a review of your 2013 travels

[bullsgirl]

February - long weekend in DC with the husband. His 1st time there, probably my 6th or 7th. It was fun showing him the sites and we saw a Butler game, which was the purpose of the trip.

March - Costa Rica ( Tamarindo & Arenal) - this was my favorite trip this year! I especially loved Tamarindo

May - Long weekend in Reddington Shores ( between Clearwater Beach and St. Pete Beach). My FIL bought a house there and it's only an hour away, so we do this a lot now. But, I really love the local beaches here.

June - Weekend at the Ritz in Sarasota. Loved the location of the hotel. It was such a relaxing weekend!

July - weekend with my sis in Chicago. We got awesome weather and I love Chicago. Also had a long weekend visiting a friend in Mchigan and got great weather there too.

November - 1 night in Vegas, we saw Love. I thought it was incredible. Also spent 8 days in Hawaii, mostly Maui and Kauai. I was surprised that I didn't love Hawaii as much as I thought I would. It probably is because I am in my first tri and exhausted and cranky pretty much all the time.

[wise_rita]

2013 was far and away the best travel year for me.  It's really unbelievable typing it all out:


January
Hong Kong & Taipei, Taiwan
I loved Taipei but I think I'm all Asia'd out.  China Asia, at least.  Too many crowds, too much shoving.  

February
Melbourne, Victoria (first time)
SO and I went there to meet friends who were in the country.  It's so European-not-Australian it blew my mind.

March
Cairns, Queensland
The GBR didn't impress me as much as I expected, because we only did a day trip.  You've gotta go farther out to see the crazy stuff, I think.

April
Whitsunday Islands, Queensland
Just beautiful.  Saw some fish the size of me snorkeling.

August
Tasmania roadtrip
So much to see in Tassie!  Definitely worth it if you've got lots of time to spend on travel in Oz.

October
Melbourne, Victoria (second time)
Ladies weekend of eating, drinking and being merry.

November
New Zealand (south island only) roadtrip
So incredibly different from Australia.

I know I'm very fortunate.  I will point out, however, that I will not step foot in the USA or see my family in all of 2013.  Or retire, ever.  Heh.

Choices and consequences!

[sarahsas]

North Carolina and Myrtle Beach in March. Love that area of the country.

Kansas City - great town, good restaurants and attractions. Inexpensive.

Indiana a couple times to visit family.

Panama. Loved it - like neonpink, Bocas was my favorite.

Uruguay. Interesting area of the world to see!

Lake Tahoe - my first time there in October, very gorgeous, the lake is spectacular!

[chicago]

A decent year for us, but no more traveling for a while!

Dec/Jan - Mexico (Cancun) for NYE; super relaxing and uneventful

Feb - long weekend in NOLA; ate lots of great food; I would love to go back soon!

Mar - Negril, Jamaica, splitting the week between Rockhouse and The Caves; we had a fabulous time and loved Rockhouse!

Apr - short work trip to Seattle, but I didn't see much

Jul - Cape Town and safari in South Africa, Seychelles - an amazing trip, especially since we learned we were expecting our daughter!

Nov - Thanksgiving in Iceland; enjoyed the trip, but we were limited by time, nasty weather, and pregnancy. Still, all in all a fun trip and probably our last for at least a year or two.

HOW AM I GOING TO STOP TRAVELING? Yikes!

[anna7602]

I went all over the place this year. I was just thinking this morning that I am good at taking of advantage of my geographic location to see new places or to visit friends/family. 

I spent January-July living in Paris. From there, I went to: 

- Madrid, Spain and a small town about 4 hours north to see friends and family: I love Spain and it was so nice to be able to catch up with people I don't get to see as often when I'm living in the U.S. 

- Venice, Italy: I have decided this is the most perfect place ever to travel to with a small child. DD found it to be absolutely magical between the water buses and the palazzos and the carnival masks. I loved how child-friendly Italians are and the fact that there are no cars on the streets. DD could run to her heart's content. We also ate very, very well. And there was plenty to see/do to keep us occupied. 

- Porto, Portugal: I'm glad I finally got there, but I much prefer Lisbon. Lisbon is one of my favorite cities in the world. I don't really see myself going back to Porto unless I am invited to a wedding or conference there. 

- Scotland: all over. We went to Edinburgh, Loch Ness, Isle of Skye, Oban and a bunch of small towns and islands in between. I really enjoyed it, even though I generally detest car travel and we spent a lot of time in a car. The weather was terrible, too, cold and rainy in May. And yet I still really liked it.

- Camping in the French countryside: much like camping in lots of other places, I guess, but with more wine. 

Since we moved back to the U.S., I've been to:

- Chatanooga, TN: stayed in the Chatanooga Choo-Choo hotel in an old box car. That was fun. Nice city with a good vibe and delicious food. I especially recommend Aretha Frankenstein's for brunch. 

- Miami, FL: Have family & friends there and I missed going there when I was living abroad. 

- Philadelphia: it's a quick train ride from NY. Took DD to Sesame Place in suburban Philly and to the Please Touch Museum, and just generally spent a lot of time hanging out with friends who live there. 

- Chicago: was only there for a weekend, but enjoyed what little I saw. It's a city I'd like to get to know better. 

[anna7602]

I went all over the place this year. I was just thinking this morning that I am good at taking of advantage of my geographic location to see new places or to visit friends/family. 

I spent January-July living in Paris. From there, I went to: 

- Madrid, Spain and a small town about 4 hours north to see friends and family: I love Spain and it was so nice to be able to catch up with people I don't get to see as often when I'm living in the U.S. 

- Venice, Italy: I have decided this is the most perfect place ever to travel to with a small child. DD found it to be absolutely magical between the water buses and the palazzos and the carnival masks. I loved how child-friendly Italians are and the fact that there are no cars on the streets. DD could run to her heart's content. We also ate very, very well. And there was plenty to see/do to keep us occupied. 

- Porto, Portugal: I'm glad I finally got there, but I much prefer Lisbon. Lisbon is one of my favorite cities in the world. I don't really see myself going back to Porto unless I am invited to a wedding or conference there. 

- Scotland: all over. We went to Edinburgh, Loch Ness, Isle of Skye, Oban and a bunch of small towns and islands in between. I really enjoyed it, even though I generally detest car travel and we spent a lot of time in a car. The weather was terrible, too, cold and rainy in May. And yet I still really liked it.

- Camping in the French countryside: much like camping in lots of other places, I guess, but with more wine. 

Since we moved back to the U.S., I've been to:

- Chatanooga, TN: stayed in the Chatanooga Choo-Choo hotel in an old box car. That was fun. Nice city with a good vibe and delicious food. I especially recommend Aretha Frankenstein's for brunch. 

- Miami, FL: Have family & friends there and I missed going there when I was living abroad. 

- Philadelphia: it's a quick train ride from NY. Took DD to Sesame Place in suburban Philly and to the Please Touch Museum, and just generally spent a lot of time hanging out with friends who live there. 

- Chicago: was only there for a weekend, but enjoyed what little I saw. It's a city I'd like to get to know better. 

[Deleted]

Busy year but most travel was the second half of the year. And sadly most of it was work related.

Feb: Long weekend in Boston
May: Kansas City for wedding
June: San Jose for work trip, Denver for house hunting trip
July: Road trip from Seattle to Denver for the move. San Fran for work trip. Seattle for wedding.
August: Seattle for work. Hong Kong and Singapore for work.
September/October: London, Brugges, Paris, Marseille.
October: Seattle for work trip.
November: San Diego and Seattle for work.
December: Seattle for work.

[Deleted]

Dec 11, 2013 0:48:34 GMT -5 @sfgal530 said:

Dec 10, 2013 20:07:51 GMT -5 Wanderista said:

There was nothing that I thought was overrated except maybe LAX? I was not impressed by LAX (the airport; the city is fine). 

Anyone who would consider LAX impressive is delusional. It is one of the crappiest airports out there, IMO, so know you were right and whoever told you it was a great airport was wrong. I hate flying through LAX.

Single worst airport I have ever travelled through. And I've had to switch terminals at Heathrow.

[Deleted]

We had a decent year (although slow for most on this board! LOL)

Jan - trip to Florida to visit the in-laws, DH and I did a baby-free cruise that had stops in Cozumel and Key West, neither of which I had been to.

May - baby-free trip to Munich & Salzburg.

July - trip to Niagara on the Lake (but this is pretty close for us)

Oct - Maui, Hawaii at the four seasons. BEST HOTEL EVER.

Next year will be a slow year since I'm having a kid in July. We were supposed to hit up China in the summer but I think that will be delayed. We are going to Paris & London in March with my parents and Florida in Jan.

[tacocat]

I was in school part of the year so our travel was pretty skewed

Mar: Portland, Or to see family

April: Palm Desert for 5 days

June: Philadelphia for DH's work award, Lake Chelan for a wedding.

July: Portland, Or and Oregon wine country to see family, celebrate our anniversary
Aug:

Sept: Camping in NE Washington over Labor Day for 5 days, my Cousin's wedding in Lake Chelan for 4 days followed by 9 days in Russia (split between Moscow, Sochi, and St. Petersburg)

Oct: Germany for 6 days, mostly in Stuttgart to see family but we went to Oktoberfest for the day

Nov: The Big Island for 1 week, loved it

Dec: Vancouver, WA to visit family (this shouldn't count but my nieces are really cute!)

[sillygoosegirl]

December 2012 (yeah, I know) - Hawaii and Kauai - This was really an amazing trip.  We did a bunch of hiking and snorkeling.  We snorkeled with a sea turtle.  We hiked to Kalalau.  I can't wait to go back and do it all again.  Only bad thing about that trip is that we were trying to get our mortgage while we were there (we'd been waiting on a short sale for 9 months and of course the bank got back to us 3 days before we were going on vacation).

April - Peru, Lake Titicaca, Inca Trail, Machu Picchu - This was a lovely trip, but surprisingly stressful.  I had some altitude sickness the first 3 days or so, which really put a damper on things.  We were super stressed about getting sick and being unable to do our Inca trail trek, which put a damper on food enjoyment.  Also, we had to take like 3 flights to get there (literally no other way for the city we wanted to fly into), and we arrived simply exhausted.  Loved the trail and the islands on Lake Titicaca.  I thought Machu Picchu was a little bit of a let down (liked the ruins along the trail better).  Didn't especially care for most of the other museums and sites we stopped at (not that interested in colonial history, I guess).  Also, we missed our new (to us) house.

June - Oregon Coast with family - spent a week at the Oregon coast with my family.  Very relaxing, beautiful area, great to spend time with my sister, niece, and nephews.  

August - Camping in Central Oregon for star gazing with parents - long weekend trip to see the meteor shower and visit cool Oregon destinations such as Fort Rock and Crack in the Ground... which I'm sure nobody outside of Oregon has ever heard of, but are pretty cool natural places.

September - Epic conference and family visit - not so much a vacation, but we spent a week at a work conference (which was pretty cool) followed by a week with my ILs.  We also visited a bunch of friends along the way in several nearby cities.  It was slightly exhausting and I wasn't a huge fan of the place we visited with the ILs (St. Simon's island--a beach in Georgia where it was neither warm enough to swim nor beautiful), but it was fantastic to visit with family and friends.

And that's it.  It's been a really busy year between the new house and my new job in May.  

[hz80408]

No international travel for us in 2013 since we moved from Chicago to Denver

Jan: NYC (H had to travel for work, I found a cheap flight and hotel to tag along for a long wknd)
Jun: Denver and Duluth, MN (for a race)
Jul: Denver and Rocky Mountain Park for a wedding
Sept: Summit County CO for networking conf
Oct: moved to Denver
Dec: drove back to IL for holidays and IN for a wedding

[daisypaloma]

From my favorite to least favorite:

Barcelona and Ibiza. Portinatx is one of my favorite escape places, and I would definitely go again. I also enjoyed the day trip to
Montserrat.

Snowboarding trip in Lake Tahoe with friends.  We rented a nice cabin with Jacuzzi, which was a perfect way to end a day of falling on my ass.  I definitely loved to come back to snowboard and stay @ Northstar the next time around.

2 NYC trips: one with DH, and another with the girls.  It was DH' first time, so we took the Ikea ferry to Red Hook for some wine tasting; and we played tourist practically the entire time.  The girls' trip is more sightseeing and foodie adventures.

Las Vegas with family.  I've been to LV several times, but I loved the company. 

Lastly, we had an overnight at a hotel in Costa Mesa for DH' holiday party.  We made a weekend of it.

[mastistyle]

Love this thread-gives me ideas for my future trips. I have been lucky enough to say that every trip I have been on I have always enjoyed. And I keep fiding a favorite-so hopefully I can keep that streak going. This year we did alot of domestic travel, and a few international trips.

Stuttgart and Munich and Salzburg Was really surprised how much I enjoyed it. We did a "auto" tour-the nerd in me loved the production facilities for Porsche.
Vegas-won't go again in the summer-but loved the food and shows.
Atlanta
Seattle
Portland Oregon
New hampshire
Boston
Portland Maine
New Orleans
Memphis
Nicaragua
El Salvador
Panama

[Deleted]

I have to add another one - we just got back from ten days in Guatemala and it was awesome! I'll post a review soon, I think someone posted recently asking about Guatemala. Definitely a great way to end 2013, and now I'm working on our plans for 2014!

[naldridge]

New York City (Feb)

Raleigh, NC (May)

Chicago (June)

Italy: Rome, Tuscany, Venice (June/July)

Atlanta (July)

D.C. (September)

Annapolis (September & October)

Richmond, VA (September)

Durham, NC (October)

Boston (November)

Chicago (December)

Palm Beach (December)

New Orleans (December)