2018 – My Year in Numbers

As 2018 is in its final hours, it is time to take stock and review these past twelve months.

I’ve added up all my flights and trips and nights away and 2018 has been a very busy year. It didn’t just feel like this, the numbers do actually confirm that.

And I have added plenty of new countries to my travel map. Back in April I asked myself whether I would be able to visit 40 countries before turning 40. But the count only came up to 21 at the time. Meanwhile I have added another 5 countries (Poland, Hungary, Israel, Slovenia and Serbia), so a 50 before 50 goal looks a little more doable.

2018 was filled with amazing and memorable trips, both for work and for leisure.

January started well with a work trip to Norway, including a night in Oslo, as well as a week in New York (for leisure, with hubby).

February was a fairly busy month, but no real notable trips.

March meant a work trip to Czech Republic, including a night in Brno with some sightseeing and a catch up with friends. Plus another trip to Norway (and another night in Oslo) and a 2-day trip to Denmark (my first ever trip to Denmark, if you don’t count landing in Copenhagen to head over to Sweden).

April was a slower month. It only had two trips, which meant for the first time this year a bit of a breather from weekly travelling. So instead I used the time to plan loads of upcoming trips.

May was back to full action with several short trips to Germany, Switzerland (including a night in Bern) and Austria, as well as the first of three trips this year to Tel Aviv and Israel.

June meant more trips to Germany, both for work and for leisure (my 40th birthday combined with family time).

July brought loads of short trips (2 days in Switzerland, a day trip to Belgium, my first ever visit to Budapest) alternated with family and friends visiting us in London.

The biggy in August was our second trip to Israel.

Instead of that girly weekend in Salzburg that was originally planned for September, Mr T and I headed back to New York for the second time this year, this time also including a Day Trip to Philadelphia.

October meant our third and final work trip to Israel, this time giving us a chance to see a little bit of Jerusalem and exploring loads more in Tel Aviv (in between work).

End of the October was my first ever trip to Slovenia, staying the night in Ljubljana.

November had weekly travels to Germany, mainly for work and mostly endless long journeys.

Which brings us to December and a weekend trip with mum to visit the Christmas markets in Vienna. Followed by my first ever trip to Serbia and a night in Belgrade.

Overall I flew 94 times this year (which is a staggering 30 more flights than in 2017), did 86 site visits, stayed away from home for 105 nights (not just for work, but also including leisure trips) and went on 50 trips (so weekly trips for most of this year really).

I visited 14 countries (Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Israel, Czech Republic, United States, Slovenia, Serbia and Hungary), spent countless hours at numerous airports, had a few flights cancelled or massively delayed, got upgraded on one flight, managed not to miss a single flight or lose a single piece of luggage (touch wood, both has never happened to me yet, but I am aware that one day my luck will run out eventually).

I took thousands of photos throughout the year, made some memories to last a life time (I have yet to complete loads of blog posts from various trips, so stay tuned for my posts about Philadelphia, Görlitz, Heidelberg, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, to name just a few).

I might have been exhausted at times (especially when weekly travels take their toll), but I wouldn’t change it for the world. I love what I do and the good certainly outweighs the bad.

I am expecting work travels to quieten down a little in 2019. But not just yet. So far I have already booked a day trip to Germany and a week in Slovenia for January. And I have a few more pending, so I won’t go cold turkey straight away.

And as for leisure trips, Mr T and I have already started planning our 2019 holidays and the first destination (for March) will be revealed shortly.

So tell me, how was your year? 

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  1. 2023 - My Year in Numbers - Travel for a Living

    […] I would be lying if I pretended that my travel this year was anything like it was back in the day. However, we don’t have some pandemic to blame for that, it is just the nature of my job these days. Less face-to-face meetings, more desk projects.  But that doesn’t mean I didn’t travel at all this year. En contraire. I guess for a lot of people, the number of flights done this year still far exceeds their average. Even though it is barely a quarter of what I did back in 2018. […]

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