Have you ever dreamed of traveling the world? Well, Rio Matsuoka from California did more than a dream – he set a new world record for being the youngest person to visit every country in Europe!
Rio started his European adventure in Iceland on his 18th birthday, and after traveling for 101 days and visiting 44 countries, he finished his journey in Malta.
“I was telling my family that I would like to travel to Europe after I graduated high school and, while doing some research, I remembered that someone had beaten the world record for the youngest person to visit every country in the world,” Rio said. “I realized I could do something similar with Europe and found out I had the opportunity to.”
Rio traveled mostly by train through Western European countries, and by bus through Eastern European countries. He only took a plane a couple of times, to visit Britain and Russia. He said his favorite country was Norway because of its beautiful nature.
Rio is now working as a volunteer for multiple nonprofits in Ukraine and plans to take on more world records in the future. Who knows, maybe one day you can break a world record too!
I have always wanted to travel all around Europe