Yes! Another year of travel is upon us and I can’t wait to get planning, Brexit be damned.

I will not let the unknown of ‘transport contracts within Europe’ ruin it for me. I shall make my travel master plan anyway and hope for the best!

I always find travel planning such an exciting time, but I always find myself lost with the amount of places I want to visit. I know that I can’t visit everywhere, so cutting it down to only a few places is always REALLY hard!

My travel goals from last year were only really half met, but then I definitely like to plan travel with an ‘eyes bigger than my stomach’ type of attitude. I always have – slightly – unattainable goals (my budget unfortunately is not unlimited!), but I like to pop down the places that I most want to visit at that moment in time, so I can see it all laid out. I throw all those place names out into the universe and then as the year goes on, I can see which ones are achievable and which ones are just not going to happen.

I did visit Brighton, Switzerland and the Wizarding World, and I am currently saving for Japan ( I will go this year, yes or yes), so I think 4 out of 8 isn’t bad, as after all, Bali was only in there as a far off wish. Summer flights never work in your favour within Europe, so Spain, Portugal, and Slovenia were a no go this year during my trip to the UK, as I already had Switzerland and the Netherlands in the books. Also, considering I didn’t end up returning home this winter, a snowy Scandinavia trip was out too. Bad timing on all counts!

I have to say, as much as I wanted to visit everywhere on my list last year, I was just so happy to spend time at home in Cambridge. I honestly do miss it so much when I’m in Peru, so to get to come home in 2018 was really the dream trip. Because of that, I thought I would use some pictures of my home city for this post and maybe it’ll encourage one of you to take a trip to England during 2019! They were taken from the top of Great St Mary’s church, which offers some stellar views of the city centre.

All of the locations from last year – that I didn’t visit – still make the list, but what are this year’s travel goals? Let’s lay them out…

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MY TRAVEL GOALS

Japan

If I say it enough times, I will go. It’s literally the only major destination on my mind, and it has been since about May last year. I really, really want to visit so many areas (Kyoto and Osaka, Hokkaido, Okinawa, Tokyo…..Disneyland), but I think my first trip might just be Tokyo only. This is the dream you guys, I’m hoping the universe gives me what I want!

Scotland

My boyfriend visited here last year and, honestly, I was pretty jealous. I’d love to see Edinburgh again or visit Glasgow, but what I really want is to watch the steam train go over the Glenfinnan viaduct and pretend like I’m watching the Hogwarts Express. Harry Potter goals.

Speaking of which….

Lacock Abbey

They filmed some of the Harry Potter films at this historical location, including the potions classes, so I’m pretty eager to go! It looks stunning and having run out of time to go last year, I’m making it a priority this year.

European Christmas Market

This one is super vague, because I have no idea where I want to travel this winter, only that it needs to be in Europe and it needs to have a Christmas market. I loved visiting Munich back in 2017 so I definitely want another trip like that! Maybe I’ll head back to Germany, maybe Prague, maybe Colmar in France…. so many options!

South-West France

My flights are already booked for a wedding here, so let’s hope Brexit doesn’t ruin those carefully laid plans….

Singapore

Singapore has been on my mind for a while, and now more than ever as my parents visited early last year and made me super jealous. What I’m hoping for is a deal on Singapore Airlines to Tokyo so I can do Singapore and Japan in one fell swoop….

Hallstatt, Austria

Have you seen pictures of this gorgeous village on the banks of Lake Hallstatt in a mountainous area of Austria? It’s so beautiful. I could just see myself wandering the streets and enjoying the views, maybe taking some time to walk in the mountains surrounding. Lovely.

St. Michael’s Mount or Mont Saint-Michel

I’d be happy with a trip to either of these beautiful islands, although I guess the English one is easier for me to get to than its Norman counterpart! Although a trip to Normandy would not be out of the realms of possibility…

Spanish Coast / Lisbon / Nordic Countries / Lake Bled

Yep, all the ones I didn’t manage to do last time are back again. I still want to visit them, so let’s just hope the second time’s a charm for at least one of these destinations!

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So there you have it. These are the locations I’m sending out into the universe….let’s see how many I get to visit!

Do you have any travel plans in mind this year? Where would you love to see yourself in 2019?