Samer Abouhamad is a long distance cyclist who biked 46,000 miles through 61 countries during a three year journey around the world. He began the ride just outside his family's home in Brookline, Massachusetts, and completed it in Beirut, Lebanon, in September 2025.
Samer Abouhamad is a long distance cyclist who biked 46,000 miles through 61 countries during a three year journey around the world. He began the ride just outside his family's home in Brookline, Massachusetts, and completed it in Beirut, Lebanon, in September 2025.
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Shelby Stanger:
In 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 crossed snow-covered mountain ranges, survived food poisoning, and biked through political unrest. Samer 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.
I'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.
Samer Abouhamad, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living. Very excited to talk to you. You're in Boston right now, right?
Samer Abouhamad:
I am. Thanks for having me, Shelby. Excited to chop it up with you.
Shelby Stanger:
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.
Samer Abouhamad:
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. 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 Alastair Humphreys.
Shelby Stanger:
Oh yeah, he's been on the podcast. He's great.
Samer Abouhamad:
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. 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 like I said, I left on that first trip from Boston and it just turned into my life, I guess.
Shelby Stanger:
So where were you working in New York City?
Samer Abouhamad:
I was at a bank called Morgan Stanley. I was working, yeah.
Shelby Stanger:
Sorry. I think we know what Morgan Stanley is.
Samer Abouhamad:
I didn't mean it like that, but you asked. And yeah, I was working in real estate, evaluating loans, totally different than where I'm at now.
Shelby Stanger:
So you were making good money working at Morgan Stanley, probably working 60, 80 hours a week? I don't know.
Samer Abouhamad:
Yeah, like 60.
Shelby Stanger:
Okay.
Samer Abouhamad:
But yeah, I think, like I said earlier, COVID really shook me out and forced me to rethink life. I always say if COVID didn't happen, I probably would still be at that job and stayed on the normal course of life, like job promotion. I'd probably be married with a kid now or maybe not, but I was on that path. And 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 found myself watching YouTube and procrastinating on work. And I realized that 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 this isn't actually what I want to do. And 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?"
Shelby Stanger:
Samer 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 nonprofit there for a year and a half. In his free time, Samer began to explore the country from the saddle of his bike.
Samer Abouhamad:
Lebanon is a really small country. Three Lebanons equals one Massachusetts, so 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."
Shelby Stanger:
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. I just want to understand, you went to France, you did this two-week trip, and then how did you plan and decide, "Okay, I'm going to do..." Because your wild idea really was just Alaska to Argentina, right?
Samer Abouhamad:
Yeah, or Boston to Argentina. I liked the idea of leaving from my front door, but it's true that the traditional Pan-American route, people do Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia. So this was my twist on it.
Shelby Stanger:
I think that's even cooler to do Boston to Argentina. Tell me 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.
Samer Abouhamad:
So I referenced the book and so I liked the idea of Alastair Humphreys' book. And so I liked the idea of doing a big cross-continental trip. And then like I just said, I liked the idea of just leaving from my front door. It made it logistically easy to just leave from my front door, no flights. And also part of it was, "Hey, if I could cross the US first, it's kind of a nice testing ground for the beginning of my trip. I'm in familiar territory, everyone speaks English." So it was 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 planned that as 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 a gravel bike because it's a nice mix between performance but also allows you to go on rougher terrain. And once I put the deposit on the bike, that was like money down. And I was like, "All right, now I'm actually doing it."
Shelby Stanger:
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. Do you remember day one?
Samer 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 I had never actually even packed all my stuff and taken the test ride, which I would recommend to people, but I didn't for whatever reason. I think I was procrastinating. 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 that's one of the things too with biking, 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, something went wrong with my bike. I need to fix this." Or as I got into other countries, it's like, "Oh, my passport ran out. How am I going to get a new passport?" Or, "Where am I going to get the visa for this country?" 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.
Shelby Stanger:
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."
Samer Abouhamad:
Actually, 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 felt overwhelming. But something I learned from that pretty quick and it's something I adopted for the rest of my travels is it's good to set a big goal, but you got to 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. From Denver, hey, let's get to the next state, Utah, then Arizona." And you 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 lesson is something that helped carry me on the rest of my travels too.
Just take it 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 end up hitting that goal.
Shelby Stanger:
What was a typical day like? Like breakfast to sleeping, waking up to sleeping, and how many miles did you ride a day?
Samer Abouhamad:
Yeah, I think some of this day-to-day stuff, it varies based on your surrounding and which country you're in. But assuming I was camping, a day would be wake up, boil some water, make coffee and oatmeal as I'm packing up all my gear and then just hitting the road. 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, no plan. I would just go with where the wind blow me. 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. And so 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 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. In some countries like in the US or more "developed countries" I would reach out to some people on apps. There's an app called Warmshowers 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 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, I wouldn't hesitate to get a nice $10 room sometimes, charge all my electronics, get a good night's sleep indoors. So it really depends where you are. In South America was a lot of wild camping because I followed the spine of the Andes. So every night was wild camping paradise. So it really depends where I was, the routine would shift a bit. But yeah, usually it's just like wake up and bike. 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 you're really your own boss and every decision you make is your decision.
Shelby Stanger:
In April of 2022, Samer Abouhamad 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. As soon as he saved enough money, Samar got back on the road. I want to hear some stories. What was the worst day? What was the day where you were like, "This is so stupid." And what was the best day?
Samer Abouhamad:
Okay. 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. And I believe really that the hardest roads lead to the most beautiful places. So quite figuratively with biking sometimes, but also literally and mentally. But anyway, so stories. My worst day, I mean, I could pick a bunch, but the first one that came to my mind was in Ecuador. I got bit by a dog and so that sucked. 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. Some awesome stranger came, picked me up on the side of the road, took me backtracked to the closest hospital, and then he ended up hosting me for three days.
And so again, it sucks getting bit by a dog and getting stitches, but it turned into a nice story where I met this awesome guy who helped me out. But another worst day situation actually is in Mexico and I had just crossed into Tijuana. So this was my first day leaving the U.S., or the first three days. It was a series of bad events. My derailer broke, which is pretty bad for a bike. And so I was on the side of the highway and I was like, "Oh man, is my trip about to be delayed?" Because also, especially during that time, there 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 it had all my winter gear and I was freaking out. And then on top of that, that next day, my knee started hurting. So I was like, "Oh my God, I lost my bag. My knee hurts. Maybe I should just turn back to San Diego and the U.S. border." And I 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 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. 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 gave you some hard moments logistically, but there's also physically hard moments I had to encounter too, like crossing the Australian Outback, there's sections of a 150 miles with nothing. And so I'm carrying 13 liters of water. And I was there in the beginning of November, so it's their summer. So it's so hot. And I'm like, "What am I doing?" 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?
Shelby Stanger:
What about some of the most beautiful moments? Whether they were physical beauty or something that evoked awe or someone was just so kind?
Samer Abouhamad:
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 when you're out in the mountains, I followed a route called the Peru Divide, but it takes you basically up and down through gravel roads that aren't not very well trafficked. And you'll just round a corner and you have 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. 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 a shepherd there and he speaks no English. I speak no Russian or Tajik. And we just sit there and are doing hand signals to communicate. And he gave me tea with fresh cow milk from his herd. And we're able to share a moment, again, without any language, but even just feeling seen from someone when you've been alone for a few days is all you need sometimes.
Shelby Stanger:
Samer'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. So you finished this whole trip in August 2025?
Samer Abouhamad:
Yeah.
Shelby Stanger:
What was the finish line like?
Samer Abouhamad:
I mean, the day finishing wasn't that emotional, but I know 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 went up 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 emotional. I remember climbing up that last day. And I know it's cliche, but everything was flashing through my mind, all the hard moments. And so I know I cried a lot the last few days. But actually arriving... I mean, it's interesting. The last leg of my trip, I 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. 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, work on a few projects and hopefully inspire others to go on their own adventures too." Because even if I'm not traveling, if I inspire someone to travel and do a big challenge like this, in a way I'm able to travel through them.
Shelby Stanger:
Well, let's dive a little deeper. Finish lines can be tricky.
Samer Abouhamad:
100%.
Shelby Stanger:
They can be really anticlimactic. You had this single pointed goal. Every day all you had to do was like... Not all you had to do was 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 a physical comedown and there's an emotional come down and not having purpose is really hard for someone like me, probably for someone like you, probably for most of the people listening to this podcast. That's why we do hard things.
Samer Abouhamad:
Mm-hmm.
Shelby Stanger:
It had to have been difficult coming home a little bit?
Samer Abouhamad:
Yeah, it definitely is. I think you hit the nail on the head with everything you just said. It's like for the three and a half years on this trip, I had a purpose every day. I really felt like I was moving towards my purpose. And then you're right, I finished my goal and it was like, "What now?" It was a huge, "what now" moment for me. And I think with the biking, one thing that I loved so much about it is the progress felt so concrete because each day I was going from A to B, and you could measure that progress in miles, literally. I was seeing the progress-
Shelby Stanger:
You could see how badass you are every day.
Samer Abouhamad:
Literally.
Shelby Stanger:
That's cool.
Samer Abouhamad:
Your words, not mine, but I could see on a map getting closer to the goal. And so I think it's also shifting the mindset here that the progress isn't as concrete, but having faith that if I'm doing the things I'm supposed to be doing every day towards the goal, that eventually the seeds that I'm planting now will start watering. And they already have now that I've been home six, seven months. So I mentioned that I am planning the next trip, but it's also, I've been trying to do public speaking and get in front of students and schools and different organizations and sharing some of the lessons and stories with me. Lots of people have reached out as they plan their own trips. And so I've been getting a lot of fulfillment in helping others as they embark on their own adventures too, because even if I'm not traveling, sharing some of those lessons and helping others has been very fulfilling too.
Shelby Stanger:
You told me that this trip was divided into three chapters. What did you learn from each chapter?
Samer Abouhamad:
Well, there's a few things. I mean, it's hard to assign each lesson to each chapter, but I would say if I were to boil it down to four major lessons, and some of them we've touched on, but it's just start. If you have this goal or this idea, stop putting it off. You just got to start. So that's the first one. The second one, I think it's important to set big goals, but breaking them down. So that's number two. Number three is, once you set that big goal, it's not going to be a linear path. And so the trip becomes just as much about adaptability and resilience. And so finding ways to overcome obstacles that are going to present themselves to you and understanding that it's not going to be linear before you start something, I think also helped because then you're able to be adaptable and figure stuff out along the way.
And then the fourth is just the power of human connection. I think that was the secret sauce for my trip, just being propelled by the kindness of strangers and interactions and people welcoming me into their daily lives every day really is what propelled me forward every day. And I think in the world of technology and ever-growing AI, it's important to remember we're social creatures and nothing can replace human connection or this conversation we're having and meeting people along the way. Nothing could actually replicate that.
Shelby Stanger:
What about you? How did this trip change you as a person?
Samer Abouhamad:
I think I really had a really good childhood and upbringing and I'm so grateful for that. Both my parents are successful and seeing them be so successful and give me such a good life. I went to private school, they paid for my college. I had this good job. And I would say I had a pretty trauma-free upbringing. And I think in a way this bike trip was a way for me to revolt against that in a way and suffer because I think you need suffering to find joy. And I think this was my way of doing that, I guess.
Shelby Stanger:
To see videos from Samer's time on the road, check out his Instagram at samer.bikes. That's S-A-M-E-R.B-I-K-E-S. You can also learn more on his website, samerbikes.com. Wild Ideas Worth Living is part of the REI Podcast Network. It's hosted by me, Shelby Stanger, produced by Annie Fassler, Sylvia Thomas, and Sam Pierce-Nitzberg of Puddle Creative. Our senior producer is Jenny Barber. Our executive producers are Paolo Mottola and Joe Crosby. Thank you again to our partner, Capital One and the REI Co-op Mastercard. As always, we love it when you follow the show, take time to rate it and write a review wherever you listen. And remember, some of the best adventures happen when you follow your wildest ideas.