First of all, I wish everyone a super happy new year and I wish for 2021 to be a better year than 2020, wouldn’t it be amazing to have a quiet and simple year? Yeah, right.
I wish for it to be the year we can all safely travel again, however, I think we all know that will have to wait a little longer before the world get back to “normal”, if “normal” will ever be something again that is!
But I know I can at least wish you a safe and healthy year and don’t be afraid to dream big and start some new projects if you can!
So here is my 2020 Travel Review before I move on onto 2021!
My 2020 Travel Review: Was it That Bad?
Table Of Contents
Yes and no.
I know we are already almost halfway through January right now, and 2021 seems a bit bland and not going so well but oh well. I thought today was a good day to do my 2020 travel review which is something I have been doing for the past four years, although I did miss 2019 which surprisingly was also the year I travelled the most, I digress.
We are here to review my travel in 2020.
Yep 2020 the start of a new decade and a year most people including me were pretty hyped about (spoiler alert: It was not worth the hype), I mean 2019 was overall okay except for the lost of a loved one, which is always hard to go through but I still had load of things planned for 2020, I had a few trips plan through the year, including a BIG trip to Japan at the begining of March (yes, March yuck), then I was supposed to do a mid spring/summer contract with the travel company I work for as a temp through the year.
Which not only meant good money but I would also get to travel between Paris and London most day and get to see London which is a city that I love. Coupled with a few odd week-end there and there (bye Spain & Italy) I wanted to take.
Obviously things didn’t go accordingly. But I still did an handful of cool stuff, that I want to write about!
TRAVELLING IN THE U.K
My yearly winter escape to the U.K and more precisely Bristol actually started back in 2017 and I’ve been actually going back every year after that, altough I didn’t know anyone in the city anymore but it kind of became my way to start the new year.
I love Bristol, I lived there for two months and I had a great time with my classmates back then, in a way it’s like a ‘second home’ which I love to visit either to introduce it to my friend or by myself. It’s also a very convenient base to take day trips from.
This time I stayed at the Mercure Hotel in Redhill which I found to be a great location as it was close to the harbour side and as well as the train station so I could do my thing in the city and catch the train to explore outside if I wanted to.
I went back to Bath as it had been a while since I last visited this gorgeous city, the weather wasn’t the best but it was nice to be back! I tried to spend more time in Bristol than away though, I got a lot of pretty photos and relaxed a lot, solo traveling is nice as it allows you to be with yourself and enjoy simple stuff.
ESCAPING TO NEW YORK CITY
A couple day after I came home from the U.K me and my brothers travelled to NYC it was an early morning flight and as all three of us were zoned out despite making it really to the airport (more than two hours before) we almost missed boarding time, we only heard and saw it was the last call to the gate very last minute.
I’ve been to NYC in the summer, again with my bros and we had fun, so decided to check it out during the winter.
Oh boy it was so cold, I didn’t want to take my hands out of my pockets the whole time so I barely snapped any photos and even with the cold sometimes, although even with the cold weather I would find ways to not dress accordingly.
We had already been to NYC so I can’t say we did much more than the first time except for the Vessel at Hudson Yard and The Color Factory which was pretty fun but short.
HAVING THE BEST TWO WEEKS OF MY LIFE IN JAPAN
If you’re familiar with the blog and my social media then you know ones of my favourite destination is Japan, I can’t never get enough and I loved every and each single trip I took there and can never wait to come back.
This one trip was hands down my favourite one ever, not only for the destinations but also because I was with the greatest person ever (might sounds biased but hey).
This trip was cut short but I did so much stuff (and basically went through all 4 seasons) in those two weeks, it was amazing! I will be sharing my Japan two weeks itinerary soon enough for those interested!
Our trip started in Tokyo then we went all the way to Hiroshima, stopping by Karuizawa, Kanazawa, Kyoto, Nara and Osaka.
And right after that we flew for three days to Ishigaki, Okinawa and it was amazing!
VISITING FRANCE
When I say visiting France, I have to admit it’s a bit of a stretch. I decided to stay in Paris for the summer as I didn’t feel like traveling although like more people in Europe I did consider going to Spain or Greece but that felt weird to me, so it was better to stay home and save money for me.
Although I did go to Brittany to check the beach and the country to escape the city for a couple of day and visit my family.
Then I also took a sneaky day trip to Lille with a friend and shared some top things to do in Lille in one day! I was looking forward to visit Lille as I already should have in 2019 but I missed it because I didn’t hear my alarm goes off and missed my bus…Luckily at the time I paid only 0,99cts € the tickets for both way with flixbus.
If you’re too picky I highly recommend doing this, sure it’s not top luxury but sometimes you can get great bus deal to travel through France which is amazing when you’re on a budget!
EXPLORING MORE OF MY HOMETOWN PARIS
You’d think living in Paris (okay I live 10min walk from Paris but still) is amazing? And it is but also it’s not. I initially had a hard time being okay to just see Paris not because I don’t like this city, I do, Paris is amazing but isn’t it way easier to stay home and watch Netflix?
You know what I mean.
But I still did spend a good amount of time in Paris through the summer, be it to try some restaurants or just to stroll to get some air and enjoy the Parisian architecture, and it was great to check parks or more touristy landmarks while they were fewer people.
And that’s a wrap on my travel review of 2020 while all wasn’t so bad, I mean there were hard times when I felt really low and like a failure, dissapointing people (turns out a pandemy makes people even more selfish and stupid, shocker) but I rather think about the few amazing memories that I made.
I am happy to say good riddance 2020!
I will be coming back with more travel stories, tips and guide as well as lifestyle tips this year (have to spice things up when you can’t travel right?) so make sure to subscribe to my newsletter to follow my adventures! Where did you go in 2020 if you travelled? And what are your goal for this year? Let me know in the comments!
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