Meet the eight-year-old Dubai resident who has already travelled to 68 countries

Last year, eight-year-old Dubai resident Ophelia Holden travelled with her mother, Stephanie, to New Zealand, Tajikistan, France, Uganda, India, Brazil, Serbia, the UK, Norway, Russia, the Philippines, Benin, Eritrea and Djibouti.

By February of the year, after going skiing in Andorra, the half-American, half-Colombian had been to 68 countries. And: nothing.

As the coronavirus outbreak spread around the globe, travel restrictions were imposed and flights were grounded, Stephanie and Ophelia’s plans to go to every sovereign nation on earth - 193 in total - were temporarily shelved.

“I feel sort of stuck in a single box, because I’m kind of used to likely to a lot of places, but now we’re just here - all day long,” Ophelia says. “I really like traveling,” she adds. "It’s ways to start to see the world and how it is.”

Stephanie, who has recently visited practically 150 countries, says she hopes their travels show Ophelia “empathy, and understanding something else other than the lifestyle of Dubai”.

“I simply want her to learn how other persons live, how other cultures live, and how some who are less fortunate live,” Stephanie says. “Hopefully by starting at a age, this is a part of who she actually is.”

Before the pandemic, the duo somehow were able to leave the UAE at least one time a month, even while Ophelia attends school as a year three student at Kings’ School in Umm Suquiem and Stephanie works full-time as chief strategy officer at MBC Group and head of MBC Ventures.

When lockdowns and travel bans began in March, Stephanie started pushing back planned trips to Chad and Cambodia to later in April. She has since postponed travel plans to October, adding constantly with their backlogged destinations list: trekking in Taiwan, Art Basel in Switzerland, the Raja Ampat islands in Indonesia, a polar bear National Geographic cruise in the Arctic, and an eco lodge in Bolivia.

Stephanie, who has lived in Dubai for 16 years, says she searches for unique, enriching or active experience - not “kid-focused” or “touristy stuff”. They aren’t choosing countries in a specific order or concentrating on certain regions before others.

“Usually we mix it up each year,” she says. “We do some Africa, some Asia, some Europe, some SOUTH USA, some America,” Ophelia adds. “We mix and match.”

The youngest person to travel to all sovereign countries is American Lexie Alford, who broke the Guinness World Record at age 21 in October.

There are 247 persons who claim to have visited every UN-recognised country, according to Nomad Mania, which lists rankings and verifies documentation for proof. Founder Harry Mitsidis estimates the full total could be double that.

“2019 was an archive number for achieving the target, with an unprecedented 39 persons carrying it out. Even in 2020, nine persons did it, all within the first two-and-half months of the year,” Mitsidis tells The National.

He says it is difficult to guess whether the youngest person record will be broken soon, especially given the devastating effect Covid-19 has already established on travel.

“However, it really is clear the record is being broken year by year,” he says. “A couple of years ago, the ‘youngest person’ was 29; that then became 27, and eventually 21.”

Stephanie, 46, was raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and travelled beyond your US for the very first time in high school when she did a year abroad in Hong Kong and learned Cantonese. During her time at the University of Pennsylvania, she spent a semester in Moscow studying Russian.

She moved to Singapore on her behalf first job out of university with Merrill Lynch, and has since lived in various countries, like the US, India, Lebanon and the UAE. The Harvard MBA graduate found the UAE to are a McKinsey consultant and has been at MBC since 2005.

During her studying and working life, she started “roaming” the world. After having a baby to Ophelia in the US in October 2011, inside a fortnight Stephanie was hiking in the Utah canyons with her in a baby carrier.

The travel never stopped and “she always accompanied me”, says Stephanie. In early stages, Ophelia visited countries such as France, Oman, Ukraine, Madagascar, Botswana and Zambia.

At age six, in Nepal, Ophelia climbed to 4,400 metres on the Tengboche to Dingboche hiking trail, which causes Mount Everest base camp. “I’m an extremely strong hiker I believe,” Ophelia says.

Some of Ophelia’s memorable moments include sticking to her nanny Mercy in the Philippines, where she bathed in a bucket and sometimes had no electricity, and “the craziest dog sledding” on Siberia’s frozen Lake Baikal, the world’s most significant fresh water lake.

“I do like each of the countries, but there is a favourite: Eritrea,” Ophelia says. “I really like Africa, it’s my happy place.”

She started authoring her travels in a journal during the last year and Eritrea was heavily featured. “I wrote everything about any of it,” she says. “They had a camel market, that they had beautiful mountains, they had Italian architecture and lots of fun stuff to do there. And my heart loved it.”

I just want her to know how other people live, how other cultures live, and how some who are less fortunate live

Benin, too, is among her top picks due to the “voodoo dancing” and a temple where there “were pythons in every direction you'll go, so that it was sort of scary”. She also remembers the salt rocks in “weird star shapes” in Djibouti and the “beautiful waterfall” in Angola.

However when asked where she really wants to go next, Ophelia surprises her mother by naming several traditional holiday destinations: Paris and Egypt.

Paris, because “it seems pretty cool to see the Eiffel Tower and the art museums and Mona Lisa and the ballets”, she says. And Egypt “because I would like to start to see the pyramids and I believe it’s a cool place and there’s the Red Sea.”

For the present time, Stephanie and Ophelia have resorted to staycations in Abu Dhabi, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah. However they are itching to reunite on the highway again, as soon as it really is allowed and safe.