I honestly never thought I could top 2022 as the craziest year of my life. It was the year I quite my job and flew to Hawaii the next day to spend a week in paradise with my family. I flew back home to Chicago and finished packing up the apartment I’d shared with my husband for the past 4 years, dropped my dog off at my mom’s house, and hit the road for a “year long honeymoon.”
I roadtripped in the US for a month, spent four months exploring Europe, and celebrated my one year anniversary on a cruise around Greece before venturing over to Turkey and Georgia. I finished out the year getting the worst food poisoning of my life on day three of what was supposed to be a three week trek through the Himalayan mountains, and fearing for my life for six hours riding back down the mountain in a giant construction vehicle. Finally I visited Singapore for five days before flying home to spend Christmas with my family. Read my 2022 Travel Year in Review post for a full look at that year.
Well. Buckle in for 2023. Ha! The year started off somewhat ordinary (for a person traveling the world for a year that is.) New Year’s Eve and much of January was spent in Thailand where I got my SCUBA certification (pretty much a lifelong dream of mine.) I continued on to spend a month in Vietnam, followed by a month in the Philippines. Here’s where things get interesting. At the beginning of my time in the Philippines I decided I wanted to get divorced. Yes, I was on my year long honeymoon when that happened….
So anyway, on the tail of realizing my seven year relationship was coming to an end, we continued traveling through the Philippines. We traveled to Indonesia together (in business class, baby! lol ) before separating to spend the last month of our “Year Long Honeymoon” traveling alone.
Y’all I know, why am I sharing this information with the internet? I feel like I needed to provide some sort of explanation for why I was sharing so much about my year long honeymoon, and then stopped posting about it.
Anyway…. this post is supposed to be about my 2023 travels so let’s get back to it. So after we separated I spent 10 amazing days on the Gili Islands, followed by a few more days on Bali before flying back to Europe. I met up with a friend for seven fun days in Portugal (highly recommend visiting) before rounding out my “Year Long Honeymoon” with a week in Spain.
I moved back home to Indiana, and my life returned to a somewhat new “normal.” I got a job (not using my college degree, but that’s ok!) and rejoined US society.
Even though I was no longer on a trip around the world, I still managed to travel a bit the rest of the year. I went to New Orleans for my bff’s bachelorette party, I spend two weeks in Europe with my sister, followed immediately by another bachelorette party in NYC (where I got my first tattoo.) I made the 12 hour drive up to Copper Harbor, Michigan to attend another wedding ( and kick an adult man out of a bar for the first time.) Guys my life is truly so funny to me.
I rounded out the year by traveling to Mexico by myself for five days in early December and spending the week leading up to Christmas in Florida.
Read on to find out more info about my travels in 2023, and (I promise) not more about my personal life!
The Stats
Countries Visited in 2023: 12
Total Countries Visited Ever: 31
States Visited in 2023: 6
Total States Visited: 33 plus D.C. and Puerto Rico
Flights: 38
Trains: 5
Busses: 7
Ferries: 5
January
Like I mentioned above, I spent most of January in Thailand. First I visited Chiang Mai and Pai in Northern Thailand before heading south to the island to learn how to scuba dive on Koh Tao. For a more detailed look into my January travels read my post, Year Long Honeymoon – January 2023: 8 Months of Full Time Travel!
February
I celebrated my 28th birthday in February in Vietnam, and in total spent 27 days exploring five different cities in Vietnam. My favorite city was Hoi An, where I fell in love with all the delicious restaurants and beautiful architecture. I spent the final week of February traveling to my third country of the year, the Philippines! Read more about my travels though Vietnam and the Philippines here: Year Long Honeymoon – February 2023: Exploring Southeast Asia.
March
I spent the first half of March continuing my travels in the Philippines with surfing and scuba diving being the highlights. I visited five different islands and each one was so unique. I’d love to continue to explore this beautiful country in the future.
The second half of March was spent in Bali, Indonesia, mainly relaxing in insanely nice Hyatt hotels (booked for free with points of course.) Read more about my March travels here: Year Long Honeymoon – March 2023: Living the Island Life.
April
My final month of traveling the world for a year was one of the most fun. I spend ten amazing days on the Gili Islands in Indonesia before hopping back over to Europe. I recovered from my jet lag in Germany before traveling to Portugal for the first time and exploring Lisbon and Porto with a good friend. I then ended my year abroad with a week in Spain before flying back to the US on the 29th. Read more about my final month of travel here: Year Long Honeymoon – April 2023: Heading Back to Europe.
May
May was my first month back in the US after a year abroad. It was definitely a bit of an adjustment but it was so nice to spend time with my friends and family again. I even got to travel to New Orleans for my bestie’s bachelorette party! It was my 3rd visit to this fun city, and I wrote a blog post the last time I visited about things to do outside the French Quarter here: Exploring New Orleans Beyond the French Quarter.
June
I got to travel up to Chicago twice in June for two extremely important occasions: first to see Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and then for my best friend’s wedding!
July
I didn’t do any traveling in July until the last few days of the month when I flew from Indy to Chicago to Amsterdam to Prague to spend 10 days traveling around Europe with my sister. She was finishing up a study abroad program in Prague and I came over to show her around some of my other favorite Central European cities, Bratislava and Vienna.
Prague is one of my favorite cities in Europe, and I visited for a whole week last summer which you can read more about here: How Much Does a Week in Prague Cost?
August
In August I continued my first big international trip since moving back to the US. After a fun couple of days in Prague, we traveled to Bratislava, Slovakia and Vienna, Austria by train. I visited all three cities last summer but loved them enough to want to go back a year later.
After my Europe trip, I flew back to the US for one day before flying to New York City for my friend’s bachelorette party. It was quite the whirlwind travel week but despite the jet lag, I had an amazing weekend in NYC celebrating Hannah!
September
I spent most of September at home in Indiana working, but I went on one beautiful road trip at the end of the month. My good friends got married in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in a small town called Copper Harbor. It was a 12 hour drive from my house, but once north of Chicago it is a beautiful and scenic drive, especially with the leaves changing color in the fall.
October
In October I spent most of my time working, but I managed to play tourist in my own city for a weekend when my cousin came down to visit me. Southern Indiana is beautiful in the fall and we enjoyed scenic drives, good restaurants, and local beer and wine.
November
November was not a big month for travel, but I did attend two weddings, one in Chicago and one in Indiana. I loved getting to spend time with so many friends and family in November!
December
In December I left the country for the first time since August! I headed down to Mexico to the all-inclusive Hyatt Zilara Riviera Maya. The resort was beautiful and relaxing, but my favorite part of the trip was going scuba diving in cenotes.
Cenotes are all over the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico and are partially uncovered caves filled with water. It was my first time not diving in the ocean and I loved how different and unique the experience was.
My final trip of the year was to Anna Maria Island, Florida to spend time with my family the week before Christmas. We had a couple days of decent beach weather, ate a ton of fresh seafood, and went fishing to catch our Christmas Eve dinner.
2024 Preview
That’s a joke, right? I have no idea.
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