It’s my favourite time of the year where I look back at all the amazing adventures I had the previous year. When I think about the last year I can’t help but feel grateful for all the opportunities I was given. When I was thinking about possibilities during my 2023 recap I never would have imagined I’d get as many work abroad jobs as I ended up getting.
You may have noticed I’ve been quieter on the blog this year and that’s mostly due to me changing the way I work. If you didn’t know I work in the TV industry and previously the majority of my work has been London based sports work. Well last year I changed things so the majority of my year was spent on location based jobs. This has been great for helping me travel more but has meant I’ve had less time for writing.
Don’t worry, I’m going to make sure I set aside more writing time in 2025 as I have a lot of plans for Curious Claire. But for now, let’s look back at how my 2024 was…
2024 Travel Stats
Countries Visited: 9
New Countries Visited: 5
Flights Taken: 19
A Look Back at 2024
January – Portugal
January is always a quiet period with work so it’s my favourite time to fit in a trip. This year I decided to take a long overdue visit to my friend’s ‘new’ flat in Lisbon. I haven’t been to Portugal since I was a teenager so a visit was long overdue! Plus it was lovely to catch up with my friend Brittany and let her show me her favourite spots in Lisbon.
February – Home
In February I took some time to stay at home, see friends and family and take some London based work. While I was home I was trying to take advantage of my lovely area and take more walks. One way I found to get out more was a thing I had come across on Tik Tok called Geocaching. This is a worldwide treasure hunt where users get coordinates and have to find containers known as ‘caches’. It’s a great excuse to get outside more and explore new areas and quickly became a new obsession of mine.
March – Otters
I’m lucky to have such an amazing partner. Boyfriend knows how much of an animal lover I am and has always wanted to do something animal themed for my birthday but knows I’m not a fan of zoos. Thankfully he found something much more amazing; an otter experience. Down in Devon, south England there is an otter sanctuary that actually looks after the otter’s best needs.
For the ones who can’t be rehabilitated, they live at the sanctuary and that’s where you can visit them and take part in the otter experience. And that was my birthday treat. You get a tour to meet all the otters and then after that you prepare all the otters lunches. Afterwards you get to go round and feed them. It was such an incredible experience.
March – Lithuania
Last year thanks to my work, I managed to visit a couple of new countries. Unfortunately for Boyfriend, none of our trips together were to new countries so he was feeling like he was overdue for some new countries. That’s why we planned a 3 week trip around the Baltic states. All new for him and still gave me 1 new country to visit; Lithuania.
Lithuania was a great place to start the Baltics adventure. Vilnius is such a cool city and has great access to Trakai Castle which had been a dream of mine to visit for years so it was great to finally get there. Plus while staying in Šiauliai I got to visit the Hill of Crosses which has also been something I’ve wanted to do.
April – Latvia
After a week in Lithuania I was excited to return to one of my favourite destinations in Europe. I have been to Riga several times and have loved it since my first visit and now I had the chance to share the city with Boyfriend. There’s so many fun things to do in Riga and great places to eat. And being there with Boyfriend meant I got to sample lots more Latvian beer.
The great thing about Riga is that it makes a great base to explore the rest of Latvia. There are so many great day trips from Riga you can do including a visit to Sigulda which was a highlight of this trip. There are multiple castles to explore plus great nature walks to take.
READ ALSO: The Best Castles in Latvia
April – Estonia
While in Riga we also took a three day trip to Tallinn. The last time I visited Tallinn from Riga I did it as just a one day trip. While this is doable, it does limit the time you have to explore so this time I wanted to give us enough time to really see the city properly.
Another reason I was keen to have extra time in Tallinn was to visit a brewery I’ve been becoming fond of thanks to my local beer shop becoming an ambassador of theirs. It’s been great to sample them in the UK as you don’t get much of a chance to have Estonian beer at home. But visiting the brewery was amazing. They had so many beers on tap, food on offer and a great shop with even more beers.
May – Wales
After a long trip away it was nice to spend some time in the UK. Earlier this year I had the Bestie and family come and see us and now it was our turn to come and see them. What I love about Bestie is she’s proud of her home in Wales and is always up for exploring areas and showing it off. It was fun to spend the time with them and explore some nature trails, waterfalls and castles in Wales.
June – Mallorca
June was the start of my abroad jobs and while I’ve been to Spain many times, I had never been to the island of Mallorca before. I ended up spending almost 3 weeks there on the job with one day off a week. Not a huge amount of time off but it was enough to get to see some sights and get a feel for the island, especially the main town, Palma.
June – Jamaica
Just a couple of days after I returned from Mallorca it was time to head off for another location job. This time it was to a brand new country which made this my first new country visited because of work in 2024. While it was sadly a quick visit to Jamaica, a highlight for me was being able to walk around the track of the National Stadium where great Jamaican athletes have raced, including the legendary Usain Bolt.
July – Tanzania
After a couple of work trips it was nice to finally be taking a trip for pleasure again. This was another new country for me and only my second African country. I was very excited for this trip, not only because it was a new country, but because of Boyfriend. He has been involved with a charity out there for the last 10 years and I finally got to see the school for myself. It was so great to see the school up close and meet some of the kids who go there and even get a chance to meet some of the former school kids who now attend the local secondary school.
Once the visits to the schools were done, the ‘work’ part of the trip was over and I got to tick something off my bucket list that I’ve been excited to do forever… safari! As a huge animal lover, this is something I’ve wanted to do for the longest time and I’m so glad I did. The safari was over 4 nights and during this time I got to visit Serengeti National Park, Tarangire National Park and Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
Considering it was my first safari, I got very lucky. During the 5 days I saw warthogs, zebras, elephants, ostriches, lions, baboons, giraffes, hyenas, gazelles, hippos, leopards, dik-diks, a serval cat and even a charging rhino (sadly in the distance though).
August – Sweden
After a lovely holiday it was time to head back to work and in August I got to visit another new country for work. For this job I was in a small town not too far from Stockholm. The town was quiet but very charming. The best thing about it was our accommodation was inside a pub with great craft beer options. The downside though was I spent most of the time on night shift which limited the amount of drinking I could do there. Disappointing but might have been for the best!
The best part of the job was the day trip I took to Stockholm with a couple of my colleagues on one of our days off. We had a great day exploring what the city has to offer. My favourite part was visiting a place known for its Swedish meatballs where you can order a variety of meatballs from different meats including boar, reindeer, moose and even bear.
September – Cyprus
September saw me off to another new country for work. Unfortunately it was a brief job that didn’t give me a chance to explore the country. While it was a shame to be in a very secluded area that didn’t give me a chance to explore, I was lucky enough to be staying in a gorgeous 5 star luxury hotel. And I fell in love with the bathtub in my room!
September – Manchester
With all the jobs abroad it was nice to have a job in the UK again. Manchester is the second biggest city for TV work so it’s a place I’ve gone for work many times. I love Manchester so I’m always happy to spend some time here. Manchester has such a cool vibe to it as well as great restaurants and beer spots.
And since Manchester is not far from London it meant that Boyfriend could come and visit me while I was there. Perfect since the job meant I was up there for our anniversary. Oops! But he was able to come visit for it so I treated him to an amazing lunch at a restaurant I’ve been dying to visit since I heard about it a few years ago. And let me tell you it was well worth the wait!
October – Blackpool
In October I had my final UK based location job of 2024 and this took me to a UK city I had never been to before. I had heard a lot about Blackpool as it’s a popular UK destination known especially for its tower and lights so it was great to finally get a chance to see the city for myself. Unfortunately I didn’t have much time off but I got enough to get a feel for the city. There was a cat cafe in town I really wanted to visit but sadly it’s opening hours didn’t match my shifst. Maybe next time!
READ ALSO: Cat Cafes in the UK
November – Grenada
November saw my final abroad job of 2024 and it was nice to revisit the island of Grenada and have my second visit to the Caribbean of the year. After spending a month there in 2023 it was nice to return and know my way around town. I knew my favourite restaurants in Grenada but also got to try some new ones. And like 2023, I got to have a short holiday on the island after the job was done.
December – Home
After such a busy year for work I just wanted to spend the last month of the year resting at home with friends and family. One highlight of the month was having an old friend visit for the first time in almost 10 years. As a big Ted Lasso fan he was keen to pop over to Richmond to check out the pub used in the show and as it turns out, there is also a Ted Lasso Store nearby too.
What’s Planned in 2025?
Here we are again at one of my favourite parts of the year. When I can dream about all the possibilities the next year could bring me. I’m a girl who loves a bit of spontaneity so I never have too much booked for the year ahead but I love to dream about all the possibilities.
But I am happy to say I have flights booked for Albania in Easter. I’m hoping it can stay an ‘open plan’ trip where decisions aren’t made too far ahead. Right now all I know is the trip will start in Tirana but could go anywhere after that. I’m maybe thinking of adding a day or two to nearby countries like Montenegro or North Macedonia but it’s far too early to tell right now!
But this is what I’m currently thinking about for 2025…
- A visit to Albania and maybe some neighbouring countries too
- Exploring more UK breweries
- Attending more sporting events – especially women’s football
As always, thank you to everyone who reads and supports this blog. I can’t wait to see what 2025 holds for Curious Claire!
More Personal Posts
- What I Read in 2024
- A Year in Review: 2023
- How I Got Into Travel
- Confessions of My First Solo Trip
- That Time I Had To Flee Poland
Like this post? Don’t forget to pin the below image
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links which means I earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.
Leave a Reply