My Favorite Travel Moments of 2024

Because the end of the year is the perfect time for reflecting, I'm reflecting on some sweet travel moments.

2024 was a year of travel dreams fulfilled for me, and I wanted to take a moment to reflect on some of my favorite moments from this year: both big and small, I collected some beautiful memories around the world, and I am grateful for each one.

This slow sunny Italian cafe morning spent sipping macchiati and eating traditional cornetti Ischitani (sweet brioche croissants filled with pastry cream and a single black cherry).

My favorite travel moments are often this simple: I find slowing down and sipping a coffee at a local cafe is often one of the best ways to truly soak up the spirit of a new place.

This breakfast was our first morning on Ischia— we had arrived the afternoon before. As we sat here, we truly let ourselves slow down and slip into the Italian island lifestyle. Memories of this sunny morning shared with my best friends buoy me now in the chill of winter.

My solo dinner in Auckland, NZ makes the list. I wrote all about it in a previous post…

Dining Alone at Pici

Suffice to say, when I found myself stranded due to a cancelled flight, I treated myself to dinner at a hip pasta restaurant in Auckland, and it ended up being one of my favorite memories from this year.

Was it the incredible ragù made of local ingredients? Was it the friendly Kiwi staff who made me feel so welcome? Was it the excellent people watching from my perch at the bar? Was it the mouthwatering natural wine they served? Was it the really good book I brought along? Was it the fact that I slowed down and enjoyed my dinner at a snail’s pace? Chances are it was the combination of all of these things.

A particularly distinct New York City subway ride sticks out in my memory as one of the most colorful travel moments of the year.

One Sunday afternoon I got on the subway at 96th St.; intending to ride it all the way down to the East Village, I settled into a seat. Within two stops the train was full— overflowing even. Turns out there was a parade in lower Manhattan that day, and this train was carrying what was beginning to feel like the entire city to the parade. The atmosphere was festive, as if this train car was a float on its way to join the parade. By the next stop I noticed the new people crowding on to the train were dripping wet. A sudden summer storm must be raging above us. A group of mothers pushing strollers shoved onto the train, using different doors but never pausing their conversation, in Spanish, despite the distance across the train. As we lurched into motion the child in the stroller nearest me leaned her elbow on my knee, chilling. I was just another prop in her city life, the equivalent of a stone planter outside of a museum she might lean against as her mother chatted over her head. A stranger across the car noticed and chuckled.

With each stop, we squeezed more people on the train. Sardines. Until we couldn’t possibly fit another human being. The kid was still holding onto my knee. Her mom finally noticed and waved her hand off while apologizing to me. Then, overcome with a fit of uncontrollable honesty, in a thick Queens accent she yelled into the crowded abyss, voicing all of our innermost thoughts, “This is it! I have got to buy a car!”

We laughed— the entire Subway car looked around at one another and shared a genuine laugh. Brought together in an act of vulnerability and shared experience, that crowded colorful Subway car crossed over from strangers to friends for one flickering moment. I got off at the next stop and disappeared into the shimmery, steamy, post-rainstorm city, holding onto that moment of camaraderie.

Roaming through Rome was a long-awaited dream come true. Rome was one of those places I fell in love with at first sight, and it continued to steal my heart every minute I spent walking down its ancient streets.

I could wax on for far too many paragraphs about the beauty of walking around the Eternal City, but I won’t. I’ll save that for another post.

This spontaneous lunch at Bar Gino twinkles in my memory as a testament to the importance of leaving room for spontaneity in any trip.

It was lunchtime; we were hungry; Bar Gino was located near the ferry terminal. So we chose to eat there, and it turned out to be one of the best meals of the trip! Crowded with Italians on holiday, speaking spirited Italian at a loud volume, dining at Bar Gino felt like dining in someone’s home. Gino himself welcomed us in, and stole a table from another group of diners, motioning them to scoot closer together. He picked the table up and moved it to the one last corner of empty floor space, inventing a place for us.

The lunch consisted of bruschetta mounded high with fresh Buffalo Mozzarella and the juiciest tomatoes I’ve ever tasted. Though we were stuffed to the gills, Gino attempted to coax us to stay a little longer, “Just one Limoncello!”

Road-tripping across New Zealand is an important memory from this year: not only does New Zealand possess a unique beauty that I felt honored to witness, but traveling there helped me reach my goal of visiting a new continent this year.

Walking through the Lord of the Rings nature, gawking at the dramatic landscape from the top deck of the ferry, strolling through markets filled with fresh local foods and artisan products, meeting friendly New Zealanders, thrift shopping, cold plunging, trying some of the best local natural wines… any amount of time spent in this beautiful country is sure to awe and inspire a person. It did me.

I had the best meal of my life this year in Italy. I wrote in-depth about it in a previous post…

The Best Meal of My Life

I won’t rehash all of the details here, but the memories of this meal will not be forgotten any time soon by me or my dining companions. This restaurant offered us the type of hospitality that changes your perspective.

As is so often the case, my most cherished memories involve traveling with or to visit friends. Catching up with good friends over natural wine in the Lower East Side, spending the next morning trekking from Manhattan to Brooklyn in the July heat for brunch with the same friends, grabbing a drink with an old coworker at a hip NYC wine bar, sharing a delicious dumpling dinner with an old friend at a new restaurant in her city, breakfast with a dear friend as I pass through her town, meeting my best friends in foreign countries, showing people around cities closer to me, a day trip with my sister. All of these moments shared with people added to the whole of what was a beautiful travel year.

What about you? Where did you go, whether it was near or far? With whom did you create those memories, big or small? What was the best thing you ate? I would love to hear about it: let me know below! Even if you don’t share your memories with me, don’t forget to reflect; reliving the trip afterwards brings back the joy of travel and honors all of the time and effort you put into that trip, giving it a second life.