Gunnar Garfors (born 29 May 1975) is a Norwegian traveler, author, media professional, and public speaker. Garfors was the first person to visit every country in the world twice, he holds a range of travel world records and has written several travel books.[1] He has also worked in broadcasting and new media developments since 2001.[2]
Personal life
Garfors is the oldest of seven children. He was born in Hammerfest in Northern Norway but soon moved to Naustdal Municipality on the country's west coast where he grew up with his mother Ruth Berit Stensletten Garfors, his father Reidar Magne Garfors and his six siblings. He has also lived in Havøysund, Førde, Dublin, Falmouth, Copenhagen and Taipei. He now lives in Oslo[3] with his wife, Jacqui Kunz.[4]
On 18 June 2012, Garfors and Adrian Butterworth set a Guinness World Record by being the first people to visit five continents in the same day.[5][6] Garfors, Øystein Djupvik, and Tay-young Pak set a record in September 2014 by visiting 19 countries in 24 hours.[7] Garfors set another Guinness World Record on 2 February 2018 when he circumnavigated the world via the six inhabited continents on scheduled aircraft in 56 hours and 56 minutes together with Dutchmen Erik de Zwart and Ronald Haanstra.[8] On 16 December 2018, he became the first person to visit all 198 countries (including states recognized by at least 10 UN members) in the world twice.[1]
Writing
Garfors has written several travel books, including Ingenstad which has featured as a Norwegian bestseller.[9] Garfors wrote a bimonthly travel column in the Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun from 2013–2015 and occasionally wrote travel articles for The Guardian.[10][11][12]
Bibliography
198: Mi reise til alle verdas land, Samlaget, Norway (2014)
Ete fysst, Selja, Norway (2014)
198: How I Ran Out of Countries, self-published, USA (2015)
