2024 Travel Destinations
Where did I go in 2024? Here is my honest travel round-up of (most) of my 2024 travel destinations this year by month, with inside information on my budding travel writer adventures.
January – the Middle East
I started 2024 by putting together a trip to Dubai with Biosphere Expeditions, a wildlife conservation charity. Off I went to the DDCR (the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve) on my trusty Emirates flight to Dubai, direct from Newcastle. I camped – in a very small and uncomfortable tent, about the size of a dog kennel – on the edge of the reserve. Food was basic but fine, and the company was good. I and my fellow campmates were acting as Citizen Scientists to record the wildlife across the reserve and document its success (or failure) in terms of population.
The DDCR is committed to re-wilding a huge desert area. It represents 5% of Dubai’s land mass and covers over 225 square kilometres. The reserve safeguards the stunning desert landscape with its dramatic dunes, gravel plains and rocky areas and has provided a vital habitat for Dubai’s native species, many of which have become extinct in the wild.
I remember waking up in the very early morning in the desert and heading out to watch the ribbons of mists snaking through the dunes. It was a beautiful environment critically under threat from the rapid and inexorable development that Dubai is known for. I recall the many stunning Oryx with their scimitar horns we saw, and one precious sand fox scooting between the dunes in the South of the reserve.
My last few days were spent in an amazing new 5 star hotel, the W, in the heart of Dubai. The contrast between this opulent luxury and the fragile threatened environment close by, could not have been starker
February – Fuerteventura
The second month of 2024 took me to bright and breezy Fuerteventura – one of our most popular Canary Islands. This was supposed to be quality time with my brother, whom I don’t see much.
The island is easy to navigate and the beaches stunning, filled with kite surfers and bright, dancing waves. The last time we’d been here we had enjoyed the Oasis Wildlife Park with its open landscaping and opportunities to get close to a range of wildlife in the desert like environment.
I know to expect the unexpected, but I wasn’t prepared for an arthritic emergency. My brother’s knee buckled during a walk to the beach on day three, and he had to hop back to the hotel. He spent the rest of the week in bed drinking whisky to numb the pain, with a packet of peas melting on the offending joint. I ferried food back and forth from the restaurant downstairs on a tray playing servant. I took to self medicating with Prosecco from the local Dino market. One of my less successful 2024 travel destinations.
April – Highlands of Scotland
It was still pretty cold here in the UK. A long drive by car with my good friend Mandy took us to the highlands of Scotland – a place I had never visited despite my Northern location. This was to review the picturesque Pierhouse Hotel and restaurant The charming blue and white Pierhouse Hotel was originally the old Ferryman’s station. A small boutique hotel with just twelve rooms, it nestles beside Loch Linnhe and has a fantastic view across the water to the island of Lismore. The hotel has an amazing seafood restaurant headed by North East chef Michael Leathley.
We went on a walk with some wild highland cows. We consumed the freshest seafood and large quantities of Scottish whisky, and haggis neeps and tatties on our super Scottish trip. A memorable expedition
May – The Greek Island of Paros
May was a very special trip back to the idyllic Greek Island of Paros, one of my favourite places in the world. My best friend and I first travelled there on a cheap package holiday in the 1980’s when we were both young English teachers in a comprehensive school. This was a special return 30 + years later. Would it have retained its remembered charm? We called in to divine Mykonos, breathtaking still with its iconic windmills and chi chi shops and restaurants.
Naoussa on Paros was where we stayed last time and our return was much anticipated. It remains a perfect whitewashed seaside village, more developed than last time with more gorgeous shops and restaurants, but essentially just the same. Just drop dead, high end, super chic, gorgeous. Magical. The Greeks have it for me, no question.The food, the landscape, the culture and the weather are all my vibe. We recreated a photo sitting on some motorbikes we had taken all those years ago. It made me realise how quickly my life had gone by, mainly in a bit of an aimless haze. How precious is the time I now have left?
May/June San Sebastian in the Basque Country
San Sebastian in the Basque country was my next port of call. This was to attend my third TBEX (Travel Blogger Expo) with other content creators, bloggers and journalists.
San Sebastian is a pleasant, small Northern Spanish city with its own unique Basque culture. The weather is changeable here and the conference was disappointing, with much content repeated from previous events. Accommodation was so expensive too, and my basic hotel room was the size of a shoe box. I didn’t get on any FAM trips which is one of the perks attendance at these conferences which was also a disappointment. The local baked cheese cake was nice, but horribly rich. Everyone kept going on about the Pinxtos, which are merely a kind of tapas. I’ve had a lot of tapas.
The brightest point of the trip for me was my stopover in Biarritz on the way home. A super chic, super French resort next door to San Sebastian. I stayed in a charming design hotel and enjoyed wandering the cliffs and the small rocky surf beaches. Stunning views and extreme striped Frenchosity, was much more my cup of tea.
July- Romania and the Alsace Lorraine region
My summer 2024 travel destinations took me to lovely Romania and France. July heralded my mad trip to the Black Sea Coast of Romania. This was a press trip on steroids. The weather was hot, and the press trip consisted of about 50 people from all over Europe. There was not a minute to cool your heels throughout the five days we stayed at the Mamaia resort. Ostensibly the Neversea Electronic Music festival was a main attraction on this trip. There was much late night dancing and endless eating, drinking and site seeing.
I did my best to keep up with the young content creators but the pace was relentless. Multiple cultural attractions, art galleries, wineries, festivals, nightclubs and drinking sessions later, I returned home entirely spent. Only five days, it felt like a couple of weeks as we did so many things. It was all rather chaotic, but I did appreciate the tourist board’s full on intention to show everybody, everything (accompanied by copious amounts of alcohol) I also met some great people and just wish I had a fraction of their incredible, relentless, upbeat energy.
Strasbourg
My next trip channelled the complete opposite vibe from relentless Romania. It was a luxury river cruise with European Waterways on board the converted barge, the Panache. My friend and I were, in contrast to the last trip, the youngest passengers on board. We were sharing our vessel with three other American couples from various parts of the states.
This was a gentle fully serviced glide along the rivers and waterways of the Alsace Lorraine region. The focus for this trip was leisure and luxury. We enjoyed elaborate meals and paired wines every day and took some lovely trips on shore from time to time. The staff were charming as was the rather lovely city of Strasbourg, home to our European parliament.
One favourite part of this trip was actually meeting the other passengers and having the chance to get to know them. They had such a different life to me and it was like a living snap shot of the states. We had an academic from from the West Coast, a farmer from the central states and a Vietnam Veteran from New Jersey on the East Cost. Fascinating company and the weather was perfect too! Who can forget Captain Brian’s run down of the latest local wines which preceded every, rather fancy, meal.
August – Edinburgh and Hamburg
The summer season took me to do some stand up reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Here we roughed it in some off season student accommodation and attended about twelve different stand up shows in three days scattered across this lovely Scottish city.
I do love Edinburgh, but the weather is notoriously inclement. I fact I got so cold and wet that I had to buy a big coat in a local charity shop to protect my sensitive self from the Scottish elements. Stand up comedians have so little they can make any jokes about now, and it does restrict their content creation somewhat.
We did see about three really clever, funny performers (two were American) who really made a great impression. Some however, were too obviously woke to raise any sort of a giggle from me. We heard the proper story of Greyfriars Bobby too – the loyal dog who became the first animal to be given the freedom of the city. Love it.
I also travelled to the German city of Hamburg where I visited the Uber cool Kampnagel, an old factory turned into an alternative arts centre. Der Bunker, a monolith of an old World War II concrete monstrosity is now now converted into a cool visitor attraction. I strolled along the Reeperbhan and had a salmon bun at Bridge no 10 at the port.
September – Lisbon
One of my favourite travel destinations of 2024 was to lovely Lisbon. Wine tasting in the Lisboa region was quite a special experience. This was a very well organised excursion and perfect weather helped things from the start. We visited a variety of wineries from small boutique ones to huge estate wineries. All were all set in stunning landscapes and the city winery was very cute.
We stayed in a luxury glamping pod and woke up overlooking fields of vines in the misty morning. We tasted so many wines I ended up just sniffing them to avoid complete oblivion. I never did quite get the hang of the swirling round the mouth and spitting out thing. Lisbon is a beautiful city and Portugal remains one of my favourite destinations. Remember – it’s all about the Terroir!
October – Islay an Inner Hebrides island
Another lovely alcohol related trip was to the Scottish island of Islay. Called the whisky island, we toured around this compact destination and tasted whisky samples at two iconic distilleries – Bowmore and Laphroaig. The island is wild and very beautiful. I loved the dramatic landscape and the very nice food. The company again was excellent.
November – Ireland and Austria
The Boyne Valley in Ireland was another of my top trips – again very well organised by a super PR. This makes a huge difference to the journalist’s experience.
The weather was surprisingly good for this time of year and I loved the ancient UNESCO site at Brú na Bóinne. Divine boutique hotels with quirky luxury decor and lovely local food were of special note. At the Station House Hotel, my very own in-room Christmas tree gave me a frisson of delight. An especially memorable highlight was our encounter with a real eco warrior, Randal Plunkett, Lord of the Manor at Dunsany castle, who made a considerable impression on me. I’m still not sure if he was real or not.
Klagenfurt
Who has heard of Klagenfurt in Carinthia? Not me that’s for sure, until I went there! I’m not generally a fan of anywhere that’s colder than where I live already but this sounded like a lovely trip.
People seem to be obsessed with Christmas markets, but they don’t really do much for me. However, I did enjoy the Katchsberg advent trail up in the mountains with a horse drawn transfer through the snow. We visit a series of traditional wooden huts, each housing a traditional winter time activity. Music, singing, crafting or storytelling were all on the menu. Intermittent tea stations were very welcome too. They do have some huge amazing glacier lakes here – especially the stunning lake Worthersee. This huge expanse of water is clean enough to drink and reaches 27 degrees in the summer!
December – Northern India – Horse Riding
My final trip this year was horse riding across the hill forts of Rajasthan. This was one I was looking forward to so much, but it didn’t quite turn out how I had hoped. Firstly the weather was terrible. Cold yellow fog and a few rays of weak sunshine for about an hour in the afternoon was a serious downer.
There were far too many people in the group (about 15) and although the Marwari horses are very beautiful, they are very highly strung and not great to ride. I was not informed that my horse hated water and so the vertical jumping when we encountered a large puddle was something of an unwelcome surprise. Quite a few people had to swap horses because they were so difficult to control. One horse dubbed affectionately ‘nutcase,’ got sent back to the stables after a few days.
Nutcase’s rider was given my horse to try and I took time out. As the number of horses got reduced due to injury or poor behaviour it seemed there weren’t any spare ones left. The rest of the time I bumped along behind the riders in a jeep that was held together with packing tape, trying to communicate with an Indian driver who spoke no English. It wasn’t fun.
Rajasthan reality
The landscape we rode through was sandy and barren. Everywhere was covered in trash and we rode through countless dirt poor villages. The luxury ‘glamping’ was in old military tents with no bathroom facilities. We were handed a hot water bottle from a bucket to ward off the bitter cold. I slept in the entire contents of my suitcase and tried to keep my composure.
To top it all I got food poisoning for the last few days and was quite ill. I paid for a New Year Gala dinner which I never attended and was refused a refund.
On the plus side, I did enjoy the arty Haveli hotels which were like little Oasis’s of culture amongst towns which were crowded, run down, and dirty. This was an expensive trip which was a huge disappointment to me.
Even if I’d done more research before I went, I don’t think it would have helped much – the descriptions did not match the reality. Talk about over promising. I did make a couple of good chums though which is always a silver lining!
2024 Travel Destinations – my experience
So this is my travel roundup for 2024. I saw some incredible things, met some amazing people and overcame some physical challenges. This is just a snapshot of what I got up to – let’s hope 2025 is just as much an adventure – I can’t wait!