2024 and 2025 Trip Planning - July 2023

It seems that post-pandemic travel is on the rise for many. Along with this interest, travel bookings for 2024 and 2025 are either no longer available or have limited availability. Accordingly, we've been making trip reservations over the past several months. Where are we planning to go?

Galapagos and Machu Picchu 2024

On this trip, we'll be traveling on the Celebrity Flora, a 100 guest ship that exclusively sails in the Galapagos. Starting in Quito, we'll travel to Baltra and embark on 12 port stops. Wildlife viewing, hiking and snorkeling are the primary activities for this trip. Leaving Baltra, we'll travel to Lima for a visit to Machu Picchu before finally heading back to Northern California. 

Africa 2024

Our first visit to Africa in 2014 focused on South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana. We've always wanted to visit Kenya and recently arranged a custom itinerary with Fish Eagle Safaris.  We enjoyed our 2014 trip arrangements with this company. What might we view on this trip? Common animals are elephants, zebras, buffalo, giraffe, leopard, lion, wildebeest and cheetah. If we're lucky, we might see black rhino, white rhino and/or wild dogs.

Arriving in Nairobi, we'll start with a city tour before flying to Amboseli National Park. We have two nights at Elewana Tortilis Camp, located in the Kitirua Conservancy. From here, we fly to Lewa Wildlife Conservancy for a three night stay at Sirikoi Lodge.

We board a small plane for our final flight to Masai Mara for a four night stay at Elewana Elephant Pepper Camp. This camp is located in the Mara North Conservancy.  With our trip completed, we then head back to Nairobi to start our return flight to the US.

Christmas Markets 2024

We've heard that a Christmas holiday in Europe can be a special experience. Many towns host small vendor stalls selling local snacks and gifts, with live music from local choirs and orchestras. Locals may dress in medieval clothing and serve special regional treats. Some of the markets were started in the 15th century and continue to this day.

Our trip still start in Braunfels and continue on to Nuremberg. We'll board a Rhine riverboat in Nuremberg and continue on to Strasbourg and Riquewihr.

Australia 2025

This will be our second trip to Australia. The first trip included a land tour of Australia, including visits to the outback and the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. We also boarded a cruise to several Australian and New Zealand ports. 

This 2025 trip will be a month long circumnavigation of Australia, aboard a Viking Ocean ship. The itinerary includes port stops in Bali and Komodo. Overall, there are 16 port stops on this trip.

We enjoy the Viking Ocean as the ships are smaller in size and guest capacity (about 450 guest cabins). In addition, we no longer have a strong need for on-board entertainment shows and/or casinos.  

Japan 2025 

This is a trip that we reserved just a few days ago. This will be essentially a month long circumnavigation of Japan, with brief stops in Busan, South Korea and Taiwan. Part of the trip will be on a Seabourn cruise ship. One of the features we are looking forward to is an opportunity to visit smaller islands in the Satsunan chain, between Kyushu and Amami Oshima. 

We anticipate adding some time for personal Japan travel, including a visit with my wife's relatives.