2018: A travel round-up

The start of the year is always a good time to set some goals for the new year but additionally I always find it a good time to reflect on the year that has just passed. So I figured I’d do a quick round up of my 2018 travels.

I felt like 2017 was going to be a tough year to top and so it proved. You can read more about that here (A 2017 summary) but swiftly moving on, here’s what I got up to in 2018.

January: Edinburgh!
Alright, so this was a 2017 trip really. I was heading home on January 1st but wow! What a place to start the New Year! Hogmanay was nothing short of incredible and is something I’ll definitely be looking to do again. It definitely lived up to its reputation! Kicking off the year in a sunny Edinburgh was a good way to start 2018 too.

February: Washington State
Originally I planned to make my first Washington visit in August 2018, so rather bizarrely this was already my second visit to the state. It’s funny how quickly things can change but spending some proper time with Haleigh before the summer was important and this was also a chance to meet some of her family.

I had a night to myself in Seattle which was nice and definitely gave me a further appreciation of the city. I definitely feel as far as the US is concerned that it’s a little underrated.
I spent the rest of my time on the Eastern side of the mountains which were breath-taking. Overall it was a pretty relaxed couple of weeks but the company was great and I don’t think I could ever tire of mountain views. Staying at Haleigh’s grandparents in view of the mountains in Walla Walla was definitely a perk I enjoyed!

March: Manchester!
I’ve never really spent much time up in Manchester, however with a big summer trip I knew travel opportunities would be limited this year so took full advantage of a weekend in Manchester in March. Myself and a friend were going to a gig and I figured it’d be best to make a weekend of it.
It’s a cracking city and somewhere I’d like to return to. It reminded me a lot of Hamburg, it’s not the prettiest city on the eye but it makes up for it with its quirks, cafes and bars. I can see why it stakes a claim for the title of England’s “second city”

March: Kettering!
My time in Kettering was family / music orientated. My cousin was playing in a choir, whilst my uncle was playing in a gig immediately after on the same night. Whilst Kettering isn’t high on people’s travel wishlists, I was still craving a bit of adventure and figured I’d make it an over-night occasion.

I don’t see tourists flocking to Kettering any time soon but I had a fun evening and it was nice to treat myself to a little staycation too!

April: London!
Trips to London aren’t too infrequent but it’s rare that I make it an overnight occasion. I was attending a gig on a Friday night with friends in April with Spurs due to play on the Saturday. It didn’t seem worthwhile going home Friday night only to return Saturday so I booked myself a little Premier Inn near Kings Cross.

The gig was a really enjoyable night and then I managed to squeeze in a bit of sightseeing with a couple of other friends before making my way to the football. Overall a thoroughly enjoyable weekend with some good company too.

May: Lincoln!
I was starting to get itchy feet. I hadn’t been out of the country since February and the next trip was July so, despite doing my best to save, I needed a daytrip at the very least. I considered a few options but I’ve never been to Lincoln, it was a cheap train journey and easy to get to too.

I lucked out with the weather, the sun was shining beautifully and Lincoln as a city is really nice. The castle area stood out in particular and had some sort of event going on, I also snapped probably one of my favourite photos I’ve ever taken.

June: Lille!
Lincoln was at the beginning of May, the end of July still seemed so far away so I felt I could squeeze in one last cheap daytrip somewhere. I was looking at various options within the UK but either trains were too expensive or the distance was too far for a feasible daytrip (via public transport) so I had a sneak peek at the Eurostar sale. I managed to find return tickets to Lille at just £53 which didn’t seem overly expensive for a day out in France.

I loved Lille. Fellow blogger, Shoot From The Trip recently wrote about their own visit (read here) and it had me reminiscing of my own time there. It’s an easy trip on the Eurostar, it’s a really pretty city and a little closer to Belgian culture than French.

Additionally it coincided with France playing in the World Cup so there was a bit of a buzz in the city all day, moreso after France’s 4-3 victory over Argentina. It’s a pretty city, the sun shining helped and my only regret was that I’d restricted myself to a daytrip. I’d love to go back. I fully recommend reading the blog post above too for a little more in depth look at Lille (it’ll be a while before I post about it myself).

July: Chicago!
At last! Part one of the MONTH long trip in the USA. I wasn’t in Chicago for particularly long but I was greeted to fireworks on my first evening in the States. I would love to have stayed in Chicago longer. It was cool to see the Bean and it was a fun city to explore. The only downside is it was so ridiculously expensive. I’ll probably go back but I cut my time short on this trip and headed on for my second city.

July: Minneapolis!
Minneapolis wasn’t somewhere I’d really intended to visit but I had a spare few days where I wasn’t sure where to go. I’d booked my flights to Chicago when Spurs announced their pre-season tour in the neighbouring state so decided I had to visit Minnesota.

It ended up being a really wise decision. It’s not an overly touristy place and I wouldn’t say there’s that much to do in the city but I felt at home here pretty quickly. The people were friendly and it was a genuine highlight of the trip. I feel like I left a little piece of my heart in Minneapolis and, perhaps surprisingly, it’s somewhere I’d like to return to.

August: New Orleans!
New Orleans was much the opposite. It ticked all of the right boxes, there was a lot I liked about it but something was missing. Perhaps my expectations were too high, perhaps I was suffering from the Minneapolis blues but I didn’t click with New Orleans in the same way.

Don’t get me wrong though, I’d highly recommend a visit to NOLA. The French quarter is stunning and the nightlife was FANTASTIC but I didn’t leave feeling like I loved New Orleans, I certainly liked it but it didn’t quite hit the heights I’d hoped.

August: Poulsbo, Washington!
This was why I was in the US. I was here for a wedding just outside of Seattle. This was a big surprise on the trip for me. I had no doubts the wedding would be a highlight of the entire trip, if not the year in general, but Poulsbo wasn’t somewhere I’d particularly thought would leave an impression on me.

It was an adorable little town, close to the water and a town with a bucketload of breweries too. I really enjoyed the weekend we had here.

August: Portland and Oregon City!
Portland was high on my list of places to visit this summer. We didn’t explore huge amounts of Portland but you could see why it has such a good reputation, it’s definitely a little quirky and was a city I enjoyed visiting. We took a little trip to Oregon City too which wasn’t far away, not an awful lot to it really. Portland was certainly the better of the two and holds better memories for me.

August: Walla Walla, Washington!
We reserved this weekend to go ‘home’ and attend Haleigh’s big family annual BBQ. I’d been to Walla Walla in February and loved the mountain views so it was somewhat underwhelming driving in to Walla Walla on this trip.

The wildfires / smoke left no real view of the mountains which was a real shame. The BBQ and family festivities were good fun though and this was another highlight of the trip. It’s a city I’ve grown to love, would have been nicer with the mountain views though.

August: Multnomah Falls and Oregon Coast!
Back to Oregon we went, this time heading for the coast via Multnomah Falls. It was a stunning place to stop. The coast was pretty too and a nice place to spend a couple of days on the way down to San Francisco. I particularly liked Depoe Bay which is apparently home to the world’s smallest harbour.

August: Crescent City and the Redwoods!
Honestly, Crescent City was nothing more than a good halfway stop on the way to San Fran and just happened to be outside of the Redwood National Park. Driving through the Redwoods was surreal and unlike anything I’d ever really experienced. It was stunning to pass through and we made sure to stop to admire the view, whilst snapping a few photos too. A must visit if you’re in Northern California!

August: San Francisco!
As soon as I was invited to the wedding, this was my dream city for this trip. I had to go to San Francisco. It was non-negotiable.

Driving in to the city over Golden Gate Bridge was a pinch me moment and I really enjoyed our time in the city. Alcatraz was probably the highlight of our time in San Fran though. It’s definitely a city I’ll be going back to but it was nice to finally tick this one off my bucketlist.

August: San Francisco to Moses Lake!
Haleigh had to be back at school so after San Francisco it was a rushed drive home. We spent a night in Klamath Falls (Oregon) but spent most of our time on the road. The highlight was probably stopping at an Alpaca Farm somewhere in Oregon before winding up back at ‘home’ in Moses Lake.

It was nice to chill out for a few days in a familiar place before the trip sadly came to an end.

October: Birmingham!
That’s right, nothing for September! The summer killed my bank balance so September was the only month this year that I spent the entirety of it in Peterborough. Shocking!

I made up for it early in Birmingham though with another weekend away. I’d used all my annual leave by this point but I made the most of a weekend by spending it in Birmingham. Me and a friend were off to a gig but I spent the rest of my time in England’s “second city”. I’ve been to Birmingham many times without actually spending much time in the city, it’s not somewhere that I’ve ever really seen as particularly appealing but I was wrong!

I loved Birmingham. It’s a really nice city and for me, it does just edge Manchester so is worthy of its status as England’s “second city”. It’s somewhere I’m keen to return to at some point.

November: Warsaw!
I had no annual leave left whatsoever but wanted to squeeze in one more overseas trip before the year ended. Sadly it was only a flying visit but I found decent flights to Warsaw which gave me an opportunity to visit a new city.

I liked Warsaw but in all honesty I wasn’t feeling particularly adventurous by the time this trip came around, I had to force myself out on the Saturday night. The old town was stunning though, it’s really cheap and it gave me my first taste of visiting Poland which I’m keen to return to. Hopefully for a bit longer next time!

December: London!
Last but not least, London! I know this made the list already but this time I was hosting which made for a very different experience. Haleigh was making her first visit to England (first overseas trip too!) so we made the most of it by spending a few nights in London.

It’s such a pretty place to be around Christmas time so equally enjoyable for me to be in London. It was nice to show off “my city” to someone who’d never seen it. Fortunately Haleigh loved it.

We finished off the year together at a wedding a little closer to home in a town called Uppingham. The perfect end to the year!

Anyway, that wraps up my 2018. I’ll post about each place in more detail at a later date but if you want to see more photos you’ll find them over on Instagram.
What were your highlights of 2018?

Next up on the blog: Germany!

Stay tuned!

Jason