2024 Travel Round-Up!

I had an incredible year of travel in 2024 including exploring more of Canada, visiting the USA twice, a holiday in Costa Rica and city breaks to Porto and Paris after we moved back to Wales.

This post is a year late because I realised I never actually finished the draft or posted it. These round up posts are very personal and more for myself to look back on but if you’re reading, hello and enjoy 🙂

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Contents (jump to)

January

1) Canada

Continuing to live in Banff National Park for 2024, we decided to apply for a Canadian Visa extension to enjoy the summer here and explore more places in North / South America. We had the first polar week of the winter with -35 degrees temps but mostly it was fairly warm and not much snow which is a scary and harsh reality of global warming.

We took a trip up to Red Deer to visit family early this month before heading on holiday.

2) Costa Rica

Midway through January took me to my 31st country. And the countries in the thirties delivered (I hope the countries I visit when I’m in MY thirties deliver too… cough, 2 months to go, cough).

Anyway, the birds-eye view from the plane over Costa Rica as I was arriving was the best views I’ve ever seen in my life; the ocean dotted with boats, blue sky and lush landscape.

While I made it to Costa Rica, my luggage did not. This led to 4 days of wearing the same clothes, Scotts clothes or the only yellow, floral shorts and white tee I could find in the place.

But this did not deter us to have an amazing holiday. Everything was falling into place for us and overall we had the most incredible experiences from our angel-sent driver, Oscar, to the synchronicity that occurred every day.

So we started off in La Fortuna at Chalets Silencio del Bosque which have cute eco-lodges in the rainforest so you are completely surrounded by nature. They make typical Costa Rica breakfast everyday and are able to organise tours for you. While here we went on a night safari where we saw caimans, turtles, birds, red-eyed frog, the most venomous snake in CR, the most venomous spider in CR, a sloth and her baby and glass frogs.

The lodge owners gave us a ride to downtown La Fortuna where we stayed at La Fortuna Boutique Hotel. On the way we discovered a sloth climbing the school fence but it’s so dangerous for him to get back to the rainforest because of the traffic (and being a sloth and all) so a local picked him up and carried him back to the trees. It was an unique thing to witness.

From here we explored the area, ate local food, stopped by the rope swing, went on the Bogarin Trail and visited La Fortuna waterfall.

Next Oscar picked us up to take us to Tamarindo on the Pacific coast. On the way we stopped off at the hot springs, seen agoutis on the way, went to the lake where the alleged-UFO was spotted, stopped for some lunch, bought some water apples and used the seeds to plant a tree in Oscar’s ranch. It was an unforgettable day.

In Tamarindo, it was blissful to be by the ocean! We were amongst the waves everyday getting vitamin D, sand and sea-salt on our skin. We stayed at Villas Macondo which was centrally located with lovely staff, clean rooms and an outdoor pool. The BPM festival was one of the main reasons for the trip and while I only went to the free day parties, Scott had a sick weekend in the nights.

We ended the trip with a delicious seafood platter with howler monkeys in the trees above us and the sun setting before us.

Costa Rica is one of my favourite countries!

Costa Rica Blogs

BEST Food in Costa Rica

February – March

3) Wales

Went home for a quick week for my cousin’s wedding and caught up with family and friends.

4) New York

From home, me and my sister flew to New York while Scott returned to Canada and I met him there afterwards just in time for my 30th birthday!

New York City was my number one bucket-list city and it was everything I imagined and more. I love this city and would return in a heartbeat. Specifically, seeing the Friends building in real life was a dream come true as well as the other filming locations in NYC and felt like I was walking in a movie.

Also, the food. The best steak I’ve EVER eaten at Skirt Steak restaurant where that is the only thing on the menu. Incredible NYC bagel (beats Montreal bagel, hands down) but the Montreal pastrami sandwich was better than the New York one. $1 pizza slices were the real New York deal, not quite Naples Pizza but it’s a different playing field. Went book shopping in Chinatown and had delicious snacks en route. Had a boujie pasta lunch in Pasta Bar with chef-side seats. Queued 20 minutes for Adele’s Famous Halal Food. Went to Eileen’s Special Cheesecake three times!

Ellen’s Stardust Diner was a highlight and the perfect intro to my dream of seeing The Lion King on broadway. Walked from Manhattan to Brooklyn and back and browsed brilliant Biggie Smalls murals… and also seen a HUGE NY rat. Had the most amazing quality time with my little sister. I really loved New York, did I say that already? I’ll say it again, I LOVE NYC.

NYC Blogs

April – September

Las Vegas

My best friend’s lush partner organised a huge surprise trip to Las Vegas for her 30th birthday and invited ourr friends to join so after they all surprised her in Gatwick, I flew solo to Las Vegas from Calgary (much closer for me) to surprise her at the airport.

It was one of the best moments and we were so happy to see each other and finally be normal now she knew what had been planned for so long! We spent three days in Vegas and had a memorable, special time. We went to gorgeous restaurants, spent the entire day at a beach club living our best lives, saw brilliant shows, won $2.35 on the slots, shopped, watched the lights, explored and made great memories.

One of the main reasons for going was going to Lovers and Friends festival which was cancelled 12 hours before and broke all of our hearts. We did see Neyo though!

June July August

Continued living and working three jobs in Banff National Park including writing for the local digital newsletter. Yay. On our two days off a week, me and Scott made the most of exploring the outdoors, visiting family in Red Deer and eating Ramen Arashi. Miss this Ramen restaurant, just want it back!

Highlight moments from this summer in Banff include:

Seeing the Northern Lights with the naked eye three times
BBQ tea almost every night on our spaceship (portable bbq which was like $7) and BBW breakfasts at the river
Walking a local husky named Swisha Luna
In my hiking era: easy ones and really hard ones
Hardest (but most accomplised feeling) being Cascade Mountain that towered over the town. Got lost along the way, scared for our lives, spent 12 hours from start to finish but did it with my love!
Lake days, canoeing the Bow River, cycling trips (most accomplished one being the 50km trip on the Bow Valley parkway when it was closed to vehicles), camping in huts and tents
Seeing bears in the wild (FINALLY) as well as watching a baby deer feed from its mother in the wild
Attending the Calgary Stampede

One of the maddest travel stories happened at the start when we had to do a visa run (which means we have to leave Canada and re-enter). So we drove 5 hours to the Alberta/Montana border where we waited on held breath for 3 hours to be denied and personally escorted by the police (sirens and everything) back to the Canadian side. Who welcomed us with warmth and open arms. Phew. So scary thinking back and seeing what is happening over there at the moment. We’re very lucky and we don’t take these things for granted!!

Waterton

We did a camping trip in Waterton National Park which is a smaller version of Banff but just as beautiful and we had a really relaxing time including swimming, hiking and seeing a herd of Bison!

Waterton Camping Guide

Toronto

I was dying to visit Toronto aka the Hollywood North. I took a solo trip to Toronto mainly for the two reasons I travel: seeing filming locations and eating. I enjoyed Toronto and although it was like a lot of other big cities, it felt different than the likes of the other parts of Canada I’ve seen (mountain towns, islands, coastal cities).

Highlights include visiting Little Canada (a MUST), marvelling at the street art, seeing Life of Pi in the theatre, eating delicious Thai food and exploring St Lawrence Market.

Toronto Blogs

September – December

Our Canadian work visas were coming to an end and we left our home in Banff to go home and plan for our wedding… eek! On our last few minutes in Banff, we took a little drive and saw a huge bear. It was the perfect goodbye.

Canada is a beautiful country and I had an incredible 2.5 years living and working there. I will treasure the friends I made, the landscapes I trailed, the things I experienced, the wildlife I witnessed and the culture I learned.

Places I Visited in Canada: Red Deer, Banff, Canmore, Lake Louise, Yoho, Helicopter over the Rockies, Calgary, Vancouver Whale Watching, Victoria, Road Trip Vancouver Island, Montreal, Golden, Invermere, Waterton, Toronto.

Porto, Portugal

A week after being home in Wales, I flew to Portugal to meet some of my Banff friends who were in Europe at the time. It was so lovely to catch up and explore a new city with friends. I had only ever been to The Algarve in southern Portugal so was excited to see Porto in the North.

Highlights include tasting the real Pastel de Nata among other lush foods, a walking tour, a wine tour in the Douro Valley, experience Portugal guided by my Portuguese friend.

Paris

After binging Emily in Paris, my sister and I wanted to visit the capital of France. We went to Disneyland Paris as kids but never went into the actual city so thought we’d do an end-of-year sister trip.

Highlights include an evening cruise on the Seine, going to a comedy show, being top tourists, watching live music and dancing in the streets of Paris, visiting filming locations (obvs), eating more food than is possible in 3 days and soaking up the French culture.

2024, you were lush. Roll on 2025, the year of our long-awaited wedding…YAY! 🙂