Mr Worldwide – Dillon DeCoteau visits all 193 UN countries

DILLON DeCoteau has done something only a few hundred people have done – visit all 193 UN countries. He didn’t just stop there, either, as he has been to over 200 countries and may someday boast of visiting every country in the world.

DeCoteau, 55, hails from Arima and grew up in TT before moving to Canada at age 18.

He currently works at the finance ministry in Ontario, Canada, as his professional areas of specialisation are actuarial science, statistics and economics.

He said the story of how he began this journey is a “strange” one.

He would have initially “got his feet wet with travelling” in 2000 with a tour company that took him on a 12-country European tour. He added that when he was still living in TT, he visited Venezuela regularly to shop.

But it was in 2010 while living in Canada that he realised he had "almost a million" aero reward points from using his credit cards that it hit him: Let me plan a trip.

“I was like, ‘Why am I sitting on all these points?' So I planned a ten-country trip which included countries like Australia, China, Japan…It took me about six weeks and (the flights) were all business class.”

He said he ventured to even more countries for his vacation the following year and, “It just stuck and grew from there. I thought, 'Maybe I should try to see if I could visit all the (UN) countries in the world.'"

And 15 years later, he has done just that.

When it comes to the actual number of countries in the world, it differs.

The UN only recognises 193, which does not include territories of other countries like Martinique and Guadeloupe (France), Greenland (Denmark), the US Virgin Islands (US), etc. But it also does not recognise England, for example, as an individual country. The country the UN lists is the UK, which also consists of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. So it’s complicated. But there are over 200 non-UN-recognised countries.

He said he would plan at least three trips per year, during which he would visit several countries.

“I roughly visited at least 20 countries every year.”

Initially, he would spend about six days in each country but he reduced that to capitalise on visiting other places.

“So because I had this goal in mind and had such limited time, I would sometimes spend two or three days in each country. And when I’m there, I tend to go to explore the capitals.”

He said once he has breakfast, he may not return to his hotel room until the following night.

“And then I’m gone again…

“Some people's idea of a vacation is to go by a pool and relax and read a book for a week. That's not my idea of a vacation. I like to be on the go, I like to see as many things as I can.

He said he has visited 21 non-UN countries, taking his total to 214 countries so far.

Asked what the longest flight he has been on was, he said a 16-hour one from Toronto, Canada to Hong Kong.

“That was the longest non-stop flight. But I've been on trips where it took me like two or three days to actually get to where I'm going because there were so many different connections I had to make.

“One of the challenges when you are using points to travel is that you are at the mercy of what's available. So to get from point A-B using points, you may have to go A-D then F-G-C before you get to B.”

But this doesn’t frustrate him.

“I just want to get to my point B. I don’t care (how). But this is with the comfort of flying business class where you may have your own suite, etc. If it was economy class, it might have been a different story,” he said with a laugh.

He said he is always asked if he has a favourite of all the places he has visited, but it is really difficult for him to choose.

“You like certain countries for different reasons,” he explained.

“For example, I like Iceland because it has so many sides to it in terms of the nature stuff, the hot springs…there’s so many things to see…then I liked the smaller European countries like San Marino which is up in the mountains and you get such a good view, the buildings are almost like castles from medieval times…”

Other countries he really enjoyed exploring were Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan - or as he calls them, “the ans and the stans.”

“The people of Afghanistan are so, so, so nice. And the thing is, a lot of those countries, (foreign) media would totally discourage you from going to a lot of them…

“I find the countries where they say, ‘Don't go, it's too dangerous’ are where I actually have the best experiences and meet the nicest people. They always leave a mark on me. So I tend not to go based on what social or (mainstream) media say about a country. I’ll be the judge of that myself.”

He also had some not-so-pleasant experiences, particularly in some African countries.

In Guinea, it is illegal to take photos in certain areas and of specific buildings. He said he was taking some photos and some people told him to hand over his passport and phone.

“It was only when I offered them money, they switched from speaking French to English and said, ‘Now you talking.’”

One visit people always ask about is North Korea. In fact, some refuse to believe he actually went.

“A tour guide must be with you all the time. You can’t walk the streets freely on your own or explore by yourself.”

He said there are strict guidelines as well. For example: “If you’re taking a picture of a statue of their leader (Kim Jong Un), you can’t crop any part of it – the arms, the feet. His entire body must be in the photo.”

Apart from that, he said the buildings were impressive and almost majestic.

People often say a TT national can be found anywhere in the world. Funnily enough, DeCoteau has not met any fellow TT people on any of his trips.

“Actually, when I use my TT passport in some countries, you will just see blank faces on these immigration officers because they’ve never seen one before. They don’t know where TT is and have to take the passport to their supervisors.”

In countries where cricket is popular, he may get some reactions by saying the name Brian Lara. Others – not so much.

“Even if I say calypso, soca, they're not familiar with that type of music.”

He used to collect souvenirs from countries until he began running out of space to display them. He has some from at least 100 countries. He said he mostly collected crystal paper holders with the name of the country engraved in them.

His 15-year journey of visiting all 193 UN countries ended on April 3, when he reached Sudan.

“As you know, Sudan was completely closed off since April 2023 because of the civil war. I was just waiting patiently for it to open but the war was getting worse. So where I went was Port Sudan, where I guess the civil war hasn't filtered there yet.”

He feels extremely proud of his achievements. But he isn’t showing any signs of stopping until he has been everywhere. In fact, after Sudan, he visited Western Sahara.

Asked what’s next, he said, “Well, now that I’ve finished the UN countries, I’m kind of thinking maybe going to every country could be on my bucket list. So maybe I’ll just continue.”

He hopes his story can also inspire more TT nationals to travel and “go out and see the world.”