‘World’s Most Traveled Man’ won’t rest until he sees elusive destination

Bill Altaffer is patient, confident, and unfailingly friendly. Wearing a black “Siberia” t-shirt, he watches proudly while his 8-year-old son, Joe eats a chocolate chip cookie.

It isn’t until you see Altaffer’s 10 passports, and listen to him start talking about the places he’s gone that you start to understand what makes him tick. Altaffer, 66, is a traveler. Not the casual kind, either. His exploring is comprehensive, all-encompassing.

A local resident for the past four years — he moved here from Mammoth Lakes, where he still owns a home — Altaffer is considered one of the world’s “Most Traveled” people.

Though the official “Most Traveled Man” designation is disputed and the details complicated — there are several online ranks for such adventurers, including the Traveler’s Exploits Club, and www.mosttraveledman.com, where Altaffer held the title in 2005-2006 — one thing is certain: Altaffer has been far more places than most.

Altaffer has visited every country in the world. But it doesn’t end there.

He has visited 313 island groups, territories, colonies, and disputed areas.

He has logged 450 sea days.

He has gotten 130 visas, and crossed the equator and the international date line 50 times each.

He has surfed on every continent, skied on six.

He has been to North Korea three times, obtaining the first tourist visa given to an American, an accomplishment that landed him on the cover of the Los Angeles Times in 2005.

And he was one of the first travelers to be allowed in post Mao China, and one of the last in pre-war Iraq.

All Altaffer’s travels have given him a number of stories.

He was once arrested and detained by British officials while on a ship in the Chagos Archipelago, a group of islands in the center of the Indian Ocean. (”We gave them some liquor and they lightened up,” he says by way of explaining how he got out of the situation.) And he once showed armed soldiers a Costco card to gain access to Devil’s Island, off the coast of French Guiana.

Altaffer, the founder and owner of Expedition Photo Travel, has been a member of the Traveler’s Century Club (TCC) for more than 30 years. The TCC is open to people who have visited 100 countries or more. He began traveling with his parents in 1949; by 1973, he had been to 80 countries, including trips to Central America in a Volkswagen bus while a student at the University of Southern California, where he graduated from with a history degree in 1957 and a master’s degree in 1959.

“There isn’t a man living I haven’t been to his country,” said Altaffer.

Having just returned from Moscow — a favorite place of his, he’s been about 20 times, he estimated — Altaffer is already busy planning his next trip, to Wake Island in the North Pacific. An unincorporated U.S. territory, Wake Island is home to a missile facility operated by the U.S. Air Force.

It’s one of the few places in the world that Altaffer has never been, but not for a lack of trying

“I’ve tried for 15 years to get there,” he said. Five years ago, Altaffer booked a ticket on a cruise ship solely because Wake Island was designated as one of the ship’s stops. It never was, and Altaffer ended up taking the cruise ship company to court and winning.

With Wake Island soon to be crossed off his list, Altaffer won’t be sitting still for long.

Next August, he’ll lead a 23-day long trip to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, including a cable car ride to Kok-Tobe, a 3,800-foot hill on the outskirts of Almaty, Kazakhstan, and a trip to Nisa, capital of the ancient Parthian Kingdom.

That trip, called “Central Asia’s Five ‘Stans and Pamir Highway,” will occur just after Altaffer returns from leading an Orion Expeditions group on an 11-day cruise along Australia’s remote Kimberly Coat, from Broome, Western Australia to Darwin.

Though still extensive, Altaffer’s trips are shorter than those in the ’70s, when he worked as a tour manager for Hemphill-Harris Travel and would often travel for a year at a time.

“I used to believe if you didn’t go for a year, you weren’t free,” said Altaffer.

Among his favorite locations, Altaffer said North Korea is the “most exotic place I’ve ever been, no question about it. It’s like going to Mars and finding people there.”

He said if he could recommend only one place to visit, it would be Eastern Africa. Places he’s been, but won’t be going again: Equatorial Guinea, and Lagos, Nigeria, which he called “the most dangerous place you can go.”

As far as travel recommendations go, Altaffer has two credos he sticks to.

The first: “Less stuff.”

The second: “Bring Tobasco everywhere.”

Now, with his children in school, Altaffer seems content to live locally with his wife, Qing, and shorten the length and frequency of his trips.

When not traveling with his family — Altaffer’s son, Joe, has been to 12 countries, including Puerto Rico and El Salvador — he’s sure to bring souvenirs (including Russian dolls of the USC football team he found in Moscow).

On his son Joe’s upcoming travel itinerary is a trip he’s eagerly awaiting, though not as exotic as the ones his father usually takes.

He’s looking forward to the Dec. 5 USC football game. It’ll be his first.

For more information on Altaffer, visit www.expeditionphototravel.net.

Matt Liebowitz is a reporter for SDNN’s media partner, the Rancho Santa Fe Review, where this story was originally published

Tags: Bill Altaffer, Expedition photo Travel, Most Traveled Man, Mosttraveledman.com, SDNN, Traveler's Century Club, Traveler's Exploits Club, Wake Island

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