Best of Travel 2014
2014 will go down as a year I won’t forget. It was a hard year in the beginning, but difficulties in life are offset by embracing things that give you joy in life.
In October of 2013, I thought of the idea for this website as well as the name, but I finally launched it around July of 2014. And so far, it’s continuing to grow in the direction I hoped. In 2014, I saw for the first time the direction I want to go in both photography as well as writing so in a lot of ways, this year blessed me with a lot of clarity in my career life. For the first time in three years, traveling was no longer a priority and I found even more happiness in my pursuits. However, we still managed to get away a lot this year! It seems no matter what, the travel bug just won’t go away, hence the name of this site. I fear it never will. We have thousands of travel photos that I’ve never shared before so here are some favorites and hidden unpublished gems from 2014. Best of Travel 2014.
New Zealand
We took our second trip to New Zealand in a year. We literally fell in love with the country on our first trip in 2013. It was our favorite place in the world, so we decided to go back again for another New Zealand winter to see Milford Sound and the rest of the South Island. People say New Zealand is beautiful but that’s a complete understatement. I haven’t seen that much of the world, but I’ve seen a lot of nice places. And well, NO place compares to the beauty of the South Island. It’s a whole other realm of beauty. Another definition of beautiful. It’s truly surreal. It’s no wonder why a lot of movies like Lord of the Rings choose to film there. It’s so fuc*king beautiful.
We spent a lot of time in Queenstown and then drove to Milford Sound and Lake Pukaki. We visited Lake Pukaki in 2013 and were awestruck with its landscape, so this time around we stayed alone there. We road-tripped the South Island, stayed in a remote cabin, hiked through another world, drove through Paradise, created a series of hitchhiking photos, photographed the famous Wanaka tree, and stargazed in one of the world’s best International Dark Sky Reserves. As much as I’m a city girl, this is my other half. We’ve decided to have our second home there one day. This goes down as my top travel experience of 2014.


Australia
We visited Sydney for the first time and we both fell in love with this city. I honestly never fancied traveling here, but I’m so glad we did. It’s such a special and beautiful city!! It’s one of the few cities I’d love to return to again and again. We spent days wandering around The Rocks District, lounging in the parks, and watching sunsets over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, and over Bondi Beach.
Japan
We did a lot of traveling in Japan this year. I went to Senjojiki Cirque in Nagano and took a number of day trips to see gardens. We had close family visit Japan for the first time and went to Takayama and Hiroshima. We also visited Kyoto at the height of Autumn, Tokyo Disneyland for our anniversary, and spent a lot of time around Tokyo.
Vietnam
We visited Hoi An in 2012 but came back for a weekend during Thanksgiving after spending the last two years longing to return to the place we ate our favorite banh mi sandwich. We spent days wandering the French Colonial streets, eating street food, and bicycling the nearby villages and rice paddies. It was an intense change in scenery from Tokyo, but a very nice one. We love Vietnam.
Autumn in Kyoto & Tokyo
Here are some autumn shots from Tokyo University as well as Eikando Garden and Daigoji temple. Our trip to Kyoto was brilliant. Here’s my post on Kyoto in case you didn’t catch it.
Istanbul
We spent three nights in Istanbul on our way to Belgium. I’ve always wanted to see this city and I hope to return again one day to explore even more of its history.
Belgium
We always wanted to travel to Bruges so after getting a couple of weeks off in December, we made it happen. If you haven’t read my article already Christmas in Bruges, be sure to check it out!
Daniel captured this awesome and quite hilarious shot of me in complete exasperation when we just arrived at our hotel in Brussels. This was definitely one of those awful travel stories. Our cab driver from Bruges to Brussels turned out to be an absolute psychopath. There was a national strike that day too. A good note to end on.
I hope you enjoyed our quick journey around the world again this year! I skimmed on a lot of details so be certain, there is A LOT of content in the queue for this site!
Oh my God I adore your photography!!! And your style! 2014 seems to had been amazing for you! I wish you many travels to come in 2015 🙂
Thanks Pam and thanks for connecting!! I wish you many travels as well to come in 2015 too 🙂
Amazing!!!
x Kat
http://www.withlovefromkat.com
Thanks Kat! 🙂 LOVE your style.
You have so many wonderful photos! I’m a little envious of your ability to capture the moment in such a beautiful way. I’m looking forward to following your future travels.
Thank you Andrea!! I’m happy you enjoy my photography, it’s definitely my passion in life. I look forward to following you as well!
LOVE seeing the world through your artful eye… not just in your photography, but also in your sense of fashion. So inspiring to see the places you go and the things you wear (including that baby-pink lipstick that I adore). I know the point is perhaps not to highlight your own beauty and self-expression, but some of my favorite photos are of YOU – not sure if that’s a compliment to your timer or your husband, but either way, there is talent in those portraits.
Thank you Gladie!! I’m SO happy you’ve enjoyed my photography and our journey. Seriously. It’s been a journey through this art over the last few years that’s for sure. Honestly, I think my favorite travel images are all of people too. I know exactly what you mean. You may see a million images of the same place online, so adding a subject can make it more exciting and personalized. I used to not really try to compose certain images with a certain style while traveling, but through photography I’ve learned that a good image needs to have a lot of the right compositional components in tact and style definitely is an important part of creating an alluring image, as is posing as it creates form through expression, etc. Def a bit more in the realm of fashion / portrait photography but it’s super fascinating to think about all the components that go into making an interesting shot. But my husband has definitely improved a lot in his photography and has been a big part in helping create these images too.
Thank you so much for sharing a piece of your life, thru these beautiful images. I really appreciate you and your talent. If you are ever In Washington D.C . Look me up, I would be honored to allow you to stay at my home and venture out and explore our capital…Great work. Please don’t stop,
Thank you very much Kevin! Your words are too kind and much appreciated. Hopefully we can make it do D.C. one day!