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Our Nomad Recommendations
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Need to book a flight, hotel, or cruise? We recommend Booking. (Click and Bookmark it!)
Need a super carry-on suitcase with great wheels? We recommend Osprey Transporter.
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Looking for medical insurance for your full-time travel? We use Genki and claims have been flawless. And we’ve just changed to Mondial for 2026.
Want the best shoes for nomad life? We recommend the Hoka Hopara 2. Read our review!
Our Top 5 “Things” from 2025
Coming into the end of the year has me in reflection mode. It’s been such a fabulous year. In order to come up with my five best things from the year, I had to go back into my Google Travel Tracking Sheet to remember what I’ve been doing this year! It’s been busy.
In One Sentence I ..
In January, I started the year in Buenos Aires, then hiking Patagonia, a seaside stay in Vina del Mar, high desert shenanigans in Atacama, a rousing visit with friends in Cabo San Lucas on the way to Los Angeles via a cruise, a few musical nights in Vegas, a sunny week in San Diego, another cruise from New Orleans to Europe, a celebration month in Greece, a roadtrip through Bulgaria and a hike on the Via Transylvanica Trail, some down time in Ireland, a view of the National Guard overtaking DC while we housesat, a quick week in Houston getting our Greek visas, family time in the Finger Lakes and Old Orchard Beach, Maine, another long hike along the Fisherman’s Way in Portugal, my daughter’s graduation in Dublin, another busy trip to the US to help my daughter move in, a slow stay in Poros Greece, a tasty roadtrip to Olympia to watch the Olympic torch lighting, and then, today!
It’s been a great year! So how do I pick the best things? I actually can’t. I can’t because I just don’t do “things.”
I’m definitely living a life full of experiences. I can count my actual “things” on my ten fingers and ten toes, so you can bet that things simply aren’t important. I scoffed at the Black Friday sales about all the things that were for sale, but I did pick up a few flights, hotel rooms, and a renewal of my AllTrails subscription at half price so I can enhance my experiences.
Nonetheless, as I reflect on the year, there are four experiences and one thing that make my year most joyful. I’d like to share them with you.
No doubt, I’d have to say the best thing of the year was watching my daughter graduate from Trinity College in Dublin and celebrating with her and her friends in Greece. As a mom, watching a child walk across the stage rings all the prideful bells. I imagine marriage and babies might also be high up there, but since those haven’t happened (yet?), I’ll stick with graduation.
My daughter’s graduation took us to Poros Greece to celebrate. Little did I know that this random selection of a place to celebrate would trigger the next thing in our top five list of things for the year, getting our Greek Tourist Visa followed by our Greek Golden Visa (still pending.)
Hiking the Fisherman’s Trail tops the adventure side of the list. Getting the chance to enjoy the wild and unpopulated SW coast of Portugal by foot for 10 days was a dream. The views: unparallel. The food: vegan and amazing! The adventure: tops.
That’s not to say that next on the list, hiking the Via Transylvanica Trail in Romania wasn’t amazing. Seeing rural life, tasting fresh farm-to table cheese, and experiencing the Carpathian Mountains by foot blew me away. Throw in Dracula, the crazy, curvy, best-road-in-the-world-to-drive adventure, and incredible Bulgarian architecture (with a day trip to Ukraine thrown in), I won’t forget our two weeks that started in Bucharest.
Last on the list, but certainly not least, was stumbling across a book that has changed so many things about the way I eat and cook. I fell in love with this book because it opened my eyes to the way we’ve been finding foods in world markets but not having a way to cook the food with appropriate recipes. The chestnut soup recipe is worth the purchase price of the book alone. The Old World Kitchen by Elizabeth Luard https://amzn.to/44ygiar.
As I look to next year plans with a bike ride through the Dutch countryside to see tulips, a cruise from Barcelona to Seattle via Panama, a summer in Canada, a cruise to South Africa, and a walking safari on the books already, I think 2025 might quickly fade in my memory! Let’s hope not because 1-5 were pretty darn special.
