My Top 5 Trips of 2015

The next trip I have booked is my big move; saying goodbye to living in London! As I look back on 2015 and all that I've achieved, seen and been I know I've been extremely lucky. It wouldn't have been the year it was without some good friends, last-minute ideas and a fun-loving attitude. Here's my five favourite trips of 2015:

Egypt

This ten day adventure jam-packed my 21st birthday, a hot air balloon ride, a cruise down the Nile River, ancient wonders and some of the tastiest food I've found. Travelling with my best friend, some overwhelming market shopping, meeting some great travel buddies, wearing maxi skirts every day, and learning and using basic Arabic were just some of the highlights. My last day spent relaxing at a five star resort for the price of a London hostel was a sweet way to end a trip I'll always treasure.

Exploring temple ruins in Egypt

Isle of Skye

Not only did I get to try haggis for the first time and will forever get to say that I have swum with the famous Loch Ness monster, this three day trip had way too many gorgeous views to count! Everywhere you look at any point on the Isle of Skye you can get a good photo.

Looking over to the bridge that takes you back to the mainland on a lovely summer evening

Amalfi Coast and Capri

I loved this three day tour to explore the best of the Amalfi Coast! We were given ample free time to decide for ourselves if we wanted to focus on pizza eating, sun soaking, chair-lift riding, view admiring, coastal cruising or limoncello sampling! (Hint: all are unregrettable options)

How could you be disappointed with this view?

Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls was an accidental trip! I booked a way up there and back at first simply as a way to escape the magnificent but expensive New York City for a couple of days. I'm so glad I did! It was so mesmerising to just walk around the park and find a spot to watch the water rushing, falling and swirling below. The added bonus to this trip was the stroll over to Canada for lunch!

Canada was the gold at the bottom of this rainbow!

Stockholm

My girls' trip to Stockholm was one of my highlights of the year thanks to the great company, the friendly locals and range of things to see and eat that fit our budget. Running a personal best time in the Nike Women's 10km on what I would describe as one of the most spectacular courses I've seen means Stockholm earns a special mark on my map.

Beautiful from the Old Town to the New and everything in between.

Some rocks and a hot bath

As 2015 races to the end, I'm quickly checking off some things I've wanted to do all year! One of those was taking a trip out to see Stonehenge.

Between Uluru, the Great Pyramids and Stonehenge it's clear people like travelling out to see big rocks. Even if they're shaped and moved by humans, there's still something wonderful about these great rocks and the limitless number of stories humans have made about them.

I walked a lap around the stones!

I took a day trip out of London that included Stonehenge and Bath. Although not the cheapest way to do it, it was great value, especially as I booked the day prior.

It was really interesting to learn all the theories about these famous rocks.

The site around Stonehenge is now well looked-after. There's a small exhibition, which

Travel amongst terror

This year has been an amazing year of travel for me. I've walked the streets of Cairo, Paris, Brussels and London. But so have terrorists.

A plane went down over Egypt just days after I left through similarly lax airport security. We walked through security with large 1.5L bottles of water. No one checked liquids or make-up bags. No one took off layers of clothing to go through the scanners. At the second security stage an officer wanted to search my backpack because he thought an object on the scanner looked unusual. He showed me the screen but the coloured shape in question looked like my camera, which I knew was in my purse. I told him I didn't know what it was and that was the end of that, although he did take my batteries off me which were perfectly fine to go through Heathrow. All my friends had similar stories of things that would have been taken off them at any other international airport, but they had forgotten about them this time and nothing had been done. We all flew safely, holding onto the seemingly undeserved trust that the airport security knew what they were doing.

People have asked me: having experienced this, and knowing terror attacks are a real threat, would it stop me from going again?

How Egypt was one of my favourite trips of the year

When I booked my Western Front trip earlier in the year there was a deal for Egypt tours for half price. So naturally I added one of those to my basket and headed to the checkout. People said I was brave, what a risk I was taking, why did I want to go there with everything that was happening? I have no regrets.

A bucket list addition you won't regret!

A couple of times I was a little nervous, too. Until I realised I was nervous because I didn't know. I knew Egypt has popped up on the news for negative reasons more than travel companies were advertising their holidays there. But that's it! So I researched and learned some recent history and the current agenda. I found valuable tips and lessons on travel and expat blogs about using money, what to wear and what to expect.

Egypt: the experience of a lifetime

I left Australia on this big crazy journey with one of my greatest friends and somehow it's October before we actually took a trip together! Months of excitement was definitely justified! Egypt was mindblowing and thought-provoking. Ancient and beautiful. And an incredible adventure!

I'm so grateful for my amazing travel buddy!

We picked a nine day tour that included all the big bucket list items, all the stuff you hear about at school and some we'd never heard about but were keen to learn! We started in Cairo, made a trip up to Alexandria (one of my must-dos!) and went south to Luxor and Aswan where we cruised for a bit on the Nile and ended again in Cairo. My travel buddy Dylan and me booked our flights to give us a full day on either side of the tour, which was perfect, especially at the end of the trip!

Falling for Niagara Falls

So I booked some flights to the USA. A two week trip; one week in New York and one week with my friend for her wedding. And then I looked up things to do and places to stay in New York. And then I looked at my bank account. I may have cried, but you'll be glad to know I got through that tough time and with some careful planning I booked a trip up to Niagara Falls that saved my poor exchange rate dollars from evaporating in the big city for a few days!

Beautiful Niagara Falls

I will admit when I booked it I thought, "yeah, that'll be cool, I guess Niagara Falls seems like one of those things you should try and see once". I was silly. Cool is an understatement.

New York, New York

I'm taking a two-week trip to the nation of freedom and fast food! A university friend that I first met when she studied abroad in Australia and then saw again when I studied in the States is getting married! So I'm rounding out my summer with a quick trip through New York state and the always delightful Midwest.

This was my second visit to New York City, but my last was during the frozen middle of winter in a year that saw an unusually high number of winter storms. This time around I spent my first day walking around the city in a dress; loving every second of not needing a jacket or scarf or leggings! 

Unfortunately the only downside of this is unwanted male attention but the hilarious side is that New Yorkers use the cheesiest pickup lines I've ever come across! One guy tried telling me him and his friend were detectives and they wanted to see "my licence for being so beautiful". Another hoped that when I grabbed my phone out of my purse to take a photo I was getting it out to text him.

This trip was all about budget, and in NYC that's a small challenge. The hostels I chose were around $50USD a night. I stayed at a different hostel on return from Niagara Falls, a little trick that worked out nice for me in previous holidays. I like staying at a different hostel when you're coming back to a place because you get to see a new neighbourhood and even feel a different vibe to the city, plus you'll remember which one you liked better if you ever return.

Riding my bike past some of the sculpture art on Governor's Island

I tried to save most of my spending money on food, and enjoyed a lot of the free sights and activities in the city.

My carry-on must-haves

I visited eight countries over summer adhering to Europe's famously strict carry-on requirements for budget airlines! Although I didn't solely rely on planes it was very freeing to travel with only a small suitcase and my handbag. I don't always get it right, but packing is a clever little art where you're always learning from past trips and picking up new tricks! Here's five of the lessons I've learnt work for me:

• Packing cubes are amazing. I only bought my packing cubes for this European adventure and I don't know what I did without them. So many people commented on how organised my bag looked! And it was; I could quickly grab whatever I needed without messing up my whole bag. It also made it easy to keep my cleans separate from my dirties.
• Two to three bottoms is plenty! My favourite pair of dark grey pants go with every shirt option and are nice enough to wear out at night but comfy enough to chill in all day. And that is why I wore them for over half my trip! I also took a convertible skirt for the hot days and running shorts to wear to bed.
• Scarves have a zillion uses. I can wear a totally bland and simple outfit and let my scarf save me from looking as lazy as I am!