Announcing Our Travel Plans For The Rest of 2018

Anyone who knows David and I, will know that our travel plans seem to change every week. 

One week we're going to travel the East Coast of Australia in a camper van, and by the following week we're making plans to eat nasi goreng in Indonesia. Before deciding we'd actually really like to see the northern lights in Scandinavia instead. 

As we both work online, then we can really go anywhere with a wifi connection and good coffee, wifi because we need to always be online and coffee because, well, because coffee is life.

We're constantly inspired by the stories of other travellers we meet about the friendly locals in Cuba or the turquoise blue waters of Belize. Or by documentaries we watch, or beautiful Instagram photos which appear in our feed,, or by the travel blogs we read. Every week new destinations seem to slip into our must visit list. 

We're very privileged to have the luxury of choice; with online work and a British passport, there are very few places we can't go. And we want to see everywhere. Trying to plan where we will be in 6 months is very difficult as sometimes we don't even know where we will be next week. We thought it would be fun to pull together our travel plans (and predictions) for the rest of 2018 and see how many ideas we actually stick to!

Backpacking South America has been a dream of ours for so many years, and 2018 was the year we finally made it happen. We hadn't done a backpacking trip since we were 21 and travelled around South East Asia in 2013. 

We blew the dust off those old backpacks, with David literally using the same backpack he has had since travelling Europe in 2011, and got ready for another adventure. We spent an incredible 5 months in South America, visiting Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Chile. And we learned a few things while we were there. 

Travelling when your 21 is completely different to travelling at 27. Our first trip in Asia was full of cheap Asian beers, buckets on the beach, full moon parties, tubing down fast flowing rivers and dancing the night away. It was all about having fun. This time when we travelled South America, we couldn't be bothered drinking every night - in fact, we probably only drank about 5 or 6 times during our whole trip. No longer can we deal with the next day hangovers when we would rather be out exploring a new destination. This time we wanted to make the most of our days and were happy to chill at night. 

We need a base. Being on the road for 5 months has taught us that we need a base. Packing and repacking a backpack every 2 days, constantly moving, never slowing down; it got tiring. We longed for a place where we could unpack for more than a couple of days, where we had a kitchen and could cook. Where we could have a routine. As amazing as our South America trip was, we both doubt we would do as long a trip as that again. 

The knowledge that we prefer slower travel; that we would prefer to base ourselves somewhere and do trips from there is what has moulded our travel plans for the rest of the year. 

We flew back to Scotland from South America at the end of May, and we loved being home. For once the sun was shining (it was around 24 degrees the whole time we were home which is unprecedented for Scotland!). We caught up with friends and family, ate all the food we had been missing, were able to cook again and start exercising. But before long, the itchy feet set in again and we were looking to the next adventure. 

And we flew to Valencia. 

Why Spain? Why Valencia? Well, we knew we wanted somewhere with sunshine and we wanted to be able to keep up our Spanish so it made sense to go to a Spanish speaking country. We've both spent quite a bit of time in Spain (I lived in Madrid in 2011) and Valencia was one city neither of us had spent much time in so it seemed like the perfect place. We are both in love with Spain; the food, the people, the late nights, the crowded tapas bars. We've always known it was a country we would love to spend some time in and finally decided that now would be the perfect time. 

We've rented an apartment in the centre of Valencia for 3 weeks; we want to slowly discover the city and be able to catch up on lots of work. After Valencia then we have about 2 weeks to spend somewhere else, we are thinking of going to northern Spain where it will be a little cooler since by then it will be the height of summer. We are considering Bilbao or Leon, then in July we fly to Gran Canaria. We have 3 weeks in Gran Canaria and want to fully explore the island. Before flying onto Porto in Portugal in August where we are meeting some friends. We've rented a big apartment and plan to eat our body weight in delicious seafood!

In mid-August we return to Scotland for a friends wedding and various big birthday celebrations before heading over to Ireland to visit some of David's family. This is all we have planned so far. 

After August we really have no idea what we will be doing but as always, we are constantly coming up with different ideas. 

One option is to spend some time in Ireland - we both want to travel Ireland, the West coast especially looks incredibly beautiful so when we fly over to visit David's family in Donegal we may rent a camper van and travel some of the country. Before heading somewhere else in Europe, possibly Spain again to avoid the British winter. 

A second option would be to chase the sun and head over to the Southern hemisphere. David's sister lives in New Zealand therefore we could visit her and see some of Asia and Australia on the way. Plus this would be a good excuse to see the places in New Zealand we haven't managed to yet. 

Or maybe neither of these options will come to fruition and we will end up spending the last few months of 2018 in the United States or South Africa as Seattle and Cape Town are two destinations we've both been thinking about recently. 

However the rest of our year turns out, we're super excited and will bring you all along on the journey! If you have any recommendations on places we should visit then let us know!