52 Countries in 52 Weeks

On July 1st 2024, I left Los Angeles with my wife and two youngest children Briana (21) and Braden (19) to travel the world—a new country every week, for an entire year.

What began as an ambitious family adventure very quickly became our life. Not a break from reality, not an escape, but a complete reorientation of how we lived every single day. For one year, our family woke up with the same intention: to find the best food, the best people, and the most meaningful experiences available wherever we were in the world.

HOW DID YOU DO IT?

The number one question I still get is not "where did you go?" or "what was your favorite place?" It's always the same question: "How did you do it?"

And the honest answer tends to disappoint people because it isn't complicated. We just decided to do it, and then we figured it out as we went.

Most people imagine something like this requires a perfectly engineered plan, infinite resources, or some secret access. The truth is, it requires the same resilience people already use when life throws them curveballs. Job changes, moves, loss, uncertainty, unexpected pivots. We are incredibly good at figuring things out when we have to. This time, we used that same muscle for something joyful.

We had learned this lesson years earlier, just after Covid, when California was still locked down and our kids were out of school. We bought a giant RV and drove to all forty-eight contiguous states in six months. Sixty-two cities. A new stop every three days. That trip taught us something powerful: when life becomes mission driven, even the tedious parts become meaningful.

A mission transforms inconvenience into meaning.

So when we realized we had one last window before our kids fully went their separate ways, the question wasn't "should we do something big"—it was "how big." We had seen America. Now we wanted to see the world.

THE WORLD IS MORE SIMILAR THAN YOU THINK

One of the biggest surprises was how little culture shock we experienced. Technology has quietly smoothed out the world. Everywhere we went, people lived remarkably similar lives. Kitchens were familiar. Apartments were familiar. Work routines were familiar. The mechanics of daily life—restaurants, menus, payment, entertainment—all followed the same patterns.

We expected the world to feel more foreign. Instead, it felt human.

Another assumption that dissolved quickly was the idea that great food lives only in certain places. Yes, sushi in Japan was incredible, but so was sushi in Poland. South Korea was outstanding. India ended up being our favorite food in the world. Saudi Arabia surprised us. China was extraordinary. Turkey may be one of the best food countries on the planet.

The best burger I ate was in Scotland, tied with one from Paraguay—a country most Americans can't find on a map. Colombia and Germany are having a breakfast café renaissance that nobody's talking about. World class food exists everywhere now.

HOW WE ACTUALLY PLANNED IT

From a logistics standpoint, the trip was simpler than people imagine.

We traveled east, always. We broke the world into regions—Europe, Africa, Middle East, India, Southeast Asia, Australia, South America—and let seasons dictate timing. We left July 1 and started in Europe. Summer in Europe, fall in Africa, winter in the Middle East, then east through Asia, and finally South America as their winter created ideal conditions.

We traveled every Wednesday. That was the only routine we had. Flights and housing were booked about two to four weeks out. Always. Never more. We ran a leapfrog system: one week locked, one being finalized, one being researched.

After a few months, we became very good at it. By week twenty, booking a new country felt almost casual.

WHAT WE PACKED FOR A YEAR

Everyone asks what we packed. The answer surprises people. A carry-on sized roller bag and one backpack each. That's it. No checked luggage. No excess.

We reset weekly—laundry wherever we were, buy what you need, let go of what you don't. You do not need much to live well. Ironically, my ten-dollar sunglasses survived the entire trip.

THE WORLD IS SAFER AND KINDER THAN YOU'RE TOLD

We had virtually no issues anywhere. No crime. No danger. No real fear. The only true drama happened in Japan when I lost my passport the day before we were flying to Taiwan. For a couple hours I thought the entire trip was over.

Then Japan did what Japan does. Someone found it, turned it in, and it was waiting at an Osaka police station. They were excited to give it back. I was nearly in tears.

In Dubai, I left my bags with my laptop on the sidewalk outside a restaurant for hours, and came back to find them untouched. One time, a pillow and hoodie were taken from our unlocked rental car in Iceland (the safest country in the world). That is the entire crime report from a year around the world.

English is everywhere. Help is everywhere. People were curious, kind, and welcoming almost universally. Americans are far more respected globally than social media narratives suggest.

WHAT IT DID TO US

Traveling this way changed my kids. They became confident, articulate, adaptable. They learned how to speak to adults, navigate unfamiliar situations, and trust themselves. Being on a shared mission created a bond that is hard to replicate any other way.

It also changed my values. Material things matter less. Cars matter less. Stuff matters less. Experience became the currency.

Coming home was harder than expected. Not because home was bad, but because the mission ended. The day we walked back into the house, it felt like the energy slowly drained away. It took time to recalibrate, to find purpose without movement.

That gap is what gave birth to Reject Average Magazine. This trip created more questions, conversations, and requests for guidance than anything I've ever done. People didn't just want to watch—they wanted to participate. They wanted help designing their own lives around experience, not someday, but now.

THE POINT

You don't need to do 52 countries in 52 weeks. But you do need a mission.

Adventure does something profound. It collapses time. It deepens relationships. It rewires priorities. It reminds you that life is not something you prepare for later.

If you can work remotely, you are freer than you think. If school schedules feel like the only barrier, you are overestimating the cost and underestimating the value. A year off will not hurt your kids. A year like this might define them.

We didn't do this because we're different. We did it because we decided to. Everything else followed.

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Want the full story?

Read the complete 52-country journey, see the full country list, discover our "Wonders of the World" moments, and get the honest breakdown of what worked (and what didn't) in the full Winter 2026 issue of Reject Average Magazine.

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