(last updated – August)
2025 has been a big travel year for me thus far. If you’ve been following along on my social media or have read any posts on my blog in the past, then you’ll know that my travel this year hasn’t topped 2023 or 2024 (when I was living without an apartment of my own and in month-long Airbnbs around the world), but that doesn’t mean I’ve been sitting sedentary in Manhattan. As of August, I have spent a cumulative of 2 1/2 months out of the country, visiting a total of 13 countries and territories. In Europe, I have visited Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, France, and Greece, and in Asia, I have visited Taiwan, South Korea, China, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, and Indonesia. While most of these were repeat visits for me, I visited some of the countries listed above for the first time. Here’s a breakdown of my year of travel (so far!) –
February & March (Iceland, Sweden, Norway, & Denmark)
I kicked off my international travel for 2025 with a two-week trip to Europe, with the first week being with one of my best friends and the second week by myself. At the end of February, my friend Jenna and I embarked on a European winter trek that began with Iceland, which I was ECSTATIC about because it was my first time visiting (although it was a very short trip). We booked our flights on Icelandair which offers free stopovers for various routes, so we spent the first day of our trip there. While I would have loved to stay several days, we had big plans for the week and ended up taking 5 flights in 6 days, so staying any longer unfortunately wasn’t in the cards for us. I have always been told that the best way to see Iceland is to rent a car and follow the Ring Road around the island, but despite our short trip, we attempted to make the most of our singular day there. Emphasis on attempted. What ended up happening instead was a series of unfortunate events that began with us landing at 5am, run-ins with a few crazy people and various mishaps, and the two of us eventually feeling like we were slowly losing our minds throughout the day. By the time 3pm had rolled around, we were fighting to stay awake in a coffee shop in Reykjavík and were simultaneously feeling drunk and slap-happy. After eating a dinner so early it could be considered lunch, we somehow managed to pull ourselves together in time for our reservation at the Blue Lagoon, Iceland’s world-renowned geothermal spa. Our visit to the spa made the entire day worth it and ended up being one of my favorite experiences from the whole trip.
After leaving Iceland bright and early the following day, we arrived in Stockholm where we stayed for two days and had a much better experience than our short stint in Iceland. It was my second trip to the city, and it honestly is one of my favorites in Europe. We strolled around the historical Gamla Stan and the Royal Palace, enjoyed a nice Swedish brunch, and visited the ABBA museum where we met their original stage costume designer, Owe Sandström. We had a fantastic dinner one night at Kasai, a contemporary Japanese restaurant and cocktail bar that I would highly recommend.
We then flew up to the arctic circle for less than 24-hours to spend one night at the famous Ice Hotel, where we slept on beds made of actual ice and took a snowmobile tour at nighttime to see the northern lights. I had stayed here once before when I was a student on Semester at Sea and knew that I eventually wanted to return because it was simply one of the most amazing experiences that I had ever had. It wasn’t very difficult to convince Jenna to go with me because we are on the same page when it comes to travel – if we have the money and the ability to do it, we should do it. She and I have been to seven countries together now and, unfortunately for her, she is now locked in as my travel buddy for life. When we arrived at the Ice Hotel, I was hopeful about seeing the northern lights because I had seen them there in the past; however, what we actually saw truly blew me away. They were so much more vibrant than the first time and I genuinely couldn’t believe how lucky we were to see them so active considering we were only there for a single night.
Our trip came to a close in Oslo, Norway, where we simply wandered around the city and enjoyed what the city had to offer. Jenna flew home from there, and I flew directly to Copenhagen where I spent the following week by myself. When I solo travel, I typically am also working from my laptop so I take a very slow approach to travel. This is how I’ve been operating for the last several years – spend the first few hours of the day at a coffee shop, take a break for lunch and a mid-afternoon activity, work for several more hours, and have the evening to wander and eat. Of course, this schedule works best when I am visiting a city or country for an extended period of time so I don’t have to rush to fit everything in. Since I had a full week in Copenhagen and I had already visited in the past, I stuck to my normal schedule and had time to visit almost every cafe and sight on my list.
Favorite moments of the trip – seeing the northern lights while on a nighttime snowmobiling tour at the Ice Hotel + visiting the Blue Lagoon
March cont. (France)
Less than two weeks after returning home from Europe, I turned right back around and flew to visit Paris for a week with one of my other best friends. My friend Linley visited Europe for the first time last summer and immediately planned a return trip after falling in love with Paris, and as you may have guessed I am certainly not the type of person to turn down an invitation to an international trip. As a certified Paris lover, this was my 7th trip to the city, and the end of March was a great time of year to visit. I honestly am not a warm-weather person and prefer to travel when it is cool or cold, so this was the best of both worlds to me. It was still chilly but not cold enough to need large coats, the crowds were smaller, and we caught the beginning stages of some of the flowers blooming for spring.
We stayed in the Marais in the 3rd arrondissement at a quaint Airbnb. Like many other people, the Marais is one of my favorite neighborhoods in Paris and I would highly recommend staying in the area. We spent the week relaxing at cafes and strolling through various museums, but of course our week wouldn’t have been complete without a trip to Disneyland Paris (Linley and I are both bigggg Disney park girls).
Favorite moments of the trip – going to Disneyland Paris + enjoying people watching from outdoor seating at various cafes
May (Taiwan)
At the end of May, I embarked on my longest trip of the year – a month alone in East Asia. I was actually supposed to visit Taiwan for the first time last fall before spending another week in Korea and meeting my mom in Japan for a mother-daughter trip, but had to cancel last-minute due to a typhoon. Since I was eager to visit, I decided to make Taiwan the first stop on my summer itinerary. I stayed for just five days and spent most of my time in Taipei, but also spent one night in Jiufen. Taipei was gorgeous and I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the different neighborhoods there. Embarrassingly, one of the few things I actually had planned for the trip was to visit the original Din Tai Fung as it is one of my favorite restaurants. When my dad and I tried it for the first time in Dubai a few years ago, I had no idea that we had stumbled upon a cult favorite and that it would become a restaurant I always seek out when traveling. While the original location in Taipei is still standing, it is now takeout only so I also visited its newer nearby counterpart to enjoy a meal sitting down.
Jiufen was definitely the highlight of the trip for me because it is somewhere that I had been wanting to visit for years. It is a small mountain village that is popularly believed to have inspired the ghost town in Spirited Away, and although Hayao Miyazaki has explicitly denied this, the resemblance is still uncanny. It was absolutely stunning and I had the most relaxing 24 hours there, so stay tuned for a dedicated post.
Favorite moments of the trip – visiting Jiufen + eating at the original Din Tai Fung
June (South Korea, China, & Japan)
Continuing on with my solo month in East Asia, I kicked off June with a two-week stint in South Korea. Possibly embarrassingly (depending on how you look at it), this was my fifth trip to Korea in just over two years and I have now spent a cumulative of almost three months there. I cannot emphasize enough how much I LOVE Seoul – I genuinely would move there and honestly, I haven’t ruled it out. It is such a stunning city and its mix of modernity with more traditional aspects of Korean culture is perfect. I have a few favorite neighborhoods that I frequent when visiting Seoul, but I also try to incorporate new spots into each of my trips so I don’t become too complacent and stop seeing new things. My favorite portion of the trip was staying in Gyeongju at a beautiful hanok (a traditional home). Gyeongju was the historical capital of the Silla Dynasty and can be traced back to 57 BCE, so it is a phenomenal spot to visit if you admire history. It was my second time going to Gyeongju, although my first time was simply a stop on my way to Busan so I felt as though I needed a designated trip to the city.
After leaving Korea, I finally had the opportunity to visit mainland China for the first time. I went without a visa, so my time in the country was unfortunately limited to 10 days but I made the most of it. There are countless places on my bucket list in China, but I decided it was best to stick with the basics for my first trip to dip my toes into the water. I began the week in Beijing (where I went to the Great Wall of China!!) before taking a high-speed train to Shanghai and Suzhou for the remainder of my stay. I loved Shanghai – it honestly is one of my favorite cities now. I spent one night in the neighboring city Suzhou, where there are several serene water towns to visit – my favorite was Tongli. I stayed at the most gorgeous hotel there that felt like a palace for less than $100 USD per night (the Pan Pacific Suzhou) and can’t recommend adding this to your trip enough. I felt extremely safe the entire week and cannot recommend it enough to other solo travelers.
To wrap up my solo month, I headed to Okinawa, Japan for the first time which was somewhere I had been wanting to visit for a long time as well. Unfortunately, my trip was extremely short, so I had just over two days to explore Naha and the surrounding areas. I didn’t have enough time to visit any neighboring islands which I think should definitely be a must for people visiting – luckily for me, I have the time and ability to go back so this wasn’t too big of an issue for me. For anyone who is unfamiliar with Okinawa, it is Japan’s tropical paradise that is actually geographically closer to Taiwan than to the main islands of Japan. The water and beaches were stunning while still maintaining all of the most alluring aspects of Japan. I stayed at an all-female capsule hotel (Hotel Minimmums– not sponsored) which was extremely clean and nice (side note- I am a huge fan of staying in capsule hotels in Japan. They are essentially hostels but much nicer and very quiet).
Favorite moments of the trip – spending the night in a hanok in Gyeongju, visiting the Great Wall of China, + seeing the water towns in Suzhou
July (Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, & Greece)
To probably no one’s surprise, I also spent much of July in Asia. However, I actually did return to the States for about a week and a half at the end of June before jetting back across the Pacific. While this was obviously not ideal because of how long the travel days are, I went home to celebrate my grandma’s 90th birthday with our whole family before also going on my immediate family’s annual vacation to Hilton Head Island in South Carolina.
My second trip to Asia for the summer was actually with my parents and younger sister, who had never been to Southeast Asia. As the de facto travel agent in our family, I found great-priced roundtrip flights to and from Singapore on Air Canada and planned the rest of our trip around that. We spent our first and final days in Singapore since that it where we were entering and exiting the region, but aside from that we spent five days in Vietnam and three in Indonesia. It was my third trip to Singapore and second to Vietnam as I spent a month there last year during my Airbnb tour around the world, so I was ecstatic to take my family because I knew they would enjoy it (especially my dad). We managed to pack in several cities despite our short time frame, staying in Hội An, Da Nang, Hanoi, and even spending a night on a boat in Ha Long Bay. We then flew directly to Bali, where we spent the latter half of our trip relaxing at the most beautiful resort I have ever been to, the Apurva Kempinski Bali. My mom and sister prefer relaxing vacations, so we treated Bali as the calm portion of our trip since I had them constantly on-the-go in Vietnam.
The day after returning back to New York from our family vacation, I boarded a plane to Greece with another college best friend. While the turnaround time obviously wasn’t ideal, my friend is a teacher and therefore had a very limited window of opportunity before school started back in early August. As each of us had been to Greece in the past, we knew we wanted to kick off our trip by returning to Mykonos. We then also visited Paros, where I had never been before, as well as Santorini, where she had not yet visited. There is nothing quite as exciting as a girl’s trip coming to fruition when it has been discussed for a long time, so being able to relax and enjoy my friend’s company was the best part of the trip.
Favorite moments of the trip – staying at the most STUNNING hotel in Bali + being able to bring my family to places I had dreamed of one day taking them to
