Discover my favourite destinations of the year in this 2024 travel review, featuring 12 of my favourite photos — one from each trip I took.
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For me, 2024 was all about finally being able to complete three previously thwarted trips — an incredible backpacking adventure around Sri Lanka; a challenging, but fascinating foray into Azerbaijan, and a 320-kilometre walk across northern Spain. The reason why these trips didn’t happen in the first place (or, in one instance, was forcibly cut short) will be explained in more detail further along in this post. But, suffice to say, it felt good to be able to tick these off the travel wish list this year.
So, without further ado, let’s get started with my 2024 travel review.
2024 Travel Review
January | A long weekend in Valencia, Spain
It’s Stu’s birthday in January, so we always try and go away somewhere for a few days this month, in order to mark the occasion. In recent years, we’ve been lucky enough to score some amazing Travelzoo deals that have allowed us to explore the UK in more depth, but this year we had to hop on to Skyscanner for some inspiration. Our ‘UK to Everywhere’ search yielded return flights from Birmingham to Valencia for just £30 each. Considering we booked the flights less than two weeks before we travelled, we were pretty fortunate to find this lovely, centrally-located apartment for just £250 for the two of us for four nights. It definitely pays to travel off-season!
Although the sunshine decided to take a holiday as soon as our second day in Valencia rolled around (it was cloudy, overcast and cold for the most part; we’ve experienced better weather over here in the UK in January!), we had an enjoyable few days exploring Spain’s third largest city.
We spent the first day orientating ourselves with Valencia’s historic centre — visiting the cathedral, checking out the Quarter and Serrano towers, discovering a few pieces of vibrant and colourful street art, sampling some horchata and fartons at one of the city’s most famous Horchaterias, and locating the narrowest building in Europe and potentially the tiniest house in the city, known as the ‘Cat House.’
Our second day was a day of contrasts. After popping in to the Central Market and grabbing a spot of breakfast, we hopped on a local bus to make the 2.5 kilometre journey out to the iconic City of Arts and Sciences — a cultural and architectural complex (built between 1996-1998) that features a collection of rather cool, futuristic buildings where scenes from several well-known movies and TV series have been filmed. In the afternoon, we headed back into the centre of the city to visit one of Valencia’s oldest buildings. The Silk Exchange was constructed between 1482 and 1533 and was (as the name suggests) once used for trading silk. It’s a stunningly beautiful building, both inside and out, and is a wonderful example of Gothic architecture that earned its UNESCO World Heritage status in 1996.
In the evening, we decided to throw caution to the wind and catch a metro out to a highly recommended Italian tapas bar in the city’s university district. I’m mentioning it here because our dining experience (a combination of the food, the staff and the ambience) at Bocadella Tapas was incredible!
On our third day in Valencia, we headed south to the arty, creative Ruzafa neighbourhood for brunch, followed by a leisurely tour of some of the city’s museums, in order to make full use of our Valencia card. We stopped at the Museu Nacional de Ceràmica i de les Arts followed by the La Almoina Archaeological Museum and finishing up at the Centro de Arte Hortensia Herrero – which I loved!
March | An incredible backpacking adventure around Sri Lanka
I started this adventure back in March of 2020. I’d been in Sri Lanka just a couple of days when the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a pandemic, and I almost got stranded in the country when the Sri Lankan government began to take a rather rapid succession of strict measures, in an attempt to contain the virus. Fortunately, with the help of one of my friends back home, I managed to book an earlier return flight, and was able to make it back to the UK before Colombo airport halted all flights, both in and out of the country. However, what this meant was that I’d only been able to see a fraction of the places on my original itinerary, so I’d been wanting to return ever since in order to complete my trip.
My previous itinerary had been three weeks long, but seeing as though I’d been able to explore both Columbo and Sigiriya (and a limited number of attractions in Kandy) the first time around, I didn’t feel the need to re-visit them the second time around. So, I was able to formulate a two-week itinerary in order to incorporate all those places I hadn’t made it to three years ago.
And, this time around, Sri Lanka was everything I dreamed it would be!
In Kandy, I made it to the city’s botanical garden, a few temples on the outskirts of the city, and the iconic Ambuluwawa Tower — all of which had been closed by the time I arrived there back in 2020.
From Kandy I caught the famous blue train to Ella, stopping off at Hatton (in order to climb Adam’s Peak) and Haputale, to see the tea plantations. Sri Lanka’s Hill Country was my absolute favourite part of the trip. In Haputale, I found the sweetest tuk-tuk driver (or, rather, he found me, in a restaurant overlooking the railway tracks just off Haputale’s main street) to drive me up to Lipton’s Seat for sunrise. I then walked back down to the Dambatenne Tea Factory through the tea plantations. The views were incredible and I didn’t see a soul aside from a few of the tea pickers making their way to work.
In Ella, I completed several incredible hikes — one up to Ella Rock, one to Little Adam’s Peak, and a couple out to viewpoints for the Nine-Arch Bridge. I also took a cooking class at Ella Spice Garden. My accommodation in Ella was wonderful and, whilst the town itself was very touristy in comparison to Haputale, the quality and choice of cafes and restaurants was a lot better.
I finished up heading down to the coast to enjoy a couple of days of relaxation at Hiriketiya and then reacquaint myself with a very different Galle to last time. This time around, there were cafes, shops and restaurants open, people milling around the streets and a distinct lack of police instructing me to return to my hotel! I loved all the old colonial architecture in Galle and I’m sure I managed to walk down every street at least once during my time there.
It was almost impossible to choose just one photo from a trip where I was constantly surrounded by incredible landscapes, but I finally settled on one of Haputale’s beautiful tea plantations.
Read more:
Top Tips for Getting Around Sri Lanka Hassle-free
Sigiriya to Polonnaruwa: A Day Trip to Sri Lanka’s Ancient City
Dambulla Cave Temple: One of Sri Lanka’s Ancient Wonders
Fast Approaching Lockdown: My Experience of Being A Tourist in Sri Lanka During Covid-19
Places to Visit in Kandy: Sri Lanka’s Cultural Capital
April | A short break in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk to catch up with friends
My two longest-standing friends, Kath and Gloria live in very different parts of the country — Kath down near Norwich (Norfolk) and Gloria up in Preston (Lancashire). Normally, the only guaranteed time we all get together is our annual trip abroad, but this year Gloria happened to be down in Cambridge visiting her brother on the same weekend one of our favourite artists was performing at the Cambridge Junction. Kath’s girlfriend lives in Ely, which is just half an hour away from Cambridge on the train.
Due to the ridiculous cost of public transport in the UK and the length of time it takes to get from Shrewsbury to Norwich on the train (over six hours!), I’d not yet visited Kath since she’d moved into her new house, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to book a trip. I could catch the train to Ely (much easier and cheaper to get to!), stop in Ely one night in order to go to the Undercover Hippy gig and have a look around the city, and then continue on to Norwich the following day.
It was a lovely trip that left me vowing to make the cross-country journey more often in the future.
May | A visit to Trinny in Spain and a challenging but fascinating tour of Azerbaijan
It’s become a bit of a tradition every year to spend the early May bank holiday weekend with my friend Trinny over in Spain. It’s the only bank holiday weekend of the year that we share with Spain, so it used to mean that, when Trinny was teaching online, she’d have an extra day off to spend with us. However, now that her husband runs his own painting business and she does his admin, accounts, customer service and marketing, neither of them are necessarily able to take as much time off. However, the 3rd of May is also their son’s birthday, so they always try to do something a little bit special for him at this time of year.
The highlight of this trip for me was definitely the hike we did from Torre del Pirulico in Mojacar to the little village of Sopalmo, where we stopped at a lovely little cafe to rehydrate. However, I also enjoyed our afternoon in Aguilas, the cycle ride Trinny and I did down the rambla to Albox, watching little Nik unbox (and go for a trial ride on) his new quad bike, savouring some fresh seafood at Bocaina Beach Club on Mojacar’s seafront, spending our evenings binge watching Baby Reindeer on Netflix, and stopping off at Lorca Castle on our way back to the airport.
Just over a week after I returned from Spain, my friend Jayne and I jetted off to Azerbaijan. We were meant to make this trip originally in October last year, but a fire in one of the car parks at Luton airport (where we were scheduled to make the first leg of our journey from) resulted in the closure of the airport and the cancellation of all flights leaving from said airport that day. But, we had a three-hour wait at Warsaw airport before our connecting flight to Baku, so we figured we’d just find an alternative flight to Warsaw, leaving from any airport south of Manchester. What we hadn’t banked on was the airlines profiteering off the back of the airport closure just quite as much or as quickly as they did — the flight from Luton to Warsaw had cost us just £20 each; there were now no flights heading that way for anything less than £500!!!
Of course, our next option was to buy a whole new one-way flight all the way to Baku. And, we found one we could afford with Turkish Airlines, via Istanbul. However, for any of you who aren’t aware, there’s a stupid airline rule that if you don’t board your outgoing flight (and, obviously, we weren’t able to board our Warsaw to Baku one), they cancel your right to board the return one. We even phoned LOT Airlines to explain the situation, but they refused to budge. And, as we couldn’t afford a whole new return flight, we had to cut our losses and drive back to Shrewsbury.
This time, we were able to find flights from Birmingham with Lufthansa, and, fortunately, the trip over to Baku was completely trouble-free. We even sorted out our e-sims for Azerbaijan (you can use the code ‘GATG’ to get a 15% discount if you’re new to aloSIM) while having a coffee break at Frankfurt airport.
I’d love to be able to say that our trip went totally to plan, but it definitely didn’t! In all honesty, Azerbaijan is one of the most challenging countries I’ve ever visited. Beautiful and fascinating, but undoubtedly challenging, confusing and frustrating, and hardly anything we’d organised turned out exactly as we’d intended it to.
Firstly, there was the bizarreness of the autonomous republic of Nakchivan.
Considering how many flights to Nakchivan leave every day from Baku’s Heydar Aliyev International Airport, the whole place seemed devoid of people. It was almost like we’d entered some sort of apocalypse as we roamed the streets of Nakchivan city looking for somewhere that may serve us a cup of coffee. And, to add insult to injury, we found it very difficult to leave the capital because, even with Google Translate, we struggled to get ourselves understood. Even the hotel staff, at the largest hotel in Nakchhivan, barely spoke a word of English.
Granted, there are some stunning sights in Nakchivan, and we did finally manage to book a driver to take us to see three of them (Alinja Castle, Ashab-i Kehf Cave, and Qarabaghlar Mausoleum), but we paid a princely fee to do so. Unless you’re travelling to any of Nakchivan’s major towns, public transport appears to be non-existent over here in this strange, intriguing not-so-little enclave.
The language barrier was actually quite a major problem for us throughout much of the country. Whilst it could often be fun (if we didn’t need to accomplish anything in particular) to converse with locals using smiles and sign language, getting around the country, finding out information, or simply just feeding ourselves could be incredibly frustrating. Most of the restaurants didn’t have English menus, so we’d use Google Lens to translate them into English, decide what we wanted to order from the very limited number of vegetarian options, only to be told that they didn’t have any of it. Our diet, for the two weeks we spent in Azerbaijan, consisted of cheeses, salads and flatbread.
And then there were the incredible hikes we’d planned — the primary reason we’d been inspired to visit to Azerbaijan in the first place.
We’d incorporated several day hikes into our itinerary (all part of the official Transcaucasian Trail hiking route) but, unfortunately, all were thwarted either by bad weather, potentially dangerous river crossings or the military. In fact, with the exception of Sheki, we probably saw a higher number of military personnel in Azerbaijan than we did other tourists!
Ironically, on our penultimate day in the country, in our favourite coffee shop in Sheki, we met a mountain guide who spoke excellent English and who would happily have facilitated all the hikes we had hoped to have been able to complete. Although, even he admitted that he had no idea why the military had forbidden us to walk them independently.
The only conclusion we could draw from our experiences was that Azerbaijan is simply not set up for independent travel. I’m sure, had we joined an organised tour or booked a guide for the duration of our trip, we would have had a very different experience.
In spite of all the challenges though, I found it fascinating to explore somewhere quite unlike anywhere I’ve ever visited before. I expected Azerbiajan to be quite similar to Georgia but, actually, I found it to be more Middle-Eastern than European. Baku also surprised us. As we’re not generally fans of big cities, we’d assumed that Azerbaijan’s capital would be our least favourite destination in the country. On the contrary, and considering Baku’s size (the population is just under two and a half million), it had a surprisingly relaxed vibe and generally felt quite calm and spacious. It definitely ended up being one of our favourite places in Azerbaijan.
And although Sheki fell a little short of our expectations, it’s still a very beautiful city in a stunning location up in the mountains in northwestern Azerbaijan. Sheki’s historic centre was inscribed by UNESCO in 2019. It’s home to a couple of spectacular (both inside and out) palaces, and a number of other protected monuments. Sheki is also the birthplace of Shebeki (intricate stained glass windows) and Kelagayi (traditional silk scarves that have been made in a nearby workshop since 1947). You can even stay in (or just visit) an 18th century stone caravanserai that once housed Silk Road traders.
June | A birthday weekend in St. Davids to walk some more of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path
Whilst I usually jet off somewhere abroad to celebrate my birthday, my 15-day trip to Azerbaihjan and 18-day trip to Spain, to walk the Camino Primitivo (both of which ended up being longer than planned due to cancelled flights) had used up a large chunk of my annual leave allocation. So, this year, I had to take my birthday vacation a little closer to home.
Ever since I walked the first part of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path last August, I’d been keeping an eye out for the opportunity to continue my journey. And that opportunity presented itself this June, when I stumbled across an Airbnb in the centre of St. David’s with availability over my birthday weekend.
I worked out that I could run/walk three more sections of the coast path, starting and finishing each day in places where Stu was either able to park up in order to drop me off or collect me. I’d start early in the morning, so that we could then spend the afternoon and evening together.
On the day of my birthday, I finished the Pwll Deri to Porthgain section around 2-ish, so Stu and I were able to spend the rest of the day wandering around St. David’s cathedral before enjoying some delicious food at St. David’s Gin and Kitchen (although I swapped the gin out for red wine 
). On the last day, I actually ran the whole 13-mile section between Whitesands and Solva.
The weather was beautiful for the entire duration of our stay, the scenery was stunning, and St. David’s was such a pretty little city to return to every evening. All in all, it was a pretty perfect birthday weekend.
July | A camping trip to walk some of the Northumberland Coast Path and a weekend in Worcester and Cheltenham with mum
The original plan this month had been to spend the first weekend in Poland with Jayne. Keen to use our credit from our cancelled Luton to Warsaw flights last October, we’d booked return flights to Wroclaw (I’d loved my time there last February and was looking forward to returning to the city in Summer). But, for reasons unknown to us, Wizzair cancelled those flights.
So, we had to come up with a plan b. Northumberland was that plan b. Jayne found a campsite in Beadnell Bay and I worked out that we could walk two sections of the Northumberland Coast Path by using the local transport network to catch buses out to Craster and Belford.
We definitely preferred the Craster to Beadnell Bay section, helped by the fact that the weather was kinder to us that day. But, the Belford to Beadnell Bay section passes the stunning Bamburgh Castle, so if you’re fortunate enough to walk this part of the Northumberland Coast Path on a sunny day, I’d wholeheartedly recommend stopping to have a look around.
We even squeezed in a very brief visit to Lindisfarne (Holy Island) before making our way back home.
The weekend after I returned from Northumberland, I was on a train on the way to Ludlow with some friends to see one of our favourite bands, James, play a gig at the castle. The weather was glorious, it was a stunning venue, and the band played all my favourite tracks, finishing with the classic, ‘Laid.’
Later on in July, I spent a weekend in Worcester and Cheltenham with mum. I’ve always said that mum is my good weather omen and this weekend was no exception.
In Worcester, we took a lovely walk along the River Severn to the cathedral. Once we’d explored the cathedral, we continued on to the historic part of the city to admire all the Tudor architecture and check out a couple of Worcester’s best-rated cafes and coffee shops.
In Cheltenham, the coach driver got a little lost on the way to our hotel, so we didn’t have as much time to look around the city as I’d hoped. But, I was very pleased to find so many pieces of quality street art around, and in the evening, I introduced mum to Sri Lankan cuisine (thankfully she enjoyed it!) at The Coconut Tree.
August | A trip over to Ireland to visit Katy
My friend Katy (plus hubby, three kids, three cats and a dog!) moved over to Ireland last September, to a little village called Feakle in County Clare. Although we managed to squeeze in a brief visit to them last December, this was our first proper trip over. We’d timed it in conjunction with Feakle’s world-renowned music festival (celebrating its 37th year this year) as well as Katy and Tommy’s official housewarming party.
The housewarming party felt like an extension of the music festival because, not only had our friends arranged for a local band to come and play some traditional Irish folk music in their barn, but they’d also paid for Katy’s favourite from back in the UK — The Dapper Cadavers — to join them. It was a beautiful sunny day, we’d erected and decorated a marquee, prepared a load of food, a bunch of us decided to dress up as cowgirls (I squeezed into Katy’s 13-year-old daughter’s denim shorts and checked shirt!) and Katy and Tommy had even ordered a couple of kegs of Guinness from the local pub so that their son Rex could play barman and serve pints of the stuff to all their guests.
Katy’s daughter Bella even changed into her traditional costume and performed a spot of Irish dancing for us before the bands took to the stage. Although I’d been surrounded by bands playing traditional Irish music in the local pubs the night before, it was such a treat to have one of them performing a private show for us. And, as soon as the Dapper Cadavers started their set, we didn’t stop dancing for the rest of the night! This was easily one of THE best housewarming parties I’ve ever been to!
September | Walking the Camino Primitivo across northern Spain
Walking the Camino Primitivo was something that I’d originally planned to do in September 2020. But, Covid-19 and a succession of lockdowns and travel bans put a stop to that. Travel hadn’t properly opened up again by September 2021; in September 2022 I had an opportunity to travel to Jordan that I wasn’t going to pass up; and September of last year I had a trip to Azerbaijan scheduled for the following month, so I could not afford the time or money to take another long trip so close to that one.
But, September 2024 was finally doable. I probably spent more time researching, planning and organising this adventure than I did any of the others this year, primarily because I needed to pack as light as possible and take only what I needed to make the hike as comfortable and hassle-free as possible. I also wanted to make sure that my daily distances were doable, that the places I chose to end each day made logistical sense and were worthy of an overnight stop. I watched countless YouTube vlogs (by Sarah Williams of Tough Girl Challenges, Efrén Gonzáles of Walk with Efren and Shaun and Lainey of Days we Spend), and visited as many Camino websites/blogs/apps as I could find.
I made the decision to book all my accommodation in advance. I’d read pros and cons for doing so and not doing so, but in the end I decided that I didn’t want to deal with the stress of potentially not being able to find a bed at the municipal or private albergue at the end of each day. I’m not much of a morning person, so I didn’t want to force myself to have to get up stupidly early, and then end up not enjoying my day because I needed to race to the next destination as quickly as possible. I also didn’t want to spend every single night in a shared dorm with other people; I value my sleep too much, especially when I know I have a full day of hiking ahead!
Well, it turns out that all my research and planning paid off. I was very happy with everything I chose to bring, my backpack was comfortable and just the right weight, and my hiking shoes were like a pair of slippers from day one. I also got the daily distances almost spot on (I could have walked further on a few occasions but mostly, I was ready to stop when I reached my final destination each day), and I stayed in some lovely albergues, pensions and hotels along the trail.
I chose the Primitivo for my first Camino because I love the peace and solitude of the mountains. I also wanted a walk that would challenge me a little, and the Primitivo is meant to be one of the hardest Caminos. Whilst I didn’t find the route as difficult as my research had suggested it might be, there were a few challenging uphill stretches that worked my lungs and my calves in equal measure. Moreover, for the most part of the route (until it joins with the Frances in Melide), I could spend an hour or two on the trail and not see another soul.
With the exception of the torrential rain on my last day on the trail, walking the Camino Primitivo was everything I’d hoped it would be. The route was beautiful (although, arguably, the Asturian stretch was more beautiful than the Galician), the distances and terrain were manageable and, whilst I got to day four without really making any friendships, all that changed at an albergue in Colinas de Arriba where I picked up a large majority of the people who would become my Camino family from that day forward.
October | A weekend in Chester to run my first marathon and a city break in Katowice, Poland with the girls
One of my goals at the start of 2024 was to run my first marathon. It’s a challenge I’d been wanting to complete since I started upping my distances during lockdown, but one I kept dismissing because I didn’t feel ready; because a marathon is such a long way that I didn’t think I’d ever be ready. So, this year, I just decided to throw caution to the wind and sign up for the Chester marathon. Once I’d paid my £60 fee to enter, I figured I’d be more inclined to at least give the race a go.
But then I found myself going away for the majority of weekends throughout the summer (you have to take advantage of the good weather in the UK for the short amount of time that you have it), and I subsequently took two and a half weeks off running to walk the Camino Primitivo just a month before the race. So, as you can imagine, I rolled up to the start line on race day feeling ridiculously unprepared.
I’d not found the time to run much further than 13 miles in the months leading up to the race (there was one day where I completed 16 miles, but it was very much a stop start effort and it nearly killed me!), so I wasn’t sure I’d even be able to finish it on the day.
My rough aim was to complete it in under five hours, but I was really hoping to come in at under four and a half, so I was absolutely ecstatic to finish with a chip time of 4:07!!!
My friend Jayne and her hubby Rob came to cheer me on at the finish line but, unfortunately, Stu was still on his way to the finish line when I crossed it, because he didn’t expect me to be there as soon as I was! 
A week after returning from Chester, I was hopping on a plane to spend the weekend in Katowice, Poland with a couple of my favourite people. Previously we’ve visited Riga, Poznan, Cluj Napoca, Vilnius, Warsaw, Zadar, and Santander together.
Katowice (pronounced “Kat-o-veechay”) is not a Polish city many people have heard of, and not one many tourists make it to, but that only piqued our interest in visiting.
Whilst you won’t find much in the way of ancient architecture in Katowice (significant parts of the city were destroyed during Katowice’s capture by the Red Army in 1945), the government have done a very good job of regenerating the city in recent years and have transformed Katowice into a modern metropolis that focuses on culture, technology, and sustainability, while still retaining evidence of its coal mining roots.
Our highlights were the Silensian Museum, the Wilson Shaft Gallery, relaxing wanders around the Nikszowiec neighbourhood, and the sheer number of quality dining options at our disposal.
December | Muppet Christmas Carol, Cheese and Wine Night in Ireland
As I mentioned in my 2023 travel review, this is a tradition that my friend Katy has maintained for the past 20-odd years. As the name of the event suggests, the evening (always the first Saturday of December) is spent watching A Muppet Christmas Carol (amongst other Christmas films — usually The Polar Express and The Grinch), eating cheese and drinking wine. It helps to get us all in the festive spirit and signifies the official start of the Christmas celebrations.
Although this year’s celebration was a little tamer than previous years have been, it was still lovely to catch up with everyone again.
And, although we’d managed to (unintentionally, of course) time our visit in conjunction with the arrival of storm Darragh, once the worst of the storm was over, we were treated to some lovely blue skies. We drove across to Spanish Point, on the west coast of County Clare, for a fancy brunch followed by a rather blustery but invigorating walk along the seafront.
And that was 2024!
I visited five countries altogether, one of them new (Azerbaijan), bringing my total count up to 53. My favourite of these five was definitely Sri Lanka. It’s a country I’d return to in a heartbeat. However, I also have an affinity with my beloved Spain — even more so since completing the wonderful Camino Primitivo hiking trail. And, as I write this post, I’ve just spontaneously booked my first trip of 2025, to Seville in Spain. I last visited in 2008, a long time before I started this blog, so I’m very much looking forward to returning.
How was your 2024? What was your favourite trip or new favourite destination? Share away in the comments below 
If you’d like to read any of my other review posts, you can do so here:
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