Lifestyle, food and drink, and our family life and travel adventures.
This year, both my husband and I are turning 40 (him in just over a week!), and so we are planning to do a little more travelling this year in celebration.
I love travelling so much – getting away from it all, exploring a new place with different cultures, food and drink, and getting to spend quality time with my family; I would travel so much more if I could.
We have just come back from a lovely few days in Prague, just the two of us; we will hopefully spend another week camping in Cornwall over the summer and my 40th, as well as a summer holiday abroad somewhere if we’re able to. We only usually go on holiday for a week once a year, if that, so it’s an exciting year for us.
I’ve been very lucky to have travelled to many different countries, mostly on our trip around the world in our early twenties. There are so many places we visited that I would love to go back to, and I’ve also had amazing holidays with my family, so picking a favourite is difficult!
I absolutely adored Vietnam, New Zealand and New York, but I would have to say that our family road trip around Spain and Portugal back in 2015 for our honeymoon has to be my best holiday ever. It wasn’t easy – the ferry there and back was atrocious (see below!), Ava was at a pretty difficult age where she refused to walk anywhere and cried and whinged the vast majority of the time we were in the car.
But, we were together, as a family, away for a month, having just got married, exploring so many beautiful places, and it was just wonderful. My favourites included Porto, The Algarve, San Sebastián, Seville, and Salamanca for the stunning architecture. It made us really want to live in Spain or Portugal one day, and I really hope we are able to do so at some point, even if it’s short-term.
And so, onto my 2024 travel bucket list. My actual dream would be to travel all year with our dog, both of us working remotely, some of the time in a campervan – I would love that so much. But, alas, I’m not made of money or the patience to homeschool, and a year with a bit more travel is still very exciting.
We won’t be able to get to all of these places this year (unless we win the lottery), but these are the places I would love to go to this year if I possibly could.
The two of us have just come back from a really lovely few days in Prague, so I can already tick this one off my list! Neither of us had been before, and we managed to get an absolute bargain (£50 return flights and a gorgeous hotel for £58 a night!), so it was the perfect choice for a short winter break abroad.
It was cold but not freezing, and we had a brilliant time exploring the beautiful city, eating Schnitzel and drinking plenty of Pilsner Urquell! Because we went in February, nowhere was too overcrowded, we got to stay in a gorgeous hotel with breakfast included that we wouldn’t have been able to afford during the high season, and the whole trip didn’t cost us a fortune.
I suspect luxury Maldives holidays are probably on most people’s travel wishlists, and I know I would really love to go one day. It looks like such a stunning place for a holiday, and I would love to spend a week or two relaxing, eating, drinking cocktails, sunbathing on the white sandy beaches, and swimming in the ocean.
It would be an amazing place to go snorkelling in the warm, clear waters, and I have always wanted to stay in one of those beautiful overwater bungalows where you can step down straight into the sea.
I always think it would be a brilliant holiday to take in those horrible winter months when Christmas is over, the weather is miserable in England, and we’re desperate to feel the sun on our skin. One day, hopefully!
Ideally, we would love to go to Spain and possibly Portugal again and travel around, as we did for our honeymoon with our daughter, but we can’t cope with the god-awful ferry across the Bay of Biscay again (it was horrendous, honestly), and also everywhere is so expensive right now!
We are hoping we will be able to go to Spain for a week or two, and whilst I would prefer to take the car and travel round, or even get the train there, we will probably have to fly this time.
I would really love to go all the way to Spain on the train and take our dog with us one day – I just feel like it would be a pretty chill way to travel and see more of the country. Realistically, though, we won’t be able to do that this year, but hopefully, we can fly into one bigger area and then take the train to smaller, less touristy places.
We had a few days in San Sebastián for our honeymoon road trip around Spain and Portugal, and we absolutely loved it. We would love to go again and enjoy a few chilled days of wandering the paved streets, enjoying lots of amazing pintxos and Spanish wine, spending lazy days on the pretty beach and seeing the sights.
If we make it to Spain this year, we really want San Sebastián to be a part of the trip.
I adore Cornwall, and I really hope we can go this year, ideally for my 40th. The last two years, we have been to a wonderful campsite near Looe – Trewall Farm – and it is absolutely stunning and a brilliant family holiday.
We’ve become friends with the wonderful owners (not something I usually want to do on holiday!), there are panoramic views of the sea, and it is such a good place to really get away from it all, get lots of fresh air and explore Looe and the rest of Cornwall.
When I was a teenager, all of my female friends went on holiday to Croatia. I couldn’t afford to go as I was already going abroad with my boyfriend that year, and I’m still a bit gutted that I missed out! It’s somewhere I have wanted to go ever since – it looks so beautiful and full of culture, and I’m desperate to go.
I have written before about Dubrovnik, and it sounds great and looks beautiful, so I’d love to go there, as well as some of the stunning places that are more off-the-beaten-track.
It looks like such a beautiful place, with beautiful beaches and stunning historic cities to walk around. It’s unlikely we’ll get there this year, but it’s staying on the wishlist until we’re able to.
We’re very lucky to have a family cottage in Whitby, so we usually get to go a few times a year, and we love it there. We’ve already been for a few days this year, and we’re going again in a few weeks.
It’s always so good to get away, and even though we still have to cook and clean, it’s still one of our favourite places to go. We love the break from mundane daily life; we get loads of fresh air walking on the beach, playing in the sand (and sometimes in the sea, even though it’s always freezing!), and wandering around Whitby.
I’m very lucky to be able to travel a bit more this year for our 40th birthday’s, and I can’t wait to explore more places and places we already love as a family.
In collaboration with Away Holidays.
Welcome to Birds and Lilies! I'm Lou: mother, blogger and freelance writer. This is my lifestyle blog, where I talk about motherhood, infertility and IVF, beauty, my love for food and wine, as well as my thoughts about stuff, and our real-life and travel adventures.
Contact: [email protected]
I would love to explore more of the UK, Whitby sounds beautiful! I went to Prague last year and loved it (apart from the dodgy hostel!), hope you had a lovely time x
Yes, we love Whitby! We had a brilliant time, thank you! Sorry to hear about the dodgy hostel – I hope it didn’t ruin your time there x