What places interest you? Do you want a man or a woman? Can it be anyone 1400 up to the modern period? This information will serve to focus suggestions.

Fridtjof Nansen might be a good one for you.

Try Prince Henry the Navigator. He was born right around 1400, and is considered one of the first important figures of the age of exploration. He kind of gets overlooked in favor of Vasco de Gama and Christopher Columbus, but he was one of the first.

José Antonio Aguirre, the Basque president during the Spanish Civil War. He has a memoir titled Escape Via Berlin in which he describes his flight from France during WWII, and despite being hunted by the Gestapo he went to Berlin and was able to brazen his way to finding passage to Sweden and eventually to freedom. He's not an explorer, but he certainly traveled widely and led a very interesting life.