Tomorrow is my birthday, so today is a good time to reflect back on the past year.

Specifically, I’m thinking about the best travel memories.

52 of them, one for every week of the year.

I prefer to collect experiences over things.

No, they did not occur exactly one time each week.

Some weeks are filled with fantastic travels that deliver dozens of powerful experiences. Other weeks, I’m busy working at my desk and create zero travel memories.  I believe 52 is a good goal. Here they are, is no particular order: My 52 Best Travel Memories from the Past Year

1. Watching my niece’s excitement during her first visit to the ocean. We were on her first cruise, and stopped at Labadee, Royal Caribbean’s Private Resort in Haiti.

2. Trying Out San Francisco’s New Cruise Ship Terminal at Pier 27. Our favorite city and former home got a major upgrade for cruise departures.

3. We love Italian food, and it was fantastic to experience it with a local in Milan During Our Milan Food Tour.

4. Making the effort to do it, and then actually getting the passport stamp. It was solid white fog, but we had no regrets when we visited a New Country: San Marino.

5. Trying the Dog Paddle and the Cannonball burger at the new Dive-In at the Terrance Grill  onboard Holland America’s Volendam in Asia, and on the Nieuw Amsterdam in the Caribbean.

6. Hearing that Viking River Cruises Will Launch Mississippi River Cruises Out of New Orleans in 2017. How exciting.

7. Touring the Tiger Brewery in Singapore. So fun on a Friday afternoon.

8. Experiencing Air China’s “˜Forbidden Pavilion’ First Class Flight Service between Houston and Beijing. Those seats are huge, and make a long flight comfortable.

9. Providing a former intern and world traveler with 18 Tips for Her First Cruise.

10. Celebrating New Year’s Eve on Holland America’s Volendam Cruise Ship with two terrific friends.

11. Spending a beautiful day Sailing into Santa Barbara, California on Princess Cruises.

12. Loving the Entertainment on the Oasis of the Seas, and learning the benefits of front row seats.

13. Celebrating the 11 Spectacular Staffers Who Made Our Cruise on the Seabourn Sojourn Special.

14. Diving in to the unfamiliar dim sum at Chynna in the Hilton Kuala Lumpur. This is definitely not your typical hotel restaurant.

15. Gaining in-depth insights from guide Carol during A Little Walk Through Little India with The Original Singapore Walks.

16. Experiencing 11 Hours in Beijing, China with the 72-Hour Visa-Free Stay Program. (It’s good to get out of the airport, even for a little while.)

17. Enjoying on the the best bathtubs of my life after a long flight at the Hilton Beijing Capital Airport Hotel.

18. Overcoming my hesitation, and then zip-lining, ice-skating, and Flow Riding with my 12-year old niece while Making the Most of the Last Sea Day on the Oasis.

19. Doing advance research on to learn about a new travel destination: 21 Fun Facts About Mormugao, Goa, India.

20. Then, putting that new knowledge to use while Touring Goa, India by Taxi. It was a fun and fascinating day.

21. Experiencing the beauty of Mumbai’s New Terminal T2 at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.

22. Dining on Delicious Dumplings at Din Tai Fung in Singapore during two separate trips. Serious Yum.

23. Even though the service was disappointing, I’m glad we visited the Long Bar at Singapore’s Historic Raffles Hotel.

24. We will always remember our U.S. Thanksgiving dinner at the Michelin-starred Ristorante Guido in Rimini, Italy. (It’s a seafood restaurant on the beach .)

25. In an amazing use of frequent flier miles, we loved Experiencing Lufthansa First Class Mumbai to Frankfurt. Seriously, we did not want to get off the plane.

26. Eating exotic foods in places way out of our comfort zone with a fun and informative guide. This was the Best Food of Penang, Malaysia with Heritage on a Plate

27. Speaking to a group of 80 fifth and sixth graders about travel planning was intimidating but fun and rewarding. Here’s a recap of the 6 Favorite Travel Planning Resources I shared.

28. A hotel room with a beach view is always welcome. Here’s A Peek Inside the Hilton Clearwater Beach Hotel we stayed in during Martin Luther King weekend.

29. When I couldn’t tell someone much about Belfast in Northern Ireland, I had to research it. After learning 34 Fun Facts About Belfast, Northern Ireland, I can’t wait to visit.

30. During President’s Day weekend, we found 6 Fun Things to Eat, Drink and Do in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and had a terrific visit with our friend Hank.

31. We love Bin 36 Wine Bar and Restaurant in Chicago, so it was fun to stay at the attached Hotel Chicago Downtown, on of Marriott’s New Autograph Collection hotels.

32. The best travel experiences do not have to be far away from home. When our friend James visited Kansas City, I finally got to try Oklahoma Joe’s Barbecue, otherwise known as The Deliciousness Inside a Kansas City, Kansas Gas Station. You’ve got to arrive just after 11 am on a Monday or a Wednesday if you want to try the burnt ends, pictured above with spicy coleslaw.

33. James’ visit also provided a chance to visit another hometown destination: the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri. It’s a terrific place to learn more about “give ’em hell” and “the buck stops here” Harry.

34. A month later I had a very different experience while Touring Los Angeles and Hollywood on a Princess Cruises’ Excursion from Long Beach.

35. Jamaica has never been my favorite Caribbean destination, but Touring the 1700’s Great House and Sugar Plantation on a Shore Excursion from Falmouth, Jamaica far exceeded my expectations.

36. There’s no better way to kick off a new year than with a stay in a fabulously comfortable and relaxing hotel room, like the Hilton Kuala Lumpur Hotel. Ahh!

37. Reliving your past favorite experiences from 20 years ago with someone new can be quite rewarding, as I learned while taking my 12-year-old niece Snorkeling and Climbing Dunn’s River Falls from Falmouth, Jamaica.

38. We always love a good pizza, so it was a fun night trying four different styles of pizza in four different Milwaukee pizza places on Milwaukee’s Pizza Bus Tour.

39. Readers of this blog love to learn the ins and outs of drink packages on various cruise lines, so we felt it our duty to investigate Is the Premium Beverage Package on Royal Caribbean Cruises A Good Deal? during our July 4th cruise on the Allure of the Seas.

40. Cruising by yourself can be a challenge but my adventure on the Star Princess got off to a great start after making a new friend. Check out the details in How Joining a Roll Call on Cruise Critic Made My Solo Cruise a Blast

41. My new solo cruise friend Angela loves good food and wine as much as I do. We had a delicious time at the Italian speciality restaurant. Take A Look at the Sabatini’s Menu on Princess Cruises’ Star Princess.

42. Many travelers worry that they will be bored on a cruise with a lot of sea days. If that’s you, check out A Day by Day Look at Cruising 11-Days on the Seabourn Sojourn, to see the daily programs on the sea-day-heavy segment we took of the 2014 Seabourn World cruise. (It was a heavenly way to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary.)

43. Sri Lanka was a new country for us, so we enjoyed the overview we received from the Experiencing the Life and Lore of Colombo, Sri Lanka shore excursion. The best part of our day there, however, was using our iPhone cameras to communicate with the kids who were at every attraction on a school holiday.

44. Once again, we learned first-hand that Anthony Bourdain Knows Good Food: the Northern Thai that we had in a Las Vegas strip mall was spicy and phenomenal.

45. San Diego is a favorite city to visit. I found a new experience there Exploring San Diego’s USS Midway Museum while visiting via a cruise ship.

46. When it comes to celebrating special events, some hotels are hospitality superstars. We got the royal treatment (and the wedding bears) from the Conrad Centennial Singapore Hotel when staying to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary.

47. It was random luck that I visited the World War II Memorial, and Other Sites in Washington, DC on the 73rd anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Later that evening, I just happened to be on the same Southwest Airlines flight with 13 Pearl Harbor WWII veterans from the Austin area that had attending a special Pearl Harbor Day ceremony at the National WWII Memorial in Washington D.C. It was a privilege and a very special travel memory to talk with one of those gentlemen.

48. For the second year, I traveled to Portland, Oregon in July to attend the World Domination Summit. It’s an amazing event, if difficult to explain, that always has a positive impact. Check out: Two Weeks Later, How WDS14 Is Still Impacting My Life; eight months later, the positive effects are continuing.

49. Vegas has many glamorous hotels, many of which have smoke-filled casinos and obnoxious service charges.  The Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel had neither, but provided us a fabulous room.

50. We were able to cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas. Take A Look Around the World’s Largest Cruise Ship, the Allure of the Seas

51. When you have a chaotic experience (like we did getting off of our cruise ship in Mumbai,) it is a huge luxury to rest in a calm oasis. This was our experience at the JW Marriott Hotel Mumbai, India.

52. The ultimate travel experience: getting to interact with some locals in Myanmar, (formerly Burma), where we could not have visited five years ago. Exploring Yangon, Myanmar on Our Own was priceless.

What a great year of memorable travel experiences. I’m filled with gratitude as I write this post.

Will you consider a similar exercise just before your next birthday? (I highly recommend it.) If so, please share your thoughts in comments below. 

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