This Man Traveled To 47 Different Countries Without Flying

Usually, the first step to planning a trip involves booking a flight. While that mundane task is the gateway to relaxing, adventuring, and getting those requisite Instagram shots, Travel + Leisure reports that Australian Tyral Dalitz (no, he's not a character out of a George R. R. Martin novel) spent the last three years traveling to 47 countries without boarding a single plane.

"I realized that most of the fun and adventurous things happen when you're getting from point A to point B, rather than where you end up," Dalitz told T+L.

Starting his journey in 2014, Dalitz has used various means of alternative transportation, including sailboats and motorcycles, as well as more conventional means, like buses, trains, and automobiles. Australia is an island, however, so it took a little bit of creativity to get off it. Dalitz says that he took a chartered yacht as his means of escape. That may sound glam, but he had to volunteer his services and help sail the boat, not just lounge around sipping daiquiris. It was hitchhiking taken to a whole different level.

"When you're hitchhiking on a boat, you have to contribute," Dalitz said. "So you may be asked to work for free, but once you get into the community of sailing, it can open a lot of doors for you."

Dalitz sailed around Southeast Asia, landed in Cambodia, and then transferred to a motorbike, where he made a 9,000-mile journey through to Vietnam before boarding a train to China and taking the Trans-Mongolian Railway to Moscow. Throughout his journey, he's seen the countryside from a motorbike, the Alps from a train window, and the Northern Lights from Finland's sliver of the Arctic Circle.

Throughout it all, he says that the human connection is what stands out. You certainly don't get that on an airplane, where everyone's either plugged into their tablets or trying to get some sleep. He's documented many of his impromptu companions on his Instagram (handle @hippyjesus) along with some pretty sweet snapshots that are a far cry from the usual travel fare.

Dalitz is currently in North America after sailing to the continent from Europe — with a short pit stop in the Caribbean islands and Hawaii — and says that Canada is the next logical stop. If his plane-free crisscrossing of the globe wasn't impressive enough, T+L reports that the intrepid traveler is also training for The Longest Swim, a trip that'll see him swim from Tokyo to San Francisco. No planes for that leg of the journey, either. But first, he has to get to Japan.