Best of the Year

You can’t have the good without the bad — and I’ve always made an effort to talk about the bad times that happen while traveling! The top thing that people tell me is “You’re so honest,” and I make sure to tell the truth. Because yes — travel is fun and transformative and life-affirming. But […]

One reason why I’m so glad I have my monthly recaps is that I can look back and see the best travel moments of my year all at once! This year took me to 13 countries: Czech Republic, UK, France, Italy, Vatican City, Germany, US, Canada, Spain, Nepal, Bhutan, Qatar, and Panama. I named several

How do I sum up 2024 in travel? Busy. Maybe a bit too busy. Four new countries visited (Nepal, Bhutan, Qatar, Panama), lots of exploration in much-loved countries, and some incredibly fun road trips close to home. This was also the year that I did a year of new Czech exploration — visiting a new

How do I sum up my travels of 2023? They were a bit random, with little trips in random spots whenever we could fit them. Also — less Italy than we’ve had in YEARS. Believe me, we’re going to make up for it in 2024. This year was all about getting married, and Charlie and

As always, you have to take the good with the bad — especially so with travel! As many good moments as you have when you travel, there are plenty of awful moments that sneak their way in. It’s always a good reminder that travel is not an automatic pass to happiness. I’ve seen a lot

I’ve said a few times this year that I haven’t been reading as much as usual. Far less, in fact — as I type this I’ve only read about 30 books, far from my usual 60-80. One reason is that I’ve been working so hard on my new site, New Hampshire Way, and developing new

2022 was a year of beautiful travel moments. This year took me to nine countries — Mexico, the US, Czech Republic, Italy, Germany, Iceland, the UK, Portugal, and Austria — and nine new places that I named the best of 2022. Going through my monthly recaps to create this post was an absolute pleasure. And

2022 was an excellent year of travel. After taking the first steps back into post-pandemic travel in 2021, 2022 was about achieving long-held dreams. The biggest dream was to visit my two remaining regions in Italy — Calabria and Sardinia, which I did in May and June, respectively. Does that mean I’m done with Italy?

The good times may be sweet, but the bad times keep you humble! I firmly believe that, and that’s why I always write about my worst travel moments of the year. I love looking back and remembering the bad, scary, and oftentimes funny moments that happened on my travels. This is one of my favorite

I once took a personality quiz and found out that I thrive with audience-based accountability. If I’m setting out to achieve a goal, I need people to be watching. That’s how I’ve been with reading. I’ve always been a big reader, but ever since I started documenting everything I read on this site, I kicked