Travel Plans for 2019

It’s that time where we indulge ourselves in writing post pretty much only for our own benefit. First I threw at you my travels of 2018 and now I’m about to reel off my travel plans for the coming year. I know these posts aren’t everyones cup of tea but I love looking back on them and seeing how plans changed and what remained the same. 

I just had a look back for last year’s post but with the wedding and everything I didn’t do a proper travel plans for 2018 post. What I did write however pretty much all got ticked off and of course extra things we’re added. But I won’t digress any more. Here are our travel plans for 2019… let’s see what we actually achieve by the end of the year.

 Abu Dhabi – January

This is quite a popular destination for us, we seem to head to the capital of UAE every couple of months. This time will be another overnight trip giving us time to head to the Louvre museum which has been on the list for a while and to of course head back to the mosque. There is something quite different about the vibe in Abu Dhabi compared to Dubai and I always appreciate their slightly slower pace of life. 

Mirfa – February

My parents will be visiting in February and they told me to book something I’ve not done yet. So I decided to book us a weekend trip heading East towards Saudi to Al Mirfa. I’ve read good things about it in my Lonely Planet guide and I’m excited to see more of the Abu Dhabi emirate that spans most of the land of the UAE. The beaches look beautiful and it’s a pretty small town. 

The rest of the week of my parent’s visit will be spent playing tour guide in Dubai and probably heading out into the desert. 

Sri Lanka – Spring Break

Our first big destination of the year is hoping to be Sri Lanka. This is a place we visited very briefly in 2018 and really fell in love with despite only seeing Colombo for less than 24 hours. Our plan is to head back and see a lot more of the country. We will have just over a week and in that time we’d love to see the hills and take that gorgeous train ride from Kandy to Ella.

After a few days in the hills we’d like to head south to Galle and the surrounding beach area. I’ve heard amazing things about the gorgeous beaches in this area and seen some incredible sunset photos that a few days chilling here sounds perfect. 

Nothing is booked yet except JP’s annual leave so we’ll wait and see what this trip actually looks like.

Europe – Summer Holiday

So we have booked one thing for this trip and that’s tickets to the German F1. If you’ve been following this blog for many years then you’ll know we frequently base our holidays around a sport event and this year it’s going to be another Formula 1 event. However, the flights from Dubai to Germany in July are looking pretty pricey so I’m currently looking at other countries nearby to fly into. 

This cunning plan also means we’ll need to do a little Interailing to get to Germany and well it would be rude not to stop in the cities if we’ve got to take a train through them. The current list is looking a little like this: Bratislava, Vienna, Munich, Frankfurt and possibly Prague but that might be a little ambitious for 2 weeks.

UK – Christmas Holiday

I’m not going to lie, as excited as I am for a hot Christmas holiday in 2018 I’m also really missing the cold winter temperatures that go hand in hand with Christmas in Europe. Because of this and knowing we won’t be home for Christmas in 2020 our current plan is to head back to the UK for 2 or so weeks to fully enjoy the festive season. 

It will be nice to have some quality family time at home as we will miss out on it this year and there is something about a nice warm English pub, with a roaring fire and mulled wine being served that you just don’t get else where. 

This time of year is also our wedding anniversary so we’ll also be looking to sneak in a cheeky few days away somewhere else to celebrate what will be our second wedding anniversary!

Other Ideas

Muscat

This city that I have heard so much about is a short flight or a 4 hour drive from Dubai so at some point I think we will be heading back to Oman. There are several Islamic holidays that don’t get announced until about a week before so I think we’ll use one of these that backs onto a weekend to take a little trip and see what this city has to offer. 

Seychelles 

This is an African island that is super close to Dubai on a direct flight so if budget (it’s not mega cheap) and time allows we’ll also try and head here for a long weekend. We are thinking around October time when everything is a little crazy and we’ll be in need of a good rest and relax. This island is quite similar to the Maldives with beautiful blue ocean and white beaches but the islands are much bigger meaning there’s a little more to do. 

What are your travel plans for 2019? Let me know in the comments below.