It’s that time of the year I start taking a look back at the year as a whole so let’s reflect back at our family travels for 2019. I love a good round-up and the practice of reflection helps me appreciate everything we’ve done this year. Plus, I can get an idea about where we’d like to go in the future and what I’d like to accomplish in the year to come.
1 – Upstate New York & Ohio, USA
While technically half in 2018, half 2019, this holiday to visit family was a lovely time relaxing and enjoying quality time together after two long years!
2 – Neuhausen, Germany
This was a solo holiday for me to visit my fab friend, Megan, in Germany for a quick girls weekend and to see her first solo art show.
3 – Bordeaux, France
Bordeaux was the start of our family travels extravaganza, two-country train/road trip where we all tagged along with Seth as he worked on his eel research. One of our top budget travel tips is absolutely to tag a trip onto a work trip – it saves a ton of money!
4 – From Bilbao to A Coruña, Northern Spain
Northern Spain was the second part of our family travels extravaganza. It is stunning. It is spectacular. You need to go…or don’t go and I’ll return to enjoy its non-touristy glory. And the food…ohmygahhhhhh.
5 – From Glasgow to Isle of Skye, Scotland
Another in the book for family travels – we took a train to Scotland and rented a car from Glasgow. This holiday was a combo joint birthday gift to Seth & me from my parents, an amazing family holiday time with my parents and a work trip for Seth. Another budget tip to travel more? Ask for travel contributions for your birthday gifts instead of more stuff. The memories are worth it and it helps contribute to our attempts toward minimalism. Anyway, Scotland is stunning. I had heard great things about Skye, but it exceeded my expectations. It was a really lovely time with my parents:)
6 – Brussels, Belgium
7 – Stuttgart, Germany
8 – Athens and Agistri, Greece
A long-anticipated WEEK away for me after 8 years of never leaving the kids for more than 2 nights at a time – it was ah huh huh maze zing. Does that effectively communicate to you how good this was? Honestly. Negotiate with your partner, babysitters, friends, family, whoever – to make this happen for yourself. I had the best week with my sister. Also, traveling alone can be super inexpensive.
9 – All around Cornwall, UK
Housesitting, dogsitting, snake sitting, and bunny sitting for two weeks in Cornwall, a chill and sunny holiday altogether. We did pretty normal holiday things together – swimming, daily gelato, picnicking, napping, playgrounds, repeat. It’s beautiful and was a much-needed summer holiday chill time for us.
10 – Sardinia, Italy
This was an incredibly good last-minute deal found by yours truly and mostly a generous gift from Seth’s mom. It was so stunning – we swam, walked, ate, explored and even found an octopus on the beach when it crawled across June’s foot!
11 – Sneek, Netherlands
12 – Copenhagen & Aarhus, Denmark
And Around London & Surrounding, England
We try to get out of London and explore the surrounding area within a few hours by train ride as often as we can.
