One thing I am very grateful for is that we didn’t have to cancel any trips this year. Since Azelie was born in February, we always planned to spend 2020 pretty close to home…not quite as literally close to home as we have been, of course, but not too much farther, either! I would guess that, in normal years, we travel more than most people do. Along with the fact that our family members are in different states, travel has been part of Dave’s and my relationship since day one (from our first meeting while studying abroad, to our year of long-distance dating), so it has always been a top priority in our schedule and budget. We have definitely missed it and are eager to get back on the road/in the air soon! Knowing things can change quickly and proceeding with caution, of course, we’ve started moving forward with research and planning for a few trips on our horizon. It has inspired some fun conversations in our house about favorite past trips and the destinations on our family bucket list. I’d love to open up that conversation today for a little bit of travel dreaming with y’all!
Favorite past trips shared on Something Pretty:
– Asheville, fall 2019
– Charleston, spring 2019
– NYC, fall 2018
– Asheville, fall 2018
– The Adirondacks, summer 2018
– Savannah, spring 2018
– Charlottesville, summer 2017
– Charleston, spring 2017
– Singapore! Part 1 and Part 2, spring 2016
– Our honeymoon! Rome and Lake Como, spring 2015
Trips currently on our radar:
– Charlottesville, VA this fall for our third annual trip with friends
– Austria in spring 2021 to celebrate our anniversary in the place where we met!
– Austin, TX in summer 2021 for my cousin’s wedding
– Wisconsin to visit my Grandma, as soon as we can safely do so post-covid
Trips we’d love to take in the future:
– Napa, just Dave and me
– Ireland
– Paris, Lisieux, and Provence
– Rome and Tuscany
– Singapore, once our kids are older
– Morocco, once our kids are older
Your turn! Chime in below with…
1. A favorite past trip you’re reminiscing about
2. One trip you hope to take in the next year or so
3. One trip you’d love to take within the next decade
1. Argentina for our honeymoon! 😍
2. We hope to go to Spain next spring – fingers crossed Americans are allowed in the EU then.
3. I studied abroad in Rome 10 years ago and I’ve wanted to go back since the day I left!
I always say that I never want there to be a “last” time I go to Rome (that I know of)…I feel like I could go every year and never get tired of it!
1. I keep reminiscing about my trip to NYC December 2019. The city at Christmastime was magical.
2. I want to go back to Maine to visit the camp I worked at.
3. England. Hopefully that will be my next European adventure!
We used to stop in New York City for a day or two on our way up to Syracuse to spend Christmases with Dave’s family and always had a blast! It has been such a long time since we did that–now I want to go back and look at photos!
We, too, have been reminiscing about past travel and are incredibly eager to do so again soon! We normally go on 25-30 trips each year (many of them small weekend trips or to visit our families), and it’s been quite strange to only have left Raleigh a handful of times in 2020. I did make it to Charlottesville (and Pippin Hill!) last week for a wedding (and some winery visits before and after it), as Charlottesville is much, much more open than North Carolina is, especially for weddings.
1. We are so grateful that my cousin’s wedding and our 10 day family vacation was in 2019 and not this year! It was almost a year ago that my entire family spent the week out West for his wedding and an extraordinary trip to Albuquerque, Red River, Santa Fe, the Grand Canyon (even more magnificent that I ever dreamed!), Sedona, and Phoenix. We think about this trip all the time and are so glad it was last year and not this year!
2. We’re really, really hoping that we can safely get to NYC to visit my sister, brother-in-law, and 6 month old nephew!! We typically visit them a few times a year, and now that our nephew is here, we wish we could be there so much more often. We have a gigantic list going of all the places we want to travel (to see long-distance family and also just for adventure), but I think this destination is at the top of our list!
3. Rob and I definitely want to go to Greece and Italy together!! I studied abroad in Greece (and traveled to Italy while there), and it’s my favorite place in the world. I have been dreaming of taking my future husband (now Rob!) for over a decade!!
Your family vacation sounds so wonderful! I’m so glad you were able to do that pre-pandemic. A trip to Greece and Italy sounds like a magical way to celebrate once everything gets back to normal :)
Ahh love this post. So many trips that I’m reminiscing and wishing I was on! I haven’t been on a plane (or in a hotel) since the first week of March – which is the longest I’ve gone without either in about 10 years! I’m so grateful to be able to say that I typically travel often, but goodness I miss it!
1. Reminiscing on HAWAII there is no place like it and Bolinas, California.
2. I’ll be doing some local travel this fall (up north Michigan, down to Chicago) but am praying that COVID will allow for a trip to the Carolinas yet this year!
3. In the next decade I hope to make it to London/France/Switzerland.
Ooh, might need to add Hawaii to our list! Thank goodness for local travel right now–getting away to the beach a few weeks ago was so refreshing!
While I love all your posts some I feel I can comment on more confidently than others (e.g. I stay out of the fashion ones).
1. In the past week I was on the beach in Bali, floating in my pool on Sentosa (ok I lived there but it is a resort island after all), hiking the Camino, and getting a steak in Buenos Aires. In the 70+ countries I’ve been I try to revisit them often.
2. See grandma in Wisconsin then Kristen in Ireland. Christmas in Raleigh and a Camino in the spring.
3. Hiking in Nepal to Everest base camp. Gold Coast in Australia and have Mr. Barry teach me how to surf.
Was eagerly awaiting your comment! Sorry I will not be joining you on Mt. Everest after all :)
1. I’ve been lucky to travel internationally for work and fun! Favorite trips include: Madagascar to meet my love’s family, Japan with my best friend, Big Bend National Park, and backpacking through SE Asia on my own!
2. In the next year, I hope to go back to Madagascar for more family time! (Very lucky that this will be a regular travel spot in my life.)
3. The big dream trip I have right now is a safari on the Okavango Delta! I also want to go back to the Grand Canyon and California with my love who has not yet visited the western USA!
So many incredible adventures! I don’t think I’d ever be brave enough to go backpacking, let alone solo, but Southeast Asia is so dear to my heart!
Hello yes Ireland is your priority!! Just looked at your Singapore posts again and I miss it so that’s my answer for question 1. I am hoping to do South of France this fall. Within the decade, Antarctica :)
If we don’t make it to Ireland while you are living there, we will bring you along as our tour guide/nanny, haha!
1. Paris, France and Santorini, Greece- we did this trip after our first was born (he stayed back in the states with family) and it was so fun. We enjoyed it more than our honeymoon because we appreciated what a break from real life it was for us!
2. We were getting ready to take a big trip back to Europe for our 10 year anniversary when Covid hit. We are hoping to instead do it next year. We had been planning on going back to France to Champagne for wine tasting and Lisieux as a mini pilgrimage (I want to go to St. Therese’s home/the Martin family home and he wants to go to Normandy which is nearby), England for a quick stay, and then Iceland. We hope to go in 2021 now and we have talked about adding Morocco to the the first few days of the trip since it would be a short flight to France after. I saw that half of those places are on your list which made me laugh. You definitely inspired my love of the Martin family a while back when you recommended St. Zelies letters. We’ve made them the unofficial patron saints of our family. :)
3. Yikes, I don’t know but in the next decade, I’d like to travel somewhere in Europe with our kids. My husband wants to take them to a European soccer game when they’re old enough.
I loved this post- so fun to dream of better days and traveling again!!!
Oh my gosh, this comment makes me so, so happy! Thank you so much for sharing. The Martins are just the best :) Please do keep me posted on your Lisieux tips after you make your trip!
I completely relate to your sentiment about appreciating a trip post-kids more than your honeymoon. I remember our trip to New York City, which was our first time without Charlie, as one of the best, most restful trips of my life!
1. We’ve spent a lot of this summer dreaming of our honeymoon in Jamaica and how relaxing it was. We are actually planning to “recreate” our trip in our backyard, complete with jerk chicken, tiki drinks, and a steel drum playlist!
2. We were planning to go to Greece this year (thankfully dragged our feet when it came to booking so we didn’t have to officially cancel anything), so I hope we are able to go there in the next year or two. I’m also dying to take my husband to Germany and Austria in the summertime – I studied abroad there too, but in the winter term so everything was frozen and covered with snow. 🙂
3. This may be more like 15 years from now, but we would like to take our future children to Peru to see where my husband was adopted from. My husband and I went shortly after we got married and I’m so anxious to share that experience with more family!
This is such a fun post! Thanks for sharing!
Recreating your Jamaica trip in your backyard sounds like SO much fun! Not to mention delicious :) I was in Austria for the spring semester and remember that when I arrived in January, I realized I had only packed three sweaters for a mostly-winter semester in the Alps…such a fail, haha!
1. We’ve been reminiscing about our trips to Palmetto Bluff and Old Edwards recently!
2. All the fingers and toes crossed that we’re able to take our Thomas crew spring break trip to Watercolor in 2021! Canceled because of COVID but we’re hoping for next year.
3. Oooh… definitely something European! Ireland? Scotland? Britain? France? Italy??? So many options!
Ahh, Palmetto Bluff!! Still dying to go someday!
Soooo glad we got to go to Dublin! If my spring break was one week later, we would’ve had to cancel.
Next year I’m planning on Croatia, Portugal, New Zealand, Scandinavia, Bali, and more! It’ll be a busy year :D