2024 Travel Recap: The First Year of Full-Time Travel -

In my 2023 travel recap post, I looked back fondly on what had been my most-traveled year yet. I also stated at the end of the year that I thought 2024 would top it in big ways.

Spoiler alert: I was right.

When I wrote the post, I had an idea that 2024 would be the year I’d start full-time travel. AKA my travel sabbatical or “adult” gap year. My partner and I had been talking about dropping our responsibilities and taking off to travel full-time for awhile. Now, we had finally met our personal financial goals that would allow us to do so.

We were still not 100% committed, though, so I was reluctant to share much about it at the time. Perhaps we would put it off until 2025. Or maybe not even follow through on this dream at all.

Now that we’re at the end of the year, I’m happy to share that we did indeed make it happen in 2024. And it’s going well – for the most part.

First: 2024 Travel Stats

Before getting into the details of my 2024 travel recap, here are my overall statistics:

Total Continents Visited: 5
- New-to-Me Continents Visited: 1
Total Countries Visited: 21
- New-to-Me Countries Visited: 19
Total US States Visited: 4
- New-to-Me US States Visited: 0
Multi-Day Treks Completed: 4
Seas/Oceans Swum in: 7
Months Lived in a Campervan: 1
Different Beds Slept in: 86

Before we started our year of travel, my partner and I talked about how excited we were for “slow travel.” I know the stats above really don’t make it seem like we really embraced slow travel. But believe me when I say it’s been the slowest we’ve ever traveled! And we’ve definitely seen places we’d never have had the time or awareness to venture to without being able to travel more slowly and flexibly.

Indeed, the year has been filled with plenty of highlights – as well as a couple of lowlights.

Now here is my 2024 travel recap!

So…this post got a bit out of hand! Feel free to jump to a section if you’re interested in a particular section or story in my 2024 travel recap.

January: Tanzania

The year really started off with a bang. Soon after a quiet holiday season, we took off to Tanzania for the biggest hike of our lives – Mount Kilimanjaro. The climb itself was full of a lot of ups and downs. I experienced altitude sickness for the first time. It was compounded by the fact that I was on my cycle for the first half of the climb. Which only ever makes things like that worse.

On January 23, 2024, we summited the tallest mountain on the African continent at approximately 7 a.m. One of the hardest physical and emotional accomplishments of my life.

After a successful climb, we decided we deserved some rest and relaxation. So we headed over to Zanzibar Island for some well-earned beach time. Zanzibar is a gem off the coast of Tanzania. Here, we spent a rejuvenating three days enjoying the Indian Ocean and interesting two days exploring historical Stone Town.

We came home feeling both accomplished and relaxed, which was really a feat. But we had a question we were debating both internally and with one another. Would 2024 be the year we left to travel full time?

February: New York

February brought more discussion and debate but no definitive conclusions at first. It also brought a business trip to New York. Every time I visit New York, I wonder if this trip will make me finally fall in love with the city. It still hasn’t happened. But the trip did remind me of how fulfilling it is to work in a job you’re pretty good at doing. And how much I enjoyed my Delta Gold Medallion status.

During February, I thought a lot about how staying the course of my current life was the easier and more socially acceptable path forward. And it wouldn’t be so bad. But I knew that what I wanted more was to take the opportunity to travel full time while I could.

March: Local Exploration

In March, an exciting thing happened: Family visited us for the first time since we’d been living in Northern California. We finally had an excuse to visit Alcatraz! I had fun playing host, both showing them around and giving recommendations for things to do in the area.

We hiked through the redwoods, visited the Santa Cruz pier, went wine tasting in Napa and saw some hot spots in San Francisco. They did some exploration on their own, visiting Big Sur and the Baylands.

By this time, we had mostly decided that 2024 was the year we’d take off to travel full time. They clearly thought we were a little cuckoo, but didn’t say it out loud.

Regardless, we bought our one-way ticket to Poland this month.

April: Preparing for Full-Time Travel

By April, we were all in on our decision to travel full time. That meant we didn’t have any time to waste in preparing to totally upend our lives. Our ticket was scheduled for May 22, which really didn’t leave us much time to donate/sell/store all of our things, pack our essentials and quit our responsibilities.

We had a long checklist of things to do. Sort through our things to decide what stays, what goes and what we bring with us. Rent a storage unit. Figure out our first few moves. Say our goodbyes. All the other little things that go into a big change.

Writing it out like that, it might not seem like much. But it was a lot and honestly pretty overwhelming a lot of the time.

By the end of the month, though, we had a bunch of things checked off our list. And I’d given notice at work.

May: Poland

The first half of May was another whirlwind of preparation and tying up loose ends. My boss and coworkers were all more supportive and lovely than I’d ever dreamed they would be, and it really helped me feel validated that I was making the right decision.

Everything else was tough. It was harder to sell and donate things than I thought it’d be. I didn’t want to just dump everything at Goodwill or through Buy Nothing, but to try to find people who actually needed some of the things we were giving away. In the end, a lot of things went to Goodwill, but some also went to more useful places. We also ended up keeping some of the things we were planning to sell in our storage unit. We had room.

When we were finally on the plane to Poland, everything felt right.

At this point, you might be wondering why we chose Poland as our first destination. It is a little unconventional.

We knew we wanted to start our travel year in Eastern or Southern Europe and work our way east towards Central Asia. Once deciding that was the best course of action, we started looking at cities with the cheapest airfare around mid to late May in those regions. That helped us narrow it down to two choices: Poland or Italy.

Ultimately, we decided Poland was the better move. They were both destinations we were interested in seeing. But Poland would be more affordable and less crowded in May/June, and it would be a good gateway to other interesting destinations in Eastern Europe.

We spent those first couple of weeks in Poland embracing our new life of full-time travel.

We had slow mornings of sipping coffee, working on side projects and chatting, followed by exploration and pierogies in the afternoon. I didn’t at all miss the frenzied pace of our former travel style where we’d try to fit as much as possible into a few days.

In total, we spent two weeks in Poland – one in Warsaw and one in Krakow. During a “normal” vacation, the most time we’d have realistically spent would have been about four in Krakow and two in Warsaw (if we made it there at all).

We left Poland talking about our new “slow” travel style and how much better it was. Little did we know, it’d be the last of our newfound slow travel for the next several weeks.

June: Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania

After Poland, we moved on to Czechia. Specifically, Prague. I’d visited Prague before when I backpacked Europe for the first time in 2017. Afterwards, I talked all the time about how much I fell in love with the city and made Chuck want to visit it more than he already had.

I was excited but also nervous to revisit. Sure, I loved it when I first visited, but I was also a very new traveler, fresh-faced and excited about everything. Prague was so different than any place I’d ever been and a refreshing change from what had felt like a bit of monotony in traveling from one Western European city to another. Plus it had been so comparatively cheap! I loved the food, the beer, the art, the architecture – just the overall atmosphere.

But what if it didn’t live up to my memory?

When we got to Prague, I did find that it felt different in a lot of ways. Since 2017, it seems Prague has become a much more popular destination. The crowds and prices were much bigger than I remembered. It was also peak season, whereas I prefer to travel off season. But it was still just as charming and quirky as I remembered.

I also got to visit a few places I’d skipped on my first visit to Prague seven years prior, either because they were too experienced or my friend who joined me in the city wasn’t interested in them. Some of those experiences included the Kafka Museum, the Strahov Monastery and Prague Castle.

Our next destination after Prague was Bratislava, Slovakia.

In Bratislava, we saw landmarks like the famous Blue Church and UFO Tower. We walked through the baroque castle gardens and learned Slovakian history at a museum in the former town hall. I also was delighted to learn about how delicious Slovak wine was. I really enjoyed Bratislava, and enjoyed learning the benefits of staying a couple nights in a city more commonly reserved for day trips.

Acknowledging we spent entirely too little in Slovakia, we moved on to Budapest, Hungary where we were due to meet a friend. One day, we’ll see more of Slovakia, like the eastern side and Tatras Mountains.

In Budapest, a friend flew out to travel with us for a couple of weeks.

At first, we were worried that our new slower pace wouldn’t be compatible with someone who was coming out for a shorter vacation. But luckily our friend is very laid back and was happy to go with the flow.

Don’t get me wrong – we still accomplished a lot in Hungary. We spent nearly a week in Budapest and honestly could have spent a couple more days. The city was beautiful and layered and quickly became my new favorite European capital. Its history was so complex, and its culture was so different compared to other major European cities I’d visited. The food was also delicious – chicken paprikash, langos, pork knuckle – so much to love. We thoroughly enjoyed the architecture, museums, nature, thermal baths and nightlife. I want to go back some day.

But we decided we didn’t want to spend my friend’s entire vacation only in the city of Budapest. After much debate, we decided to add two cities to our docket – Eger, a small town in the northern plains and a wine region, and Debrecen, Hungary’s second city.

After our friend left, we wanted to take some time to relax and catch up on our side projects.

Full-time travel is about learning when to be go-go-go vs. learning when to take a step back and enjoy some lazier days.

We decided Cluj-Napoca, Romania was the perfect place to relax. Cluj-Napoca is about a four-hour bus ride from Debrecen and the unofficial capital of Transylvania. In my mind, we basically spend four days here doing nothing but travel planning and working on our side projects in our very nice and futuristic Airbnb. But when I look back at my notes and photos, we actually did quite a bit of exploration in this city. We climbed to viewpoints, visited museums and walked through a hauntingly beautiful cemetery.

After Cluj-Napoca, we learned the horrors of Romania’s train system on an eight-hour train (that was supposed to be six hours) to Brasov. Discomfort getting there aside, Brasov was my favorite city in Romania. It was just so charming and picturesque, surrounded by mountains with medieval castles just a stone’s throw away. We explored the medieval old town, climbed to the Brasov sign and took a day trip to visit an ethical bear sanctuary, Bran Castle and a palinkaria.

From Brasov, we took a better train to Romania’s capital of Bucharest. This city was once called the “Paris of the East,” which I could really see in its Old Town especially. We spent a few days exploring this city and took a day trip to bike through a nearby wine region. The bike ride was followed by the most generous wine tasting I’ve ever seen.

June was a very full month! We saw and did a lot and found ourselves going into July a little tired from the pace and a lot tired of Eastern European food.

July: Bulgaria, Türkiye

That brings me to one of my favorite months of the year in this 2024 travel recap – July.

Our first stop in Bulgaria was the seaside town of Varna, only a few hours’ bus ride from Bucharest. Our plan was to spend a couple of days on the Black Sea then head inland again to the cities of Sofia and Plovdiv. Instead, we found ourselves spending over a week on Bulgaria’s Black Sea Coast.

Here’s how it happened.

Our arrival in Varna didn’t go so well. We had some frustration and confusion with the public transit system and a sweaty walk to our Airbnb. When we arrived at our Airbnb, we had even more frustration as the key provided absolutely would not open the door.

After some messages with the host and with Airbnb support, we went to a nearby beach restaurant. Airbnb explained that we needed to give the host a couple hours to remedy the problem before they could help rebook us, but that they would cover our bill if we wanted to go to a nearby establishment to kill time in the meanwhile.

We chose a restaurant facing the beach and ordered some simple seafood dishes – prawns in a lemon butter sauce and fried anchovies – and some Bulgarian wine. After the first few bites of our food, we came to a realization.

Sure, a ton of things were going wrong. We didn’t know if we’d have a place to sleep tonight, and our introduction to this city was a bit rough. But we were looking out at a beautiful beach and enjoying seafood for the first time in who knows how long. We realized then and there that there was no way we were going inland again. We needed at least a week on the beach.

For the next week and a half we fully enjoyed Bulgaria’s Black Sea Coast.

We rented beach chairs for <$10 USD per day in Varna, swam in the water and enjoyed the sandy beaches. We also enjoyed its anthropology museum, speakeasy, great food and the European Handball Tournament it was hosting. Then, we moved onto Burgas, which we loved even more.

Finally, it was time to move on to a country I’d been wanting to visit for years – Türkiye.

We traveled via bus from Bulgaria to Türkiye.

The border ended up being really easy. We got off the bus and lined up to get stamped out of Bulgaria. Then, we got back on the bus to drive through no man’s land to the Turkish border. Here, I handed my passport through a small window, looked into a camera and got stamped into Türkiye. The biggest hitch was waiting awhile to scan our luggage because the person working that area was on a break or something.

A few hours later, we were finally in Istanbul!

You know how if you hype a country or experience up in your mind enough, it won’t live up to expectations? Well, that absolutely did not happen in Türkiye. In fact, it exceeded expectations. We didn’t even get scammed a ton like the internet said was sure to happen to two white American tourists.

Türkiye quickly became my favorite country of the year to visit up until that point.

We spent a wonderful week in Istanbul where we did our first food tour and fell even deeper in love with Turkish food. Saw iconic sites like the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. Enjoyed sailing across the Bosphorus between Europe and Asia.

Everyone told me that you really only need three or four days max in Istanbul, but I’m so glad we took an entire week for it. First, there is so much to see in the city. You won’t get bored and run out of things to do. Also, staying for a longer amount of time made it so we didn’t feel the need to stay in the main tourist area. Instead, we stayed in a more hip residential area with no touts and better food. I think people get burnt out on Istanbul because they stay right in Sultanamet where they’re hassled to buy or eat something every time they step out of their accommodation. Finally, staying for a week allowed us to see more off-the-beaten track things like the Ottoman Bank Museum and Princes’ Islands.

After Istanbul, we discovered how nice the Turkish train system was on a 14-hour ride from Istanbul to Denizli.

The reason for traveling to Denizli was to use it as a base to visit Türkiye’s “Cotton Castle,” Pamukkale. We woke up early in the morning to take one of the first dolmus (minibuses) of the day to the main entrance.

If you’re visiting Pamukkale, getting there at opening is an absolute must. Around 10-11, it starts getting super busy, with tour buses coming all the way from various cities. But before that, you’ll have the beautiful white terraces and blue pools almost to yourself.

We thoroughly enjoyed the terraces then went to the ruins of the ancient city of Hieropolis. I think that might have been my favorite part of the excursion. The ruins near the terraces were somewhat full, but a few blocks further away was nearly empty – even later in the day as more tour buses arrived. No one told me about Hieropolis beforehand, so it was a lovely surprise. It did add a couple extra hours to the day, though.

The next day, we moved on to Selçuk to check another Turkish site off our bucket list – the ancient city of Ephesus. Ephesus was at one time one of the most important cities in Asia Minor, visited by important historical figures such as Alexander the Great and Cleopatra. The Temple of Artemis – one of the seven wonders of the ancient world – was built next to it. The temple was maliciously burned down, but some of its ruins still remain, and you can visit them for free.

We saw the Temple of Artemis our first day then rented bikes from our guesthouse to visit Ephesus in the morning the next day. Again, I highly recommend this approach if you’re visiting Ephesus. It’s much better to be able to explore a bit before the big tour groups arrive.

On the bus from Selçuk to Bodrum, I had a familiar feeling creep up.

I had a UTI. If you’ve ever had one, you’ll know they’re not fun no matter where you are. But they’re extra un-fun if you’re in a foreign country and on a very bumpy bus with no bathroom stops to help ease some of the pain.

Luckily, I got sorted out in Bodrum where I went to a pharmacy and was promptly treated by a very helpful pharmacist after explaining my symptoms. It was much cheaper and easier than going through the US healthcare system.

Bodrum was nice, but crowded and more expensive than the other parts of Türkiye we’d visited up to that point. In retrospect, I sort of wish we’d visited a different city on the Turkish Riveria, but there was plenty to do to keep us occupied. We explored Bodrum Castle, hiked to some ruins and enjoyed the crystal clear water of the Aegean Sea.

After Bodrum, we took our first overnight bus of the trip to Cappadocia. I hadn’t taken an overnight bus since my first trip to Europe when I was 25, and to be honest I was kind of dreading it. I remembered it as an incredibly uncomfortable experience where it was impossible to sleep. If it had been so uncomfortable at 25, how was it going to feel at 32, I wondered?

But it was so much better than I thought it’d be. I think that’s due to just being more experienced and knowing what to expect and Turkish buses being more comfortable. Sure, it wasn’t the most comfortable night of sleep in the world. But it was doable.

When we got into Cappadocia, I immediately knew it was going to live up to the hype.

We rolled past fairy chimneys – columns of old volcanic rocks that resemble spires – and I just felt like I was on another planet. Luckily, our hostel let us check in early and take a much-needed nap.

Unluckily, we got some bad news. The balloons weren’t flying as often as usual due to bad weather. I didn’t realize they were actually canceled somewhat frequently!

We spent the next few days exploring the otherworldly valleys and cave cities of Cappadocia, hoping each day that the balloons would fly the next morning. We hiked through Love, White, Red and Pigeon Valley, explored one of the famous underground cities on a guided tour and went wine tasting. During the last full day of our time in Cappadocia, I had fully enjoyed my time there and had come to peace with the idea that we wouldn’t be able to go up in the balloons or see them fly over the valley.

Then, on our last morning, the balloons finally flew! When people say the price is worth it, they are not lying. It was one of the beautiful things I’d ever seen in my life – a truly magical experience.

After the balloons, we went back for a nap before our second overnight bus ride of the trip.

This bus took us from Cappadocia to Trabzon where we planned to spend a couple of days before heading into Georgia. In Trabzon, we thought about going to a monastery carved into the rocks, but we were honestly too tired. Instead, we spent a couple of the days exploring the city and learning more about Turkish hospitality.

We spent just over three weeks in Türkiye – the most time either of us had ever spent in a country outside the US up until that point.

I realized that we spent the same number of days as the amount of PTO I’d had at my previous job.

August: Georgia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan

From Türkiye, we traveled via bus to Georgia – another country I was incredibly excited to see.

The bus dropped us next to our Airbnb in Batumi – a city on the Georgian Black Sea Coast famous for its casinos and popularity with Russian tourists. I wouldn’t necessarily think of it as a beach destination, but there were plenty of people enjoying the beaches.

In Batumi, we visited the famous fish market where we picked out some fresh seafood for a nearby restaurant to grill up. We also visited a winery, took a cooking class and spent time just exploring the city.

After Batumi, we headed to the beautiful town of Mestia in the Caucasus Mountains. It was the jumping off point for a five-day trek through Svaneti. We took a marshrutka (minibus in Georgia) and learned about how wild the drivers really are! I thought we were full as every seat was occupied, but it turns out the driver keeps folding stools to place in the aisle and pick up more passengers.

In Mestia, we stayed at a lovely guesthouse with awesome mountain views and incredible home-cooked food. Here, we met a Georgian family from Tbilisi who shared their wine and gave us tips for traveling in Georgia.

While we could have pretty easily done a self-guided trek through Svaneti, we opted to join a guided one.

We thought it would be safer and easier as we wouldn’t have to think about finding accommodation and meals. An unexpected side benefit of the guided trek was that we made friends! The trek ended up being a huge group of 18 people – all from different nationalities across Europe (mainly) and Asia. We were the only Americans. When we first learned how big the group was, we were worried it would be way too big to be enjoyable. But everyone got along really well, and the pace of the hike was perfect.

We had a going away dinner when we arrived back in Mestia after the trek, then most of us parted ways. A few people were headed onward to Tbilisi where we got to hang out again. It was nice to see them again, and also nice to tag along on some of their plans after months of having to plan everything we do mostly myself.

Tbilisi was a really cool city where I wish we’d been able to spend more time. We went on a walking tour, climbed to the Mother of Georgia statue, tasted Georgian wines, relaxed in sulphur baths and saw the Chronicles of Georgia.

I know Georgia is going through some political turmoil right now, and I wish nothing but the best for the lovely country with equally lovely people.

In Tbilisi, we boarded our first flight in three months.

We were a little bummed to be messing up our overland streak, but it was necessary as Azerbaijan’s land borders have been closed since 2020. When we started on our trip, the official news said the plan was to reopen the borders in July 2024, but that got pushed back to October. As of January 2025, they are still closed. Unsure of when they will reopen.

So instead of an overnight train, we boarded a flight to Baku, Azerbaijan. The city was honestly so much nicer than I expected. Its comparisons to Dubai made me question whether I’d really enjoy it, but I really enjoyed its historical sights and very friendly people. We spent a week in the city, which is a few days longer than tourists typically spend there.

In Baku, we boarded another flight because otherwise getting to our next destination would have been a bit difficult. We flew into Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

I was stoked to finally be in Central Asia. When we were planning our adult gap year, Central Asia was one of the regions we decided to prioritze. The ‘Stans had been on my radar for years, but they were so far away and so much less traveled than other areas that it felt like I couldn’t justify a two-week vacation from the US. So it became a priority to explore the region now that we had more time.

When we landed in Uzbekistan, I thought, “Now the adventure has really begun.”

We arrived late around 2 a.m., and our guesthouse owner picked us up. Over the next week and a half, we admired the impressive Islamic architecture and learned the long history of Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara. However, we slightly overestimated the extent of our interest in architecture (Caravanistan warns about that). We found ourselves wanting to visit smaller towns and villages and connect with the country on another level.

That’s where I found Nurata Travel and signed up for a multi-day village-to-village trek in the Nuratau Mountains. The trek was more focused on cultural exchange rather than long days of hiking, which was fine with us. We enjoyed seeing the villages and meeting the locals. We even got to unexpectedly attend a wedding! This trek ended up being our favorite part of our time in Uzbekistan.

[Tip: If you want to meet locals, get out of the tourist hubs and into the smaller towns and villages.]

September: Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, USA

From Uzbekistan, we took an overnight train to Tajikistan. Tajikistan wasn’t actually our original plan when we discussed Central Asia. Although I fell in love with the country from afar through the blog The Adventures of Nicole, I didn’t think it would fit into our plans. See, I originally wanted to attend the World Nomad Games. But it just wasn’t going to work out. The 2024 games were taking place in Astana, Kazakhstan, which was honestly a bit out of the way for the rest of what we wanted to see. Plus, it was the first year attendees had to pay for the games.

And, I did really want to see Tajikistan. At first, we talked about just traveling in the Fann Mountains, but there was another bucket list experience I really wanted to have.

The Pamir Highway is an iconic road trip that takes travelers through epic scenery and small villages through the Pamir Mountains. Most of it takes place in the semi-autonomous region of Gorno-Badakhshan (GBAO) for which you need a special permit, and about half the trip is along the Tajik-Afghan border. The US lists GBAO at a level 3 (“reconsider travel”) advisory, while the rest of Tajikistan is at a level 2 (“exercise increased caution”).

After some discussion, we signed up for a trip through Discover the Pamirs and were lucky to find another person who wanted to share the trip at kind of the last minute.

Honestly, the Pamir Highway really lived up to the hype.

Tajikistan was so different than anywhere I’d ever been – which can be kind of hard to come by after you’ve visited 40+ countries. It was so far removed from US influence in many ways. Plus seeing the small villages where people improvised water pumps and created a market out of used shipping containers was so special. It was also so interesting to be able to look into Afghanistan – a country I’d heard so much about but only through the news – for so many days. At times, we were close enough to wave to people on the other side of the river. We also got to visit the Tajik-Afghan cross-border market.

The Pamir Highway trip ended in Kyrgyzstan.

Technically, this border is closed, but tourists can go through for a fee.

I’d asked the trip organizer if we could spend a night in the Alay Mountains and hike to Lenin Peak Base Camp before officially ending our tour (without consulting Chuck – oops). Luckily, our companion was game, so instead of heading straight to Osh, we headed to a yurt camp near the base camp.

It was here I got my second bout of food poisoning on the Pamir Highway. It came on rather suddenly and in kind of an ironically funny way.

That night, I stole a few moments of sleep here and there between bouts of vomiting. When it came time for us to get up (before sunrise) and start our very cold hike, I seriously considered just staying the yurt for a few more hours of sleep. However, I rallied and was so glad I did. The hike was beautiful, and well worth it – especially once the sun rose to warm us up.

That afternoon, we traveled to Osh.

Here, we spent a couple of days somewhat recovering from food poisoning (by that point, it had caught up with my partner, too, who had otherwise survived unscathed). We also got to see a bit of the city and have one more dinner with our Pamir Highway companion before heading to Bishkek via shared taxi.

Our Airbnb was really nice with the most comfortable bed we’d had in weeks, and we didn’t want to leave. In fact, our first full day in the city, we barely left the apartment – even ordering delivery.

We did pull ourselves out of the apartment to see a bit of Bishkek, with a self-guided walking tour of the cities most iconic landmarks and surviving Soviet murals. We also had a disastrous hiking experience in Ala-Archa National Park.

When it was time for a three-day horse trek to Song-Kul Lake, we were pretty sad to leave the Airbnb. In fact, we’d considered just going on a half-day horseback riding excursion. But a horse trek is one of the must-do Kyrgyzstan experiences that we decided was worth leaving our newly re-discovered comfort.

After the horse trek, we returned to our comfortable Airbnb that thankfully hadn’t been booked up while we were away. It felt like returning home, as weird as that sounds. But we were moving on to Kazakhstan the next day and could only stay for one more night.

By the time we got to Kazakhstan, we only had a week before we had to leave for a two-week “break” in the US. A week really isn’t enough time to see the huge country of Kazakhstan, plus we were tired. So we really have to go back one day.

We spent our entire time in Kazakhstan in Almaty.

My partner was still struggling with food poisoning, and we really just needed some downtime. The most common trip from Almaty is a 2- or 3-day tour of Charyn Canyon and the Kosai and Kandy Lakes. But honestly, we just didn’t have it in us. We decided that resting and recovering were more important.

We did make it to Big Almaty Lake on rented electric bikes. It was as beautiful as the pictures show. We also saw a decent amount of the city.

From Almaty, we flew back to the US via Qatar.

We had a long stopover in Qatar where we took advantage of their city sightseeing tour. We got to see a mosque, the “Colosseum” replica and the Old Souk.

Finally, after literal days of travel, we made it back to the US.

I honestly expected more culture shock, but the most surprising things were people smiling at me unprompted and being able to easily speak and understand the language around me. Other nice things were being able to flush toilet paper, potable tap water and access to some of our favorite comfort foods.

We naively thought our time in the US would be relaxing. The first few days kind of were – we were in my hometown catching up with family and friends. Then, we got a lot busier. We headed up to Hilton Head for a wedding, then over to Charleston to see a friend and explore the city. Then, we flew over to California to see my cousin and trade out some of the things in our storage unit. By the time we were leaving the US, we didn’t feel rested at all.

That feeling made our next stop kind of bittersweet.

October: Fiji, New Zealand

When we decided we’d use our visit to the US to reposition to New Zealand, taking advantage of Fiji Airways’ stopover program felt like a no-brainer. We also decided against booking a resort in order to experience more of the real Fiji. But we didn’t take into account how tired we might be. Suddenly, spending three whirlwind days trying to see as much of the island nation as possible felt honestly a bit daunting.

But we ended up really enjoying it! We took advantage of our short stopover and saw the biggest Hindu Temple in the Southern Hemisphere, explored the Sigatoka Sand Dunes National Park and took a day trip to a private island.

Finally, it was time to go to New Zealand! Like Central Asia, New Zealand was another priority trip on this year of travel. A place far from the US that deserved a decent chunk of time for exploration.

We spent our first few days at a nice hotel in Auckland (booked after deciding against the resort in Fiji – worth it). It was nice to rest there for a few days to finish recovering from jet lag and to see a bit of the city.

From there, we kicked off one of our favorite trips of the year – our New Zealand campervan trip.

We spent one month traveling through New Zealand in a self-contained campervan. It was so different than any way we’d traveled before, and we really loved it. In retrospect, signing up for a month to travel full-time in a small campervan was kind of ambitious, so we were lucky to enjoy it so much!

It was definitely outside of our comfort zones, but we quickly and easily fell into our jobs and routines. I even learned to stand cold showers!

We started our trip exploring the Far North and wondering how anyone can say the North Island isn’t beautiful.

Then, we started our journey south in search of Lord of the Rings sites (starting with Hobbiton, of course), geothermal activity areas, Maori culture sites, wine tasting and hikes. After two weeks on the North Island, it was time to take the ferry to the South Island.

November: New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia

New Zealand’s South Island is usually the favorite among travelers, so I was very excited to see it. Characterized by incredible nature, dramatic landscapes and extreme adventure activities, it definitely lived up to the hype.

We unfortunately had to skip a lot of things we wanted to see due to weather, but we were really glad we had a campervan to help us stay flexible. If we’d had to plan out our stops and accommodations in advance, we would have been locked in to staying in certain locations during bad weather. As it was, we were able to change things around and still salvage a few of our must-dos during weather changes.

Still, some of my favorite experiences in New Zealand were on the South Island. Biking through the Marlborough wine region, bungee jumping 440 feet (134 meters) and hiking through Hooker Valley with Aoraki/Mount Cook looming large in front of me are core memories.

After 28 nights straight sleeping in a campervan, we dropped off our rental and went to our Airbnb in Christchurch. One of the first things I did was take a long, hot shower. Then, I promptly fell asleep in the soft, warm bed. I think I slept for 12 hours. Christchurch doesn’t have a lot going on (not its fault – it’s still recovering from devastating earthquakes in 2010-2011), but that made it the perfect place to relax for a few days in a very nice Airbnb. We also did alllll our laundry. I think it was like six loads.

Our time in New Zealand was at an end, but we were very excited for the next part – Southeast Asia!

I’d been wanting to slow travel through this area for a long time. My two-week trip to Vietnam in 2023 only further solidified my desire to spend more time in this region and really take my time.

We flew to Singapore via Singapore Airlines Business Class (thank you miles and points)! It was a very luxurious experience. It made it even funnier when our first night was in a capsule hostel.

The next few days we extended the luxury in a nice hotel booked for the American Express benefits. Singapore doesn’t have great budget accommodations, so we figured we might as well go all out.

Singapore was certainly an interesting city to see, but I don’t think it was quite what we expected. That’s okay, though. It happens sometimes. We still had a lot of tasty food and went on a very informative walking tour.

After a few days in Singapore, we traveled via bus up to Malacca, Malaysia.

Malacca is a UNESCO World Heritage city, but hadn’t really been on my radar before I learned about it on Instagram. It was the perfect place to stop between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur for a few days. We definitely spent more time there than is typical, but that’s partially because we were biding our time until meeting up with our in Malaysia’s capital.

I’ve traveled with my friend before in Prague, Germany, Austria, the UK, Mexico, Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. So I was excited to meet up with them in Kuala Lumpur! They were very jet-lagged for the first couple of days (a hazard of meeting up with your full-time travel friends I suppose), but we quickly got to work exploring the city.

Our original plan was to spend their entire visit in Kuala Lumpur.

But they decided they wanted to see a second city, too. Georgetown in Penang was the perfect choice. It was a short train ride from Kuala Lumpur, with an airport out of which they could fly back home. Plus, it was in the right direction for our onward travel.

Georgetown definitely had a more laid back vibe than Kuala Lumpur. It’s also a UNESCO World Heritage city and known for its street food and street art. Both were nice to experience.

In fact, we decided to extend our stay for a day even after our friend flew back home. We needed time to figure out where to go next and eventually decided to go up to Kuala Kedah. Kuala Kedah was the jumping off point for Langkawi Island and is said to be one of the more ‘authentic’ cities in Malaysia (at least according to one person on Reddit).

We enjoyed seeing the less touristy side of the country in Kuala Kedah. People said hi to us in the street and seemed excited just to see us. We went to a night market that wasn’t trying to cater to tourists for once. It was nice.

From there, we took the ferry to Langkawi, an island off the coast of Malaysia. And it was probably my favorite place I visited in the country. The beaches were nice, even the ones crowded with jet skis that stirred up the water’s sediment. There was also plenty to do on the island, including a long cable car, waterfall hikes, a national park and a mangrove forest.

Langkawi was our last stop to cap off almost a month in Malaysia.

December: Thailand

In the second half of December, we traveled via speedboat ferry from Langkawi, Malaysia to Koh Lipe, Thailand. It’s the second time I’ve ever gone through immigration from a boat.

Koh Lipe is super tiny – you can walk across the island in under 30 minutes. And I wasn’t sure how much I’d like it because everyone online said it was basically just built for tourism and overcrowded.

But it was actually so beautiful. We stayed in a beachfront bungalow with a designated section of the beach just for bungalow guests. It quickly became one of my favorite beaches with its crystal clear warm waters. We decided to try something new and went on a snorkeling tour our accommodation recommended. Once I got over the initial panic that comes with trying to breathe through a snorkel, it was magical. Suspended over the coral reefs, I felt like I was dropped into a nature documentary. I watched the reef stretch below me, with colorful fish milling about, huge sea urchins balanced on the coral and giant bright blue starfish lounging below. The water was so clear, it was amazing.

Unfortunately, my mask didn’t fit super well at first, so I did end up ingesting a lot of seawater through my nose and mouth. I ended up with a sinus infection from it, but it was worth it.

We decided we’d island hop through Thailand before getting to the mainland, taking our time.

From Koh Lipe, we went to Koh Mook to experience a more local island after a highly touristed one like Lipe. Then, we went to Koh Lanta, which is a large but laid back island near Krabi’s mainland. We spent Christmas here. Then, we went to Koh Jum to ring in the New Years. Koh Jum is a more local island than Koh Mook. Its beaches aren’t as nice as the other islands we’d visited, but we really enjoyed the slow pace and friendly people. We also got to do some hiking and watched a muay thai fight.

We ended 2024 on the beach with our toes in the water and Singhas in hand, watching the fireworks and lantern releases.

Summary of my 2024 Travel Recap

Overall, 2024 was a huge year! I think when we initially started telling people we were thinking about taking off to travel for a year, a lot of people didn’t really believe us. To be honest, I didn’t quite believe it was going to happen myself.

The hardest part about making it happen was really just making the decision to go. Sure, the waiting, saving and planning was hard in its own way. But it’s actually pretty easy to save up for “someday” only for that day to never really come.

When I look back on everything I’ve done in 2024, I really can’t believe it. I’ve been to so many places and had so many experiences I’ve been thinking about for years and really didn’t know if I’d ever realistically make happen.

I’m just really grateful I’ve been able to have this year and want to carry that gratefulness with me always.

Of course, there have been lowlights. Health issues like the UTI, sinus infection and all the food poisoning. Burnout like we experienced in Central Asia. Random bouts of just feeling unproductive and restless despite traveling full-time.

But overall, I’m still so happy we made this decision and are getting to have these experiences – the good and the bad.

Thoughts Going in to 2025

Now that my (very long – sorry) 2024 travel recap is over, you might be wondering – what’s on the docket for 2025?

If you recall, we referred to our full-time travel stint as a year of travel or an adult gap year – as in singular. Whenever we would talk about taking off to travel full time, we always discussed it in terms of a year. But we also had the view that it could be as short as six months if we weren’t really enjoying it, or as long as two years if we really loved it.

For now, we’re talking about extending it a bit, at least through the end of 2025.

We’ve started embracing a slower form of travel, and it suits us much better than hopping from country to country every week or so. As of writing this, we’re still hanging out on Thai island and might just spend our full 60 days we’re allowed in Thailand visa-free in the country.

From here, we want to explore more of Southeast Asia – Laos, Cambodia, Philippines, Indonesia, Borneo, Taiwan and back to Vietnam. We might make it to Australia, but we’re not sure. We essentially plan to stay on this side of the world until about June then take a bit of a break in the US. A real break this time, not bouncing place to place every couple of days.

We’ve been talking about repositioning to another continent after that to cross off a few of the top experiences on our bucket list. But I guess you’ll have to wait and see what happens in the 2025 recap!

Did you enjoy my 2024 travel recap?

If you think it’s long – you should see all the stories and thoughts I cut out of the final draft! Let me know if you want to hear any of them.

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