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.'"

[caption id="attachment_1150612" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Dillon DeCoteau's certificate of achievement for visiting 193 UN countries. -[/caption]

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.”

[caption id="attachment_1150601" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Dillon DeCoteau in Afghanistan. -[/caption]

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.”

[caption id="attachment_1150603" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Dillon DeCoteau took this photo in Afghanistan. -[/caption]

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 th