Now the the holiday season is over, and the New Year draws near, it’s that time again… Time to look back on 2015 and reflect on all the places we’ve been and things we’ve seen.

At this time last year when we were writing our 2014 post, I think we had said something along the lines of 2014 being a big year for our travel; and that we might take it easy in 2015… Fast-forward one year, and all I have to say is “ha!” We didn’t have a lot planned going into 2015, but we ended up covering a fair bit of ground. It started with a mistake fare to Rio, and ended up with an aspirational booking in first class to Hong Kong on one of the top airlines in the world.

While we weren’t on the road almost once a month like last year, we did take 6 separate trips. We finally crossed sub-Saharan Africa off of our bucket list, and visited one of the more remote and less-traveled countries in the world (but not for long!). As always – the more we see on our travels, the more we wanted to see.

Some of the more impressive stats include: 54,000 miles flown, on 24 individual flight segments, 8 countries, and 5 continents. We spent over 16 hours flying in first class, 16 hours in business, and far too many hours in coach.  Eight of those flights were over 8 hours long. 

Even with all the traveling and flying we did this year, we still did not qualify for status with any airline or hotel chain. The reason is because we didn’t fly exclusively with OneWorld this year since they don’t have a great alliance for travel to Africa, and we were trying to burn up some miles on award tickets. So going into 2016, we will not be able to get late check-out times, priority check-ins, airport lounges, and free baggage – a few of the perks that we used to enjoy.  The good thing is, we still have a stash of points built up that we can start using in 2016 before another devaluation.

Our trips in 2015 included:

• Berlin and Prague
• Atlanta
• Rio de Janeiro
• Tanzania
• Quebec City
• Myanmar, Thailand, and Hong Kong

This past year felt like a good amount of travel: just the right amount between too much like in 2014 and not enough.  Although traveling is not always glamorous, it can be tiring and definitely take a toll on your body.  Between the long-haul flights, poor eating habits, questionable street-meat, and the general pollution level in some of the more undeveloped countries, it is easy to get sick if you’re not careful and pace yourself.  We have spent the past month fighting off a very persistent cold that we acquired on our trip.  Even though we loved every minute of of our whirlwind year, we’re also looking forward to some R&R time at home this winter. For 2016, we haven’t really begun planning where we want to go, but we know we want to go there with miles. We are excited to start planning our next adventure around the world (any suggestions?). We wish everyone a safe and exciting new year!