Alex Johnson – Around-the-World Traveler

Alex Johnson is a 16-year-old student from Corvallis, Oregon, USA, who set off on a round-the-world trip in 2005.

The Snapshot

• Departure: 2005
• Age at departure: 16
• Nationality: USA
• Location: Corvallis, Oregon, USA
• Duration: 6-12 months
• Occupation: Student
• Original budget: Not recorded (source figure corrupted)
• Regions: Oceania, Asia, South Asia, Middle East, Africa, South America, Central America, North America

The Route

From Portland and Los Angeles, west across the Pacific to Nadi, Auckland, and Sydney, then Hong Kong and overland to Bombay, on to Tel Aviv and overland to Cairo, down to Harare and overland to Cape Town, across the sea to Buenos Aires, and north overland back home.

In Their Words

Here's what Alex Johnson shared about their RTW journey:

Why do you think people should go on round-the-world trips? Why not just take a regular old one- or two-week vacation instead?

“I don’t want to hurry it. That itself is a poisonous twentieth-century attitude. When you want to hurry something, that means that you no longer care about it and want to get on to better things.” – Robert M Pirsig

How do you think your round-the-world trip will change your life? How do you think it will affect and change you as a person?

I’m not exactly sure. I read a quote once, by some author. He told me that it is a wonderful thing to travel, and return home to find that everything is the same, it is you who have changed.

Why did you decide to take this trip? What got you into this type of travel, and/or influenced you to go?

A friend of mine has been traveling for the last year and a half, and gave the bug to me. Although my wanderlust is routed deep inside, it took an outside force to make me look at vagabonding around the world.

Are your family, friends, co-workers, etc., supportive of you? What is their opinion of your going around the world?

I’ve told my Mother, but I don’t think I’ll tell my Dad and step mom. I figure it’d be easier for them to take if I just ran away. Maybe I’ll tell them, at the gate in Portland.

What are you packing? What do you consider your most indispensable item(s)?

My contacts will be very important for me. My footbag. My CAMERA. Otherwise, I can’t think of all that much. I guess I’ll probably bring clothes….maybe.

2026 Context

• Budget inflation: This traveler's original budget was not recorded in usable form, but early-2000s round-the-world costs are substantially higher in 2026 (roughly 70-85% cumulative inflation over the intervening years).