A 3-Year Bike Journey Around the World with Samer Abouhamad

0:03In September 2025, Samer Abouhamad biked into Beirut, Lebanon. This was the final stop of a three-year journey to bike around the world. He started just outside his family's home in Brookline, Massachusetts. By the time he'd reached Beirut, Samer had pedaled 46 ,000 miles through 61 countries. He'd crossed snow-covered mountain ranges, survived food poisoning, and biked through political unrest. Sammer usually rode alone, and most days he woke up not knowing where he would sleep that night. The trip showed him that true happiness can be a glass of water, a moment to rest, or help from a stranger on the road.

0:45I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-op Studios production presented by Capital One and the REI Co-op MasterCard.

0:59Samr Abu Hamad, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living. Very excited to talk to you. You're in Boston right now, right?

1:06Samer Abouhamad:I am. Thanks for having me, Shelby. Excited to chop it up with you. So between 2022 to 2025, you had a pretty insane wild idea. Tell us that wild idea, and then I'm really curious how you even came up with it. Yeah, so in 2022, I left my home in the Boston area with my bicycle. And my plan at the time was just to bike to Patagonia and get to the southern point of Argentina. And that ended up taking a year. And that turned into a three and a half year trip where I biked across all the continents, except Antarctica. And how did I start that? It's a combination of a lot of things. But I would say the thing that really kickstarted it was COVID.

1:54Samer Abouhamad:And prior to COVID, I was working in the corporate world. I was wearing a suit every day, working at a bank in New York City. And COVID just, I think like a lot of people, forced us to reflect on life and what we really wanted out of life. At least it did for me. And so I ended up quitting that job. I got really into biking. I did a year of nonprofit work. And then I read a book from a British adventurer named Alistair Humphreys. Oh, yeah. He's been on the podcast. He's great. Oh, there you go. And so his books about his four-year trip around the world between 2000 and 2004 really opened up my mind to this kind of world trip and the bicycle as a way to cover not just states or towns but continents.

2:39Samer Abouhamad:And so I've always loved traveling and I've always loved sports. And I think bike travel is the perfect intersection of those two passions of mine. And so I did, like I said, I left on that first trip from Boston and it just turned into my life, I guess. So where were you working in New York City? I was at a bank called Morgan Stanley. Sorry. Like, I think we know who Morgan Stanley is. I didn't mean it like that, but you asked. And yeah, I was working in real estate, like evaluating loans, you know, like totally different than where I'm at now. So you were making like good money working at Morgan Stanley, probably working 60, 80 hours a week.

3:23I don't know.

3:24Samer Abouhamad:Yeah, like 60. But yeah, I think like I said earlier, like COVID really was like shook me out and like forced me to rethink life. I always say like if COVID didn't happen, I probably would still be at that job and like stayed on kind of the normal course of life, you know, like job promotion. and I'd probably be married with a kid now, like, so, or maybe not, but I was kind of on that path. And, you know, when COVID happened, I moved back to my home in Boston and I was working remotely and I just felt like a caged animal. And I was found myself watching YouTube and procrastinating on work. And I realized that like, when you take out the social element of work and being in an office with people and it was just me and a screen, I realized that like this isn't actually what I want to do.

4:12Samer Abouhamad:And I, you know, I looked at my bosses and they all seemed happy and successful, but I also was like, wow, we're all just doing the same thing. We're going into the same office. And I was like, yeah, do I really want to be doing this in 30 years?

4:28Sam was 25 when he quit his job in September of 2020. He moved to Lebanon, where his parents are from to help rebuild after the explosion that tore through Beirut's port in August of that year. He thought he would stay a few months, but he ended up working with a non-profit there for a year and a half. In his free time, Samer began to explore the country from the saddle of his bike.

4:53Samer Abouhamad:Lebanon is a really small country. Three Lebanons equals one Massachusetts, so a really small country. But in that small country, there's 10 ,000 feet mountain ranges and a beautiful coastline. And so it lent itself really well for biking. And so then that's where I was like, wow, I discovered Lebanon by bike, but it'd be cool to see other places by bike too. The next year, Samer was watching the Tour de France when he decided to go see the event in person and do some cycling of his own. That trip planted a seed.

5:29I just want to understand, like, you went to France, You did this two week trip. And then like, how did you plan and decide, OK, I'm going to do because your wild idea really was just Alaska to Argentina, right? Yeah.

5:41Samer Abouhamad:Or Boston to Argentina. I like the idea of leaving leaving from my front door. But it's true that the traditional Pan-American route people do Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia. But so this is my twist on it. I think that's even cooler to do Boston, Boston to Argentina. Do you know? Tell me like how that idea came and then how you went from idea to reality. What were the logistics that you had to dial in? You had to get gear. You had to plan your route. So I referenced the book. And so I liked the idea of Alistair Humphrey's book. And so I liked the idea of doing a big cross continental trip. And then like I kind of just said, I liked the idea of just leaving from my front door.

6:23Samer Abouhamad:It made it logistically easy to just like leave from my front door. no flights. And also part of it was, hey, like if I could cross the US first, it's kind of a nice testing ground for the beginning of my trip. You know, I'm in familiar territory, everyone speaks English. So it was kind of like in my head, I was like, I'll cross the US, this will be a good testing ground before I enter Mexico and then Central America and continue. So that's kind of how I like planned, like, that is my first route. In terms of planning and gear and logistics, the first step was putting the deposit on that bike it's a gravel bike it's steel so I think steel is important on a long trip because if anything goes wrong you could find a welder in any corner of the world and it's an 11 speed and I picked um a gravel bike because it's kind of a nice mix between performance but also allows you to kind of go on on rougher terrain and once I put the deposit on the bike, you know, that was like money down.

7:22Samer Abouhamad:And I was like, all right, now I'm actually doing it. For better or for worse, Samer kept the rest of his preparation pretty minimal, creating a loose sketch of a route. Since he didn't need to book a flight to get to the starting line, on April 2nd, 2022, Samer simply walked out his front door and started riding.

7:48Do you remember day one?

7:51Samer Abouhamad:Yeah, I remember day one. I remember all my bike and stuff was really clean. And I remember, like I said, I left my front door. My dad biked with me a bit. My mom was crying. I was holding back tears too. And again, I had no plans. I had no idea where I was going to sleep that first night too. And so I had never even set up my tent before, which is probably not a good thing to admit. I remember I packed my stuff the first morning. So like I had never actually even packed all my stuff and taken the test ride, which I would recommend to people, but you know, I, I didn't for whatever reason, I think I was procrastinating.

8:28Samer Abouhamad:And, but so yeah, that first day I biked about 60 miles and I remember it starting to rain. And so I found a state park, which was closed for camping, but I kind of snuck myself in and yeah, it worked out. And so, you know, that's one of the things too with biking you learn you know because it was a bike trip that i was on but you learn pretty quickly it's maybe like 40 biking 60 just problem solving and adapting every day so it's like where am i going to eat where am i going to sleep where am i going to stop oh my something went wrong with my bike i need to fix this or you know as i got into other countries it's like oh my passport ran out like how am i going to get a new passport or where am i going to get the visa for this country?

9:11Samer Abouhamad:Or how am I going to hold enough water to get me through this long section? So you learn pretty quick. Obviously, I'm on a bike trip, but the bike really is a vehicle for the travel, and it's just figuring stuff out and problem solving every day. So in the beginning, was there ever an OF moment? Like, oh my God, what am I doing? What did I get myself into? This was stupid. Actually, yeah, there was exactly one of those pretty early on. I remember sitting in the cornfields of Kansas and I was looking at a map and I was like damn I still have a long long long way to go to Argentina and it kind of felt overwhelming but something I learned from that pretty quick and it's something I adopted for the rest of my travels is you know it's good to set a big goal but you got to like break it down into checkpoints and so instead of sitting in Kansas and saying oh I'm going to Argentina it's like hey get to Colorado let's get to Denver.

10:08Samer Abouhamad:From Denver, hey, let's get to the next state, Utah, then Arizona. And you know, you kind of stack enough of those bricks, and then you step back, and then you could see the house you built. And so I think that mentality or kind of lesson is something that helped carry me on the rest of my travels to just take a day by day checkpoint by checkpoint. And don't worry about that massive goal right away. Because if you stack enough checkpoints together, you'll you'll end up hitting that goal. What was a typical day like, like breakfast to sleeping, waking up to sleeping and how many miles did you ride a day?

10:42Yeah.

10:43Samer Abouhamad:Uh, I think it, you know, some of this day to day stuff varies based on your surrounding and which country you're in. But, you know, assuming I was camping a day would be wake up, uh, boil some water, make coffee and oatmeal as I'm packing up my uh on my gear and then just uh hitting the road usually I would bike my average for the whole trip if you do all my days biked was like 73 miles biked per day so some days more some days less and then yeah honestly like no plan I would just go with where the wind blow me like usually the night before I look at my map and I have an idea of where I'm trying to get to the next day.

11:26Samer Abouhamad:And so, you know, I'll work towards that daily goal, but things change all the time. So if I'm feeling tired, I'll stop before, or if I'm feeling great, I'll just keep going. And so usually all my day, I'll just keep going. And usually around mid afternoon, I'll reassess like, Hey, will I get to where I'm trying to get to? Or am I feeling good? Or am I trying to get further? And yeah, usually as the sun starts to set, I'm like, okay, where am I going to sleep now? So it depends, you know, in some countries like in the U S or more quote unquote developed countries, uh, I would reach out to some people on apps.

12:00Samer Abouhamad:There's an app called warm showers and try to coordinate a place to get hosted. Or on some countries I'm looking at a map like, Hey, where am I going to try to camp tonight? And so there's a bunch of resources for that too. Like WhatsApp groups where other cyclists and other travelers are in there, or there's an, a traveling app called iOverlander, which is other travelers will put places on a map they camped. Or sometimes I'm just going on Google Maps looking for a green space and that's enough to camp sometimes. Or in some countries like Southeast Asia or West Africa, where hotels are cheap, you know, I wouldn't hesitate to get a nice$10 room sometimes, charge all my electronics, get a good night's sleep indoors.

12:41Samer Abouhamad:So it kind of really depends where you are. In South America, it was a lot of wild camping because I kind of followed the spine of the Andes. So like every night was wild camping paradise. So it really depends like where I was routine would shift a bit. But yeah, usually it's just like wake up and bike. You know, if I'm feeling good, bike far, if I'm feeling less good, bike less. But I guess that's one of the benefits of biking and traveling alone is like you're really your own boss and every decision you make is your decision.

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15:36In April of 2022, Samara Abu Hamad left his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, and began a three-year cycling journey around the world. He split the trip into three chapters. First, he rode from Boston to Argentina. Then in 2023, he rode from North Cape Norway down to South Africa. In 2024, he rode across Australia, through Indonesia, China, and the Middle East, ending in Beirut, Lebanon. Between each chapter, Samer came home to Boston for three or four months. During this time, he worked construction during the day and drove a pedicab by night. These jobs helped fund the next leg of his trip and kept him in really good shape.

16:18As soon as he saved enough money, Samer got back on the road.

16:24Samer Abouhamad:I want to hear some stories. What was the worst day? Like, what was the day where you were like, this is so stupid? And what was the best day? Well, there's a few days. Usually the days where you're in it and you're like, this sucks. This is so hard. Get me out of here. Those end up being the best memories, you know? And I believe really that the hardest roads lead to the most beautiful places. So like quite figuratively with biking sometimes, but also like literally and mentally. but anyway so stories my worst day I mean I could pick a bunch but like the first one that came to my mind was in Ecuador I got bit by a dog and so that kind of sucked I was just like you know I love dogs and so I was just biking and some dog came and bit me I needed to go get stitches and you know what but the negative turned into a positive like some awesome stranger came picked me up on the side of the road, took me back, backtracked to the closest hospital.

17:22Samer Abouhamad:And then he ended up hosting me for three days. And so again, like it sucks getting bit by a dog and getting stitches, but you know, it turned into a nice story where I met this awesome guy who helped me out. But another worst day situation actually is, uh, in, in Mexico and I had just crossed into Tijuana. So this was like my first day leaving the U S or the first three days. Cause it was kind of a series of bad events my derailleur broke which is pretty bad for a bike and so i i was on the side of the highway and i was like oh man is my trip about to be like delayed because uh also especially during that time it was a backlog of bike parts after covid so i was pretty worried for a second and then the next day i lost one of my bags completely and had all my winter gear and i was like freaking out and then on top of that that next day uh my knee started hurting so I was like, oh my God, I lost my bag.

18:19Samer Abouhamad:My knee hurts. Maybe I should just turn back to San Diego and the US border. And I kind of felt overwhelmed. But then I just got a hotel room that night and got a good night's sleep. And that's usually enough to cure a lot. There's a lot of times where you're like, this sucks, what am I doing? But usually just getting a good night's sleep is enough to kind of reset the brain, at least for me. and then other times where it sucks and you want to quit usually you're in the middle of nowhere and you can't even quit right you need to get to the next town too so you can't even quit logistically if you wanted to and so usually by the time you push through the hard moment you feel better by the end I think and so I kind of gave you some hard moments logistically but there's also physically hard moments I had to encounter too like you know crossing the Australian outback you know there's sections of 150 miles with nothing and so I'm carrying 13 liters of water and I was there in the beginning of November.

19:16Samer Abouhamad:So it's their summer. So it's like so hot. And I'm like, what am I doing? Like, but then you get to the rest stop and you're like, wow, water is all I need for happiness. It makes you appreciate that water so much more, right? What about some of the most beautiful moments, whether they were like physical beauty or something that evoked awe or someone was just so kind? There are many. Off the top of my head for physical beauty, one of my favorite countries in terms of physical beauty was biking in peru because you know when you're out in the mountains i followed a route called the peru divide but it takes you basically up and down through you know gravel roads that aren't much not very well trafficked and you know you'll just round a corner and you have like a postcard views and 20 000 foot peaks and llamas more than humans so biking through peru was a dream and then i guess one more place that comes to mind right off the bat is the Pamir Highway, which is in Central Asia and Tajikistan.

20:17Samer Abouhamad:And specifically in the Pamir Highway, I kind of did a side quest through this valley called the Bartang Valley. And that was five days with no villages and super rugged terrain. And so those are moments I look back on a lot because I had some amazing encounters in that valley with a couple shepherds where I'm not expecting to see anyone. and you go into this mud hut and there was this shepherd there and he speaks no English. I speak no Russian or Tajik. And we just kind of sit there and are doing hand signals to communicate. And he gave me tea with fresh cow milk from his herd. And, you know, we're able to share a moment again without any language, but, you know, even just kind of feeling seen from someone when you've been alone for a few days is like all you need sometimes.

21:16Samer's encounters with locals made a lasting impression. He met a motorcyclist who towed him up a climb in Syria and drivers in Saudi Arabia who handed water bottles through their car windows as he biked at night to avoid the heat. On August 11th, 2025, Samer made it to Beirut, the city where he first fell in love with cycling.

21:44So you finished this whole trip in August 2025. Yeah. What was the finish line like?

21:52Samer Abouhamad:The finish line was, I mean, the day finishing wasn't like that emotional but i know like the last three or four days was pretty sad or not sad i was just reflecting on everything i'd gone through to get to where i was and specifically the second to last day i i went up the the highest point into lebanon to climb and that was a climb i had done many times when i was living in lebanon so it really was like emotional. I remember climbing up that last day and I know it's cliche, but like everything was like flashing through my mind, all the hard moments. And so I, I know I cry a lot the last few days, uh, but actually arriving, I mean, it's interesting.

22:38Samer Abouhamad:Like the last leg of my trip, I kind of mentioned it was going through those middle Eastern countries in the middle of summer. So it was really hot. And in those moments I couldn't wait to be done. Right. But after a month of being done, it's also like, wow, I think I'd rather be back on the road now. so yeah coming back home this last trip has been harder than the first two times because i don't necessarily have that next huge target yet i have a couple ideas i'm working on but this time around i was like i want to properly process everything um work on a few projects and hopefully inspire others to go on their own adventures too because even if i'm not traveling in fact inspire someone to travel and do a big challenge like this in a way i'm able to travel through them you know well let's dive a little deeper finish lines can be tricky 100 they can be really anticlimactic you had this like single pointed goal every day all you had to do is like not all you had to do is hard you'd get up ride your bike go somewhere and you could physically go somewhere it was new it was stimulating new food your dopamine levels are high i mean there's like a physical come down and there's an emotional come down and not having purpose is really hard for someone like me, probably for someone like you, but for most of the people listening to this podcast, that's why we do hard things.

23:58It had to have been difficult coming home a little bit.