizzo / Travel + Leisure Apr 12, 2017 9:02 PM UTC  Instagram/cassiedepecol by [Cailey Rizzo / Travel + Leisure](https://time.com/author/travel-leisure/) ## Cailey Rizzo / Travel + Leisure Apr 12, 2017 9:02 PM UTC Cassie De Pecol, a 27-year-old traveler from Connecticut, just became the fastest person to visit every country in the world. She is also the first woman to visit every sovereign nation. She left for her world tour in July 2015, and on February 2 she visited Yemen, the 196th and final country on her list. Her entire journey around the world took 18 months and 26 days, smashing the previous record of three years and three months. De Pecol is now completing the paperwork to be officially recognized by Guinness World Records. \[compare\_card\] De Pecol completed her whirlwind world tour as an ambassador for the International Institute of Peace Through Tourism. Throughout her trip, De Pecol met with mayors and ministers of tourism, presenting them with the organization’s [“Declaration of Peace.”](http://www.iipt.org/globalsummit/ammandeclaration.html) Throughout her journey, De Pecol boarded over 255 flights, planted trees in over 50 countries and went through five passports. She spent between two and five days in each country. De Pecol told CNN that some of the hardest moments in her journey came when trying to secure visas. “There have been cases when I post on my Facebook, ‘Hi I need help getting into Libya’ or ‘I need help getting into Syria,’ and at that point it’s kind of trusting in the unknown, trusting in people,” [she said](http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/10/travel/woman-globe-trot-trnd/). In order to fund her journey, De Pecol saved $10,000 in babysitting money. She acquired the rest of her $198,000 budget through sponsors. De Pecol also exchanged promotional coverage for stays at eco-hotels around the world. She also filmed the entire journey and hopes to release her travels as a documentary. Next up, De Pecol plans to visit Antarctica. But before that, she will race in an Olympic Triathlon in San Diego next month, and in June she will teach a course in how to secure funding to travel the world. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4727632/cassie-de-pecol-every-country-first/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4727632/cassie-de-pecol-every-country-first/"},"headline":"This 27-Year-Old Became the First Woman to Visit Every Country in the World","datePublished":"2017-04-12T21:02:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:57:50.304Z","description":"She's completing paperwork to be recognized by Guinness World Records","url":"https://time.com/4727632/cassie-de-pecol-every-country-first/","keywords":["Living","Travel","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt867702b1bfc29ca1/6988bfc50a4a22f76f9cd67c/1701324-expedition196-cassie-de-pecol.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cailey Rizzo / Travel + Leisure"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt867702b1bfc29ca1/6988bfc50a4a22f76f9cd67c/1701324-expedition196-cassie-de-pecol.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"1701324-expedition196-cassie-de-pecol","caption":"Cassie Depecol Expedition196","creditText":"Instagram/cassiedepecol","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4727632/cassie-de-pecol-every-country-first/","name":"This 27-Year-Old Became the First Woman to Visit Every Country in the World"}}]}] ```