The Travel Diaries

Jessica Nabongo, first black woman to visit every country in the world

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Episode notes

Jessica Nabongo is the first black woman in history to have visited all 195 countries in the world. On top of that, she travelled to 89 of these countries solo. All by the age of 35. She’s an influencer, photographer and businesswoman, and shares with us what she learnt throughout this epic journey. 


From Tuvalu and Eritrea to Turkmenistan and Djibouti, Jessica’s travel diaries literally take us all over the world.


Destination Recap:


  • Punta Mita, Mexico 
  • Uganda
  • Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda,
  • Lamu, Kenya
  • Japan
  • Mt Fuji, Japan
  • Hiroshima, Japan 
  • Bali, Indonesia
  • Namibia 
  • Islamabad, Pakistan
  • Lahore, Pakistan
  • Iran especially Isfahan
  • Colombia
  • Cuba
  • Merowe, Sudan
  • Senegal
  • Eritrea
  • Masawa, Eritrea
  • Tuvalu 
  • Lake Assal, Djibouti 
  • The Door to Hell, Turkmenistan 
  • South Sudan
  • Moldova
  • Belarus
  • Tashkent, Samarkand & Termez, Uzbekistan
  • Venice, Italy
  • Greenland
  • Santiago de Cuba, Cuba


For more of Jessica’s adventures you can pre-order her first book on Amazon. It will be published by National Geographic and is out in May 2022. In the meantime, you can follow her on Instagram @jessicanabongo. Jessica's new project, The Nabongo List: is a new luxury, travel membership that gives you the best in local, luxury and unique experiences all around the world, curated by Jessica


A big thank you to today’s sponsors for their support of the podcast.


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To find out who’s joining me on next week’s episode, come and follow me on Instagram, I’m @hollyrubenstein - I’d love to hear from you. 


If you can’t wait until then, there’s always the first five seasons to catch up on, with guests from Michael Palin and Heston Blumenthal, to Sir Ranulph Fiennes to Hugh Bonneville.



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