I love the end of a year, when travel bloggers are looking back at their past trips. It gives me a lot of inspiration for future planning. Similarily, I like to look back at my own trips. I’m proud when I look at all the trips I’ve made, regardless of my full-time job. If you’d like, you can still check out my 2018 and 2017 wrap ups by clicking on the links.

First, the numbers:

Countries visited: 11. These are all the unique countries I have visited. I have been to Germany twice this year, which I haven’t included in the count. I didn’t count the State of Palestine as the UN doesn’t mark it as a country, and I also don’t count the Netherlands because that’s where I live.
New countries visited: 4 (Serbia, Israel, Czechia, Nepal)
Plane rides taken: 20. I only count origin to destination as a flight regardless of layovers .
Days spent travelling (incl. flight days): 84, which is almost 30 days more than last year.
Different Beds Slept In: 23, not counting overnight flights. One of those stays was in a homestay in Nepal, one was with family. All the others were hotels.
New UNESCO Sites visited: 9
Dives: 3. All of them on Ibiza.

Next, the travels by month:

March – Mysore & Bangalore (India)

16 nights

My year of travel started out well with a business trip. I visited my team in Mysore for two weeks. This gave me plenty of time to visit the sights in the neighbourhood like the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary and the Tibetan settlement Bylakuppe. My colleagues were happy to show me around the country. I also stayed in Bangalore for two nights prior to my flight to see a little bit of that city as well. Even though the trip was fun it was also a bit of a fail. I had a really intense case of food poisoning, which meant I was rushing from toilet to toilet most of the time. It took me one week in the Netherlands to properly recover.

Read more here:

• Belur, Halebidu & Shravanabelagola – A Day Trip from Mysore
• Bylakuppe – A Photo Diary of a Tibetan Settlement in India
• Mysore – Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary
• Mysore – A Four Day Itinerary
• Bangalore – A Photo Diary of Cubbon Park

April- Belgrade & Novi Sad (Serbia)

5 nights

I always try to squeeze in a trip during Easter. I try to pick Orthodox Christian countries this time of the year in order to avoid the crowds. That’s why I picked Belgrade and Novi Sad, which I travelled to by myself. The year before I visited St. Petersburg with a friend. People really lowered my expectations in regards to Belgrade, which I found to be unjustified. The city is beautiful and tranquil and there’s much more to see than people let on. I wouldn’t mind visiting Serbia again in the future. This time around I really enjoyed the Yugoslavian themed walking tour, because it taught me something about a part of the world which I hardly knew anything about.

Read more here:

• 6 Things To Do in Belgrade
• Belgrade – Three Walking Tours to Get To Know the City
• Novi Sad – A Photo Diary

April- Tel Aviv & Jerusalem (Israel)

6 nights

I almost never travel with both my parents. I do usually travel with just my mum like Tromsø last year and Iceland before that. This year my dad asked me to join them on a trip to Tel Aviv & Jerusalem in April. Who am I to say no to that?

This trip was a bit of a reunion for my parents with a country they know pretty well. They lived in Israel for a few years in the 70s, so they were happy to show me around and marvel at the changes the country has gone through. I decided to see a bit of Palestine as well, which is why I booked a day tour to Ramallah & Bethlehem. I did a separate day trip with my mum to Masada, Ein Gedi & the Dead Sea. Other than that I enjoyed our stay in Tel Aviv, but loved our stay in the culturally more diverse Jerusalem.

Read more here:

• West Bank – A Day Trip from Tel Aviv
• Tel Aviv – A Two Day Itinerary
• Masada & the Dead Sea – A Photo Diary
• Ein Gedi Nature Reserve – David’s Waterfall Hike
• Ein Karem – A Day Trip from Jerusalem
• Jerusalem – A Two Day Itinerary

May – Saarbruecken (Germany)

3 nights

As you might know by now I visit Saarbruecken in Germany at least once every year. Part of my family lives there, and I always enjoy visiting them. I tend not to travel around too much when I’m there but this year I visited the Saar Polygon with my mum. This is a monument that commemorates the coal mining industry in Saarland, which ended in June 2012. I will write a future post about this sight with accompanying photos.

Read more here:

• TBD

June- Venice & Trento (Italy)

4 nights

One of my goals of this year was to “up the travel blog game”. I tried to do so by visiting the Travel Travel Conference in Trento Italy. Prior to this trip I actually decided to stop blogging, so I’m happy I went there to revive my enthusiasm for travel writing & photography. I visited Venice for the first time two day before the event. Venice can be insanely crowded, but I found some areas that were quiet enough for me to enjoy a nice glass of Prosecco by the water. The conference itself was in Trento, a small city near the Dolomites. This time around I absorbed all the information I gathered like a sponge, if I ever visit a conference again I’ll try to take a few more notes and share my stories about it on my blog.

Read more here:

• TBD

July – Azores (Portugal)

9 nights

I visited four out of the nine major Azorean islands. São Jorge, Pico and Faial in the centre and São Miguel in the east. This trip really left me wanting more. New islands have been added to my list to see. What I found out this trip is that all the islands are incredibly diverse. Pico is a little black volcanic rock island (they are all volcanic islands but Pico is strikingly black). São Jorge has beautiful hikes with mountains beside the sea that resemble the Hawaii I see in photos. São Miguel’s Ponte Delgado is a beautiful city to visit and the lakes of the island are insane. I can’t wait to write my posts about the islands in the future.

The islands are famous for its whales, unfortunately I wasn’t lucky enough to spot them. I did, however, spot many dolphins. This was my first time ever out on the sea to spot wildlife. Many more will folow.

Read more here:

• TBD

September – Ibiza (Spain)

7 nights

Ibiza is a cheeky trip I have been planning with my friend for ages. We always go backward and forward when it comes to travel planning and since it’s been ages since our trip to Curacao and Bonaire (Rhodes was too short to count as a proper trip), we decided to visit a destination in Europe this year.

Here we could do everything we wanted to do. We visited beautiful beaches, we went cycling one day and we also went diving for two days. Ibiza is too busy to ever be my favourite island, but the trip was exactly what I needed and we loved every minute of it.

Read more here:

• TBD

September – Saarbruecken (Germany)

2 nights

I visited Saarbruecken twice this year. Once for my grandmother’s birthday, and once for her sister’s 80th birthday. This time around I visited the highest spot in Belgium on the way back, which is a staircase in the middle of nowhere. A bit odd, but that’s what it is. Thanks to Atlas Obscura for the tip!

Read more here:

• TBD

October- Prague (Czechia)

3 nights

Finally! I can’t believe it! I finally bought a ticket and flew to Prague! I booked a ticket for myself, but my boyfriend decided to join so we visited the city together. I talked about this city in two of my “Looking Forward” posts, and now it’s finally time to say I’ve been there. I liked the city a lot. It’s busy, but there’s plenty to see and explore. I will write all about it in the future.

Read more here:

• TBD

November – Edinburgh (Scotland)

2 nights

My favourite city in the world can’t be missed out of course. I try to visit Edinburgh every year or every other year, since I’ve lived there for three years in the past and I can’t get enough of this town. This time around I actually hiked up Arthur’s Seat for the first time. I met up with friends as well. Did I mention I love visiting Edinburgh?

Read more here:

• TBD

November – Nepal & Qatar

16 nights

My final trip of the year took me to Nepal. Nepal has been on my list for years and years. I decided to finally go ahead and book because at the beginning of the year, after getting so sick in India I swore I would never visit Asia again. I had to get right back on the saddle before this turned into an actual reality. I’m happy to report I didn’t get sick in Nepal, and I loved the country a lot. I visited Kathmandu, Chitwan National Park, Pokhara and Bakthapur amongst others. The colours, the kindness of the people, the buildings, the landscapes, I loved it all. I can’t wait to write more about it, but I also can’t wait to visit Nepal again for a multi-day hike.

I stayed in Doha for two nights at the end of the trip to go shopping at the Mall of Qatar.

Read more here:

• TBD

How did I do in terms of my goals?

I actually accomplished most of the goals I set for myself at the end of 2018. At least in some form. I will do the same soul-searching I did back then again for my goals of 2020 because it really does seem to work out that way.

Learn Spanish
I did learn a bit of Spanish. I took three 9-week classes with Fuentes which managed to take me up to level A1. I didn’t actually get the certificate, because I decided to skip the third 9-week class. This would’ve just been a repeat of the previous classes, so I feel my knowledge is at A1.

Up the Travel Blog Game
“Changes on my Blog
If you follow me, you might know that I only write about my trips which I (try to) do every week. That’s going to change, I will mix things up a bit in terms of content.

This is a bit of a mixed bag. The monthly wrap up post came and stopped, since I didn’t enjoy doing it. It actually sucked all of the joy out of blogging which resulted in my quitting. Luckily, the Traverse Conference made an end to that.

I didn’t translate my blog as I had planned either. However, the past few weeks with the help of a friend, I’ve learned a lot of how my site is running and I’m planning on cleaning things up a bit. I don’t want to go into my plans for 2020, but things are happening.

Get Fit
“This one I dislike the most, but it has to happen in order for me to actually think of completing my “bucket list”. I need to get in shape. I need to treat my body better, so I’m going to go to a gym. I would also like to hike more. As you might have seen in my post about the hiking marathon, I need to build up my stamina and muscles in order to enjoy long hikes.”

I’m proud of this one. I did actually “go to the gym” regularly. I started attending a Aqua Bootcamp class (as I feel best in the water) and I started running. I will write more about my goals for next year in my goals post.

Travel 2019
“I have trips planned to Belgrade, Israel & Trento in Italy. It’s very likely I’ll also be going to Ibiza this year. That’s all I can say about my plans.

I wrote down my thoughts, but I didn’t actually commit to any destinations. I travelled more than I ever have before this year, so I’m quite proud of that.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this wrap up. I don’t have many blog posts to link yet, as I’m a bit behind but I’ll remedy that as soon as I finalize the blog posts.

I hope you all had an amazing year of travel in 2019. How many countries did you visit this year? What was your favourite destination?