Liliana and Emil Schmid – Guinness Book of World Records for the ” Longest driven journey”
4 (or more) Wheels
- A2A Expedition – The Bells, a family of four overlanding the world with their Land Rover Defender camper.
- Bodes Well – A family of 3 left California in August of 2009 with the idea of traveling for a year. More than 8 years and 23 countries later, they are still on the road.
- Dare2Go – Yasha and Juergen overlanding since 2006.
- Four Wheeled Nomad – Lisa Morris and jason Spafford started their adventure on a couple of motorcycles and moved migrated to a 4wd. Overland Portal named Lisa and Jason 2022 Overlanders of the Year.
- Heidi Hetzer – In 2014, at the age of 76, Hetzer started the ultimate road trip, a world tour in her 1930’s Hudson Greater Eight, which she called Hudo. She returned home to Germany in 2017. Hetzer died two years later, in April 2019, at the age of 81.
- Ilka & Günther Weingaertner– on the road since 2013.
- Liliana and Emil Schmid – They have been overlanding in their 1982 FJ60 since 1984. They hold several Guinness Book of World Records, and they are still going. (Photos above)
- Landcruising Adventure – Karin-Marijke Vis & Coen Wubbels, two Dutch wanderers, have been on the road in their 1984 BJ45 since 2003. Practical, real world advice on long-term slow travel on a small budget. For them it’s less about how many countries they can check off their bucket list. I return to their site quite often.
- Manon Ossevoort – She drove from the Netherlands, through Africa, all the way to the South Pole, on a tractor.
- Gunther Holtorf, his partner Christine, and their Mercedes 300 GD they named Otto, travelled for 26-years across 215 countries. (Sadly, their web site Otto’s Journey, seems to have disappeared. Luckily you can still see and read about them and their world record setting adventure at the BBC, Daily Mail, Huckberry, Outside, Colonist, Wikipedia, MB Museum, and elsewhere. YouTube Video)
- Pablo Rey and Anna Callau – In 2000 they left Barcelona in the hopes of going around the world in a 4×4 van in 4 years. 18 years and they are still on the road. Love it!
- The Road Chose Me – Dan Grec, an Aussi living in Canada, author of a couple of books on overlanding, has driven around Africa in a Jeep, and earlier, the length of the Pan-American Highway in another Jeep. His next adventure takes him to Australia.
- Rouletout – Berna Fuchslueger and Ulf Fuchslueger and their dog Mutlu overlanding the world in a Mercedes Atego 1225.
- Swiss Nomads – Reni and Marcel have been on the road since 2007
- Trans-Americas Journey – Karen Catchpole and Eric Mohl on the road since 2006 » November 8, 2020 marked the 5000th day — or 13 years, 6 months, and 8 days!
- Tread the Globe – Marianne and Chris, a UK couple, quit our jobs and sold our belongings to travel full time. » Their YouTube channel.
- Tucks Travels in a Truck – Marcus and Julie Tuck – Lots of good information from personal experiences on their ongoing overland adventure.
- The Turtle Expedition – Gary and Monica Wescott’s overland adventures. These may have been the people that first introduced me to overlanding. They have been overlanding since 1972.
- Van Travellers – Lidia & Javi have been on their world trip since 2014 in a VW T4
- Wild Journey – Claudia, a woman from Germany exploring the world.
Motorcycle
- 2RideTheWorld – Lisa and Simon Thomas have been on the road since 2003.
- Michelle Lamphere – Motorcycle adventurer writer. Author of 2 adventure books.
- Sam Manicom – M/C Traveller. Writer. Presenter. 200,000 miles across 6 continents while riding around the world over 8 years. Author of four adventure books.
- Ted Simon – A British travel writer of Jupiter’s Travels fame – circumnavigating the world, twice, by motorcycle. The second time, he was around 70 years old, and completed the journey in three years.
If you know of other inspirational overlanders, please do let me know.
This page was updated May 18, 2023