2015 Travel Recap
2015 was quite the interesting year of travel for me. With the arrival of Baby Elizabeth, I was expecting to travel a lot less, but I did surprisingly well. While my overall days on the road and countries visited were cut down significantly, I still managed to get away quite a bit and we even brought the baby along for an adventure or two.
A Lot of Vega$
One interesting thing about 2015 was the amount of Vegas hotels I stayed in. It started with my Bellagio room full of hair that I booked during a 2014 Expedia Black Friday sale, continued through the middle of the year where I closed out the historic Riviera and finished this past week where I stayed at the MGM Grand on my final push to requalify for Hyatt Diamond.
Hawaii & Mexico
The family and I did leave Las Vegas as well. Jasmine and I snuck off the Kauai at the last minute just weeks before the baby was born and eventually brought her to Maui in October. Elizabeth also hit the road to California for the 4th of July and gave her passport and Global Entry a workout with a trip to Mexico City in September to meet her grandmother and great grandmother.
Scandinavia
The biggest trip of the year for me was my summer vacation with Shawn Reece to Scandinavia. Not only did we get to experience a couple of new countries (Sweden & Denmark), but Shawn Reece was able to fly in Business Class for the first time. He even gained his independence by flying home all the way from Germany by himself.
#NoBucketList
Finally, 2015 saw a few items checked off of my #nobucketlist. In the span of a few weeks I was able to see a Packers game in Lambeau Field, walk the streets of Havana, Cuba and watch a ship pass through the Panama Canal. Earlier in the year I visited Salt Lake City with my friends and saw one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. All fantastic experiences and ones I am grateful for.
2015 Stats
While stats are often meaningless to many people, I do love to visualize my travels. Here are a few key stats from my 2015 travels.
- Countries Visited: 7 (The lowest number in a very long time.)
- Continents Visited: 2
- New Countries: 4
- Total Countries Visited Cumulative: 74
Over the years I have documented all of my travels with maps like the one above. You can see all of them by heading over to my Travel Maps page and you can find a link there to make one of your own!
What Will 2016 Bring?
Looking at the stats above, I can already tell 2016 will be a year of more travel. I already have a trip to England in a couple of weeks that I booked as part of the BA Business Class sale and my family and I will be taking advantage of that same sale for a Spring Break trip to Spain and France in March. April will bring us to Orlando and Disney World for FT4RL and I have tentative plans for another trip to Europe over the Summer and one to Asia and the Middle East later in the year. Yikes!
Conclusion
This has been an interesting year of travel to say the least. With the growth of the blog, it has been more difficult to truly disconnect while traveling, but I am doing what I love (both traveling and writing) so no complaints here. 2016 will be an amazing year of travel and I can’t wait to create new memories with my friends and family and share my adventures here. Happy New Year!
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Dig the map. Did you make that in Google Maps?
I actually made it on a service called Travellerspoint. I started using it many years ago and I like that it allows you to map different trips, etc. I eventually started mapping my travels by year, but just about everywhere I have been is mapped over there. Really cool to look at! http://www.travellerspoint.com/member_map.cfm?user=familyrtw#/tripslist
Happy and Healthy New 2016 for you Shawn and Your Family! Always a pleasure to learn and read about your adventures
Thank you Robert! Happy New Year to you too!
What tool do you use to create your flight map?
Hey Mike. Here is a link: http://www.travellerspoint.com/member_map.cfm?user=familyrtw#/tripslist
Happy New Year, Shawn. Thanks for all the great info this year.
Thanks Dee! Happy New Year to you too.
Yes, it was a great year.
Pretty impressive travel map for a guy with a new baby!
Happy New Year to you, your family, and all the MtM readers!
Great year. Great fun! Happy New Year to you too!
Happy New Year to you and yours Shawn. Thanks for being an invaluable resource.
Thanks Henry! Happy New Year to you too.