My 2025 Travel Bucket List
I am a list girly, and I have wanted to write a blog post like this since the inception of the PTO Pal. Although aggressive, I put together a list of 10 (+2) places I want to see and go in the 2025 year. It has officially been 10 years since I graduated high school (ew), coming on 3 years in our home in Harpers Ferry, and it will be one year anniversary of our wedding in Aruba. With last year being so wedding-heavy (including our own), I’d love to travel more in 2025!
2025 is already starting off to be an interesting year, and I am in need of a cheer me up (so far not so great), so here are my hopes and goals for this year’s travels:
Aruba…again
I want to celebrate our one-year wedding anniversary back in Aruba (check out the blog post I wrote about our epic wedding from last year). It will be my fifth time back in this amazing country, and definitely not the last. This one is already booked for August, so if 2025 isn’t another 2020 again, this will be a go! Also, with flights to Aruba being wayyyy cheaper than our wedding week, we can’t say no to this. Because we had a destination wedding at the Renaissance (and dropped some fat coin at the resort), they gave us a free five-night stay back at our venue. Arubbaaa, here we come…again!!!
2. Cusco
Peru has been on my bucket list for YEARS and is the place highest on my ‘dream list’ before we have kids. Not sure if this is going to happen this year (Peru or babies lol), but I would love to be able to travel to Machu Picchu while we are still healthy, young, and energized enough to climb the Incan trail. I am thinking we can piggyback this off our booked trip to Aruba in August, as LATAM flies directly from Oranjestad, Aruba to Lima, Peru. Fingers crossed we can make this dream a reality because Cusco is a place so filled with history, adventure, and alllieeennss???
3. Alaskan Cruise
This is going to be our BIG trip for 2025 and I CANNOT WAIT!!! My amazing husband’s family (and my new family<3) is going on a trip to Alaska this May. We are going to Anchorage, Seward, and then cruising through the Alaskan channels. As a family, we all have been scheming on the coolest things to see and do in Alaska and so far what we have planned is going to be EPICCCC. We have plans to take the Alaskan Railway, hike a GLACIER, dogsled, whale watching, kayaking, and more! Can you tell I am excited?
4. Las Vegas
Since the opening of the Sphere in Las Vegas, and my mom saying it was absolutely insane, I knew I had to see a concert here. The Sphere in Las Vegas is an architectural marvel and a technological dream. It's more than just a concert venue; it's an immersive entertainment experience and as a music and techy nerd, it is a must one day. I would love to see an EDM show here in 2025 and show Noah Vegas (he’s never been!). Ok–I booked this too. Oops.
5. Cartagena
My work besties want to go to Cartagena this year and although I am still making up the PTO hours from the epic honeymoon we took in November, I am tempted to join them on this trip! Details are not confirmed, but Cartagena has been on my bucket list for quite some time.
6. New York City
My maid of honor in our wedding lives in NYC and as the worst best friend ever, it has been almost a YEAR since I visited her. It is due time I make it back to the city that never sleeps (and maybe Jersey too!). I still have never walked across the Brooklyn Bridge despite growing up twelve miles from New York, AND it being on the top of my travel bucket list. Kelsey, can we pwease do this?
7. Banff
Another bucket lister for me would be to finally make it to Lake Louise in Banff. There are always cheap flights from DC to Calgary and I am SO tempted to pull the trigger for Fall of 2025. Will I ever get to skate on a glacier lake? Maybe this will be the year!!
8. Nashville
My brother recently moved to Kentucky, and he lives only an hour away from Nashville. I was saving this spot, thinking SOMEONE would have a bachelorette party here (surprise: they did not). Most of my besties are now married, and I think I should take a trip here while my brother is so close to the city. Extra points to me if we get to Dolly’s Pink Limousine.
9. Florida
My new in-laws live in Sarasota, and ever since we spent all of Covid in this state, it has become one of my favorite places to visit. The Gulf Coast of Florida has a special place in my heart and while I write this in the freezing month of January, I desperately wish we could go to Florida soon. We are planning to go here to see a show in April and visit Noah’s family!
10. Somewhere in Europe
I haven’t been back to Europe since Greece in 2023, so I say it's time to make it back to this amazing continent. I’d love to check off another country and see somewhere new. Maybe somewhere in Eastern Europe! Or Italy again? Tbd!
11. Bonus: New Zealand
Now this one is a TOTAL stretch and we definitely cannot swing it, but if by chance I somehow come into wealth (and more PTO days), I would love to go to New Zealand. This remains at the top of my bucket list, and I am sure my husband and I will one day make it here. I really hope it could be in 2025!!!
12. Bonus 2: Montreal
As the West Essex High School’s 2014 French Club vice president, I still cannot believe I haven’t been up to Quebec. And now living even further south, and forgetting more and more French as time progresses, I am eager to visit Montreal. The episode of Anthony Bourdain’s ‘No Reservations’ in Montreal really sold me on the spot and I think it would be a really cool weekend trip from the US.
