2017 Travel Plans
You know how sometimes you try to smash out your work, write that research paper, answer all those emails…and then you end up in your pajamas at 6pm eating Dominos and watching The Bachelor?
Yeah, that’s kinda how this blog post is gonna go.
I wasn’t planning on doing one of those “2017 Travel Plans!” posts, mainly because things never go to plan. Last year I ended up in Norway because of three girls I didn’t even know at the beginning of the year! Same thing with Morocco, I had 0 inkling I would fall in love with that country in 2016.
So bearing that in mind, here are my 2017 travel plans….the concrete and the less than concrete.
TRAVELS I’VE BOOKED…
PRAGUE: I’ve already booked a quick weekend in Prague this winter. I’m very excited to see my first bit of Eastern Europe. Send all your recommendations my way!
GIRONA/MENORCA: I’m heading to the city of Girona in Spain in the Spring to see some Spanish friends I met in England last year. If it’s nice weather we will hopefully make it over to the island of Menorca as well! It will be so nice to see their home that I’ve heard so much about!
BARCELONA: From Girona we’re heading down to Barcelona for a few days and hopefully renting a big Airbnb. I haven’t been back to Barcelona since I was 8 years old but I’m still in love with this city.
FLORIDA: I’ll be heading back to Florida in 2017! I was planning on being a part of the northern europe whale watching, hence was planning on staying in Europe for my 2 weeks off in the spring, but I found some cheap flights and wanted to get family time in (and maybe swim with manatees??)
TRAVELS IN THE WORKS…
DUNKIRK: I’m really hoping to acquire some funding and head over to one of the refugee camps in France. Working with asylum seekers in 2016 was one of the most meaningful things I have ever done and I would really like to continue with this work in any way I can.
BUDAPEST: I’ve been wanting to visit this city since I first lived in England three years ago and saw a friend’s study abroad photo of the Szechenyi baths. My visa runs out in December so I want to take advantage of being in Europe as much as I can!
ICELAND: Carrying on from Budapest…not that I’m obsessed with thermal pools or anything (spoiler: I am). I’ve been wanting to incorporate a trip to Iceland into a layover, but no good option has popped up in the last couple years! Maybe 2017’s the one!
CAMINO DE SANTIAGO: The Camino is a huge trail across Northern Spain that I would love to hike sometime in my life, especially with my childhood friend Mary as she’s both my hiking buddy and she speaks Spanish (I speak…none. Why do I keep ending up in Spain??). It takes ~3 months to hike the entire trail.
FRANCE: French is the only language (other than English and the most minimal Arabic) that I’m barely conversational in. I’ve been to Paris twice, didn’t fall in love with it either time, but I’ve heard the rest of France is completely different. There’s a ferry from where I’m living over to France that I would love to take advantage of. There’s also Mont St Michel, Provence, south of France…let me dream okay??
CINQUE TERRE: I would love to visit these five coastal Italian villages connected by a hiking trail, especially with my mom when she visits next Autumn. I grew up hiking and walking through forests and hills with my family – as my mom recently had knee surgery it would mean a lot to be able to do a hiking trip together once she’s recovered!
HIKING ENGLAND: Still on the hiking note but a bit closer to home. Whether it’s the Southwest Coastal Path, Lake District, or Snowdonia, I just want to get outside!
RHINE RIVER CRUISE: As a chunk of my family is potentially coming over to Europe in the Autumn when I (hopefully) graduate, a river cruise would be a great thing to do all together! We used to go on cruises with my grandparents a lot when I was younger, but it’s been over ten years since our last (entire!) family cruise in Alaska.
Trust me, I could go on and on and on (Hawaii? Bali? India? Turkey? Antarctica? Grand Canyon? Costa Rica?). All I do in my spare time is read travel articles, travel blogs, look at travel memes on social media… I think more so than anything, this post will be funny to look back on in 365 days and see if any of my plans came to fruition, and certainly which *totally unplanned* travels happen!
Where are you hoping to travel to in 2017?
Sarah xx
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cool trips! I haven’t booked anything yet..
Thanks Tanja! Can’t wait to see what travels you get up to this year 🙂
Aaaaww Prague, my favorite destination ever! Get eady to be surrounded by pure beauty!
We did a night walking tour of Prague that went up to the castle. Definitely do it. It’s absolutely gorgeous and magical to explore the castle district at night. We went twice last year (April and December) and stayed at the Boscolo and the Mandarin Oriental. I really liked staying in the lesser quarter more. Meat and Greet has tasty burgers and cheap beer. Our tour guide told us to never go to a restaurant where beers were more than 40-45 crowns… she said that’s the best way to know if it’s a tourist restaurant. 😉 Cinque Terre and Budapest were also two of my favorites last year!
Oooh that’s really good advice, thank you! We already booked a place to stay, but I will def check out the burgers haha!
Amazing plans! There are always just so many places to see in Europe, love that! Here’s to a year of fun plans 😀
Exactly, can’t wait to explore Europe more!
These sound like great plans! Iceland was on our list for years and years and years and … years. We just booked a trip there (spontaneously) and I think it’s one of those places (like Budapest) that you just can’t plan too much in advance for! I’m eager to see it in the winter but I’d love to see it in the summer as well. AND – so excited that you’ll be back in the States for a bit too. I’m flying back to Seattle in June!
Yes, I can’t wait to see how your visit is! So I can steal ideas for my *eventual* trip there haha. I’m so excited to be heading back!! I really wasn’t planning on it at all, but we found a good flight and the more I thought about it, 10 months without seeing any family is a LOOONG time… so happy you get to go home, too 🙂