'I'm a 'danger tourist' - I've been treated like a celeb and thrown in handcuffs on my travels'

A self-described 'danger tourist' from Lambeth, South London, has been to 134 out of 195 countries in the world, including a remote village in East Africa where he says he was "treated like a celebrity". Daniel Pinto, 26, lists the Philippines, India, Sudan and Iraq among the places he's visited so far.

Daniel is a professional 'Danger tourist' - a niche in the tourism industry involving travel to dangerous places - and is currently making his way through Africa. One of his recent scrapes involved being detained trying to gain access into Congo from Angola, but says it doesn't put him off travelling.

In April 2024, Daniel and his friend, Nuno Abrantes, 27, were travelling to Tanzania when the pair stopped off at a remote village in northern Burundi, Africa. There, they met the Tanzania Batwa pygmies - Indigenous Peoples of short stature who settled there. Daniel found himself feeling like celebrity - as he was followed around the village by the locals for hours.

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Describing his time there, Daniel said: "I had the village showing me around, the village is high up in the highlands it is very beautiful. In general it is a beautiful place that doesn't get many tourists."

When Daniel was 20 years old he started travelling alone and has been to 134 countries - including Bali, Vietnam and Afghanistan. He started documenting his journey around the world online - to show people a different side to the countries they have heard about.

He said: "I want to be separate from the crowd - that is why I went to the village. I don't want to show the settings that everyone else shows." Daniel said there are "too many" countries to choose from when it comes to choosing his favourite but 'India has everything you need'.

He said: "India was amazing, it has everything you have. There are big cities, tribes - it has everything you will need." Daniel also loved Algeria in north Africa, particularly its Mediterranean coast. He enjoyed visiting Sudan too, a place that he says has a 'negative image' associated with it.

When it comes to travelling to dangerous locations, Daniel said he knows how to handle himself but had a "close call" on his recent trip to Libya. Daniel said: "I have been pretty lucky, I don't know if that is because I am tall and have tattoos. The worst situation I have been in is Libya, I was hitchhiking. Libya is very new to tourists, we got to a checkpoint and we were detained for seven hours."

Describing the terrifying ordeal, Daniel said: "We were handcuffed and had a gun to our face. That was worrying, being handcuffed to the wall by a militia group is scary."

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