Wrapping up 2017!

Is 2017 over already?!

Admittedly I’ve been a bit lazy over the past few weeks after my Japan wrap up.

However I wanted to spend some time to review the amazing travel year 2017 has been, and what’s on the horizon for me in 2018!

Australia

My first major trip of 2017 was to the land down under! I really enjoyed spending a month in this diverse and unique country. It has amazing natural beauty and just about everybody we met along the way was friendly and welcoming. It was an opportunity for us to reconnect with an old friend that relocated for school and also meet new ones! I loved every bit of this trip from the heat of the red centre to lazing aboard a dive boat at the Great Barrier Reef. Every place we visited was a new adventure. You can read the whole trip here, or just the recap here.

Whistler, Canada

In June, my family and I made a short trip to Whistler, Canada. There wasn’t much of an itinerary as we’d all been to Whistler multiple times being only an hour or two away from home. We simply relaxed, checked out the village, did a brief and easy hike and enjoyed the area around Green Lake. It was a welcome reprieve from a very busy spring and a great time for our family to bond. I haven’t blogged about this particular trip yet but its on my 2018 list of throwback trips to write about!

Oregon, USA

In August a few friends and I road tripped down to Oregon, USA. While the intention was to drive out to the coast and spend some time enjoying the natural beauty of the area, we ended up doing this for a day before calling it quits and heading back to our AirBNB in Portland. The trip then turned into (or probably was always intended to be) a full on eating bonanza. No complaints here though, it was a trip of gluttony, laughs and good times spent with friends. This is also on my list to do a throwback post about in 2018.

Japan

To bookend my travels, two friends and I visited Japan in October. It was a busy and full two weeks as we hopped around the country quite a bit. Unlike a majority of itineraries that would see many stay in the major cities, we ended up flying to Okinawa, back into Kyushu and driving back up towards the center. It felt like a very unique way to see the country and I enjoyed it immensely. The big cities I feel like I can return to easier than some of the more rural areas we visited. I have such fond memories of this trip and truly enjoyed every moment of it. You can read about the whole trip here, or just the recap here.

Seven!

When I stepped foot on Australia, it marked the completion of the top item on my bucket list. I was finally able to say that I have been to all seven continents of the world. It’s been a primary travel goal of mine and to finally check it off my list felt extremely good this year.

It was/is an extremely satisfying accomplishment and while there was a point afterwards where I wasn’t entirely sure what to do next, the sense of adventure and exploration soon returned and my thirst to see more of this amazing creation continues! Which leads us to…

Where to in 2018?

As great as it was to look back at a great year of travel, there is much more to see and look forward to in 2018. I have two major trips in the works:

In February I am planning to go to Korea with a good friend. We’ll spend two weeks in this very cool country exploring, but also to attend the 2018 Winter Olympics. Having worked with the 2010 Winter Olympics, I’ve been an olympic junkie since. So being able to attend another one live is kind of surreal and exciting to think about! Stay tuned as its coming up quick!

In September/October, I’m going to be travelling with a familiar face again, Gimpy! Ever since our 2016 Africa Trip, we’d always talked about riding a hot air balloon in Cappadocia. Well an idea turns into a possibility and a possibility turns into reality. So we’ll be travelling to Turkey as well as Montenegro and Croatia in the fall. This should be pretty exciting!

I’m also certain there will be many smaller trips in between, so 2018 is already shaping up to an amazing travel year!

As for Travellingminions.com, I’ll continue to throwback to trips I haven’t blogged about, but I also want to post about a few different things. Over the past year, I’ve received a few travel related questions that I think could be helpful to others, so I’m planning to write a few posts to answer them. Off the top of my head, I’m thinking about a “whats in my bag?”, “How do I plan in general?”, “travel mishaps” and “Photos on the road”. Nothing is set in stone, but if there are things you’re curious about, please feel free to throw it in the comments below and I’ll see what I can do!