Reflections - Where We Didn’t Need To Go
We’ve been to a lot of places this year (over 31 countries!!!) and unfortunately we ended up going to a few places we feel, in hindsight, were unnecessary. Now that’s not to say we didn’t enjoy our time there, just that we think the time could have been spent better elsewhere. Given our monumental task to map out a worldwide route over a year before we left in the fall of 2022, I think we deserve a pat on the back. Coming out of our year of travel, we think there are about half a dozen “missed opportunity” destinations that had to be cut from our final list and are now a top priority for the next few years. It’s tough to plan so far ahead, when the world has shifted so drastically by the time of your first flight. We’ve picked up some wisdom along the way and are ready to share some changes to our plan as it was executed.
Where We Didn’t Need To Go
South Korea - Listen, South Korea is an interesting country – Seoul has several really unique neighborhoods and visiting the DMZ between the Koreas is a bit of an adrenaline rush – but we found South Korea just isn’t our cup of tea. In hindsight, it was our three day visit to Busan that ended up being the most frustrating part of our experience. We spent a few too many days there, so we think it would’ve been better for us to visit Jeju Island or dedicate our whole time to Seoul instead. Busan has potential to be an interesting spot, especially in Summer months, but lacked excitement in the Spring. We would consider going back to South Korea, especially with kids, but it’s not at the top of our ‘Must Return’ list.
1 Day Destinations [Germany, Spain, Singapore] - Sometimes our flight routes or non-trip errands necessitated making stops in countries for a single day. For example, on our way from Phuket to New Zealand, a one night stop in Singapore was required. While we were in Switzerland, we had to fly down to Spain for a day to pick a wedding venue. While the venue picking detour was a necessary activity, reclaiming the lost time there would’ve valuable time back in a shorter destination like Lao, Oman, or Jordan.
United States - Our short detour back to the United States was a very last minute decision, primarily focused on surprising Jackson’s parents for Christmas and to switch our wardrobe for our winter trip to Japan. However, if we were to sit down and plan this trip from the ground up once again, we would have focused on how to maximize our time around the world. We probably wouldn’t have built in a seven day stop in the US during our valuable trip time, but it did make sense given the circumstances.
Where We Didn’t Need To Spend As Much Time
Peru - Peru was one of our most interesting destinations of the year, and we absolutely don’t regret spending a lot of time here. However, if we’re trying to think about optimizing the perfect route for our trip, we think it would be possible to see everything we did in several fewer days. We spent a number of our days there taking it slowly, only exploring one or two things at a time with some full day breaks in between. This worked great with the time that we had, but it wasn’t necessary.
Australia - Australia is one of our favorite countries in the world, from its breath-taking natural beauty to vibrant cities, there’s enough to do here to fill a year on its own. We knew from our previous trip here that we really wanted to get to know the Land Down Under. With the power of 20/20 hindsight, we would have skipped familiar places like Melbourne and focused on entirely new areas. Oh, and we would’ve skipped Darwin completely…sorry Darwin, but you’re not worth the cross-country flight.
Japan - Of course, it’s ironic to be writing that we would have spent less time in Japan, when we’ve just arrived for our second stint here. When we left Japan the first time, it was already at the top of our “Must Return To” list, but we didn’t expect to circle back so soon. However, with the way the rest of our route unfolded over the following six months, a cheeky trip back somehow did make sense. That said, if we’re looking at optimizing our original route, we would’ve stuck to the original four week trip in April 2024.
Switzerland - We hadn’t originally intended to spend four weeks in Switzerland, but due to some outside injury factors and the developing situation in the Middle East, we ended up extending our stay here twice. While we feel at home in the Swiss Alps, this trip was more about exploring places we hadn’t been to before and about breaking out of our comfort zone. In hindsight, we would have capped our time here at no more than one week.
In reworking our final route, we would not only consider length of stay, but how the trip segment is structured. We spent several weeks inefficiently bouncing back and forth between Argentina and Chile, working our way slowly north from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt. While our route took us to all fo the desired sights, the plan was a bit chaotic and required backtracking. Perhaps planning even further ahead of time to rent a camper van would have given us the flexibility to travel between the two countries without relying on buses. Another ill-planned segment was Lombok, Indonesia. There, we decided to take things slow by taking a ‘vacation’ from our trip. While it was great to spend some time recharging by the beach,, we should have taken more time to explore the rest of the island and the local culture.
Where We Would Have Gone Instead
Mongolia - Mongolia has been high on our list for a long time, and was the last country left off of our original route when we ran out of days to allocate there. To make the perfect route, we would have swapped one week of Australia and our week in South Korea to make a two week stop here during the Asian leg of our trip.
Nepal - After talking with many of our fellow world travellers this year, Nepal was consistently a country that people spoke incredibly highly of. From epic hiking to a deeply authentic culture, it sounds like we missed out. It’s now very high on our ‘Next Destinations’ list and somewhere we hope to go before tourists infuse western elements. To make the perfect route, we would’ve swapped one or two weeks of our Switzerland time, and made a stop here before getting to South East Asia.
Colombia - While Colombia was originally on our travel list, it was one victim of our swap to Mexico, the United States, and returning to Japan. We found that for this trip, necessary internal flights, hotel costs around Christmas, and the (surprising) expense in getting there from Peru made it an unattainable destination. To make the perfect route, we would’ve kept Colombia on the list and spent about 10 days in the country at the expense of the return to the United States.
Bolivia - Like Mongolia, Bolivia was originally on our list for this year. However, because of its high visa costs for US passport holders ($160!), it didn’t make sense with our limited daily budget. Instead, we decided to save it for a future trip when we didn’t have to worry about such stringent budget restrictions. For a perfect route, we would have kept it on our list and spent between 10 and 14 days exploring the country’s diverse environments.
Philippines - We lost the Philippines from our 2024 route after deciding to include Borneo in our travels to Malaysia. We don’t regret that decision at all, yet upon hearing how stunning it is and easy to visit from other travelers, we wished we could have fit it in. Given that the islands require more than just a week to see, we know it would have taken more than just sacrificing a week somewhere. So, while we could have spent time in the Philippines, we know the timing and the desired pace may not have allowed for a visit at all.
Central America [Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala] - Central America was high on our bucket list, but ultimately this part of our trip too was sacrificed for the US and our return to Japan. In hindsight, we would plan about one week per country here, taking back the time we are now spending in Japan.
Amazon Rainforest - With several entry points in different countries, we could have found an opportunity to see the Amazon Rainforest. That said, it would have required more time (and likely funds) than we have, so this is a place we’re hoping to save for a more focused trip in the future.
How We’ll Fix That
Going into this trip, we hoped we might cross off a number of countries off of our travel bucket list. Instead, we’ve somehow found ourselves wanting to re-add the places we’ve already been! Just because this trip is over, doesn’t mean we’ll stop travelling. We intend to reach many, or hopefully all, of our “missed opportunity” destinations in the next few years, alongside other places we’ll revisit. Some of these destinations require a lot of time to reach, others beckon travelers to take their time exploring, but we’ll try our best to see as much as we can before day to day life gets too hectic. While we don’t have another year-long world tour planned, maybe we’ll fit some of the places we have yet to see after our wedding in 2026!