2018 Travel Year in Review

I always find looking back allows you to look forward with a clearer head. 2018 has been a year of great change and great adventure. After many years of preparation and planning, we moved country (France); and also set out on an 8-week tour of North America. 2018 also saw us partake in our favourite activities – city breaks, foodie breaks and road-trips! So, without further adieu, here is my 2018 travel year in review:

Hendersons On Tour – The BIG Trip

BC & Alberta

To be honest, this trip is too big to digest fully in a review post. We travelled for 8 weeks across Canada and into parts of the USA too. Starting in Vancouver, where we caught up with family and went biking in Stanley Park. Then we then headed down to Seattle and on to a ferry to spend 24 hours in Victoria. Week two was spent driving up through the Okanagan Valley to the Rockies via Hope and Revelstoke, then on to Banff. This scenery was beyond breathtaking, and there were many ‘oohs’ and ‘aaahs’ exclaimed as we drove some of the Icefields Parkway.

Ontario and beyond

After spending some time with family in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, we flew east to Toronto. Toronto felt mad and chaotic after the quiet of the rockies and the prairies, so we were quite pleased to head north to Gananoque, where we explored the Thousand Islands by boat.

Driving further north, we had a fleeting 24 hours in Montreal, before flying to South Carolina for a wedding. This was a pretty large detour, but when you get such an invitation, you go, right?! We had some time to chill in Georgetown and Myrtle Beach before our onward journey to Boston. Boston totally bowled me away and I would love to return because our two days here went by too quickly. Especially since we took a day trip to Salem while we were there too.

From Boston to the desert

From Boston we headed up to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to visit family. It might seem like a strange route, but weirdly it made sense when taking into account flight prices and family obligations etc. From Nova Scotia we made the big hop west to Las Vegas. After some of our Canadian plans fell through, I decided I wanted to spend some time in the desert landscapes of Arizona, Utah and Nevada.

I am beyond happy that we chose to carve out time in this area of the world. It exceeded every expectation, and if I’m being honest, started a bit of a love-affair I think. We spent 8 days exploring Las Vegas, a section of Route 66, Sedona, Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Kanab, Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon. I wish we’d had 8 months not 8 days to explore.

West coast wonders

After the joy of the desert, we headed to the chaos of LA. Not to see the sights in Hollywood sadly, but to visit friends in Santa Clara and to catch up with blogging pals in Santa Monica. Los Angeles is somewhere I’d like to spend a longer period, so we didn’t try to do more than see friends and enjoy the sunshine.

We then took the Coast Starlight Amtrak service north to spend 4 days in San Francisco. A city that holds so many happy memories for us, San Francisco is where we eloped in 2015. This visit certainly did not disappoint either – we enjoyed a wine tour of Napa and Sonoma, and visited Alcatraz too!

We finished our epic 8-week tour with 3 nights in Calgary, so that we could go to the Calgary Stampede. On our last night, as we sat watching the Stampede evening show, the fireworks lit up the sky and we felt like they were for us. We both had a bit of a cry to realise it was over. But what adventures we had.

City Breaks

Paris

We had the pleasure of taking a few city breaks during 2018. In August we went back to my beloved Paris. This time with our dog, Moose, in tow! Paris is very dog-friendly, so it was a real treat to enjoy all my favourite places but with the company of our dog.

Edinburgh

In October we visited our old hometown of Edinburgh, Scotland, for a week of restaurants, friends, and being tourists. I made this useful list of dog-friendly restaurants in Edinburgh, since we also had Moose along for this trip. We also got to enjoy an amazing boat tour of the Firth of Forth.

Foodie Breaks

Beaune

Food plays a big part in my travels – I love tasting the local cuisines and discovering new wines and spirits. 2018 has delivered some pretty tasty morsels food and travel-wise! In September we visited Beaune in the heart of Burgundy wine country. This beautiful medieval town has a wine museum, and every bar and restaurant offers wine flights of the local varietals. Bourgogne wine is exceptional, so it was a real treat to visit Beaune.

Sarlat-la-Canéda

Another foodie delight was our visit to the Sarlat markets in the Dordogne. The area is famous for duck, foie gras and walnuts, so needless to say, we had many glorious dining experiences!

2018 Travel Year in Review

This year has been, without a doubt, my biggest year as far as adventure and change is concerned. I have moved countries many times and travelled far and wide, but this year certainly packed a punch! I feel blessed to have had the moxy to deliver on our outrageous plans, to push ourselves out of our comfort zones, and to see a diverse range of cities and landscapes.

2019 is due to be equally as epic, with road-trips around the southern states of the USA and Montana & Wyoming planned, and city breaks to Chicago and Denver on the cards too. Locally, we are exploring Toulouse, Carcassonne, and Bourges; and will be revisiting Switzerland for our annual jaunt to the Absinthe Festival!   I wish you all the best for 2019, wherever it might take you! Bon Voyage!

Where did you venture in 2018? If you love big road trips like ours, stay in touch!

All photos & content © Hannah Henderson and may not be used without permission (sharing this blog post is fine though!). Images shot with a Canon DSLR T3i Rebel + Canon EF-S 24 mm f/2.8 STM Lens; and an iPhoneX.