120 Months – 120 Countries

10 Years of Weltreisebär

The 30th of June 2016 was the start of an idea I'd had for a while – a bear should travel the world. With me, family, friends. And he should visit every country in the world.

Backstory

I'm often asked how I came up with this idea. I'd love to tell that story. It actually began back in 2009 and is closely tied to the fact that I studied geography. Back then, in the autumn of 3rd grade, I was stuck at home with scarlet fever for three weeks straight. Smartphones didn't exist yet (or at least not in my world), so I read a book: “Countries and Continents” – more of a kind of encyclopaedia. I was fascinated by the pictures and country profiles, and after those three weeks I knew all the capital cities by heart. Travelling to every country in the world myself, though, seemed pretty much impossible at the time. Take roughly 200 countries and 70 years in which you're fit to travel → that means you'd need to visit 3 NEW countries every year to reach that goal.

I can't quite remember exactly when it happened, but the idea of a Weltreisebär – one who always has time and never needs money for a holiday – suddenly seemed like an achievable task. Especially since the Weltreisebär, being (soberly speaking) an object, has no physical expiry date. Or at least it can be delayed quite significantly. (Side note: after 10 years, the bear does show a bit of wear, but far less than I would have expected!)

The Beginning

The still-inexperienced Weltreisebär was “born” in Slovenia, in the tri-border area of Slovenia/Italy/Austria. At the time, I (Tobi) was 15 years old, in 9th grade, and during the summer holidays a few more countries were soon added: by early August the bear had already notched up Germany, Slovenia, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands and France – 6 countries in 6 weeks.

In the beginning, the bear travelled with family members, but with Jordan (country No. 11, March 2017) the first country came about through a friend. The biggest surge probably ever happened in year 4 – a whopping 20 countries were added. Of those, 13 were with Tobi in Europe within just 7 weeks.

The Covid Crisis

What I'd calculated as a little boy started showing up in the numbers from year 5 onwards: since there were hardly any new countries left in Europe, the really big “leaps” soon came to an end. The Covid crisis from March 2020 onwards did the rest. It's thanks to Laura from Switzerland that any new countries were added at all in year 5. (The bear travelled with me in person to Zurich and came back by parcel – which, according to my own rules, is only allowed within German-speaking countries.)

The early years:

Year 1 (2016/17): +13 countries

Year 2 (2017/18): +17 countries

Year 3 (2018/19): +15 countries

Year 4 (2019/20): +20 countries

Year 5 (2020/21): +2 countries

Thankfully, things picked up again in 2021 and Tobi himself started travelling again: in September, with Cyprus (country No. 69), Europe was complete. Right on the first post-Covid trip to Iceland (country No. 68), great contacts were made who supported the post-Covid upswing along with many friends: a total of 41 people have now taken the bear travelling. I met many of them either while travelling myself or rather by chance. My chatty nature always seems to help the Weltreisebär move forward.

The Europe Travel Bear Becomes a World Travel Bear

Years 6 and 7 were strongly shaped by two absolute favourite travel companions of the Weltreisebär: the Moser family from Augustusburg and the Schuda family from Lostau. With both families, the bear had already visited 9 countries – a record that stood for a long time. Even impossible destinations were soon ticked off: in 2022/23 the bear went to both Greenland and Antarctica – the only two territories in the world that aren't technically “countries”.

Statistically, the bear hovered for a long time around the mark of 1 new country per month. It was clear this rate would eventually drop, since the trips kept getting further and further afield. Still, with Shayan in Iran (Feb./March 2025), it happened once more:

Year 6 (2021/22): +6 countries

Year 7 (2022/23): +7(+2) countries

Year 8 (2023/24): +12 countries

Year 9 (2024/25): +11 countries

Year 10 (2025/26): +17 countries

In years 9 and 10, I began saving up certain contacts for “later” – friends who originally come from a country and will travel back there again at some point. Some of them have already taken the bear along, others are still on the list. Often the bear has 3 or 4 options at the same time for where to go next. The decision isn't always easy, and usually I just try to pick the “rarest” or “trickiest” country first.

The Greatest Journey of All Time

Just 5 days before his 10th birthday, the bear returns from the greatest journey there has ever been – and probably ever will be. You can read all about it here.

Marisa travels to 11 countries at once, covering 10 of the 14 countries of the Australian continent in one go – a region that had until then remained completely terra incognita. This brings the Weltreisebär's 10th year to a total of 17 new countries. Only once before has there been a higher count. But honestly, I think 17 countries in year 10 makes it the most successful year yet! Mathematically, this also means that in 120 months, the bear has visited a lovely round number of 120 countries. And that's not even counting Antarctica and Greenland.

With her 11 countries, Marisa isn't just the most successful travel companion – she also inspired me to launch the “Weltreisebär Badges”. From 10 countries onwards, you get the Gold badge. From 5, the Silver, and from 3, the Bronze.

Not Everything Always Went Smoothly

Of course, not everything on these travels always worked out. There are actually 4 countries from which no photo exists. These are Uganda and Rwanda: things went rather unluckily here – once the bear was forgotten in Germany, and the second time he travelled, the camera later turned out to have water damage. There's also no picture from Western Sahara (during the Dresden-Dakar-Banjul car rally) or from Cape Verde. I didn't count the first two countries, even though the bear was actually there. The latter two I still counted, since the travel chain makes it clear that both were stopovers along the way.

Are you travelling to Western Sahara or Cape Verde? – please let me know, so the bear can finally get a photo there!

Favourite Pictures

My two favourite pictures are No. 56 from Riga, Latvia (2019) and No. 68 from Iceland (2021). In Riga, hobby photographer Lorenzo from Italy did a brilliant job capturing the sunbeam falling exactly onto the Weltreisebär, while in Iceland, Anna-Sophia (who later went on to travel with the bear herself) turned out to be a fantastic photographer!

Please don't hold it against me that my two favourite pictures happen to be mine. I'm of course thrilled about every new picture and country, and among the ones I didn't take myself, there are some real gems too!

Fun Fact

A fact I only noticed later: the very first photo (Italy) was actually taken on 24 June 2016, not 30 June 2016. I'm not entirely sure any more, but I think I declared the 30th of June the “birthday” because the bear happened to be back in Italy that day (on holiday at the Slovenia/Italy border). Since the birthday has always been celebrated on 30 June, and that date falls (almost) exactly in the middle of the year, I later decided to keep up this tradition.

What's Next?

Of course, there are already a few trips planned for the coming months. I never announce them in advance, since a) plans can change spontaneously, and b) it makes for a bigger surprise effect!

Currently, 78 countries are still missing. That's about 40% of the world. Of these 78 missing countries, 40 are in Africa. That won't be easy. I think the bear will need at least another 10 years to reach his goal. Probably more like 20. But it doesn't seem impossible.

Surely the Weltreisebär has already been everywhere! All the easy countries must be done by now, right?

Nope! Even though the blank spots on the map are getting fewer, there are still quite a few countries I would have expected to tick off much sooner. For example, Australia, Cuba or Azerbaijan.

Since I can't edit the world map on the website myself, here's a current photo of the Weltreisebär scratch-off world map for now.

Feel free to write to me any time if you're planning a trip somewhere, even if it's still far in the future or not really planned yet at all.

The Weltreisebär only lives on thanks to you, so a huge thank you to all fellow travellers, friends and supporters!