My 2023 Travel Recap: Everywhere I Went This Year
2023: the year I quit my job to travel!
What a huge, scary, exciting, wonderful life event. I’m still in the midst of it, with plans to continue traveling full-time until May 2024, but it’s been a fantastic experience so far — even if I have no idea what’s next after I’m done with this year of travel!
Like many people, I love using the end of the year to look back on what’s happened in the last twelve months. Here’s a recap of everywhere I traveled in this amazing year!
March
In March, I was still working at my job as a lawyer, and I took a week off to visit Belgium and the Netherlands. (See my exact itinerary here.) I totally loved this trip, and am so eager to return to both countries. In particular, I’d love to spend more time in Ghent, Bruges, and Dinant, which I saw only during day trips, and I feel like I just scratched the surface of the Netherlands. I fell in love with Amsterdam, and there are tons of smaller towns and cities that I’m dying to see (or revisit for longer — with Delft at the top of that particular list).
May/June
My last day at work was mid-May, and I spent a few weeks cleaning and packing up my house (I’m renting it out while traveling) and generally preparing for my travels. In the midst of that, I spent a weekend in New York with my best friend, where we saw three Broadway shows and ate plenty of great food.
At the end of May, I flew to France and made my way to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, where the Camino Frances typically begins. I spent the next five weeks walking the Camino de Santiago — a 500-mile journey across northern Spain. It was an incredible, wonderful, difficult, rewarding experience that I would recommend to anyone with the time, ability, and interest.
July
I finished the Camino in early July, and after exploring Madrid for just one day, I flew back home to attend a family wedding. I also swapped out some stuff, trading my backpack for a suitcase, and my hiking clothes for…well, regular clothes.
After a week at home, in mid-July, I flew to Ireland with my dad and brother. They were heading there for a dream golf trip around Ireland, and I tagged along to begin my five months of travel around Europe. For about a week, we toured Ireland, driving the Ring of Kerry and Slea Head Drive, visiting ruins and national parks, hiking along oceanside cliffs, and more.
When my dad and brother flew home, I took a bus to Northern Ireland. I spent 10 days in Derry, Ballycastle, and Belfast. I absolutely loved Northern Ireland — especially the charming, historic, complicated city of Derry, as well as the amazing scenery along the coast. A major highlight was hiking from Giant’s Causeway to Carrick-a-Rede Bridge!
August
From Belfast, at the beginning of August, I took a short ferry to the tiny Isle of Man, which is a British crown dependency. What a special little place! I spent only four days on the Isle of Man, but could have happily stayed for a week or more. There is so much to do there, considering its size (you can walk the entire perimeter of the island in fewer than 10 days — and I very much hope to do just that someday!). I loved its historic steam railways, its incredible hiking paths, and its idyllic scenery. I will be back!
To leave the Isle of Man, I took another ferry — this time, to Liverpool, where I promptly hopped on a train to London. I spent a week there, touring the city with a friend who flew over from the States to join me. London is one of my favorite cities, so this was a wonderful week. We saw three shows on the West End and elsewhere, had afternoon tea (twice), took day trips to Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Rye, visited several museums, and much more.
From London, I flew to Rome to begin a month of travel in Italy. What a luxury! Honestly, a month is only enough to scratch the surface of Italy, but I packed a lot in. In that month, I visited Rome, Siena, San Gimignano, Florence, Pisa, Cinque Terre, Bologna, and Venice (where I spent an entire glorious week!). I even squeezed in a day trip to the tiny nation of San Marino!
August (and early September) in Italy was extremely hot and crowded — I will not do that again, if I can help it — but I had a wonderful time anyway. And I even had another friend come to join me my travels through Tuscany and Cinque Terre. I can’t wait to go back to Italy and explore much more of it (especially the south!).
September
In mid-September, I took a train from Venice to Ljubljana, Slovenia, to begin several months of travel through the Balkans.
Slovenia was a wonderful surprise. I scheduled only four full days there, and wish I had given myself at least twice that amount of time. Four days was just enough to get a sense of Ljubljana (loved it!) and take day trips to Lake Bled (unbelievably gorgeous) and the coastal town of Piran (a complete delight). 5 stars to Slovenia! I can’t wait to go back and see much more of it.
From Ljubljana, I took my first European bus ride to Zagreb, Croatia, where I spent just a few days. It was lovely! I didn’t know much about Zagreb before visiting, and I was delighted by its beautiful old town. Unfortunately, a lot of it was under construction/restoration, so I definitely need to return once all that is done!
The highlight of Zagreb was definitely the Museum of Broken Relationships, which displays objects representing relationships that have ended. Many of those relationships are romantic, but others are not — parents and children, people’s relationships to their bodies or to food, etc. I laughed, I cried, I loved it. What a spectacularly human space.
While in Zagreb, I also took a day trip to Plitvice Lakes National Park. I had mixed feelings about this experience — the park was incredibly beautiful, but it was also expensive and overcrowded. If I ever return, I think I would try to stay near the park overnight so as to enter the park early and experience it before day trippers arrive.
Next up was Serbia. I took a series of buses from Zagreb to Novi Sad (not an incredibly easy experience!), where I explored the city and took a day trip to Subotica (famous for its Art Nouveau architecture). Then, I spent several days in Belgrade (including a day trip to Golubac Fortress). To tell the truth, Serbia was not a hit for me — I didn’t dislike it, exactly, but neither did I love it. I just didn’t connect to it! Maybe someday I will return and give it another shot.
At the end of September, I headed to Sarajevo in Bosnia & Herzegovina. And wow, what a contrast with my experience in Serbia, because I completely loved Sarajevo! It’s a complicated place, with a very recent history of war and genocide and struggle.
But Sarajevo doesn’t feel like a place that’s living in the past; it’s as vibrant and exciting as anywhere I traveled in 2023. I fell in love with the historic bazaar area, from the calls to prayer to the smell of hookah to the Ottoman copper and fabrics everywhere. I cried at the Museum of Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide, and learned so much from several tour guides who had very personal and powerful accounts of their experience of war in the 90s.
While in Sarajevo, I also took a day trip to Jajce and Travnik — two small, historic towns in central Bosnia.
Then, I spent several days in Mostar (which is in the Herzegovina geographical region of the country). This was also a huge hit for me! Mostar was decimated during the Bosnian War, but was rebuilt under the supervision of UNESCO. Still, some of the buildings weren’t reconstructed and remain riddled with holes from bullets and bombs, while stones around town more directly (and rightly) instruct us: “DON’T FORGET.”
Despite these reminders of the recent violence and devastation — or maybe because of them? — Mostar is a stunning little place with one of the most beautiful bridges I have ever seen, Stari Most. I also took a wonderful day trip to Blagaj, Pocitelj, and the Kravice waterfalls.
October
After reluctantly wrapping up my time in Bosnia & Herzegovina in early October, I returned to Croatia — this time, to the coast. I took a bus to Split, where I met up with my mom and three of my aunts, who came to travel with me for a week! We had a wonderful time exploring Diocletian’s Palace and other places in Split, as well as Krka National Park.
After a few days, we took a ferry to Dubrovnik, which was my favorite destination in Croatia. I especially loved walking the city walls, which are some of the most impressive I’ve seen anywhere in Europe.
I said goodbye to my mom and aunts in Dubrovnik and took a bus to Kotor, Montenegro, where I plopped myself down for a full week. To be honest, I didn’t do a ton in Kotor, but spent lots of time relaxing, editing photos and videos, and exploring the town (including climbing the 1350 stairs to Kotor Fortress!). I also took day trips to Ostrog Monastery (extremely cool!), Perast (cute!) and Budva (okay!).
From Montenegro, I headed to Albania, where I changed my plans last minute. Initially, I was planning to go to Shkoder and do the famous day hike from Theth to Valbona, but as the time grew closer, I was starting to get a little too stressed about the logistics of it all. So I threw out those plans and decided to go to the coastal city of Durres instead.
And: meh! Honestly, I was not crazy about Durres. But after a few days there, I headed to Tirana, which I did like quite a bit! My favorite day in Albania, though, was a day trip to the tiny town of Kruje and its very charming bazaar.
I spent the end of October at Lake Ohrid, North Macedonia, which was completely gorgeous. This is a wonderful place to hang out and relax, but there are also some great things to do there, including a trip to the monastery at the other end of the lake. After too short a time in Ohrid, I went to the capital city of Skopje, which I had mixed feelings about.
Skopje has a lot of elements I like — a wonderful pedestrian bazaar area, a ton of huge weird statues, beautiful bridges, city walls — but I’m not sure how to feel about the sum of its parts.
More importantly, I wasn’t feeling well while I was there, physically, so I certainly didn’t bring my best self, and who knows that affected my experience? At any rate, while I was in Skopje, I took a half-day tour of Matka Canyon, which was quite cool!
November
In early November, I left Skopje and headed to Kosovo. I’m so glad I was able to visit Europe’s youngest country! I clearly remember hearing about the war in Kosovo on the news during my childhood. What a gift to visit now and see what Kosovo is really like beyond the news reports I grew up hearing.
Pristina was so interesting to me — its celebrations of America with its road signs named after American politicians, and its Bill Clinton statue, and more — and I loved looking at the many-domed library from the top of the cathedral.
But my favorite part of Kosovo (in the brief time I was there!) was Prizren, a gorgeous little city that sort of reminded me of Mostar, actually. This is definitely an underrated destination, and since rain squashed some of my sightseeing plans, I would love to go back and spend more time there!
After just a few days in Kosovo (not enough time!), I moved on to Bulgaria. I started in Sofia, which is full of amazing churches. My favorite part of my time in Sofia, though, was a day trip to Rila Monastery, which has incredible stripes mixed with colorful frescoes and all sorts of arches.
From Sofia, I traveled to the smaller city of Plovdiv, which turned out to be a total delight — one of my surprise favorite destinations from 2023. It has incredible history, a super charming old town perched on hills, all sorts of Roman ruins, and beautiful architecture (among other things!). I can only guess that Plovdiv will become a much more popular tourist destination in the next decade, and I’m so glad I got to see it now.
From Plovdiv, I traveled back to Sofia, where I caught my final bus for the year — to Bucharest, Romania. I wasn’t feeling much in the mood for a lot of sightseeing while in Bucharest (plus, it was raining!), so I took it pretty easy there. I’d like to return and spend more time seeing some things I missed (like the inside of the Palace of the Parliament!).
After just a few days in Bucharest, I went to the smaller city of Brasov, in Transylvania. Brasov was much more up my alley than Bucharest, and I found it super charming. It’s an interesting place with a mix of Romanian, German, and Hungarian influences — and even a so-called “Hollywood sign” up on the mountain behind the old town.
Brasov is also a great place to go if you want to visit Transylvanian castles, and I went to see both Bran Castle and Peles Castle. (Bran was okay, Peles was wonderful!)
On what was Thanksgiving Day back home, I boarded a night train for Budapest. This was a sort of splurge, since I booked a private cabin, and it was definitely not a great night of sleep, but I’m quite glad I had this experience! I had five full days in Budapest, and initially had vague ideas of taking some day trips — perhaps to Eger or Visegrad — but I ultimately threw out those ideas and just stayed in the city, sightseeing at my own pace and spending plenty of time resting in my Airbnb.
Budapest also gave me my first experience with European Christmas markets. I especially liked the one in front of St. Stephen’s Basilica!
At the end of November, I took the short train ride from Budapest to Bratislava. Slovakia was never really on my radar before planning this journey through Europe, and truth be told, I don’t really feel like I did it justice. It was raining during most of my brief visit there (just 2.5 days!), and I didn’t feel especially motivated to see all there was to see.
I did enjoy a couple of Christmas markets, and thought the old town was a gem, but I will definitely need to return to Bratislava (and Slovakia generally!) to tour it more properly!
December
Finally, it was December, meaning it was time for something I had been looking forward to for ages: a trip through some of my favorite destinations in Austria and Germany, but this time at Christmas!
I started in Vienna, which is beautiful, but not one of my favorite places in Europe. (I tend to prefer smaller cities!) Vienna did have spectacular Christmas markets, though, particularly the one on Rathausplatz. I also loved revisiting Schönbrunn Palace (its market was great too!) and was completely delighted to experience a significant snowstorm while in the city.
On my last day in Vienna, a friend flew over from Pennsylvania to join me for the next 10 days or so. Together, we visited gorgeous Hallstatt — experiencing the Krampus Run in Bad Goisern, the one-day-only Christmas market in Hallstatt, and lots and lots of quiet downtime with amazing views — and Salzburg, which is one of my very favorite cities. We loved the Sound of Music tour, and I took a solo day trip to Innsbruck, which I enjoyed a lot more than during my first visit there back in 2017.
We then headed to Germany, starting with several days in Munich. I had visited Munich before, and felt pretty meh about it then — a feeling that persisted during this visit in 2023. It’s okay! I just don’t love it. This time around, too, we had to battle with the Christmas market crowds, which were horrendous (it didn’t help that we were there on a weekend!) and did not endear me to the city.
I did enjoy plenty of things about our time in Munich, though, including the quirky medieval-themed Christmas market, the Pink (LGBT) Market, and the lovely English Garden.
After a few days in Munich, my friend headed home, and I went to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a small medieval city that I LOVE. Rothenburg, too, was full with Christmas crowds, but they somehow felt less oppressive in that supremely picturesque little place.
After just two nights in Rothenburg odT (too brief a time!), I headed for my final destination of the year (!): Nuremberg. Nuremberg is famous for its Christmas markets, and the city did indeed go all out. However, I preferred the smaller, nearby city of Bamberg, where I took a day trip. It rained all day, but Bamberg was still a dream. I will definitely be back!
It’s hard to believe how much I’ve squeezed into 2023. What an incredible year of travel!
And I’m very, very excited that I have tons of more travel in my very near future. Speaking of that…
Looking ahead to 2024
In mid-January, I’m heading to India, where I’ll tour Rajasthan with a group for a couple of weeks. From there, I’m planning to spend three weeks in Sri Lanka, and then a month in Vietnam. Then I’ll have shorter visits to both Singapore and Malaysia before a month in Thailand. I’ll wrap up my year of travel with some time in both Laos and Cambodia before returning home in mid-May! (And then…who knows?!)
Before I started planning for my Asia travels in earnest, I told people that I was probably most excited for India. But now, looking at that list of countries, I don’t know how I could possibly decide what I’m most excited for! It all sounds incredible. I can’t wait!
Beautiful photography and wonderful details of your travel. Cheers to you for taking on this adventure, thanks for inspiring us all!
That’s so kind of you to say — thanks very much! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!