2016 – My travel year in review: 15 trips in 12 months
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At the beginning of 2016 one of my most important goals for the new year was to travel more. Now, at the end of the year, I am looking back and I am glad that we traveled a lot and we gathered a lot of wonderful memories. My travel year in review is a list full of wonderful destinations we enjoyed over the year and I hope it will inspire you for planing your future travel destinations.
In 2016 we focused on road trips through Romania (my home country), but we also planned some nice trips outside the country. We wanted to show to our little boy all the wonderful places in his country. At the beginning of the year we had no idea that we will move to the USA, but now I am really happy we traveled in our country before moving abroad.
If you don’t know Romania, I hope to discover it through my photos and maybe they will make you want to travel there and enjoy it on your own. 🙂
I gathered all our 2016 trips in this post and as I cannot include here details about each trip (there is a lot to tell about each destination), I will let the photos guide you through our adventures. If you like one of the destinations and you want more details about it, just let me know and I will be glad to share with you more information.
I made here a list of the destinations we visited in each month of the year and looking back at all of them I feel like we had a wonderful travel year! We really had the chance to travel to a lot of places, from little farms in Romania to wonderful cities in Spain and amazing destinations in the USA. I can only hope that 2017 will be as generous from the travel point of view, I am looking forward to discovering new destinations.
January
Our first road trip in 2016 took us to the Carpathian mountains, in Busteni, Sinaia and Brasov (1). We enjoyed the snowy days and we visited the attraction in the area.
My favorite part of the trip: the visit to the Cantacuzino palace, an old palace hidden between the mountains
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The end of the January brought my first trip alone since I am a mother. I went on a short road trip to Constanta (2), the biggest Romanian city at the seaside. It was the first time I slept without Bogdan since I gave birth, so I was a little bit nervous, but all went very well.
My favorite part of the trip: the walk on the empty beach, enjoying the sound of the wave
February
At the beginning of February, we went on a road trip to the Bulgarian mountains, in Arbanasi and Veliko Tarnovo (3). It was the first time I traveled to Bulgaria and I was glad to discover the nice hotels and the friendly staff.
My favorite part of the trip: the Bulgarian food was amazing, a very nice surprise for us
In February we also drove to a wonderful hotel near the Carpathian mountains: Potcoava Mountain Hideaway (4). The hotel is hidden behind the hills and the whole area is very quiet and beautiful, so we enjoyed the stay. Bogdan had a cold as we were there, so the nights were a little bit hard, but besides that we really liked the trip.
My favorite part of the trip: the horses from the hotel, they were so wild and beautiful
March
My gift on Mother’s Day (8th of March) was a road trip to a big farm in the southeast of Romania, named Ferma Dacilor (5). They surprised us with delicious meals, but the weather was very rainy and the whole yard was full of mud, so it wasn’t as great as I imagined, but we still had a nice time.
My favorite part of the trip: Bogdan’s joy when he discovered all the animals from the farm
March also brought us a wonderful trip to Madrid, Spain (6). We traveled there to watch a football game between Real Madrid and Wolfsburg, but we combined it with some additional days for enjoying the town and it was one of our favorite destinations in 2016.
My favorite part of the trip: the day we spent at the zoo, it was full of joy for all of us
May
We spent the first days of May in Brasov (7), one of the most beautiful towns in the Carpathian Mountains.
From Brasov we made a wonderful trip to Viscri, a very special village that the part of the UNESCO inheritance. The inn where we stayed totally conquered us with its charm and we had the chance to be almost completely “disconnected” from the daily hustle as the telephone signal was very weak.
My favorite part of the trip: the time spent at Viscri 125, the place where we stayed in Viscri, where we enjoyed the huge yard and the fresh mountain air
At the end of the month, we made a trip to the Black Sea and enjoyed the seaside in Eforie Nord (8). The small town is not considered a very popular destination on the Romanian seaside, but our stay there was really nice, especially because it was during the off-season and it wasn’t crowded at all.
My favorite part of the trip: the time we spent on the beach, it was a lot of silence and I loved to hear the waves
June
In June we made the biggest road trip from 2016 and we discovered a lot of great places in Transilvania (9). We went to a different place every day and we were surprised to find so many amazing things. It was the most challenging trip of the year and it required a lot of planning but it was. totally worth the effort. I could write a lot of posts only about this trip, we saw a lot of special places and we had the chance to get to know Transilvania as it is: beautiful, special and still not so popular within foreign tourist as it should be.
My favorite part of the trip: the two days we spent in Cluj, the biggest city in Transilvania
August
In August we made a road trip to Madara, in Bulgaria (10) and it was a very nice combination of walks in the mountains and time spent on the beach. The Madara area is very beautiful and not so well known by the tourists, so we enjoyed the silence of the place and all the attractions of the area.
My favorite part of the trip: the Ovech fortress and the amazing views from the top
At the end of the month, we made a trip to Pastel Chalet (11), a unique hotel in the Carpathian mountains. The hosts from the hotel made a very nice program for the guests, so we made a lot of interesting things during our stay, including a walk through the National Preserve in the Ciucas Mountains.
My favorite part of the trip: the visit to the bison reservation
September
In September we went Corfu Island, in Greece (12). This trip was meant to give me and my husband more quality time together, so we used all the facilities for kids of the resort and we enjoyed wonderful moments at the pool and on the beach. The island has a lot of wonderful places to discover, so we drove to some of them and enjoyed the great weather and the special charm of the island.
My favorite part of the trip: the special couple time we spent in the resort, at the pool and on the beach
November
November brought us the most “brave” trip of the year, as we flew to New York (13). Â I went to New York only with Bogdan, so the flight over the ocean with a small child was a real challenge and the days spent in the town were a combination of famous attractions and child-friendly places. I will write more about New York on the blog, I can’t wait to tell more about our trip there, it was really amazing!
My favorite part of the trip: the Macy Parade on Thanksgiving Day, it was really impresive and I enjoyed it a lot
In November I moved to California, so my travel plans changed a lot and I began to look for destinations close to our new home. (I wrote here about the story of our move to California)
December
In December I started to discover California and to go to short trips around our home.
My favorite destination is San Francisco (14), a town that I wanted to discover more in the next months. We made some weekend trips there, but we still have a lot of places we want to visit.
The end of December brought us a trip to Las Vegas (15) that we planned in a very short notice. We enjoyed the drive and also stopped at a nice farm along the road, so the long distance wasn’t so hard to manage. The town was very shinny and glamourous, exactly how I imagined it.
My favorite part of the trip: the evening walks on the Strip, admiring the lights
This is my list, I was very glad to remember all the trips from over the year and they really made me want to travel even more in 2017. I only hope this wish will come true! 🙂
I am curious to find out about your travel destinations from 2016, I am looking for some inspiration for my future travel plans, so I would be glad to find them out.
What was your favorite travel destination in 2016?
Raluca Loteanu
If you find yourself on this blog I invite you to discover us as the happy family we are, who look with optimism and joy at life. If you want to contact me, you can find me on email, I gladly respond to each message.
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