Pack The Suitcases’ 2023 travel roundup

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It’s been a while but I’m back once again, like the renegade master, with my travel roundup for 2023. This is my usual annual overview of where I went in the year, including all my travel-related highs and lows. Normally I publish it in December so it’s very late. This is due to recent trauma in my life, which I’ll explain later.

I’ve been doing these yearly roundups since I launched Pack The Suitcases in 2016. They serve as a kind of personal reminder of the years and are more for me than anything else, seeing as they’re of no interest to most people. So, if you’re reading this, thanks for sticking with me.

In 2023, regular readers will know that I was on a 12-month career break (aka sabbatical). This went from April 2022 to April 2023. So the first bit of this calendar year involved that, and then I was back to work and reality. I still fitted in a fair amount of trips until disaster struck, though.

Pour yourself a cuppa, and enjoy a read about my rather up-and-down 2023…

Places visited in 2023

January

A week in Madeira – what a surprise. If you’re a long-time reader, you’ll know I go almost every January. This was very much a work trip, doing research to update my giant guide to restaurants in Funchal. Mission accomplished: that’s been one of my best guides this year. 

February to April

The last chapter of the career break travels! 

• Japan – How many times can one woman go to Japan and not tire of it? Answer: there is no limit. As usual, we began in Tokyo, but then went to a few new places (Maebashi, Karuizawa, Kobuchizawa, Osaka – not new but never stayed over before, Itõ and Oshima) before heading back to Tokyo. It’s still one of the best places on earth. And it was so nice catching up with friends there.
• Vietnam – Hanoi. More on this later but suffice to say it was a real highlight of the year.
• Thailand – Chiang Mai, Phuket city, Kata beach, Rawai. Loved Chiang Mai and got to see baby elephants (again, more on that later); the rest I probably wouldn’t go back to.
• Qatar – Doha. Not somewhere I ever thought I’d end up visiting. But I had to pick between Doha, Abu Dhabi and Dubai to break the journey back from Asia now that flights are a lot longer due to being unable to fly over Russia. I wouldn’t rush back but it was interesting and very different from anywhere else I’ve been.
• Türkiye – Istanbul. This was the worst experience of the year. I’ve written about it further down.
• France – A Eurostar adventure: Lille, Arles, Avignon, Lille again. As I said in 2022, I love France. I enjoy all things French. Lille is one of the best city breaks in Europe (and so doable all by train). Arles is a total dream; I loved ‘living’ there for a couple of weeks, as I’ll explain in a bit. More of this in 2024, s’il vous plait.
• A lovely little UK trip to the Lake District to end the sabbatical on.

June/July

Just over a week in Warsaw (very cool) and Gdansk (beautiful), Poland, featuring day trips to Sopot and Malbork. I discovered that I adore Poland. I’ve explained why further down. Will deffo be going back in 2024.

September

Another train adventure. A week in Switzerland and France: going from Nyon (near Geneva) to Annecy, ‘the Venice of the Alps’. I really liked the scenery in both locations and this was very much a nature/outdoors kind of trip. A walk through the Roc de Chère nature reserve from Talloires was a highlight, with gorgeous views across Lake Annecy.

October to December – ending on a big low

Absolutely zero travel. Just one hellscape after another. Here’s what happened, in order:

1. The blog got hit very badly by a Google update, meaning my traffic and income plummeted.
2. My main job, which I love so much normally, was miserable due to understaffing and a crazy workload.
3. I got COVID for my birthday (had to cancel plans to go to Edinburgh).
4. My beloved horse had to be put to sleep (I still haven’t processed this tbh).
5. My mum had major heart surgery and was in hospital for a long time. And I couldn’t be there because…
6. …I got catapulted off a friend’s horse and badly broke my collarbone (among other injuries). I got taken to A&E in an ambulance, which my memories of are patchy due to going in and out of consciousness. But then I had to wait two weeks (in agony) for emergency surgery over Christmas. I’ve now had the surgery and am into what’s looking like a six-month recovery. 

All I can say is that 2024 had better be an improvement.

And the 2023 stats…

✈️ 13 flights
🚄 17 trains (what a comedown from 53 in 2022)
📍 22 destinations (day trips not included)
🛏️ 22 apartments/hotels
🌎 9 countries
🧳 2 suitcases!

Side note: what is a career break/sabbatical?

I just wanted to answer this as I’ve been asked loads. A career break, also known as a sabbatical, is a period of unpaid leave you can take from your job, if you have the option. It can be just a month or several years. At the end of it, you go back to your job and carry on as normal.

My day job, when I’m not travel blogging, is in the UK Civil Service. I’ve worked there since 2009. When you’ve done long-term service, you’re more likely to be granted a career break. Mine began on 1 April 2022 and I returned to work on 19 April 2023.

It was honestly the best thing I’ve ever done.

Best travel experiences of 2023

Okay, let’s get into the best/worst awards…

Other than simply being on a career break/sabbatical, I had three standout travel experiences in 2023.

1. Having a train pass a few centimetres from my face in Hanoi, Vietnam

This is something I’ll remember forever.

Hanoi is absolute chaos but in the most fun way, and I think the famous train street captures that vibe perfectly.

‘Train Street’ is a narrow residential street that has a train track running through the centre of it. No barriers. No fencing. Just trains hurtling through and everyone has to clear the way. It’s become a tourist attraction, with cafés popping up all along it, and hordes of people poised with cameras. I was a bit worried it would be underwhelming but it DEFINITELY wasn’t.

I made sure we got there in plenty of time for the next train so we could get a drink at one of the nicer cafés in a good spot sitting outside, right next to the track. The waiters come out just before the train and make sure everyone has their feet tucked well under the tables and no idiots are still on the tracks, and then… OMG. The train passes by about 30cm from your face.

Go and watch my Instagram video – you can tell how close it was. Unsurprisingly, the whole street sometimes has to shut due to tourists not following the locals’ advice…

2. Living out my dream French life in Arles, France

Oh, Arles. And oh, Provence. I can’t describe how much I loved it here. 

Regular readers will know that I’ve developed a mild obsession with French fashion, food, art, culture… everything, really, since last year. I really must write some French travel guides on here but my backlog of work is insane right now. ANYWAY. As a base, Arles is just the right size, with loads of beautiful spots to explore, nice food and plenty of art/culture.

I’d booked a traditional little stone house in the centre of Arles for two weeks. A serious commitment to briefly live out my dream French life. We hardly ate out, just bought food from all the amazing local shops. We spent the days wandering through floral streets, sitting in squares (I did a lot of chien-watching) and admiring all the pastel-coloured shutters.

Arles was perfection. It’s also great as a base for day trips. Marseille (which was incredible and somewhere I’ll be booking to go back to properly) and Avignon are easy on the train. We hired a car for a couple of days to go to some other small towns, the Pont du Gard bridge and the Camargue Wetlands nature reserve. I was so excited to see Camargue ponies in the wild!

Fun fact about Arles: it’s where Van Gogh chopped his ear off.

3. Meeting rescued elephants in Chiang Mai, Thailand

I feel like seeing elephants in Thailand is such a traveller cliché. But for me, it was an unexpected highlight. You know I’m a huge animal lover but it’s generally only horses and dogs I get very excited about. I wasn’t prepared for how much I’d fall in love with the residents of the Elephant Nature Park sanctuary.

First off, OMG the research I had to do to find an ethical place where you’re not allowed to touch the elephants. Basically, if you can touch/bathe them, it’s unethical. After a few hours down a Google wormhole, I discovered that most ‘sanctuaries’ actually ride and abuse them. Great.

But I eventually found this very famous one run by an incredible local woman who does fantastic community work. The elephants all live as naturally as possible with minimal human interference.

It was such a memorable day seeing them. I became obsessed with two baby elephants (born to pregnant rescues) who were showering themselves and rolling down mudslides. And I nearly cried hearing about different elephants’ stories: being beaten, blinded (yep) and generally abused by awful men in trekking centres, circuses and shows. Amazing to think humans are still treating our fellow animals like this, especially ones so intelligent and gentle.

I’m also very pleased with this shot and am awaiting a call from David Attenborough any day now.

Worst travel experiences of 2023

Even living the dream on a career break isn’t all fun and games. Here are my top three travel ‘lows’ of 2023…

1. Being disappointed in Istanbul

Istanbul was my first disaster of the sabbatical. I’m counting those ‘challenging’ 6 weeks in Spain in 2022 as more of an amusing tale to tell. I’ve always fancied Istanbul so it was dead disappointing to have such a bad experience. 

The main problem was the level of harassment from men. It was more like what I’ve heard Morocco can be like. Staring, shouting, following etc. ALL the time. And it was more than just pervy; it was threatening. One man circled, coming progressively closer till he barged into us while we were waiting for an Uber outside the hotel.

And the attitude from every (male) waiter I spoke to was wild. All over the world, I’ve found restaurant staff great when you explain an allergy. In Istanbul though, it was like I’d tried to start a fight. The one time we got a female waiter, it was no problem.

There were other things too:

• On the first night, the driver (sent by the hotel) who picked us up from the train was pulled over by police and arrested.
• The hotel was awful and had done its own fake reviews (the room’s ‘city view’ was hilarious!).
• We had a taxi accelerate AT us when crossing the road and then saw the same thing happen to a group of girls. Twice!

Overall, not what I was expecting. Such a shame. Istanbul’s history, architecture and public transport were all great. Crossing the beautiful Bosphorus on a ferry as the sun went down was very special. And I loved my first-ever intercontinental train journey, going from the European side to the Asian side of the city. Not to mention eating ALL the baklava.

I’m glad we went as it’s always been on my list, but I’m so glad it was part of the bigger sabbatical trip. If it was a normal holiday using precious annual leave, I’d have been gutted.

2. A grim time in Kata Beach, Phuket, Thailand 

After an action-packed time in lovely Chiang Mai, I wanted somewhere calm for a week so I could get some blogging done in a nice hotel before we flew to the next country. Phuket Town ticked the boxes. It was nothing special, a bit Blackpooly but full of great food (like all of Thailand) and near enough to an international airport.

But the hotel wasn’t the oasis of peace I needed. It was gorgeous, very boutiquey, but so loud I couldn’t sleep. And it had no curtains at all, never mind blackout ones. So I decided to find an alternative place for the last few nights, just to get sleeping and blogging back on track…

I found an alright-looking hotel in nearby Kata Beach. It had great reviews and lots mentioned how quiet it was. Well, it ended up being the worst hotel AND one of the worst places I’ve ever been, all in one go. Walking down the road in Kata Beach, my expression was just the screaming face emoji IRL. I’m not sure whether it was the rows of tacky bars full of creepy Western men, the teenage girls sitting outside ‘massage parlours’ or the raw sewage by the beach but it wasn’t filling me with joy. As for the hotel, I had my first encounter with bed bugs. It was quiet, though, tbf.

Once upon a time, I might have tried to stick it out. But after 12 months of full-time travel, I know when it’s worth spending money on escaping and not wasting time. We stayed one night, checked out at the crack of dawn, and headed to a LOVELY hotel in Rawai, not too far away. Rawai itself was alright, not amazing, but a billion times more acceptable.

The ups and downs of full-time travel, eh? I rarely have a bad experience: when you think how many places I visited on the sabbatical, I adored 99%. Not bad going.

Best local destination of 2023

The Lake District

For once, I’ve not done many local trips lately! The only UK break I had in 2023 was to the Lakes. A classic. But it never gets old. This was the final trip of the sabbatical and rounded it off nicely before I had to mentally prepare for returning to work and reality.

I’ve been going to the Lakes all my life. If you’d like to hear my tips, I have a full guide to Windermere and the Lake District.

Best new destination of 2023

Poland

For the first holiday following the sabbatical, the pressure was on. I’d been back at work for two months and was itching to get away. But it had to be somewhere good. It’s amazing how precious 37.5 days of annual leave becomes when you’ve had a year away.

I decided to book just over a week in Warsaw and Gdansk, Poland. And I LOVED it. As well as the cities themselves, I also did day trips to Sopot (a pretty beach town) and Malbork (the biggest castle in the world, which reminded me of Stockport viaduct…).

Why do I adore Poland? Well, it has the most ‘me’ food outside of Asia. Loads of veggie places, cute healthy cafes, amazing patisseries, food halls etc all with really fresh and high-quality ingredients. It’s shocking that it’s not more well known for it. The public transport in cities is good, and both cities were clean, beautiful and FULL of flowers. I felt very at home. Oh and Poland is home to Reserved, one of my fave shops. It’s a bit like how Topshop was back in the day. You can’t get it on the UK high street so I went a bit wild on the dresses. 

My favourite ‘thing’ I visited was 100% the Museum of Solidarity in Gdansk, which is about the union movement. SO good. I won’t spoil it for you by explaining but have a look at my Gdansk highlight on Instagram if you want to see it. 

I’ll definitely be booking another Poland trip in 2024.

Best accommodation of 2023

Normally, I just pick one place for this. But as I’ve stayed in 22 hotels/apartments this year, I can’t whittle it down that much. So I’ve picked my best three:

• JR-East Hotel Mets Koenji (Tokyo) – This is where I always book for Tokyo. Koenji is my favourite area of the city. As Japan is so tricky for good affordable accommodation, it’s nice to have found this reliable spot. I recommend it to everyone I know going to Tokyo.
• Shiroiya Hotel (Maebashi) – Yes, another Japan hotel made the list. But this is the opposite of the functional and simple Koenji one. It’s one of the swankiest and coolest hotels I’ve ever stayed in. Totally worth going to the extremely off-the-beaten-path Maebashi just for a night there. It’s all arty, eco-friendly and painfully cool. Thanks to my dear friend Tom (who lives in Tokyo) for booking it; love you.
• La Petite Arlésienne (Arles) – I have to include this petite home-from-home. I’ll 100% return there one day. If you want a gorgeous base for parading around Provence in a series of berets, this is your gal.

If you’re interested in hotel tips, have a gander at my thread on Twitter/X about everywhere I booked for the career break in 2023 (and 2022 if you look at the retweeted thread).

Travel blogging in 2023

Thanks for nothing, Google

After a good start to the year in terms of blog traffic (and thus income), Google rolled out its (un)Helpful Content Update (HCU). My blog was very badly hit by it in September. And it still hasn’t fully recovered.

I won’t bore you with the details but the HCU was a massive change in how search results in Google work. It favoured some abysmal content and decimated a lot of excellent (and huge) bloggers, as well as relatively small fry like me. And like during the panny d, I was once again relieved that I don’t rely on my blogging income fully. It’s terrifying how you can drop from making £300 to £3 a day at the whim of the internet gods.

I’m hoping the next Google update will iron out some of the issues from the HCU. But I know I need to put a lot of work in (once I’m healthy again) to try and claw back my traffic. 2024 is a year of healing all round. First collarbone, then blog.

Blogging about blogging

If you’ve followed the blog in 2023, you’ll have seen that I did my first ever blogging about blogging. People seemed to like my posts on how I earn money from travel blogging and the differences between a blogger and an influencer.

I’m mulling over a guide to starting a travel blog or something like that. Let me know if you’re interested in this stuff for 2024!

Social media

I’m still very active on my Pack The Suitcases account on Facebook (where I tend to do long and rambling updates from places I will never blog about but want to share) but I used Twitter/X less in 2023. I’m clinging on there until the heinous Elon Musk kills it off but I don’t enjoy it much any more.

After updating my Pack The Suitcases account on Instagram a lot more during the sabbatical, with daily stories and weekly grid posts/reels, I feel like I hate the platform less now. I still don’t get why tourism boards are OBSESSED with it. But it’s definitely grown on me just for fun stuff, mainly stories, as a supplement to the blog. And I definitely enjoyed boring all my followers with outfits I’d packed for my Arles trip…

My plans for 2024

As I’m looking at six weeks off work, then another five months until full recovery from the accident, I don’t have any major travel booked for 2024. I’ve got a tentative weekend in Kirkby Lonsdale pencilled in for mid-February. My calendar looks so empty.

I had (another) Madeira trip booked in January, which of course got cancelled, so I’d like to reschedule that. Other stuff I’d like to do in 2024 would be more Poland, a Helsinki/Tallinn combo, Serbia and Sicily. I can’t see any Asian adventures this year but we’ll see.

Please do let me know in the comments where you’re hoping to head off to in 2024! Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and a brilliant New Year. And a huge THANK YOU to everyone who read and supported the blog in 2023. Your lovely comments, emails and social media messages mean a lot. I love love love writing my travel guides but they do take a lot of time and energy, from preliminary research all the way through to final edits. Knowing they help you is my motivation. I’ve also had quite a few of you buying me a drink over on my Buy Me a Coffee account (I hate coffee, so use it to buy G&T or tea). I’m very grateful and touched by every single one. 

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