It’s the time of the year, when I put up the traditional year round up post.
This year was exhausting for me on many fronts. I traveled when I could and enjoyed every moment of my trips. As always some were family trips, solo and with my partner. Here is a quick round up of the main places I visited this year.
Haridwar, India
My first proper trip was to India in March this year when I visited Patanjali Ashram for my sinus treatment. Its an ayurvedic wellness center and it was my first experience. I also invited my parents to join me and we had a week together. The Ashram is in Haridwar which is also considered the holy city in India situated on the banks of river Ganga.
Post my wellness trip, I also spent few days in Gurgaon Delhi meeting friends and some work colleagues. So that’s how the year started.
Pateley Bridge and Knaresborough
During the Easter holidays, I had just no plan. My partner was spending time with his kids. I had just come back from India, so I did not want to take any more days off. So best would have been to visit somewhere in the UK. If you have read my posts or followed me for sometime, you would know Yorkshire is my favourite county in UK and I love and absolutely love visiting places in Yorkshire. So when I didnt have many choices and it was last minute I decided to make a trip to the small village of Pateley Bridge in Yorkshire. Remote, quite and very picturesque, this is the kind of place I love, surrounded by rolling hills and flocks of sheep. I also spent a day at Knaresborough and the weather was great so it was a rather lovely trip.
Murcia, Spain
It was June and me and my partner decided to make a quick trip before my parents arrived in the UK in July. We wanted to go to some sunny and place with great food but just about 3-4 days. We also were clear we didnt want to go to a crowded place given this was peak tourist season and Europe was already hot. With lot of permutations and deliberations we decided to give Murcia a shot. We didnt know much about it as there were not many influencers talking about it. So we thought why dont we experience it, from what we read it seemed to tick all our boxes.
Well as I write this post in December, I am so glad we made that decision to go to Murcia. In today’s over touristy spots, Murcia was a slice of authentic Spain, something still not spoilt and we hired a car and visited Cehegin, La Manga, Caravaca de la cruz and Cartegena in our short stay in capital city Murcia.
Cotswolds, England
This year I made two trips to Cotswolds, which is otherwise just an annual trip. The first was on a May bank holiday to Painswick. It was a repeat visit for me, I loved Painswick so much and if there is one place in Cotswolds I would want to return to, it will always be Painswick and Stroud.
The second trip was when my parents were with me, and we did a day trip from Bath through Mad Max Tours . It was an amazing tour and I will never forget it was the freezing cold, the lovely villages and we running out of food and having to have some ugly wraps (with raw shredded vegetables and my dad found it so hard to eat). Nevertheless the scenery always wins in Cotswolds.
Aira Force, Lake District, England
My parents left the UK in end of October. I was feeling quite bad and homesick though it was my own home but they were around for 3.5 months. So my partner suggested we go on a short weekend trip to some place out in the nature. It was peak of autumn. It was his idea to get to somewhere in Lake District. And we decided to go to Troutbeck. It was a cosy 2.5 days, mostly wet and sunny. The highlight of our trip was visiting Aira Force waterfall near Ullswater.
We also climbed the Orrest Head, a hill which has some envious views of Lake Windermere. We also enjoyed some amazing pub foods in areas of the Lakes.
Emilia Romagna, Italy
With the way this year panned out at work, I was unable to take any long leaves for any break. I did take some short ones. So I ended up with a lot of leaves to exhaust which will not be carried forward to next year. And I literally had no plan to use them and it was November. So more on impulse I decided to make this trip which was somewhere in an excel sheet planned long back but never executed.
I am so so so damn pleased that I made this trip with almost zero preparation. This was a fabulous one. It was quiet and just start of the Christmas season. Bologna, Parma, Modena, Ferrara and Ravenna; Great food, fabulous cathedrals and the Italian soothing balm of ‘il dolce far niente’. My fav trip of the year.
Lots of London….As always!
Needless to say, as a Londoner, maybe sometimes I take it for granted. I can’t always put mu finger on what I saw in London. I work in Central London so lets say I am also a tourist daily. Clicking as I walk to work or when I wind up a hard day, I walk to the tube station gazing those pink skies and glittering buildings on the banks of Thames. I love this city and it always keeps giving me more and more.
This year has been a roller coaster more than other years. There have been some personal losses of friends and family and the situation at work was legit crazy. I could not travel as much as I would have wanted to. But whatever and wherever I traveled, I enjoyed as I always do. The liberated feeling when you breathe in the air of a new town or city or a country is priceless. And this would always be something I would wish for at the end and start of any year.
Thinking about 2026 line up, I haven’t planned anything. I have 50th Birthday trips of two people closest to me. I also want to travel home to India, and accommodate a solo trip here and there. I definitely want to explore more of the UK which I think always is overlooked by living in London. So yeah nothing finalised, and I am open to suggestions.
Cheers to sunsetting 2025. And a huge welcome to 2026.
Wishing you all a very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year. May you continue to discover and explore the world.