Thanks for stopping by! My name is George Kashouh, and travel and adventure have been two of my greatest passions for more than 20 years. During that time, I’ve traveled to over 100 countries and climbed six of the Seven Summits, including Mount Everest. I’ve been pursuing two ambitious goals: climbing the highest mountain on each continent and visiting every country in the world. It’s a lifelong undertaking, but I’ve remained committed to those goals, and each year brings new places to explore and new challenges to overcome.
Through Travel The Whole World, I share my experiences and photographs from destinations around the globe. The website contains more than 9,000 of my photographs, along with hundreds of pages documenting my travels. I’m continually updating and expanding the site as I revisit older adventures and add new ones. To put its size into perspective, reading just one page a day would take nearly two years to get through everything!
My adventures began when I was young, with a trip to Costa Rica followed by Peru a year later. Rather than satisfying my curiosity about the world, those experiences only made me want to see and do more.
Immediately after graduating from high school, I spent what was essentially my entire life savings on a trip to Africa to climb Kilimanjaro, beginning my quest to reach the highest summit on every continent. After serving five years in the Marines, I once again used most of my savings to travel around the world, accomplishing one of my first major travel goals: visiting all seven continents.
More than 20 years later, I’ve traveled to over 100 countries and climbed six of the Seven Summits, including Mt. Everest.
About My Mission
For most of my life, I’ve dreamed of pursuing extraordinary adventures and overcoming challenges that few people ever attempt. As I considered what I wanted to accomplish, I realized that many of the world’s great exploration milestones had already been achieved. The continents and their highest mountains had been mapped and explored, the major summits had been climbed, and the first expeditions to the North and South Poles had taken place more than a century earlier.
One day in November 2006, while hiking in Ecuador, I realized just how important traveling had become to me. Ecuador was an incredible destination, but it was also just one country in a much larger world. The idea of visiting every country on Earth wasn’t new, yet the challenge appealed to me more than anything else I could imagine pursuing.
I understood that it would be a lifelong undertaking. Even visiting a new country every few months would require decades of travel. There were also the practical challenges of financing my adventures, finding time away from work, reaching remote destinations, navigating war-torn regions, and balancing constant travel with my personal life.
Despite those obstacles, I knew it was something I wanted to pursue. I also wanted the journey to mean more than simply crossing borders and checking countries off a list. My goal was to explore the most interesting places I could find in each country, climb the highest mountains on every continent, and document those experiences through my photographs and stories.
Since returning from Ecuador in 2006, I’ve never given up on that goal.
About Photography
During my early travels, photography wasn’t a major priority. I figured a few snapshots from a wind-up camera would be enough to remember the places I’d visited. That approach worked for a few years, but whenever I returned home and showed my pictures to family and friends, I often found myself saying, “It’s so much more amazing in person.” Eventually, I decided to invest in a better camera and take photography more seriously.
Every photograph on this website was taken by me, with no exceptions—unless, of course, I’m actually in the photograph myself.
I’ve used Nikon cameras for more than a decade and currently shoot with a Nikon D800, occasionally using a GoPro for video. As my interest in photography grew, my photographs began appearing in advertisements, textbooks, television programs, and even the Smithsonian.
I’ve also made some of my photographs available for sale to help fund future adventures. Click here to see prints that are available. Nearly all of my photographs can be purchased. If you’d like more information, feel free to contact me at George@travelthewholeworld.com.
Website Goals
There was a time when I actively marketed this website to help fund future adventures, including my goal of returning to Antarctica. I eventually realized that maintaining a serious marketing effort would require almost daily updates and considerably more time than I could devote to it.
I’ve enjoyed meeting people through the website and seeing my travels and photographs receive recognition. I look forward to continuing those experiences as the site grows. Ultimately, though, Travel The Whole World has always been a personal project built around something I genuinely enjoy, and I intend to keep it that way.
After more than two decades of adventures, there are still countless places I want to explore and challenges I hope to overcome. My goal is to continue documenting those experiences through firsthand stories and photographs, sharing not only extraordinary destinations but also the people, cultures, and everyday moments that make traveling so rewarding.
