An Egyptian plans to circumnavigate the globe without taking a single flight.
When a strip of land finally appeared on the horizon, the Egyptian traveler Omar Nok He jumped out of his narrow bunk and climbed onto the deck of a sailboat. After weeks amidst the endless ocean, the sight of the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, with its UNESCO World Heritage-listed Piton Mountains, struck him, he writes. CNN.
It was the tenth stop on 31-year-old Nok's round-the-world voyage, which is attempting to circumnavigate the globe without using an airplane.
The sailboat became another item on his unusual list of modes of transportation.
Setting out in October, Nok travels by boat, camel, and the kindness of strangers to connect with the world without taking a flight.
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"Not flying allows you to see more," he says. "And there's a special sense of pride when you reach a distant place: the distance reminds you of everything you've had to overcome."
This idea has already taken him across deserts, land borders and oceans to places rarely visited by travelers.
According to Nock, his passion for travel began in childhood, but it truly intensified after a trip to the Balkans in 2018. He bought a one-way ticket from Egypt to Romania and a return ticket from Montenegro. In two weeks, he traveled across southern Europe.
In 2022, Nock quit his job in finance at Amazon to live off his savings, spend frugally, and travel full-time. Since then, his itineraries have become much more adventurous, including overland trips from Egypt to East Asia.
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The idea for a round-the-world trip without flights came to him during a seven-month trip to Japan in 2024.
There, in the city of Shinshu-shin-machi, he learned about the concept of ikigai—the Japanese philosophy of living a meaningful and joyful life—and realized that his own ikigai consisted of going on a long, round-the-world trip without planes.
Within a few months, he was on his way. In October 2025, Nok left Cairo and headed through Egypt to Libya.
Documenting his journey on social media, he has amassed nearly a million followers on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube; his progress can be tracked on the Polarsteps app.
His followers have helped him more than once. To obtain a visa for his first border crossing—to Libya—he needed an invitation, and one of his followers helped him obtain one.
Nok hopes his travels will inspire others.
"Some say that watching my journey has given them renewed faith in humanity. And that's the most important thing," he remarked. "That's the greatest victory."
One of the first major challenges was crossing northern Libya between Benghazi and Tripoli, a route that most travelers would prefer to fly due to the risk.
Nok was traveling at night in an overcrowded minibus. There were numerous roadblocks along the way, and at one point his documents were rejected, delaying his journey.
“I don’t usually get stressed, but I was really nervous then,” he admitted.
Luckily, a local friend came to the rescue, and Nok was able to reach his next destination, Medenine, Tunisia.
He then traveled to France and Spain, reaching the Canary Islands by ferry. After a 30-hour journey, Nock crossed the Atlantic on a sailboat.
During his journey, he used a variety of modes of transport: buses, trains, minibuses, hitchhiking, horses, motorcycles, boats, barges, bicycles, and even a truck transporting birds.
Having reached St. Lucia, he began to move between the islands to the northwest and soon found himself in the Dominican Republic.
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Nock initially planned to visit the US East Coast, but visa issues made that unlikely. He's now focusing on Latin America.
Amid global instability, it's unclear how the crisis in the Middle East might impact his itinerary. However, Nock remains optimistic and tries to downplay politics. He says places, food, and people are far more important to him.
"The world may seem polarized, but that has more to do with governments than with ordinary people. The world is actually made up of people, not governments," he concluded.
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Getting on a sailboat to St. Lucia in December proved difficult: trying to find a crew willing to take him on the Atlantic crossing, Nock spent three weeks in Las Palmas Marina on Gran Canaria.
Wanting to cross the Caribbean, he faces the same difficulties now, but he's confident there's always a way out. The main thing is to avoid getting on a plane.
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