Youtuber Paul ‘Barbs’ Barbato on what he learned visiting 99 different countries – and how to make the most out of every trip
Barbs’ travel insights
• Travel doesn’t need to be cross-continental: small journeys can be just as rewarding
• Make the most of short trips by visiting places near borders
• Be curious about the people around you
Interview by
For some, travel is about familiarity, of returning to the same much-loved hotel or destination. But for YouTuber Paul Barbato – known as Barbs by his ten-million-strong online audience – the best destination is the one he knows next to nothing about.
Being surrounded by an eclectic mix of cultures and languages from a childhood in Chicago kickstarted Barbs’ curiosity about the world, one he’s eager to share through videos from his YouTube channel GeographyNow. These videos together form one mammoth, decade-long project that Barbs completed in 2024: profiling all 193 UN-recognised territories through in-depth videos.
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Compiling his own detailed research and knowledge, alongside that of his subscribers for countries he hasn’t visited, Barbs steps in front of the camera and shares details about a country’s demographics, politics and physical geography, and expands into topics such as sports, culture and food.
But outside of the four walls of his studio – where many of GeographyNow’s videos are filmed – Barbs is a keen traveller himself. He has visited 99 countries, stretching from Greenland to Zimbabwe to Turkmenistan.
Through all of his travels, Barbs is most interested in the people he meets and how they shape his understanding of a country’s culture. While in Greenland, he spoke with a 14-year-old girl who hunted musk ox to feed her family; in the remote montane village of San Polo Matese in Italy, Barbs met extended family members on a heritage trip with his mother.
Another notable interaction was meeting a subscriber in Turkmenistan, which Barbs explains didn’t happen often during his trip due to the country’s heavily regulated internet access.
But while travelling may be full of insightful moments, it’s not without its logistical hiccups or blunders. Obtaining paperwork to enter Togo in Africa proved to be one of Barbs’ most difficult challenges, a bureaucratic process that frustrates locals and tourists alike, he explains. On the same trip, the authorities also briefly detained him after he flew a drone over what he later discovered was the restricted airspace around Mount Agou.
‘I still really love Togo,’ Barbs says. ‘It was a very interesting experience, and I got to do three neighbouring countries – Togo, Ghana and Burkina Faso – all in one trip.’
A collection of countries that were situated relatively close together were a boon to Barbs when it came to his race to visit as many nations as possible. Take Singapore, for example: a land border with Malaysia and a 45-minute ferry ride to the Indonesian island of Batam – an easy way to explore three countries in a relatively short amount of time.
Central America is another one of Barbs’ favourites, with Belize, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama all within easy reach of one another.
Barbs is keen to encourage others to go out and explore. ‘I’ve received emails from people telling me they live vicariously through my content, and love learning about the world through my videos,’ he says. ‘They tell me they can’t do it themselves, but I explain to these subscribers that if you really want to see the world, start small. You should build from there.’
‘Travelling doesn’t have to be this grandiose, flashy experience,’ he continues. ‘You could travel to the next town over and meet people – then try another place in your country that you’ve never been to before.’
And if you take a leaf out of Barbs’ book, the location is second to the people you meet anyway: they are the way in which destinations become enriched and take on true, long- lasting meaning.
‘If you want to learn about the world, start by being curious about the people around you.’
