Travel plans for 2023 (a girl can dream, right?)

With 2023 coming closer and closer (only 1 month away!), I am starting to wonder about what that year will bring me. Work, personal, but also travel wise. Which places would I like to visit and will it even be possible? Let's dream away?

The Corona situation and rules of the specific country might change. This article has been written in December 2022.

What to expect in this article?

Sri Lanka

For as long as I can remember my sisters and I have been begging my dad to go to Sri Lanka. Every single year. Not because we wanted to have fun, but because we wanted to explore our roots. My dad fled from Sri Lanka almost 40 years ago and has never been back. We would love to let his fear go away and for him to see his family again.
Next to that, we would love to discover this amazing island, also called ‘the pearl of the Indian ocean.’
When we go, I am not going to visit just one place, that’s for sure! I want to visit the rock of Sigiriya, the capital Colombo, the tea plantation, my family, and whatever else this incredible island has to offer.
Every year my dad has been telling us that we will go ‘next year.’ He is now mentioning he would like to visit in May 2023. Last year it unfortunately did not happen, because of the economic crisis. But we hope that will get better for the inhabitants and we can go. Let’s hope for the best! I would love to take out SL from my travel list.

Turkey

As my boyfriend’s boss lives in Turkey and he might visit him, I would like to meet my boyfriend in Turkey! I mean, it is in the middle of the 2 countries (he lives in India and I live in the Netherlands), so it must be possible.

Istanbul and Cappadocia have been on my travel list since forever, and I would love to go on a hot-air balloon ride.How romantic would that be? And let’s hope my boyfriend won’t just tie his shoelaces then 😛

His boss is living in Bodrum, so I hope we can visit a couple of places in Turkey in 2023.

The Netherlands: Breda & Vlieland

As I live in The Netherlands, I would love to visit a couple of new places.
This country has 5 islands, called the Wadden islands or Frisian islands and these are all located in the North of the country. When I was younger, my family and I wanted to visit one island every year. We did a pretty good job, until the year I moved to Sevilla, and after that Corona came along. Vlieland is the one island that is still pending and then we have visited all five.

All the islands are super pretty, green, and lovely to spend time on. Every year we hired bicycles and cycled around the whole island, except Texel, because it is a bit bigger. I would love to do the same with Vlieland.

Breda is another city I would like to visit. It is located in the south and I have a couple of friends and relatives living there, whom I really want to meet up with. Breda is supposed to be a nice city according to many students. So I hope I can do this.

USA: new york

For a couple of months, my eagerness to go to New York has been out of the roof. It stays on my travel list for as long as I have not been there. I would love to visit this ‘city that never sleeps’ and eat all the food it has to offer.
One of my favorite Dutch vloggers Claire Lucia has lived there for a few years and has documented all. Every time she tried something tasty or went to a cool place, I wrote it down on my list. Because of her, I am dying to go to Artichoke and have a slice of their amazing pizza!

I would love to wander around here and see all those incredible sites that I have seen on tv so often. Hopefully, I am able to be small in between all those skyscrapers in 2023.
Last year I also mentioned NY, this year I would love to visit it in the second half of the year.

Morocco: Marrakech

Marrakech has been on my list for a looong time. Many of my friends would like to go here, so we have spoken about visiting this city often. That is exactly why I would like to visit this place with a friend in 2023.

I have visited Morocco before, but only visited the north (like Chefchaouen and Tetouan). Now I want to go to the south and if possible, also visit the beautiful desert. Marrakech is very Instagram famous, so why not go here. Let’s wander through the medina, smell all the spices and enjoy the beautiful architecture.

Did you know that the Girona tower in Sevilla is built with the Marrakech Tower in the back of their heads? After all, there are many Almohad influences in Sevilla. As I used to be a guide in Sevilla and know all these small facts, I would love to see the architecture from a place it is originally from!

Extra travel plans

Every year I visit places I had not thought of a few months before. This is all because my friends want to visit certain places and sometimes we like to go somewhere cheap. This means I might up somewhere completely else, but it is not less fun! I have wanted to visit the Balkan region for a long time now, so maybe we can visit that area as well. Of course, I would love to visit more in Asia, Oman, or south America, but we will see how the year will go 🙂

Now let me know where YOU would like to go in 2023 and why!

Update dec'23: Looking back at 2023

A small recap of 2023. Out of this list, I only got to visit 1 unfortunately.

I got to visit Sri Lanka, which was my nr 1 since forever, as my dad was born there.
Furthermore, I got to visit Belgium, Bremen, and Berlin in Germany, Slovenia, Croatia, India, Sweden, Venice (Italy) and Luxembourg. Not bad right?

Soon I will write an article about my travel plans for 2024!