Hello Hello and a Happy New Year! I kicked off my 2020 with a run followed by some pancakes. It’s all about balance right?! I hope you had a great NYE! I did absolutely nothing last night aside from watch a couple of movies, hang out on Pinterest, and cuddle with Ranger. It was super low key and exactly what I needed! Just like I did last year, I’m sharing my Top 10 Travels of 2019 & My 2020 Travel Bucket List! Keep reading for recaps of my best trips!
My family is a lot of fun. I always love our family trips we take and our 2019 trip didn’t disappoint. This was my first time to New Orleans and wow, what a cool place! The food & cocktails were AMAZING as was all the live music. Basically everything people rave about New Orleans stood true. Check out my New Orleans blog post here: Read This Before You Go To Cafe Du Monde & Best Places To Grab A Cocktail in New Orleans.
When my friend Fran (hi Fran!) came up to visit for a week in January, we took a little day trip up to Mystic, CT. Believe it or not, even though I’d lived in CT all my life, I’d never explored this part of CT before. We of course ate at Mystic Pizza, walked around town, and then popped on over to Watch Hill, RI to have lunch at The Ocean House. Here’s my recap of the day here: An Off-Season Day Trip To Watch Hill, RI.
Let’s just say, I LOVED Longboat Key, FL and the surrounding Sarasota area. My aunt and cousins live down here, which was the main purpose of my visit. Truth be told, I of course also wanted to escape the CT cold and lay out on the beach. Sarasota and Longboat Key have the perfect balance of city living and a lively downtown nightlife combined with the serene and untouched beachfront living on Longboat. It’s definitely a place I’d go back to! For more details on my trip, check out my travel guide here: A Few Days in Sarasota and Longboat Key, FL.
My trip to Las Vegas might not have been as crazy as The Hangover movie, but it was pretty darn crazy for me! I spent less than 72 hours in Sin City, half of which was visiting with my grandfather & the other part was doing all the usual touristy things down on The Strip. We stayed at The Wynn (my favorite!) and saw the Chainsmokers LIVE! Life. Made. Check out my two blog posts about this trip here: A Few Favorite Spots in Las Vegas & Is the XS Nightclub in Las Vegas Overrated?
After my quick trip to Las Vegas, I popped over to Colorado for a week. If you’ve been following along for a little while now, then you know how much I LOVE Boulder. It’s such a fun city with so much to do! I spent my trip doing a mixture of hiking up mountains and happy hour hopping. Here’s my most read blog post about Boulder: A few of my favorite Pearl Streets spots in Boulder, CO.
My first (but hopefully not last) time to Nantucket! The food was some of the best I’ve had in long time, innovative, artful, and delicious. I see why people love the beaches, because they’re pretty darn good for New England, but they didn’t really rank in my book (I’m spoiled though because I grew up going down to North Carolina each summer, and THOSE beaches are something to write home about). Overall though, I loved Nantucket! It was so darn cute- kind of like a Charleston of the north. Get the details to my trip here: Where We Ate & Stayed In Nantucket.
Iceland definitely wins best trip of 2019, and maybe even ever? Is that possible? I spent a week road tripping from Reykjavik all the way to Hofn (on the east coast) and experienced so many firsts! Glamping, seeing Puffins, walking on black sand, the list goes on! I hope to make it back one day to see the Northern Lights. Here’s my blog post about one of my favorite parts of the trip: 5 Things No One Tells You About The Blue Lagoon.
Fall foliage, or rather, leaf peeping trips are a new travel tradition and I’m not mad about it! One thing that blogging has taught/shown me is how lucky I am to live in New England. So many people only dream of getting to come see the leaves change, but I’m able to walk out my door and experience it all autumn long. My favorite place for leaf peeping though is Vermont! I love the charming towns and historic covered bridges that VT has to offer and I can’t wait until next year when I do it all over again! Here are my blog posts from last year, Less than 48 Hours in Vermont & The Land Rover Experience in Vermont.
I haven’t written a blog post about Barbados yet, but trust me, I plan on sharing all about this trip! This was my second time staying at a Sandals resort and it didn’t disappoint. My only regret was not leaving the resort to explore the country, but hey, just another excuse to make my way back there sooner rather than later, right?
Each year I go down to Ocean Isle Beach, NC for Christmas. It’s so nice to get to spend time with my family down there and I LOVE the warmer weather and trips to the beach (even if I am bundled up). This year we took 2 days out of our trip to escape down to Charleston, SC. I LOVE Charleston and this was my third time visiting the Holy City, but my first time visiting during the holidays. It was decorated so nicely and I hope to make it back there again because I really do love it that much!
Rome & Florence, Italy
Cuba (or Central America)
Boulder, CO, USA
Greece or Croatia
St. Louis, MO, USA
Israel
Alaska, USA
What places are on YOUR 2020 travel bucket list? I’d love to know! And if you’ve been to Rome and/or Florence, I’m heading there in less than 2 weeks. Any recommendations you have are welcome!
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Wow you were able to get to some great places. Thanks for sharing your trips, especially reviews on where you stayed, ate, sight seeing, packing tips, etc. very helpful!
Thank you! I have to add Palm Springs to my 2020 list now!