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Stacy
Trip Date 01/01/2025 Posted On 01/17/2025 10:00:00 |
Destinations | Camping | RV Vacation | Beach | All-Inclusive Resort | Cruise | Travel Blogger Year in Review | Arizona | California | Colorado | Florida | Missouri | Nevada | New Mexico | Oklahoma | Texas | Utah | Africa | Asia | Europe | Middle East | North America | South America | Aruba | Bahamas | Canary Islands | Curacao | Dominican Republic | Egypt | Gibraltar | Grenada | Guadeloupe | Indonesia | Jordan | Malaysia | Morocco | Oman | Portugal | Singapore | Spain | St. Kitts | St. Lucia | St. Vincent | | Thailand | Trinidad | United Arab Emirates
With a total of 252 nights (68.5% of the year), we set a new record in 2024 for the time that we slept away from home in a single year since our retirement nine years ago. We did some long haul flying, some cruising, a long RV vacation (and some short ones) plus some beach trips. Our travels during the year had us exploring five continents including Africa, Asia, Europe, our home continent of North America and South America.
Our 2024 camping adventures in "RV There Yet?" had us exploring seven states - Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Utah. Rounding out the list of ten states that we visited through the year were Florida, Missouri and Oklahoma.
Outside of the United States, we visited 23 countries including ports within Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand during our first cruise of the year. Between two of our four 2024 cruises, we returned to the nearby islands of Aruba, the Bahamas, Curacao, St. Kitts and St. Lucia. We also got a taste of some new to us Caribbean Islands with port days in Grenada, Guadeloupe, St. Vincent and Trinidad. (An all-inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic wrapped up our travel destinations in the Caribbean.)
Two transatlantic cruises in the latter months of the year brought us to the Canary Islands, Portugal and Spain. By traveling in a combination of airplanes, busses, passenger vehicles and a train, we also made stops in Morocco and Gibraltar.
Our most unique trip of the year took us to destinations in the Middle East, an area that was all new to us. After some unexpected changes, we planned a three week trip where we explored parts of Egypt, Jordan, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
Read on to learn more about our 2024 travels in this Travel Blogger Year in Review. You'll find a brief summary of each trip (with photos from 19 countries including 6 states in the USA).
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Our 202 Days of Travel in 2022
Our 251 Days of Travel in 2021
Our 178 Days of Travel in 2020
Our 180 Days of Travel in 2019
Our 223 Days of Travel in 2018
Our 163 Days of Travel in 2017
Our 106 Days of Travel in 2016
January 2024: From Florida to Missouri and Back Home (13 nights)
After ringing in the new year with family at our Sky High Beach Vibes condo in Panama City Beach, Florida, we drove to the Kansas City area. We spent the better part of a week visiting with Scott's parents and family before a snowstorm had us packing our bags. We decided it was best to hit the road earlier than planned while the roads were still in decent condition. Fortunately we had no trouble with the snow ... but we did experience an earthquake and a couple of aftershocks during our overnight stay in Oklahoma!January - February 2024: Cruising Asia aboard Norwegian Jewel (17 nights)
We took advantage of NCL's buy one, get the second airfare free which allowed us a maximum of two days before and after our 12 night cruise. As usual, we packed our days full starting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where we toured Chinatown and took a full day excursion to Malacca. The morning before boarding the ship, we made our way to the top of the Petronas Twin Towers.As we sailed toward Bali, Indonesia, we had port days in Langkawi, Indonesia, Phuket, Thailand (overnight), Penang, Malaysia, Singapore (overnight), Jakarta, Indonesia and Lombok, Indonesia. We did a mix of touring on our own, with Scott's brother and sister-in-law and on small group private tours. We spent time with elephants, in boats, tasting local foods, snorkeling, watching puppet shows and evening light shows, hiking, on beaches, exploring temples, admiring waterfalls, walking in rice fields and even riding in a tuk-tuk.
In addition to exploring on foot, we spent our two days in Bali exploring by ATV and speedboat. We wrapped up our stay in Bali with a little beach time before traveling to the airport for our long flight home.
Our flight to Kuala Lumpur went from Austin through Dallas and Doha and our return flight took us from Bali to Austin with short layovers in Taiwan and Seattle - we actually flew around the world!
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February - March 2024: Fort Lauderdale and Circle Caribbean Cruise (17 nights)
Barely a week after returning home, we jetted off again. This time we were headed to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to spend a few days with friends before a Circle Caribbean Cruise. (We were issued a credit on our 2023 Princess Cruise due to some electrical problems. Princess was quite generous with the cruise credit, but we had a limited amount of time to use it ... and we didn't want to miss out on a significant discount on a cruise!)We've been on quite a few Caribbean cruises together, however we chose one on the Emerald Princess as it would take us to some islands which we hadn't previously visited - Guadeloupe, St. Vincent, Trinidad and Grenada. We spent some of our time exploring the islands on our own, and since we brought our snorkel gear along, we made use of it at Ilet du Gosier in Guadeloupe and Grand Anse Beach in Grenada.
We did use some of our time at "repeat ports" planning an upcoming vacation (more on that later). Even so, we managed to also enjoy an island tour of St. Kitts, some port shopping in St.Lucia, snorkeling with turtles in Curacao and more shopping in Aruba.
March - April 2024: Florida's Emerald Coast (23 nights)
After two days at our Austin area home, we packed up the car and headed east for Sky High Beach Vibes, our condo in Florida. We've chosen March as our month to enjoy the emerald colored waters for which Panama City Beach is known. It's also the perfect month to prepare for a (hopefully) busy family rental season.
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It seems that, during every longer stay in PCB, we have a condo repair project planned. This year was no exception! The bunk room finally got a door ... a barn door, that is! Just as in prior years, we inventoried and sanitized all of our guest towels, linens and kitchen amenities. We hung up more "beach vibes" (our new surf boards) in the living room and did lots of shopping at Sam's and Walmart for guest supplies for 2024 (toilet paper, paper towels, shampoo, shower gel, etc.).
In between all of our chores (plus working together on our tax return), we made the short walk across the street to the white sandy beach for a few evening sunset strolls.
April 2024: Experiencing the Solar Eclipse in the Texas Hill Country (3 nights)
The Texas Hill Country was predicted to be in the path of totality for the April 2024 solar eclipse. We decided to take advantage of the direct path being so close to our Austin area home. Almost one year in advance, we reserved a 3 night stay at Miller Creek RV Park in Johnson City, Texas. What no one knew a year in advance was what the cloud cover would be like!It still ended up being a great time to take "RV There Yet?" out before our planned 7+ week "Oeste Odyssey"!
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May 2024: Exploring the Middle East (21 nights)
A cruise from Dubai, UAE to Athens, Greece that we began planning in early 2023 was unexpectedly cancelled by Royal Caribbean in February of 2024 due to the conflict in the Red Sea. Since we already had flights reserved to Dubai, we planned a three week trip to explore parts of the Middle East on our own.We started off with five days in the United Arab Emirates. While we spent most of our time exploring Dubai, we also devoted a day each to Oman's Musandam Peninsula and UAE's capital city of Abu Dhabi.
We flew from Dubai to Cairo, Egypt where we spent a few days exploring some of ancient Egypt - the Giza Pyramids, Memphis and Saqqara. We also enjoyed time at the brand new (and not yet fully open) Grand Egyptian Museum as well as the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities.
From Cairo we headed south to Luxor where we boarded a four-night Nile River Cruise sailing to Aswan. With an Egyptologist, we explored temples and more on both the east and west banks of the river. So much history and not nearly enough time!
A short flight brought us back to Cairo where we'd depart early the next morning for an overnight tour of Alexandria. After one more night in Cairo, we were off to Amman. Two of the highlights of our three short days in Jordan were exploring Petra and an overnight stay at a Bedouin Camp in the Wadi Rum Desert.
Although we were disappointed when we received notification that our cruise was cancelled, as we look back at our three weeks we realize that we were able to see much more of Egypt and Jordan by creating our own itinerary. Things happen for a reason!
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June 2024: Family Visit in Kansas City, Missouri Area (4 nights)
We flew this time!It was a short trip (which almost felt like we spent as much time in transit as at our destination), but it was an opportunity to spend time with Scott's family. As usual, we stayed with Scott's brother and sister-in-law in Parkville. We were even joined by Scott's son Matt who flew in from San Francisco.
June - August 2024: Our Oeste Odyssey aka National Park Safari (53 nights)
Our "Oeste Odyssey" (with "RV There Yet" following closely behind) took us from Texas through New Mexico and on to Arizona. From there, we hit four more states - California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado before our return through New Mexico and back to Texas.We've been on a mission to visit all 63 of the National Parks that are part of the United States National Park Service. We successfully checked off six more - Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Death Valley, Great Basin, Capitol Reef and Black Canyon of the Gunnison (plus an encore visit to Guadalupe Mountains NP).
In addition to driving nearly 7,500 miles, we stayed in 19 campgrounds/RV parks in towns of all sizes, hiked and climbed, visited with family and friends, soaked in hot spring waters, shot countless photos and even made plans for some future travels during our almost two month journey. Although much of our time was spent in the outdoors exploring creations left by mother nature, we visited an antique car museum, a hamburger museum, a Pueblo and a few of the Vegas casinos. We dined in some local restaurants (and some long time favorites), admired some street art and even added one new "state sticker" (Nevada) to our map on "RV There Yet?".
August 2024: Rest & Relaxation in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic (7 nights)
We continued what seems to be becoming an annual tradition - a week long all-inclusive resort stay with friends. With two other couples, we settled on the adults-only Barcelo Bavaro Beach. This marked our third resort visit to the Dominican Republic since 2018.Never leaving the resort complex in Punta Cana, we had seven days filled with tasty meals and adult beverages, some fun live entertainment, a few resort games and, most importantly, some rest and relaxation with wonderful friends. One of the highlights was swimming with the turtles in the Caribbean waters just off the coast of the resort. We even got to celebrate the milestone birthday of one in our small group. (Our only complaint about the week was the lack of air conditioning combined with restrictive dress codes in many of the resort restaurants.)
September 2024: KOA Rewards Weekend (4 nights)
After missing out in 2023, we made the short trek to Galveston Island KOA Holiday during KOA Rewards Weekend. This was our fourth stay at the RV park (and third during the annual rewards weekend). We spent much of our time floating in the lazy river, but didn't miss out on the live music, celebration cake and watching the longhorn football game on TV! Our four night stay capped off our 2024 RV adventures. Shortly after our return home, we winterized "RV There Yet?" for her long winter nap.
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September 2024: Mid-Year Vacation Rental Check-up at Sky High Beach Vibes (8 nights)
Another annual tradition that we have begun is a mid-year check-in at our vacation home / rental in the Florida panhandle. We have found that either August or September is a good time to pay a visit to Panama City Beach as it is after the "busy season". We purchased discounted round-trip flights during a Southwest Airlines sale for a 4-night stay in early September. (We had to spend our final night in a hotel as we received a rental booking before we had a chance to block the dates for owner use. The good news was that gave us a few hours of relaxation during our work trip.) In addition to maintenance work and minor repairs, we interviewed several housekeeping teams.What we thought might be an early 2025 transition to new housekeeping partners became an immediate need in mid-September. In order to properly onboard our new team, we hit the road back to PCB just three nights after our return flight home. It was a short trip with one night in Lafayette, Louisiana on each end of our two-night stay.
October - December 2024: Missouri to Florida to Europe & Back to Florida (82 nights)
We spent the first ten days of October packing for three segments of one long trip and preparing to be away from home until early 2025. What started as a drive to the Kansas City area to attend the wedding celebration of Scott's nephew turned into a funeral and a wedding on two consecutive days. (Just as we were about to start the second leg of our drive, we received a phone call informing us that Scott's father had passed away.)
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From Missouri, we drove to Florida's panhandle to enjoy a few nights in our Panama City Beach vacation condo before beginning our longest overseas trip of the year. We rented a car for 24-hours so we could drive to Cape Canaveral where we would board Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas cruise ship. We reunited with two couples that we met on back-to-back cruises in late 2022.
Our sailing was rather unique as we journeyed eastward to Lisbon, Portugal with lots of sea days and just three port days on the way - CocoCay, Bahamas and two of the Canary Islands (Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Lanzarote). (Most cruise ships return to the Caribbean area where they spend their winters, so itineraries in this direction are not common.)
Shortly after disembarking in Lisbon, we flew to Marrakech, Morocco where we spent the first three of our planned 18 nights abroad before meeting the ship in Barcelona for our return sailing. (The cruise ship departed Lisbon and traveled to Cadiz where it was scheduled for planned maintenance and upgrades in the "dry dock" facility.)
From Marrakech, we traveled via plain, bus, car and train as we explored Porto, Fatima and Lisbon (Portugal), Seville, Spain, Gibraltar, United Kingdom plus Granada and Barcelona (Spain).
What started out to be an 18 day DIY adventure turned into 20 days once we received a notification from Royal Caribbean that the ship would be delayed coming out of dry dock due to heavy rains. We already had lodging and transportation reservations, so we spent our two extra nights in Barcelona. We were able to attend an international mass at La Sagrada Familia and took a day trip to Sitges with friends that were cruising back to Florida with us.
All three of the Spanish ports that our original itinerary had us stopping at were cancelled due to the delay, so our only port day was in Funchal, Madeira. The good news is that, had we known about the itinerary change in advance, we likely still would have taken the cruise even with only one port day. Our biggest disappointment was the lack of working hot tubs in the Solarium during our return voyage - with no apologies nor communication about why or for how long.
We had a rental car reserved so that we could drive from Port Canaveral to Panama City Beach where we had left our personal vehicle (and where we would spend the rest of 2024).
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How to Learn More about Destinations that We've Visited
If you're interested in learning more about any destination(s) that we visited during the year, our Search Engine may be able to help. First, select from posts (our original content) or postcards (original photos from our travels along with a brief introduction). Next, enter the name of the city, state, or specific site in which you have an interest and select "search". You also may find some curated posts (an assortment of helpful articles from others) full of ideas and inspiration that we've used for planning.Your result will be links to articles matching your criteria. Since we spent more time traveling than posting on our blog this year, some searches may not yield any results. In that case, feel free to "contact WE". We'll happily forward any information that we have that may help you with trip planning. We strive to post helpful information on each destination that we have visited. Because of our high number of travel days in 2023 and 2024, we are working to play catch-up, but may be able to modify our posting schedule to help out a fellow traveler!
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What's on the Horizon for The Wordy Explorers in 2025?
We started 2024 with some pre-planned travel for the year and, as usual, added more as the year progressed. As it stands now, we have plans to be away from home for close to six months of 2025 - excluding last minute trips that will undoubtedly be added to our calendar. Our preliminary plans for the upcoming year include:- After ringing in the New Year, spend the first few days of 2025 in Panama City Beach before returning to our Texas home;
New Year's Eve Countdown to 2025 - Our annual spring trip return to Panama City Beach to prepare Sky High Beach Vibes for the upcoming rental season;
- A spring / summer RV trip to continue our quest of visiting all of the National Parks in the United States (with our first attempt at bringing our home on wheels into Canada;
- A fall cruise from Budapest, Hungary to Regensberg, Germany along the Danube River with pre-cruise visits to Munich and Prague. After the river cruise, we'll spend some time in Italy before cruising back to Florida from Civitavecchia;
- Wrap up the year and prepare our vacation condo in the Florida panhandle for early rentals in 2025.
We don't have reservations yet, but we may participate in the KOA Rewards Weekend and/or plan an all-inclusive resort stay with friends at some point during the year.
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The Year Ahead
What travel plans do you have for 2025? Of your planned destinations, which are you most excited about and why?
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Related Wordy Explorers Original Posts:
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