We went for a long weekend to Seville for H's birthday, which was great: brilliant weather, wandering around, good food, good wine, etc.
And to Brisbane to visit BIL and meet his twins. Not so great. They didn't have any time off, we didn't even go out for dinner or lunch once in two weeks there, they went to bed at like 8.30 every night and SIL turns out to be a bit of a bitch.
We had a couple of days in Singapore at each end of that, which was good to break up the flights and get at least some holiday feel but I do feel like I wasted my time off mostly.
April: two weeks in Hawaii (Oahu, Hawaii, Maui). Hawaii was so beautiful, we had such a good time. The highlights for me were hiking in Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island and a sunrise bike ride on Mount Haleakala on Maui. I'd love to go back and explore Kauai. I didn't love Waikiki Beach, mainly because there are such gorgeous places to spend time elsewhere. We had some great meals on each island.
September: ten days in Ireland (Dublin, Kilkenny, Dingle, Galway). Again, such a beautiful country. Dingle was the highlight - we had amazing fresh seafood in Dingle town and the Slea Head Drive around the peninsula was one of my favorite days spent with my husband. The Cliffs of Moher were as breathtaking as the guidebooks say. If I had to go back and do it again, I'd spend more time in Dingle and instead of Galway, make it out to the Aran Islands.
We're getting ready to end the year with ten days in Guatemala (Tikal, Lake Atitlan, and Antigua). Can't wait! We have some good stuff in the works for 2014 too...
Post by jennybee1018 on Dec 10, 2013 5:52:14 GMT -5
Fun! I'm going to try and break it down by month :-)
January - Dubai (we go here often, not super exotic for us, lol) February - Maldives (so, so amazing!) March - Pittsburgh, PA (business trip) May - Vienna, Austria - Met up with DH's parents. Really got to explore the city and enjoyed every single minute. So much good beer and food!! September - London, UK - Went for the Steelers game, but ended up doing some fun touristy things as well. Definitely need to go back for longer!!! December - Cruising the Rhine Holiday Markets - Cologne to Basel
I loved the Maldives and London. Maldives was a perfect beach vacation, and London was such an awesome city! This was my second time in Vienna and it was great too! I'm anticipating that I'll love the river cruise :-)
We go to Dubai often for a quick weekend, and it is becoming slightly less appealing every time (long immigration lines, busy traffic, etc). I think it's time to check out Oman, Abu Dhabi, etc on weekends instead!
Rio de Janeiro New Year's Eve absolutely lived up to the hype. Thousands of people all dressed in white out on the beach to watch the fireworks and celebrate. I already knew a bunch of the Brazilian NYE traditions, but seeing how much everyone gets into it was a lot of fun.
Tromsø We went to see the Northern Lights, and it's a huge weight off my chest to be able to tick it off my bucket list since I've lived here for over 6 years and never seen them. We did a Northern Lights hunting trip on our second night, which was great except that the activity was extremely low that night (in spite of a fantastic aurora forecast). Overall, the trip still exceeded my expectations slightly. Dog sledding was a lot more fun than I expected, and I'm glad we splurged a little on a hotel with a rooftop hot tub, because we had a great time sitting out there in the snow!
Fortaleza I didn't spend much time in the city, but I did go and eat siri on the beach, which was pretty tasty (but messy and lots of work). We spent most of the time at Praia das Fontes, and the beach was pretty awesome. It's so flat that there's a huge difference between high and low tides, but at low tide the stretch of sand is enormous.
Sardinia I booked a solo trip in May on a whim and had no idea what to expect. It was still too cold to swim, and most of the beach shacks were still closed, but it was warm enough for sunbathing, and the seafood around the coast was great. I also spent a day driving in the mountains, which was pretty, but nerve-wracking. The winding mountain routes were fine, but I kept getting lost passing through the tiny mountain villages, and the GPS was no help. It told me to turn onto a staircase. And I scratched the outside mirror on a wall, trying to squeeze down a street that was barely wider than my little car.
Oxford I spent three weeks near Oxford for work, and I found Oxford itself to be charming. I loved the history, the culture, and the classic architecture.
Indianapolis / GenCon It was really a trip home to visit my parents (and pick up my mail), but since the dates matched up I spent a day at GenCon. It was a lot of fun, and I played some interesting games, but I think it would have been more fun if I'd gone for more than one day and attended with some friends.
Madrid It was my first trip to Madrid, but it was mostly just a weekend-long birthday celebration for a friend. I was never really drawn to the idea of visiting Madrid, but it seems nice, and the food was great, so maybe I'll go back for a proper visit.
Berlin Everyone says great things about Berlin, but I'm not sure I get it. I went for a weekend because my SO was there for a conference. It was nice to walk around the park, and I was excited to see the remains of the Berlin Wall, but it really just felt like any other big city. I did have a great lunch at a place that changed my opinion of German cuisine.
Tromsø and Sardinia are the only two trips so far this year that were planned outside of work/family/friend commitments. Tromsø was definitely my favorite short trip, and I think Fortaleza was my favorite longer trip.
Post by emilyinchile on Dec 10, 2013 8:30:03 GMT -5
I went to Buenos Aires, Bogota and Montevideo multiple times each for work, but I'd been to all of those before, so I'm skipping them. The only month in which I didn't leave Chile was June.
Jan: wine tasting in Mendoza with family. A nice weekend away from Santiago, great weather, cute hotel and good food, but I wasn't blown away by the wines. I'm not sure if we got unlucky with the vineyards I chose, if my meh-ness on Malbec played a big role or if Chilean wines are just better, but last year we did the Colchagua valley and all agreed the wines were better.
Feb: NY and Boston to see friends with very little touristing thrown in. MOSCOW! This was awesome. I went for work and stayed for 3 extra days to explore. I liked it way more than I expected to, and I didn't freeze. I look forward to going back, although I would like to go back in summer to enjoy more of the parks next time.
May: Athens and the UK. I went to Athens for work and had been before, but I still took a day to go back to the Acropolis. I also ate LOTS of incredible Greek food. Then I headed over to England for 10 days to see family - fun for me, boring to recap.
August: Lima for a weekend to meet up with friends from CA. I don't think Lima is that interesting, but they have great food, and we ate as much as we could. California - mostly at home in the Bay Area, a weekend down in Orange County for a wedding.
November: back to California somewhat spur of the moment for Thanksgiving!
December: leaving next Sunday for the Dominican Republic.
New Years - We went to the Big Island for New Years to visit friends and it was a lot of fun. We saw some great stuff we missed in our first trip there and I feel like we saw a lot of the island since we spent part of our time in Hilo.
San Diego - I forget whether this was January or February, but whichever it was it was a lot colder than we thought it was going to be. It was in the low 60s and too cold to even swim in the pool. The beaches were beautiful though.
March - New Zealand and Fiji. This was our 10 year anniversary trip and it was amazing. We hiked the Milford Track in NZ and I'm now itching to go back to do the Routeburn Track. Fiji was better than I thought it would be.
April -New Orleans for a long weekend. So much fun! Fantastic food and drinks and just a great vibe to the city.
Summer - After our big trip out summer was pretty quiet. We went to Vancouver for the weekend for my birthday and that's about it.
Labor Day weekend - Laguna Beach with a day trip to Catalina Island. Catalina Island was a little disappointing, but I think that's because it was insanely hot and extra busy due to the holiday weekend. Laguna was beautiful as always.
September - Denver for a long weekend with my mom. This was mostly for my Mom's benefit so she could see some friends who moved there a few years ago, bit I had never been and I got to see fun stuff like Pikes Peak and the Broadmoor Hotel.
October - Napa for a long weekend for a friend's wedding. Not as jam packed as my Wine Country trips usually are and we didn't get to Sonoma at all, but still fun and we had some great wine.
Thanksgiving - Home to visit my family.
December - I just got to Hong Kong!!! I was last here 20 years ago and I loved it then, so now that I get to see it as an adult with my husband I'm stoked.
We're going to NYC to see my husband's family for Christmas. We might try to do something touristy because even though I've been going there at least twice a year for 15 years now we almost never sightsee (I've been to Central Park once, the Highline and the Met and that's pretty much it).
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. Mark Twain
March: Atlantic City with my husband's family for his/his sister's birthday. Meh. Not a good time of year for Atlantic City, and it really isn't my favorite place. But that was just a weekend trip.
May: London over Memorial Day to see my best friend/meet my godson. Not a very touristy trip, but lovely. The weather was GORGEOUS. I saw sun in London for the first time!
June: Hawaii for a friend's wedding on Waikiki (and then on to the Big Island for the rest of the vacation). Really lovely trip. The Big Island is so cool. I was not a huge fan of Oahu and won't rush back, but I'll definitely be back to Hawaii (and hopefully to the Four Seasons on the Big Island) many more times.
Labor Day weekend: Iceland. What a beautiful and strange place! It was odd to discover how similar it is in some ways to the Big Island -- just much colder.
October: Atlanta with my cousins to visit my grandpa. Very nice trip, but entirely family-oriented.
Overall, wonderful traveling year, and I'm looking forward to 2014's adventures.
Post by librarygirl on Dec 10, 2013 10:54:00 GMT -5
Slightly disappointing overall but this was more due to other factors.
Long weekend in DC (I don't visit nearly enough)
Holland and Saugatuck, Michigan (beautiful area, happy to have visited another state)
Montreal (loved, although now I'm really anxious to visit Quebec City too)
Kentucky Bourbon Trail (even not being a hardcore bourbon drinker by any means, it was a lot of fun. We'd like to return next year to visit the couple of distilleries we missed and the one that just opened this past fall)
Hawaii (spent a week on Oahu although stayed in two different hotels on the island to give us different perspectives. I enjoyed Oahu but still think Maui is superior)
Looking forward to 2014, travels included for many reasons!
Post by wanderlustfoodie on Dec 10, 2013 11:35:55 GMT -5
January: began year in Belize, the Cayo region as well as Ambergris.
March: Iceland for long weekend (was my second visit). Was able to see the northern lights spectacularly.
April: Washington, DC and Baltimore for a weekend visiting friends.
May: Nashville for long weekend. Great food and awesome live music.
June: Miami for girls' weekend/friend's baby shower.
July: Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary with husband and my parents. As I've mentioned previously, loved Bratislava, the Tokaj region of Hungary, and the delicious food everywhere.
October: Catskills for fall foliage long weekend. So relaxing.
November: Savannah for long weekend for anniversary.
This was our first year being able to travel again since having the triplets so I would take anything we could get! I don't know if we will go anywhere next year (depending on DH's job situation) but I'm thinking we will do a long weekend in Seattle or Portland for sure and we want to rent a house in Breckenridge or Vail for Thanksgiving. I might be going to SF for a work conference.
April - 4 nights in San Francisco and a day trip to Napa. Can't wait to go back! October- 5 nights in Mexico at the Excellence Rivera Cancun resort-so relaxing
And then various trips for work to Las Vegas and Dallas.
Post by udscoobychick on Dec 10, 2013 11:51:16 GMT -5
It was a quiet year for us, since we've been busy saving $$ to pay for our wedding and honeymoon.
I went to upstate NY a couple times to visit family. Hartford for a cousin's wedding in February. Pittsburgh to visit my sister in May. Miami for a business trip in June. We went to New Brunswick for a week to visit FI's family in August. We'll be in Tampa for Christmas to see more of my family. So, mostly domestic stuff. I cannot WAIT to leave North America in March.
Went to Panama in June. Had a blast. It was my first time in Central America. I loved the people and hte seafood. Best part of the trip was Bocas del Toro and archipelago near the border of Costa Rica. It was just gorgeous.
St. Simons island (off the coast of Georgia,US) adopted a sea turtle. chilled with family. A pretty relaxing trip.
Las Vegas- Work/Holiday. Had fun exploring the strip, saw a Cirque show and the Jabbawockeez. Loved the shows everything else to me was meh. It felt like a grown up Epcot.
South East Asia: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand - this was an amazing trip (all except for Komodo Island, I could have done without the dragons on the loose!!)
Costa Rica
Portland, OR
England - a few days up north of Manchester then about a week in London.
We also had a few weekends away in NYC, BOS, Chicago, and Portland, ME which were nice. Asia was definitely the highlight though, I'm looking forward to returning to Bali!
Up next we have Hawaii in a few weeks (back to Kauai and visiting BI for the first time)
Post by keweenawlove on Dec 10, 2013 15:59:33 GMT -5
This was a good year for us.
Feb - Weekend trip to Chicago to see Book of Mormon, San Antonio for a conference
March - Ashville, NC area for my sister's 21st birthday. Saw the Biltmore and hiked around the area.
April - Conference in Salt Lake City. We had a off day of the conference to check out the ski hills. It was my 2nd time ever on downhill skis and first time on a "real" mountain and I didn't die!
August - Week long trip through various parts of northern Michigan visiting family and enjoying the uncrowded beaches
September - 9 days hiking at Banff and Jasper in the Canadian Rockies. Absolutely amazing.
November - New York City to run the marathon
We've also got our trips "home" to the UP for Thanksgiving and Christmas but those never feel like they quite count.
March- Playa del Carmen * I wasn't as impressed with Mexico as I was with Jamaica but it could be that we stayed in a nicer resort in Jamaica.
May- Vegas (husband) *I enjoyed this trip more than my July trip. We went to nice dinners, shows, laid by the pool, etc. It was my first time to Vegas and I didn't think I was going to like it but I did.
July- Vegas. (Girls trip)
August- Portland, Oregon Loved Portland! Coming from flat West Texas, I loved the hiking and scenery!
Post by wineenthusiast on Dec 10, 2013 16:51:53 GMT -5
Not nearly as much as I would've liked. I'd really like to get to Hawaii or Europe in the somewhat near future.
May - Nashville, mostly went bar hopping. We visited a friend in Clarksville as well.
September - South Haven, MI for Labor Day weekend. Spend a little time at the beach and shopped a lot.
October - Galena, IL (girls trip) What a beautiful drive thru the country near there. Our biggest disappointment was we had not made dinner reservations and everywhere we tried to get a table was pretty rude about it. We ended up having to wait 2 hours.
November - Rio Grande, Puerto Rico. We had intended to go to Culebra for a day but it rained so much we never made it but we did check out Old Sand Juan, Condado area & Luquillo Beach. I wish we had drived out to Rincon for a day since they looked to have better weather than the areas we were in. One of our favorite parts of the trip was watching surfers in Luquillo.
Quiet travel year for us. We spent a month in SE Asia last year and we hope to spend 3-4 weeks somewhere in Africa in 2014 (locations TBD), so we tried to take it easy this year and save money.
Girls' weekend in Phoenix in April. Girls' weekend in Michigan in May. In October, we drove to a wedding outside of Detroit. After the wedding, we did a road trip through Montreal, Mont Tremblant, and Quebec City. We drove back to Chicago through Vermont & New York. It was a beautiful time of year for the trip. In November, we spent a week in Guanajuato & Queretaro Mexico.
Culebra I'm usually not an island/beach kind of vacationer (we went for a wedding), but I LOVED Culebra. Flamenco Beach was beyond gorgeous, and I enjoyed the rustic feel to the island. Great food, too.
Scotland We drove around Scotland in June, and it has knocked Ireland off the top spot of most beautiful places I've ever seen. The drive through the Highlands? Good god, breathtaking doesn't begin to describe it.
I completely agree with you on Culebra. I loved it!
I really want to take a trip to Scotland. My travel to do list is getting way too long!!
Post by Wanderista on Dec 10, 2013 20:07:51 GMT -5
I was in Croatia and Denmark in January. There was a lot of snow, much more snow in Croatia than in Denmark. I did enjoy seeing traditional Croatian winter fairs. I had a nice time at the cafes. I went to the City Museum of Zagreb. That is full of ancient artifacts, like evidence of the Roman history there. It was fascinating. (I have been to a lot of city museums in Croatia but that was my first visit to the one in Zagreb). I also went to a very old cemetary and a very old neighborhood in the Upper Town.
I have done multiple visits to Richmond this year, which I have enjoyed. I can't keep track of them all. I toured several of the parks, Maymount and Belle Isle, I also enjoyed some excellent dining.
I went somewhere in the Midwest for a wedding which I enjoyed. I also went on a Mississippi River riverboat cruise with my grandma which was priceless.
In July, I went to LA for the first time and actually really enjoyed it. I played the tourist but it was fun.
For Thanksgiving, my family went to a historic colonial inn. Around Christmas we may do a few little daytrips around.
There was nothing that I thought was overrated except maybe LAX? I was not impressed by LAX (the airport; the city is fine).
Post by christy082 on Dec 10, 2013 21:00:43 GMT -5
We had two trips this year, both to Chicago. We went in April and again in May. It was too cold in April to do any of the outdoor things that we wanted to do (which is part of the reason we went back in May- that, and a good deal on a hotel).
We did a lot: Field Museum Shedd Aquarium Adler Planetarium Museum of Science and Industry Willis Tower Michigan Avenue Architectural boat tour (loved) Segway tour (loved) Walking tours of Millennium Park and the Loop (loved) Cloud Gate (The Bean) The Riverwalk Navy Pier
Biggest disappointment was the deep dish pizza. I'm just not a fan I guess. Tried it both times and it was just okay.
Feb- long weekend in Miami. We love Miami. We stayed at a crappy joke of a hotel on South Beach, but we had a lot of fun. Ate great seafood, drank our butts off, etc.
May- long weekend in Boston. I am there all the time for work, but DH had never been. We stayed right downtown, and had so much fun. Wandered around the North End, ate fabulous seafood, took a Duck Tour, did the Freedom Trail, drank our butts off again, etc.
June- 2 weeks in Panama & Colombia. We spent 3 nights in Panama City and were both very impressed with PC and Casco Viejo. FABULOUS food. We did a boat tour towards the canal, saw great wildlife. Then we went to Colombia and met my family for my cousin's wedding. 1 week in Bogota with the whole extended family, and then we headed to Cartagena. Cartagena is magical. 3 days with my nuclear family, and 4 days alone celebrating our 4th anniversary. We stayed in the historic walled city at first which was great, and then moved up the beach. The hotel was not so great, but we had fun and made lots of memories. We had great food in Cartagena as well.
July- long weekend in cabin in WI. With a huge group of friends. Gorgeous cabin, but we weren't right on the water like we usually are. Grilled out a lot, spend a day in the Dells.
August- long weekend in Napa with girlfriends. It was my first time and we had a blast! We did a tour which I was unsure about, but I found it really overwhelming trying to pick wineries so it worked out great. Had some great meals.
September- long weekend in Nashville with other girlfriends. One of my best friends from college lives in Nashville so went to visit her with another friend for the second year in a row.
October- long weekend at beach in MI. Rented a huge house on the beach for a friend's wedding. Last weekend of living it up before we got pregnant.
Next up is Paris/Geneva in January, NYC in April, and then we will see when the baby is able/cleared to start flying! We are definitely planning one more trip to Indonesia in 2014 or 2015.
Where'd you go? What did you do? Favorites? Things you didn't like as much as you thought you would?
-Vegas in January, which was fun (I don't love Vegas but my husband really enjoys going once in awhile). I do love hiking Red Rock Canyon every time we are there. -Portugal in March, which was incredible. Loved the food and how cheap everything was. It is a beautiful country and one of my favorites in Europe. -San Francisco and Napa in July for my 30th (wasn't my first time there, but had a great time) -Minnesota to visit family in August -Montreal in September (quick weekend trip) -Dublin in October. I enjoyed visiting this city and some surrounding areas a lot more than I thought I would! -South Africa in November (Cape Town, Garden Route, Winelands) - amazing. Probably one of my favorite trips ever. -Disney world a few days ago. I love seeing it all decorated for Christmas, but I'm probably fine with not going back for a few years!
We also did weekend trips to NYC, Boston, DC, Ocean city NJ and Baltimore since they are all so close to us.
Next year: Big Island, Cancun for a wedding (have no desire to go back since I went there when I was younger, but going for our friends), Japan, Peru, somewhere in Europe for a long weekend,and lots of weekend trips in between.
We got to see some amazing places this year and generally had a great time traveling.
January: We spent a long weekend in Harbin, China for the ice sculpture festival with a group of friends. We had a blast, but it was insanely cold.
April/May: DH and I spent a week in the Philippines starting out in Manila and visiting Tagaytay City (Taal Volcano), Banaue, and Batad. Batad was amazing. We had to take a jeepney 45 into the mountains and then hike 45 minutes to the village of Batad. The rice terraces were beautiful and I loved being out in such a remote place.
August: We did a long weekend in Qingdao, China with the same group of friends for the International Beer Festival. We all got sick, so it wasn't my favorite vacation. We also spent one night in Rudong, China another weekend where they spoke little or no English.
September: DH and I and 3 of DH's guy friends spent another long weekend in Tokyo, Japan. There was a lot of drinking and eating Japanese food. We also went to a baseball game that was a blast. It was more a guy's trip, but I still enjoyed myself.
October: DH and I spent a little less than a week in Seoul, South Korea. We visited tons of sites and took a tour to the DMZ. It was a welcome break from China and it was a fun city to visit.
November: DH and I went to Guilin and Yangshuo, China. We did one night in the Longji Rice Terraces then met up with friends to spend the long weekend in Guilin and Yangshuo. We took a boat ride down the Li River and saw all the Karst mountain scenery.
December: DH and I are flying to Singapore next Tuesday, then we have a 7 day cruise to Indonesia from Singapore, including Java, Bali, and Lombok. We end in Singapore and have a few days there, then we fly to Langkawi, Malaysia and then to Kuala Lumpur (in 2014).
That's 7 countries this year for me. DH has 9 as he went to Australia for a business trip and has been back to the U.S. on business.
March: Got married and went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Did so many things there skied, snowboarded, snowmobiled, sledding, shopping, museums and lots of eating.
I was surprised (and maybe unfairly so) at how many incredible restaurants there were in Jackson Hole. Did you eat at Snake River Grill? We dined there for our anniversary and it was just incredible. So good.
Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons are two of my "must visit" places.
I'm definitely going to refer to your blog whenever I get the chance to go!
February: 2 nights in Nantucket with DH. Neither of us had ever been, despite my being born & raised in MA/RI. Loved how quiet it was! I don't know if I would've liked it in tourist season; too crowded I imagine.
March: girls weekend in Chicago. FUN!
May: Ireland with DH. LOVED IT. Want to go back sooooo bad! Spent 5 days with my cousins in Co Kerry & 3 days in Dublin. It was so cool to see where my mom's parents come from.
July: weekend with my parents & sister's family in Cape Cod @ the time share we've had as a family since forever.
November: Toronto & Niagara with DH: I hadn't been in 10 years, DH had never been. Saw the falls, did the wine trail, went to all the ethnic areas in Toronto & the Hockey Hall of Fame. I love Canada.