A Year of Travel: A Look Back At Visiting 15 Countries

This blog post is all about a year of travel and everywhere I went in 2024.

This year was quite a change to say the least.

I quit my job in February, packed up my flat in London and headed off to travel Asia and move to Australia.

I haven’t quite made it to Australia just yet. As I write this, I’m sat in my old childhood bedroom in Ireland so we’re still somewhat on the way there.

We’re spending Christmas and New Year’s in New York so had to make a quick stop at home first.

But we had some incredible adventures this year. And I wanted to look back on everywhere we did travel to in 2024 because it went by in such a blur that it’s quite insane how much I actually did travel when I break it down.

This blog post is all about a year of travel in 2024.

A Year of Travel: Everywhere I Went in 2024

Below is everywhere I travelled in 2024. From January 1st to December 31st.

1. New York & Nashville, America

We started 2024 in New York City, just where I love to spend every January 1st really.

Our four days in New York mainly involved revisiting our favourite food spots, bookshops, sights, bagel shops and walking around the city with a coffee.

We spent a day in Flushing and Jackson Heights, Queens eating our way around the neighbourhoods and discovering new areas of Brooklyn.

Related New York blog posts to read:

We cut our time in New York a little bit shorter to squeeze in a trip to Nashville as well. Besides New York, Nashville is my favourite place on this earth.

I could have cried knowing we were going back to the city and I’m so glad we were able to revisit The Bluebird Cafe, walk around 12 South and hear some incredible live music on Broadway.

It was a bittersweet visit as I knew it would be the last time for quite a long time until I’m back visiting again with our move to Australia. So we made the most of it for sure and vlogged the entire thing!

Related Nashville blog posts to read:

2. Bucharest, Romania

Our first stop on the world travels! We found a great deal for flights towards Dubai which meant stopping off in Bucharest, Romania first.

We got to know the city with a slow three days here and spent an evening at the popular Therme Spa too.

Related Bucharest blog posts to read:

3. Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Next on our adventures and our first ‘official’ stop on the Asia tour was Dubai. I’d never visited before but always wanted to see what the fuss was about.

I could actually see myself living here in the future (or another life) as I loved how modern it was, the amazing skyscrapers and down by the Marina.

We explored both Old and New Dubai to learn as much as possible about the emergence of Dubai as one of the richest cities in the world.

Related Dubai blog posts to read:

4. Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka was definitely our first introduction to backpacking. We had stayed in a suite in Dubai, and Sri Lanka definitely wasn’t like that.

However, Sri Lanka was probably in my top two countries of where we visited on our travels. It still felt a little bit untouched with not too many tourists around, lots of local shops and restaurants and really friendly locals.

I loved our time in Sri Lanka so much and we had only set out to spend around 10 days in the country but extended to almost a full month.

I’d go back there in a heartbeat!

Related Sri Lanka blog posts to read:

5. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

We spent a very quick 48 hours in Kuala Lumpur and actually took a night flight from Sri Lanka to get there. I was sleeping on my feet by the time 10am came around.

We visited the Batu Caves which was incredible, and ate our way around all of the hawker stalls in the city.

It was a very busy city, but was an introduction for what Bangkok was going to be like.

Related Kuala Lumpur blog posts to read:

6. South Thailand

When we entered Thailand from Kuala Lumpur, it was when the tourist visas were set to 30 days, which isn’t anywhere near enough for exploring Thailand.

We flew into Krabi spending a few days here and then travelling around Koh Lanta, Phi Phi, Phuket, Khao Sok, Koh Tao, Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, Koh Samui and finally Bangkok.

It was a very fast-paced style of travelling because we only had around 2-3 days in each place before having to move on to the next by boat, car or train.

We fell in love with Koh Tao and even came back to spend another week here near the end of our travels.

Related Thailand blog posts to read:

7. Cambodia

We were in full backpacker mode by now, heading on from Thailand to do the Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos loop back into northern Thailand.

Cambodia was noticeably lesser developed than Thailand, but was still a great place to visit and discover.

We visited Siem Reap, Battambang and Phnom Penh over two weeks. I had no idea about the Khmer Rouge before coming to Cambodia and it’s probably one of the worst atrocities I’ve learnt about while on my travels (alongside Hiroshima in Japan).

Hearing about things like this kind of take away some of your faith in humanity and makes you realise what barbaric things people are actually capable of.

Related Cambodia blog posts to read:

8. Vietnam

Another country that we spent a lot of time in, we explored from the south to the north of Vietnam.

I will say that I didn’t overly love my time in Vietnam. I really enjoyed Hoi An, Ha Long Bay and Hanoi but a few other areas weren’t my favourite.

We spent a full two weeks in Hanoi as the Ha Giang Loop tour we were due to do was cancelled due to landslides. I loved my time in Hanoi and even though it was super chaotic, I could spend a month or two living here and working from their coffee shops.

Related Vietnam blog posts to read:

9. Laos

We didn’t spend too much time in Laos, visiting Vientiane, Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang.

I’ll say that quite like some areas of Vietnam, I didn’t enjoy Vientiane or Vang Vieng that much. There wasn’t too much to see but it would suit a slower traveller that wants to chill out.

I preferred Luang Prabang a lot as it had much more going on with shops, temples, and cafes lined along their streets that sat facing the river.

One key highlight of our time in Laos was the slow boat into Thailand. We spent two days on the river sailing into Thailand and made some great friends along the way.

Related Laos blog posts to read:

North Thailand

After the slow boat into Thailand it was time to explore the north of the country.

We visited Chiang Rai, Pai and Chiang Mai. These were definitely backpacker areas of the country and full of tourists.

There were some great things to see in each place, but we came away with some crazy stories of our time there and I’m not sure if I’d race back.

We had a great time at an elephant sanctuary and cooking class in Chiang Mai, don’t get me wrong. But Pai was something to be seen and a very hippie town.

Related Thailand blog posts to read:

Bangkok, Thailand

After an insane few months of constant travel, it was time to chill out. We booked an Airbnb apartment in Bangkok for a full month to recharge the batteries and start getting caught up on content.

I really enjoyed our first apartment in Bangkok (yes there’s a second!) and it felt like we had a small routine for a while, heading into our favourite coffee shop to work in the city most days.

One thing I will say about our first time in Bangkok was that we didn’t eat well at all. We were on a diet of noodles from 7-Eleven every day and 7-Eleven coffee until I’d had enough and had to change to the good stuff.

10. Hong Kong

After one month of refuelling for our next stint of travels, we were off to a new area of Asia to explore Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea.

We only had three days in Hong Kong, but you can bet we ate our way around the whole place. The land of dim sum, I was in paradise.

We spent a day in Macau, which is quite a sight to believe itself. Like Vegas only bigger, but not as magical.

Visiting Hong Kong was also like stepping back in time. The cars, the buildings, the shops – everything looked like it could have been in the 1980s. A very cool place.

Related Hong Kong blog posts to read:

11. Japan

Now onto my favourite country of our travels around Asia. Without a doubt, Japan was the best.

I won’t even get started on the food because I could write a blog post about the ramen, gyoza and sushi alone.

What a place! I can see why it’s so popular at the moment. Tokyo was somewhere we could have spent our entire time but there was so much more to see.

I’ll definitely be back to Japan in the future.

Related Japan blog posts to read:

12. South Korea

South Korea was a lot smaller than I imagined. We took the ferry from Fukuoka, Japan and arrived in Busan.

I’ve never seen as many coffee shops in my life as I did in Busan and it was a very cool city to discover. Afterwards, we travelled to Gyeongju before finishing with a week in Seoul.

Going to the DMZ was very interesting and learning about the conflict with North Korea, but I will say that I preferred Tokyo to Seoul in terms of capital cities.

Related South Korea blog posts to read:

Bangkok & Koh Tao, Thailand

After our travels around Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea it was time to base ourselves somewhere again for a month to recharge and catch up on more content again.

We rented another apartment in Bangkok for a full month and loved this one even more than the first. We had an incredible view of the city, a TV with Netflix, a washing machine and finally some good food options nearby.

During this stint, I actually spent a week back in Cambodia at a yoga and meditation retreat. It was an incredible experience and I have a YouTube vlog and blog posts still to come!

After our four weeks of work, we decided to spend a week on the island of Koh Tao (our favourite) before we headed to our next destination.

In hindsight, I actually wish we’d chosen to stay in Koh Tao for a month instead. It’s the definition of paradise.

Related Bangkok blog posts to read:

13. Philippines

Our next destination was a few weeks in the Philippines! I was actually invited to tour the Philippines with I’m Here Travels and join a group trip.

We visited Manila, El Nido, Port Barton and then finished our trip in Boracay. Without a doubt, the Philippines was the most beautiful country of our travels around Southeast Asia.

The beaches and water were like nothing we’d ever seen before and I think we’ll definitely be adding the Philippines to our list of places we want to go to as we’d love to explore more of the stunning islands.

Related Philippines blog posts to read:

14. Singapore

It’s coming to the end of our world travels and I had wanted to visit Singapore for a long time. I knew it was supposed to be expensive but I wanted to see this clean, modern and vibrant city for myself.

I was very impressed by how clean everything was, how smooth the airport process was and how everything just seems to work here.

There were no traffic jams, trains ran on time and I didn’t spot one bit of litter in the whole city. We of course had a Singapore Sling in Raffles Hotel (that cost us most of our budget) and tried the food stalls in Newport and Maxwell Food Centres.

Related Singapore blog posts to read:

15. Indonesia

After 24 hours in Singapore, it was time for our final destination in Asia! We had finally come to the end of our travels and we were back in Bali, Indonesia.

We had visited Bali back in 2022 for the first time and loved it. We joined a surf camp for a few days in Canggu and then chilled out here before spending time on Gili T and then back in Uluwatu.

But this isn’t our final stint in Bali as we’ll be back again in January 2025!

Related Bali blog posts to read:

New York

And our final destination of 2024. We’ll be back right where we started the year and I couldn’t be more excited.

We’re spending three weeks in the city this time and I’m excited to be a New Yorker once again (if only temporary) and to walk the streets with a cup of coffee in my hand.

We’ll be spending Christmas there, so I’m so excited to see my favourite Christmas tree, see the rink in Central Park, walk around the markets in Bryant Park and feel the magic that is Christmas in New York.

I’ll be vlogging everything about our trip, so make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel to see what we get up to!

Related New York blog posts to read:

2025 Travel: A Year of Travel Again?

I’m going to have a full blog post about my travel plans for 2025, but the main plan I have is to move to Australia.

That was the main goal of 2024, but our travels extended a lot longer than we expected and so we haven’t made it there just yet.

But I’ll be planning more adventures around Asia, Australia and hopefully back in the US too next year.

Let’s see where the world takes us and if we have a year of travel ahead of us again!

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This blog post is all about a year of travel in 2024.