15 Country, 21 Day, Round-The-World McBain Adventure 2019

Having returned yesterday from an epic family vacation, several people asked about the itinerary so I wanted to share the details. Michelle will be sharing her thoughts here shortly.

The trip started with a speech I needed to deliver on July 31 in Hamilton Island, Australia for ARN Edge 2019 on the future of channels. The idea was to meander our way around the world with a bunch of shorter flights ending up in Australia at the end.

With heavy use of Kayak.com and Hotels.com, we kept the trip as flexible as possible and in many cases would only book the hotel room the day of staying. This caused a bit of anxiety at times, but also saved money without keeping to a rigid schedule. The days of having to book anything multiple weeks in advance is long over.

This trip also helped the original bucket list "100 Country Rollerblades and Red Bull Tour". While the rollerblades and red bull have been curtailed in recent years, the march to 100 continues with this trip bringing me up to 95 countries!

Next year I expect to join the Travelers' Century Club. The Travelers' Century Club™ is a nonprofit social organization representing world travelers who have visited 100 or more of the world's countries and territories.

Here is a quick video of the trip:

Well, here is a taste of the numerous stops:

And here is the detailed itinerary of how it all happened:

The March To 100 Countries Continues!

76 Countries now visited (or 73% of the world population and 66% of world land mass). Travel now becomes a bit more tricky to avoid war zones and unstable political regimes.

Countries visited:

• Argentina
• Austria
• Australia
• Aruba
• Belgium
• Brazil
• Bahamas
• Botswana
• Belarus
• Canada
• Switzerland
• China
• Colombia
• Costa Rica
• Cuba
• Czech Republic
• Germany
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Egypt
• Spain
• Finland
• Fiji
• France
• United Kingdom
• Greece
• Haiti
• Hungary
• Indonesia
• Ireland
• India
• Iceland
• Italy
• Jamaica
• Japan
• Cambodia
• South Korea
• Cayman Islands
• Sri Lanka
• Lesotho
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Latvia
• Morocco
• Macau
• Mexico
• Malaysia
• Mozambique
• Namibia
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Nepal
• New Zealand
• Panama
• Peru
• Philippines
• Poland
• Puerto Rico
• Portugal
• Russia
• Sweden
• Singapore
• Slovenia
• Slovakia
• Swaziland
• Thailand
• Taiwan
• Ukraine
• United States
• Uruguay
• Vatican City
• Vietnam
• Vanuatu
• South Africa
• Zimbabwe
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

More details:

South America Cruise 2017

Excited to be going on a South American cruise with Michelle, Brooklyn and Cali tomorrow - 10 days including Columbia, Panama Canal, Costa Rica, Aruba, Grand Cayman Islands from Fort Lauderdale!

Peace out winter blast.

Trip to Australia, Phuket, Bali, Vanuatu and Fiji - February 2017

With 75 countries complete on the World 100 tour with Michelle, we are leaving to check off some more in the Pacific Islands starting on February 6, 2017.

This time, a consulting engagement takes us to Sydney, Australia on Valentine's Day. Looking around the region, there are a number of islands - some hard to get to, some easy (and famous) as honeymoon destinations.

We have all seen images above from places in the Islands - of cottages on stilts on top of amazing turquoise waters. As a kid, I would always hear of places like this and wonder what it was like to explore.


Phuket, Thailand

The trip starts on February 6th out of Newark airport, where Michelle, Brooklyn, Cali and I will embark on a 22 hour journey through Hong Kong to arrive in Phuket on February 7th. We will be staying at the Vijitt Resort:

Bali, Indonesia

Next, we fly over to  on February 9th, routing through Singapore. We will be staying at the Bali Mandira Beach Resort & Spa:

Sydney, Australia

Next, we fly over to Sydney on February 12th, on a direct flight. We will be staying at the Westin Sydney Downtown:

Port Vila, Vanuatu

Next, we fly over to Vanuatu on February 15th, routing through Brisbane. We will be staying at the Holiday Inn Resort Vanuatu:

Nadi, Fiji

Finally, we fly over to Fiji on February 18th, connecting directly. We will be staying at the Radisson Blu Resort Fiji Denarau Island:

The trip home is interesting as we stay one night in Los Angeles before taking a morning flight back to New Jersey. We were lucky to use up a bunch of different kinds of airline and hotel points on this trip. 

The permutations and combinations of destinations with flights and times was interesting to say the least! 

Here is what the trip looks like on a map:

The goal of hitting 100 countries is firmly in reach. This is the latest map: