It’s not in my nature to use words like awesome or epic but looking back at our 2014, less-enthusiastic words just don’t do our travelling year justice.
Twenty-six countries across three continents, it’s certainly going down as the year we packed in the most destinations. It’s almost embarrassing to admit to visiting so many places, but as you will see, we went to a lot of small countries that are close to each other! There were also a few (happy) family commitments that dictated our pace in some places and, although those events were definitely worth adjusting our travel plans for, one of our 2015 resolutions is to slow things down a little bit!
It will come as no surprise to many of our readers that we are way behind in writing blogs for all the places we visited in 2014. However, we are playing a bit of catch-up whilst we’re here in Chiang Mai for a few weeks and already have lots of posts lined up and ready to publish over the coming months.
If the meantime, and by way of a 2014 round-up, here are some of our favourite photographs from our year of travels. We could pick hundreds (we’ve taken thousands!) but have kept the selection strict and added links to further images or blog posts if you’d like to see more. We’ve also tried to pick some less-conventional shots to entice you to find out more 😉
So here it is: Our 2014 in Photographs
After celebrating Christmas and seeing in the New Year with family and friends in England we kicked off 2014 with a destination that had been on both of our ‘bucket list’ for some time …
Cuba
Cuba is vibrant, friendly, colourful and beautiful and definitely lived up to expectations.
Being right at the start of the year, it’s also one destination that we have managed to post a few entries about! There have been a lot of rapid changes in Cuba over the past few years and with the recent developments between Cuba and the U.S., the pace of change is only set to quicken. Cuba is a country we’d love to get back to before things change too much.
From Cuba, we flew to Costa Rica and travelled overland through Central America. Our route took us into Panama, back into Costa Rica and through Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Belize …
Highlights included travelling by chicken bus, Central American breakfasts, colonial towns and a zip wire experience through the cloud forests of Costa Rica (which was great fun!).
Panama
Costa Rica
Nicaragua
We really enjoyed Nicaragua with its combination of colonial cities and stunning scenery and it’s also on the list of places to return to.
El Salvador
We were surprised by El Salvador and enjoyed getting off the “gringo trail”, as it seemed fewer travellers lingered long here.
Honduras
Admittedly one country, we didn’t linger long in was Honduras – just long enough to explore the colonial town of Gracias and make a return visit to the superb archaeological site at Copan.
Belize
We fell in love with the relaxed Caribbean vibe of Belize and rejoiced in not having to struggle with our poor Spanish for a couple of weeks.
Guatemala
We revisited some of our favourite spots and discovered a few more. Guatemala felt like it was the busiest country on the “gringo trail” but its vibrant markets, colourful ethnic groups of people and superb scenery at Semuc Champey ensured it was one of our highlights of the region.
From Guatemala, we crossed the border into …
Mexico
Mexico is a huge country, and we only scratched the surface by just visiting the states of Chiapas and Yucatan. However, we explored our fair share of Mayan ruins, witnessed Santa Semana (Easter week) in San Cristóbal de las Casas and relaxed on the beach at Isla Mujeres.
From Cancun in Mexico, we flew back to the UK for a short week to say hello and re-pack our rucksacks. It was then a short hop to the Baltic States …
Lithuania
Latvia
Estonia
From Estonia, it was a short ferry ride across the Gulf of Finland to Helsinki.
Finland
From Helsinki we flew to …
Norway
… where we met up with Mark’s parents to share their 50th wedding anniversary celebrations. We voyaged to the Land of the Midnight Sun on board Hurtigruten’s appropriately named MS Midnatsol where, in addition to experiencing almost 24 hours of daylight, we saw some stunning scenery.
After Norway, we hit Eastern Europe and we travelled by train and bus from Prague to Belgrade.
Czech Republic
It was our first visit to the Czech Republic and we had a fantastic few days discovering Prague and enjoying a brief reunion with friends from Chiang Mai.
Slovakia
Bratislava was fun to explore on foot with camera in hand. As well as quaint cobbled streets packed with historic buildings, the city is also home to some very colourful street art.
Hungary
Onward to Budapest, a city with lots to do and see and one in which we could have lingered in longer …
Slovenia
Croatia
Bosnia & Hercegovina…
…was another country that captivated us with its fascinating history and picturesque bridges.
Serbia
We ended our Eastern Europe extravaganza in Serbia where we stopped off in the alpine resort of Zlatibor before spending a few days in Belgrade.
We spent July and August in France, Switzerland and the UK with our families, taking a break from the DSLR camera!
Early in September, we headed back to South East Asia and after a brief stop in Bangkok to eat as much Thai food as we could squeeze into our bellies, we began a three-month stint on the Indonesian island of Bali. As well as getting to know Bali better, we also did some travelling in Lombok and Java.
Bali
Thailand
And here we are: spending Christmas and New Year in our second home, Chiang Mai.
So what’s in store for us in 2015? We will be here in Chiang Mai until early February when we set off for Bangladesh from where we plan to travel overland into northeast India. After that? We’re not sure yet. We will probably head in a west or north-westerly direction, wending our way back to Europe and, although we have plenty of ideas we haven’t yet made a decision. Watch this space …
And follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for “on the road” updates.
Well, I became breathless just reading about all the places you’ve both visited throughout 2014. Seemingly you arrive and check in, walk around old towns (and new), take pictures, explore markets, visit places of historical significance, take more pictures, sample local cuisine and beverages, write a blog or two, and then move on. Your nomadic lifestyle obviously suits you and I have to say that the now vast collection of photographs is a superb record of all the interesting places you have visited and fascinating things you have seen and done. My thanks go to the inventors of the Internet who through their engineering brilliance have allowed me to keep up with your progress and most importantly know that you are both okay. Parents never cease to worry about these things!
Well done both of you and let’s hope 2015 proves to be as exciting as 2014 obviously was. Let’s also hope that we (Mark’s parents and Kirsty’s parents) will see something of you here in the UK, if only for a few weeks or even just days. The wine and beer is always suitably chilled in the ‘fridge awaiting your attention.
Happy new year and bon voyage for 2015,
Mark’s mum and dad.
Thank you for your kind, but possibly biased, words 😉
Don’t worry, we’ll definitely be back to visit in 2015!
Loved this post! We have a few of your European destinations from 2014 on our wish list for 2015 so get blogging 🙂
Wishing you both a fantastic new year, Christine and Dan x
Thank you! Happy New Year to you both too!
The posts are on the way … which places are on your 2015 wish list?
Some wonderful photos in this post. You visited a few of the same places we’ve been recently as well as a place I’m looking forward to visiting in a few months (San Cristobal de las Casas – doing my annual trip to visit my mom in Mexico).
I always like year end sum up posts 🙂
Frank (bbqboy)
Thank you. Somehow those 2014 travels seem like a decade ago now! We keep talking about returning to Mexico – we’ve so much more to see there 🙂