2025 Wrap Up

This is my end of the year recap for travelling in 2025. I hit a few new places and revisited some other places. The longest trip I took was two weeks and had nine people on the trip. The shortest were three days and were two quick, weekend trips after work on Friday and back on Sunday.

Places I Went

In January, I kicked off the year with a weekend trip to San Diego, somewhere I had never been.

It was followed up by an international trip to Lisbon, Portugal with the same people I went to San Diego with another pair of friends in February. Portugal was rather quick in being a Wednesday to Sunday trip and the first time I had attempted to make a trip to Europe that was less than a week long. I followed it up with a trip to Jacksonville that month as well.

In April, I went to Denver to see some friends. I had originally intended to go in March, but I went to a memorial service that weekend and pushed the trip out a month. I turned a planned trip to Belize into tickets for Mexico City in July.

For May, I went back to San Diego. That was the second time I’d been there this year. I ended May with a trip over Memorial Day to Minneapolis to visit some friends.

June brought a road trip to Dallas that was pretty forgettable beyond getting to see some people I hadn’t seen in decades.

For the fourth of July, I went to Mexico City, which has become a favorite place to take a long weekend trip to. I ended the month going to Miami and visiting friends there.

August brought a scorcher of a trip to New Orleans and seeing the World War II museum. It ended with a trip to Portland which was much cooler. I did not make a trip to Seattle that I got sick the weekend of.

For September, I went to Japan for a two week trip. That was a lot of fun and I’m eager to go back to both Osaka and Tokyo particularly.

In October, I went back to both New Orleans and to Denver for the second time this year.

Over November, I got to go take advantage of an Iceland Air deal and go to both Iceland and Norway. I did not take a planned trip to Sao Paulo as I felt kind of weird about trying to work remotely from Brazil for the week.

To end the year, in December, I got to go to Philadelphia and see some friends. I spent the week of Christmas in Dallas visiting family.

Traveling I Did

Trip Stats

• I went to three continents (North America, Europe, Asia)
• I visited five foreign countries (Portugal, Mexico, Japan, Iceland, Norway)
• I went to twelve foreign cities (Lisbon, Mexico City, Tokyo, Hakone, Osaka, Nara, Kyoto, Kobe, Yamanochi, Reykjavik, and Oslo)
• I went to eight different states (Texas, California, Florida, Colorado, Minnesota, Louisiana, Oregon, and Pennsylvania)
• I went to nine U.S. cities (San Diego, Jacksonville, Denver, Minneapolis, Dallas, Miami, New Orleans, Portland, and Philadelphia)
• I went to two cities I had never been to before (San Diego, Philadelphia)
• I went to two countries I’d never been to before (Portugal, Norway)
• I visited four places more than once in the year (San Diego, Denver, New Orleans, Dallas)

Days on the Road

• In total, I spent seventy days spent travelling.
• I took twenty days of PTO. So, all of it available to me.
• I spent six days working remotely while on trips.
• I flew on six different airlines.
• I took forty-two different flights.

Airlines Flown

• Domestically, I took flights from:

  • Southwest Airlines (San Diego, Jacksonville, Denver, Minneapolis, New Orleans)
  • American Airlines (Miami)
  • Delta Airlines (Philly)
  • United Airlines (Denver)
  • Alaska Airlines (Portland)

• Internationally, I took flights from:

  • American Airlines (Portugal)
  • United Airlines (Mexico, Japan)
  • Iceland Air (Iceland, Norway)

Favorites

These are some of my favorite things from the year.

• Best Scenery was in Iceland for sure. The glaciers we went to were amazing and so was Diamond Beach and Diamond Lagoon. The Oregon Coastline was the best scenery domestically.
• Best Food was in Lisbon. I was blown away by just about everywhere we went and ate.
• Best Food Domestically was my second trip to New Orleans. The company was a lot of fun and we were able to see a lot of New Orleans on that trip.
• Best Trip International was to Iceland. The trip to Japan was amazing, but the trip to Iceland left me wanting to come back again and again. The scenery was mind blowing and being there in winter was a lot different than the early Spring and late Fall, like I had been to previously.
• Best Museum in the U.S. that I went to was the Philadelphia Art Museum. I was pretty blown away by the scope of it.
• Best Museum Internationally was again the Museo Nacional de Antropología. I went in 2024 and it was probably my favorite that year, going back, it was the best museum I went to this year too.
• Best Bar I went to all year was Brujas in Mexico City. It was probably my favorite bar we went to this year.
• Best Bar in the U.S. was Peychaud in New Orleans. It was a close second to Brujas for the year.
• Best place for an international weekend trip was Mexico City. It remains my favorite place to go for a weekend trip.
• The Best place for a weekend trip in the U.S. this year was in Portland. Minneapolis and Denver are close to Portland and are tied for second place.
• Best International City is Tokyo. It was my favorite city to have been to internationally. However, Mexico City was a second favorite and Lisbon was my third favorite.
• Iceland Air’s layover remains my favorite deal for flying. I just wish they flew out of Austin (or anywhere in Texas).
• American Express was my favorite travel credit card for the year. Their lounge access and benefits for cash back on both hotel stays and flight upgrades made the rather high cost of the card worthwhile.

Highlights for the year

These are some of the highlights for the year and stuff I would really recommend.

• Balboa Park in San Diego was pretty neat to walk around in and to check out the rose garden.
• The sauna on the North Sea in Oslo was certainly a highlight. I hadn’t ever been to a sauna before and jumping from the sauna into the cold North Sea was a fun jolt.
• Blue Lagoon in Iceland was really neat to see at night. Maybe I just like warm water on cold nights.
• Climbing on the glacier in Iceland was maybe the coolest thing I got to do in nature abroad.
• Driving down and stopping along the Oregon Coastline was the best thing domestically.
• Team Labs in Tokyo was one of the most fun things I did this year.
• Yamanochi’s bathhouse tour was probably the most fun thing I did all year. It was dumb and we were out of our comfort zone, but it was a really fun night.
• Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia was a terrific place to go grab a variety of food.
• Coop’s Place in New Orleans may have had the most amusing waiter I had all year.

Skips for Next Time

• Licorería Limantour in Mexico City was something I would skip in the future. It just wasn’t my scene for drinks.
• Geno’s and Pat’s in Philly were both something I’m glad I did, but never need to get a Philly Cheesesteak from again. Certainly with Whiz on them.
• Jerusalem’s in Denver was something that for the first time in a decade I was ready to skip on a trip to Denver, I used to love that place but it fell off the want-to-do list for me.
• Shinjuku bar tour in Tokyo was something I would skip again. There were a lot of us and it was early in the trip when I think we all wanted to sleep some more, but the second stop on our tour just killed it for most of us.
• New Orleans in August was fucking hot. I love New Orleans, but Summer is a dumb time to go.