I’m Still Here: My 2025 Travel Recap

I miss writing here. I say that all the time! So why don’t I? The world, and my life within it, have changed so much, and there never seem to be enough hours in the day for this platform that once was Wanderland LCC, a brand that now encompasses a bustling boutique travel company at Wander Women Retreats, two rental properties on opposite sides of the planet, and multiple social media channels. I am so grateful for all of it, I’m basically a walking “remember when you dreamed for what you have now” motivational poster — but also sometimes miss the intimacy and the simplicity of me, a pineapple green tea, and this blinking white page.

I love the fresh energy of a new year, and I sit here again, today, opening this draft for what feels like the hundredth time, on Nyepi, the Balinese New Year, a day of silence and reflection. Here in the year 1948 on the Saka calendar and 2026 on the Gregorian one (and did you know the new astrological year begins on March 20th?!) this is kind of the three year anniversary of the reset of my life, in which I woke up on New Year’s morning after years of grief and, driving though the mountains of Idaho, had a mystical premonition everything actually would be alright. 

Since then I’ve woken up for a multitude of fresh starts feeling humbled and grateful for what lies ahead because spoiler art, everything does in fact continue to shake out to be alright. I’ve spent the last four years of Nyepi peacefully in Bali, three of them in the comfort of my home, so appreciative of the reflection this moment of silence and stillness brings. But before we dive into these new years, I’d like to share a bit of 2025 with you all. Thanks for still being here with me, if you’re reading this.

January // Off With a Bang and a Boarding Pass

I spent New Year’s Day of 2026 surfing salty waves, eating cloud-like pitas, receiving warm hugs from some of my favorite people, and basking in a last minute trip to one of my favorite cities in the world, Tel Aviv. It was what my soul needed.

One of my lowlights of the year — and one of the biggest blows in all my travels — followed. Due to flight delays caused by extreme winter weather in Europe, I missed my grandmother’s funeral. I had thought that a 18 hour buffer was enough; it wasn’t. It still hurts. I still went to Illinois to be with my family for the two days after the funeral, which I’m glad I did. I think you have this idea that when someone has lived a long life and is ready to go (after her 90th birthday, I said to her on the way out, see you at 95! And she famously replied… I hope not!) that their passing will be easier. But one thing that’s surprised me is how much I have missed her.

And then it was back to Brooklyn to pack up for my next big adventure, squeeze in a few last New York magic moments, and say some heartfelt goodbyes.

Off to France! For my soul sister Kat’s 50th, she planned a big ski weekend in Chamonix, and as my gift I flew her to Paris for two days beforehand so I could have her all to myself for a moment before the madness. We did a playful punchy version of Paris — dressed way up and ticked the beyond-fabulous show at Crazy Horse off my bucket list, headed to the Pop Forever retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, stayed at a design-forward retro hotel, and enjoyed the company of someone you know will be in your life, for your whole life.

Onto the Alps and a plot twist: skiing is significantly more affordable in Europe than in the US, and the whole aprés scene was made for a gal like me who loves a vibe but can only handle a half day of beginner runs. This really ignited my desire for more winter adventures — I’m dying to go back and go skiing in Lebanon (this one hurts to type; keep reading), hit a slopes-based festival like Tomorrowland Winter, or check out the mountains in famed destinations across the Swiss Alpine Region. Travel imagination activated.

And then, big sigh of joy, I was headed home — the other one. I can’t tell you how good it felt to peek out to the shores of misty Bali from the window seat.

February-May // Bali, Baby

Can I tell you how good it felt to land in Bali knowing I wasn’t going to leave the island for over two months? I really knew — or at least I thought I did, ha — how hectic the year was about to get, and I did my darndest to savor it.

I did take some quick trips to Lovina, a new destination on the north coast where we swam with dolphins and stayed in a gorgeous villa for my friend Dave’s birthday; Uluwatu, where I went twice for vibey getaways with friends; and Ubud, which I am always delighted to find I like better in reality than in theory.

April, as it has the last three years in a row, brought me from the Island of the Gods to The Land of Smiles. My right hand woman at Wander Women, Nik, ran a fresh version of our longest running retreat, Wander Women Koh Tao, and its extension on Koh Samui — with me smiling proudly and signing off on the whole shebang. 

Want to learn to dive — or learn to love to dive — in paradise? Join the 2027 version and immerse in the island rhythms of my old home of Koh Tao, enjoy daily yoga, get your PADI Open Water or Advanced Open Water on a private dive boat, and cap it off with an elephant kiss on Koh Samui. Nothing would delight me more than diving finding it’s way onto the highlight list of your 2027 recaps.

I realized I can get from Bali to Koh Tao same day due to some creative new airline bookings, which put a big smile on my face — waking up in my new Southeast Asia home and going to bed in my old one was special. It took the sting out of deciding not to add any extra time in Thailand for a solo adventure — but I am just listening to my body tell me to dial back on travel where and when I can. That being said… my road trip through the National Parks of Southern Thailand will happen someday. Remember the ones I did way back when?

Back in Bali, I savored my remaining time there deeply. My dad came to visit me in Pererenan for a three week trip I’ll reminisce on for life, and I took him to Uluwatu and most poignantly, to the Gili Islands, where I washed up in Indonesia thirteen years ago for the first time –tracking down my very first apartment, biking the circumference of the island, pulling over to rent snorkels and come face to face with the same turtles I like to think I waved to while doing my divemaster all those years ago. We stayed at an art-filled hotel by Rizz, the Indonesian artist behind my first piece of big-girl art for my villa, who I got to introduce my dad to. Times have changed since I rented that one room mattress-on-the-floor apartment with a brackish water shower; but Indonesia still captivates me.

I dropped my dad off at the airport with tears in my eyes, spent a night recharging, and the next day welcomed girls from around the world with open arms to Wander Women Bali! This second edition of this retreat allowed me to put a more personal stamp on the affair, though we stuck to the beloved classic format of Ubud, Canggu and Uluwatu — and I summited Mount Batur for the first time alongside my Wander Women, the most memorable sunrise of the year.

Immediately after, I was off to Komodo for Wander Women Komodo, a journey that I’m pinching myself over. We surfaced from electric night dives under the milky way, drank rosé on perfect pink beaches, and marveled at the modern dinosaurs that are Komodo dragons. Sometimes it’s hard to put into words why, but this was one of the most magical retreats we’ve ever run, and I thought many times, I can’t believe how lucky I am that this is my job; my life.

Finally, after a few years and some tears and very nearly getting scammed by an unscrupulous visa agent, I officially have legal residency in Indonesia. A KITAS visa in my passport, a house key in my hands, a driver’s license in my wallet, a local bank accounting app on my iPhone… it’s wild to think I showed up here, pretty clueless, and pretty lonely, not too long ago. And now I’ve built this whole life full of people and a place that I yearn for. I can’t wait to see how much sweeter it gets.

I started writing this post from my peaceful home office in Pererenan, overlooking a beautiful rice paddy, feeling wistful as I packed up to leave last season. As with Thailand, I had some trips I had hoped to bring to life… a mermaiding trip to Amed with B Retreats, a hiking journey to Mount Ijen with my bestie Bryony, a Bali wine tour I want to organize (story of my life lol), but I’m moving slowly and calmly in my Indonesia explorations and telling myself all of that will happen in due time.

June-August // Hibernation Girl Summer

That being said, I could not have been more thrilled to spend the summer back in my other home, my beloved Brooklyn (I also could not have be more distressed about leaving Bali but… this duality is something I’m learning to live with these days.) I announced several times, at very authoritative volumes, that I intended to spend as much time at home this summer as possible; cutting all non-essential travel. And yet… the following paragraphs reveal otherwise.

I made two trips to Pennsylvania to babysit slash obsess over my new niece in Philadelphia — I was inspired and set the goal to be able to do so once a month next year — and to cheer on my sister in Harrisburg as she won a Forty Under Forty award for her work at the Tree of Life Foundation. (I also have to mention my two adult nieces are both now in New York, one of them just a few blocks from me, which is a joy.)

I took one trip to Albany to cheer on a Good Karma Studio performance by my bestie Jess, and give all my hometown crew a big summer squeeze.

I headed out twice to Martha’s Vineyard for two short trips, vowing, as I do annually, that next year I’ll spend more time there. I think 2026 might actually be my year, when I presume I’ll need to contact Apple in advance to buy extra storage for all the photos I will take of my niece and I in the matching swimwear I plan to buy us. This summer was a sweet mix of a really idyllic Fourth of July hosting my best friend Steffi and my spiritual nephew Felix, and a Baackes-palooza in August. Highlights included the island-wide jubilation at the 50th anniversary of Jaws, the sweetness of babies at the beach, and the pleasure of waking up in the light-filled cottage that I know was my mom’s favorite place on earth.

We have one week left in our rental allotment for 2026! You can see availability and more details here.

And then, I nabbed my first fresh passport stamp for the year in Portugal. Bom dia! Why yes, I did say I wanted to travel less, but look — when three of your best friends in the world, from two complete opposite sides of the world, are all heading to the same funky festival in the same untapped destination, and one of them offers you a ticket? You say yes and you fly off to your 56th country.

My bestie Shai and I reunited in Southern Portugal to spend a few days in Lagos, where we wandered the tiny cobblestone streets, lounged on iconic beaches, kayaked through the caves of the Algarve, and complimented each other incessantly over glasses of Portuguese white wine. Then we were both off to Boom, a festival in the rural Portuguese countryside I fell wildly in love with, where my dear friend Oliver had worked on one of the epic stages that roared to life with music over the course of the week. Boom was refreshing; a hippie-dippie utopia with no social hierarchy or VIP sections, set along an idyllic lake; and me with a suitcase of meticulously packed outfits but no expectations for what would happen while I was wearing them. A recipe for something special.

And finally, I ended with a few days meandering mostly aimlessly around Lisbon, getting a hint of what all the fuss is about. It’s wild to think how close I came, peaking on work stress, to cancelling this trip — and how grateful I am I didn’t; how much of a reminder it was that my heart is still very much open to and longing for brave new adventures of all varieties.

A month later I was off to Burning Man — duh. For a few years in a row I kept saying, “okay, next year I’m taking a break” until I kind of had this wake up call that the Burn is the break. Admittedly, this was a tough Burn for me, perhaps in fact the toughest due to a mega RV disaster, the worst playa biking conditions in history, and what felt like a lot of friends, forecasts and FOMO to manage. I wrote in my journal after, “it was not the best of times, it was not the worst of times. But it was my eleventh Burn.” Here’s to eleven more.

Um, but those seven thousand trips were totally it, guys!

I titled this section “Hibernation Girl Summer” because when I was’t on my way to or from an airport, that is what I felt like I was having. I saw friends, worked out, left my neighborhood and just generally engaged in city life less than I ever have. A few times, when I’ve shared this with people, they’ll reply like, wow that’s great sometimes we need a step back! But while fall brought me back to myself, this summer, my self care and frankly my mood was largely at an all time low since moving back to Brooklyn. 

While I did enjoy some nesting and savored some quiet moments at home — when I was jotting down notes for this post, I wrote “cleaned out basement” as a notable summer moment, which says a lot — this was mostly a pendulum swing back from years of post-grief chaos. I spent time with my laptop on the roof. In the backyard. On my stoop. The Wanderland team worked hard — I started referring to myself as a mitochondria at some point — to rectify a cycle of releasing retreats too late, being in financial disarray, and always just keeping our heads above water. Hopefully by next year I’m back to my eternal passion, Hot Girl Summer, instead.

I also recognize in retrospect that some of this may have been the impact of the one trip I didn’t put in chronological order. I stopped, on my way back from Bali, for what I thought was a three day layover in Israel to see a friend’s show at the Israel Museum 60th Anniversary Retrospective, celebrate another friend’s birthday, dance at Pride, and get back to New York. Instead, twelve hours after I landed, Israel bombed Iran, and a terrifying chapter of the endless Middle Eastern conflict began. My Israeli friends, who grew up being shuffled into bomb shelters regularly, told me at the time it was the scariest week of their lives as we watched Tel Aviv crumble above us from miklats and mamads, the shelters around the city. After a direct hit a block from my building, in which we emerged from a claustrophobic shelter to the doors and windows blown out of the apartment by shockwaves, I knew I had to get out, and made a tense overland journey to the warm safety of Egypt, from where I flew home to New York.

I look back and muse that much of my cocooning over the summer was perhaps my body and mind quietly processing those events. While I’ve always felt connected to the people and places I love in the Middle East, I felt the pain of the endless conflict there in a heavier way, having felt the shake of the ground from missiles, having heard the explosions, and having viscerally experienced even a moment, in my body, of the terror of war, something most Americans will only watch from screens. Holding the pain of those who can’t cross a border to escape weighed on me, yet strengthened my resolve that there is some calling of mine to connect to this misunderstood region, and help others do the same.

Which brings me to…

September + October // Maldives Maven + Cleopatra Calling

September and October have taken on a familiar cadence for me the last few years. They are some of our most popular months for Wander Women Retreats, and so I find myself on the road with the huge honor of hosting women in my favorite places in the world.

Can I be totally honest with you guys? Is that allowed? September and October are months I’d actually love to be in the US — I’m obsessed with the foliage and all things fall — but I also recognize it’s one of (a) the peak months our customers want to travel, according to our annual survey (next edition coming soon!) and (b) the best season for so many of our top destinations! So I kind of accept that at least for the next few years while I ride this beautiful Wander Women wave, they will be spent on the road. In some future version of my life I’d love to take a little more time between Burning Man and leaping off into weeks of twenty-four-seven work and international travel to decompress and reintegrate, but I’m making the most of this season. Boo hoo, right? Don’t worry I cringed personally while typing it, so you don’t have to!

So off I went to Wander Women Maldives, this third edition with a twist — it was a freediving trip! I’ve been lucky to dabble in freediving here and there over the years with great mentors, but it was more than time to truly immerse and make it official — I left with my PADI Freediver certification and a new obsession; and can’t wait to do my PADI Advanced Freediver somewhere on this beautiful blue planet someday soon.

We’ll be back to the Maldives… in 2028! Craving a journey at sea with us before that? Check this out.

Guys, (I feel like I’ve missed you a lot, so forgive me for starting every other sentence like this, but we’re all old friends at this point, right?) Guys. I missed Egypt so so so much — almost as much as all of you. 

And so it felt like a homecoming to return for our 9th and 10th Egypt retreats, Wander Women Egypt with Nik and Wander Women Aerial Egypt with Brenna. Somehow years have slipped by since Brenna and I ran a trip together — she’s been busy getting freaking married to the love of her life, hell yeah, and now opening her own dang aerial studio in New York! — so we were pretty giddy about this one. It was such a thrill to wander through the new Grand Egyptian Museum — I was ready to fly there with a shovel and finish it myself — to see partnerships I’ve nurtured for years flourish, and to hold a copy National Geographic 100 Nights Of A Lifetime — in which Wander Women Retreats is documented for our magical felucca experiences — on our business partner Sameh’s brand new felucca along the Nile.

Our Egypt 2026 trips just launched — and I think they are all pretty special.

In between those trips I considered sneaking in a quick couple days at one of my Maldives dream resorts, or finally doing my dream layover in Oman, or shoving in a little sneaky Egypt research for future retreats! But in the end, Nik and I hunkered down in a dreamy apartment in Cairo and co-worked; a rare show of sensible decision making.

I made it back to New York just in time to catch the final falling leaves of Autumn, take a quick trip to Albany for an annual fundraiser for a charity I love, bop to Philly to see my nieces — human and canine — dressed like bumblebees, and to soak up every creative, chaotic, costumed moment of the Halloween season in New York; in my opinion the greatest city in the world to experience it.

November + December // Close To Home

Confession: I hate November in New York. In 2024, I actually had a great birthday for the first time in years, but this is just not a month I want to be hanging around. The minute the clocks roll back or forward or whatever it is that makes the sun set an hour earlier; I personally begin a rapid spiral into Seasonal Affectation Disordered hell. 

So, as much as my mind, body and soul are all screaming at me to slow down my travels… it’s also a pretty great month to get the heck outta here. Unfortunately, November is off-season in most of our retreat destinations (also, as someone with a November birthday who’s done a lot of research on travel destinations for that time… it’s just a tough time to travel in general.)

I’m LOL-ing reading back at my years of writing this post and the number of times I claim okay, no but really this time, this is the year I go back to Mexico for my birthday! For real guys! I really do have a dream, that I hold very dear, of Oaxaca for Day Of The Dead followed by Puerto Escondido in a beach villa with all my best friends for my birthday. In reality, it’s been a busy time of the year, the last half a decade, with weddings and babies and such for my nearest and dearest, so the right time has not revealed itself yet. But — it’s tradition at this point to yearn for. Instead, I spent it in New York, followed by a quick hop to Philly to celebrate Vivian’s first birthday!

Next, I made my way to Florida for DEMA, where I was proud to speak at an women’s round table event with my partners at PADI. On each end I visited favorite Sunshine State cities to see family and friends — first St. Pete and Tampa to visit friends and fam and then to Miami to do the same. I always love Florida and this trip was full of memorable moments, from sunrise at SPACE, a club that was long on my list to dance under a disco ball at, to walking into DEMA with a presenter badge on, to going straight from the beach to the airport, soaking up every last second of sun.

Back in Brooklyn I slipped back into Hibernation Girl Fall. This time it was somewhat medically necessitated, as I finally got a small surgery I’d been trying to schedule for years, worked on getting my house ready to sublet, and worked on some launches that had me pulling college-style all nighters. I actually spent my first Thanksgiving ever in the city and to be honest, while I was dreading it at first, I actually found it delightful. I had friends over for a parade-and-pajamas-and-pumpkin-pancakes party and had a big breakthrough about my ability to create my own new traditions that I love.

Speaking of, I’m embracing loving Christmas again! Considering my dad turned the big 8-0 in January, I stuck around the US for December. In general, despite my weather-related crash outs as the year comes to a close, I am realizing how much I value soaking in the holidays and spending them surrounded by family and friends. This past December I remembered often that on my big Christmas market trip to Europe (which I dreamed of blogging this year, but alas, did not), I’d tell the people we met in Germany, Switzerland and France that it had been my dream to come there for Christmas! To which they replied, it was their dream to spend Christmas in New York. So while I didn’t do as admirable a job of it in 2025 as I had done in 2023 or 2024, I did make time for holiday magic, from hosting a naught-or-nice themed Christmas party at my Brooklyn brownstone to seeing a friend perform in Company XIV’s Nutcracker Rouge. 

There were a few trips I had in mind for this time, but again, in a shocking turn of events, I stayed put. I’d mused on hopping down to the Caribbean to visit my friend, Wanderland team member and upcoming Wander Women co-host Olivia in Grenada, a new island nation for me; and even went so far as to book flights for a winter ski trip to Beirut and New Year’s Eve in Tel Aviv. That one stings.

By the numbers, 2025 was a year with six retreats, two festivals, one conference, and zero weddings. With eight countries visited (only one new!) and six state lines crossed (none of them new; sorry one-a-year resolution). There were a few new destinations within well-trod territory: Charmonix in France, Lovina in Bali, Harrisburg (The Harrisburg chamber of commerce loved to see me coming) in the ol US of A. And there was even a new country, Portugal, adding a 56th new stamp to my passport.