Well this year seems to have ticked over at record speed, and it’s time for another year-in-review post (why do these posts feel like a cheesy family newsletter that accompanies Christmas cards to long lost relatives…?).
2015 has been a cracker on the travel front, with some large and fabulous guidebook-authoring projects taking me to Europe for lengthy spells, plus there’s been a couple of relaxed hang-outs with friends.
So – in an effort to keep this short and sweet, here are my favourite travel experiences of the year.
London – April
En route to Greece, I stopped for a week in London to catch up with old friends and reacquaint myself with one of my favourite cities. It was gorgeously sunny (yes – in London, in April. Unheard of.) And the city was buzzing. I loved checking out the sundown views from the chi-chi Sky Garden in the Walkie-Talkie building, one of the new batch of skyscrapers on the city skyline.
Greek islands – April-June
It’s pretty hard to grumble about spending two months island-hopping in Greece, especially when your assignment is to cover the Cyclades (home to headliner destinations like Mykonos and Santorini). I visited 24 islands for the job, and got to feast my eyes on way too much beauty and interact with some of the loveliest, warmest people I’ve ever met. My favourite moments are way too many to list, so I’ll just tip my hat to the crystal-clear waters of Koufonisia and the film-set villages of Tinos.
Slovenia – July-August
Six (very hot and humid) weeks uncovering traveller gems in Slovenia was a revelation – what a crazy amount of awesome scenery and diversity in such a small country. My favourite landscapes involved lakes with spectacular mountain backdrops (hot-air ballooning over Lake Bled was a damn fine reason to get out of bed at 4.30am).
Tasmania – October
As a reward when deadlines were met and guidebooks submitted, I escaped to northern Tasmania for a long weekend with my oldest and dearest friends. And again, unseasonably warm weather (which was a running theme of all my travels in 2015) meant that our blue-sky day at Cradle Mountain National Park was pretty as a picture.
