Compared to my previous year’s travels, the destinations and travel moments were limited in 2020. But despite the pandemic, I was able to explore. I explored areas much closer to home and mostly on mini road trips but I got to see places that I may have ignored or pushed far down my bucket list. While the pandemic has been ruthless to the travel industry, it has opened my eyes to places closer to my backyard.

In the first quarter of the year, I was traveling at my regular pace at my former full time job as a travel writer/editor but I also front-loaded some personal travel too. It’s rare that I plan personal trips in the beginning of year (I usually save up time and money to travel later in the year) but I’m very thankful I did this year.

From my first time at Mardi Gras to my first time not flying every month of the year, here are my favorite travel moments of 2020.

Related: 3 Best Hotels (I Stayed In) In 2020

1. Celebrating my Birthday in Nashville at Kara & Nate’s 100th Country Party – January 

My favorite YouTubers Kara and Nate accomplished their goal of traveling to 100 countries at the end of 2019. To celebrate such a huge accomplishment and thank their YouTube audience for helping them to a build a community and business that allows them to travel the world, they hosted a 100 Country Party in their hometown of Nashville, Tennessee in January. I had always wanted to visit Nashville, the party was taking place on my birthday weekend, which was also a long-weekend, so it was really a no-brainer that I had to go. I felt a little fan girl-ish going to party hosted by YouTubers but I don’t regret a minute of it.

I invited a travel friend along and we had a fantastic weekend, consumed with laughter. Kara and Nate’s party was filled with 700 people who loved travel as much as me. They debuted their documentary of how they came to be “Kara and Nate” and travel to 100 countries and it made me laugh, cry and dream of visiting new destinations!

Watch My Nashville Instagram Highlight

Getting to explore Nashville made the trip even better! I immediately understood why it’s dubbed Music City. I am not a big country music fan but that doesn’t matter at all in Nashville. The city just vibrates with all types of music, at all times of the day. There was someone performing live music (really freaking awesome live music!) around every corner of this city, and you can’t help but dance, sing or tap your foot along.

We also visited the Belle Meade Plantation, where we went on a guided tour of the mansion and heard the stories of the breeding and selling of thoroughbred horses in the 1800s. English stallion Bonnie Scotland was a stud at Belle Meade and six of the 15 horses in the very first Kentucky Derby in 1875 were descendants of him. Tripe Crown winners like Sea Biscuit, Secretariat and many others today, can be traced back to Bonnie Scotland too. An added bonus of Belle Meade was doing a bourbon tasting there as well. The hour-long bourbon experience goes through the 150 year history of Belle Meade Bourbon in a reconstructed 1820s Ice House on the plantation property. But the best part was of course getting to craft your own bourbon cocktail and imbibe. It was my birthday so I definitely enjoyed did!

Subscribe for more travel adventures.

2. Attending My First Mardi Gras in Lake Charles, LA – February

I had never been to a real-deal Mardi Gras celebration before, but as the early days of COVID-19 reached the United States I visited Lake Charles, Louisiana on a press trip for work. We had no idea the coronavirus was right on our heels, and this ended up being my last press trip (hopefully not forever) at my former job.

Lake Charles offers much more family-friendly Mardi Gras celebrations compared to larger Louisiana venues like New Orleans. The biggest celebrations take place the last five days of Mardi Gras and Lake Charles packs it all in with several parades, parties and galas. There is an entire day dedicated to children and family activities called Children’s Day, celebrated the Sunday before Mardi Gras. I had the honor of riding on a float in the Children’s Day Parade and throwing beads to the crowd below. It was such a fun experience but there was also so much pressure to throw the beads accurately without disappointing or injuring anyone. I was told by the experts about parade etiquette and how to best throw the beads. But I still may have accidentally hit a few people in the head, oops. For the most part everyone got their beads unscathed (I think). Later, I got to experience the main Lake Charles Mardi Gras parade from the other side of the bead toss and it was just as fun trying to catch beads and waving to the fantastically decorated floats as they went by. You don’t really understand the NEED to collect as many beads as possible until you’re in the throws of a Mardi Gras Parade.

Watch My Mardi Gras Instagram Highlight

The Lake Charles Mardi Gras Museum of Imperial Calcasieu (located in the Central School Arts & Humanities Center) is home to numerous Mardi Gras costumes. The small space is covered in all-things purple, gold and green and allows visitors to see how the costumes have changed over the years. It’s definitely a must-visit to best admire these elaborate costumes.

My favorite part of this trip (besides the food!) was learning about the unique Mardi Gras traditions. Some may seem odd to outsiders but the sense of community surrounded by these traditions were always apparent. Ultimately, I want to return to Lake Charles some day to eat all the gumbo, crawfish, seafood, king cakes and more, once again.

After my February visit and during the throws of the pandemic, Lake Charles was hit hard by the 2020 hurricane season (Hurricane Laura in August and then Hurricane Delta in October). They saw some devastating damage but are rebuilding and reopening and any love you can send their way is always appreciated. 

3. Relaxing with Friends at Our Annual Spa Weekend Days Prior to the World Shutting Down – March

My friends and I do a spa weekend every year. It’s a time to get away, have girl talk for hours (days) and relax with a good massage, facial and some wine. Little did I know that this year’s spa weekend would be the last time I would physically see my friends for months.

In the days leading up to pandemic lockdown I was traveling all around the country. I returned home from Mardi Gras in Lake Charles on Feb. 26, and arrived at Woodloch Pines Resort in Pennsylvania on March 6. When I left Woodloch on March 9, that same day I boarded a plane for Florida to spend time with family. When we landed back in Philadelphia on March 12, everything was in the process of shutting down. The fact that I had been in three completely different states, and on several flights in less than three week’s time, it became a lot clearer to me how fast a contagious virus could spread so quickly.

Watch My Spa Weekend Instagram Highlight

But before the pandemic slapped us all in the face, I enjoyed the blissful girl time at spa weekend at The Woodloch Lodge and Spa in Hawley, Pennsylvania. We rented a five-bedroom house on the Woodloch property and basically did nothing for three days and it was amazing! The spa at Woodloch is outstanding! The massages, facials and body treatments are of course fantastic but the spa facility itself is next level. There are numerous water features including a hydro-massage waterfall pool, indoor pool, steam room, sauna, large, outdoor heated hot tub and even drinking water infused with fruit and crystals. While many of these features are currently closed because of COVID, the spa is indeed open. If you’re looking for an escape for even just an hour or so, visit Woodloch Pines Resort. It’s perfect for a girls’ or solo getaway or a family or couple’s vacation.

4. Escaping the Pandemic in Cape May, NJ – June

By the time summer rolled around, getting out of the house was a must for my mental health. So I safely visited Cape May, New Jersey on a solo pandemic getaway. Despite frequenting the Jersey Shore my entire life, I had never really spent quality time in Cape May, the country’s oldest vacation resort destination.

It was exactly the change of scenery that this locked down traveler needed. I stayed at a quaint beach resort that was offering beach and cocktail service (to-go). That’s really all I needed at the time. I wanted to sit on the beach, listen to the ocean, smell the salt air, read a book and have someone else make and bring me a cocktail. The Ocean Club Hotel checked all of those boxes. I spent time walking around Cape May admiring the incredible Victorian beach cottages while imagining what it was like to summer at the shore in the 18th century. It was a mini, much-needed, pandemic escape to a place not far from home that I had never explored.

Related: Staying In a Hotel During a Pandemic

5. Horseback Riding in Gettysburg, PA – July

I always enjoy horseback riding while traveling. It’s a unique way to experience almost any place that you visit. But the horseback riding tour I took in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania was like no other I had done before.

Despite living only two hours from Gettysburg, I had never been there. It was like I was hearing the history that was unveiled to me on this trip for the first time. If I was taught about Gettysburg in elementary school, I clearly was not listening. Or maybe I could just appreciate the battle more as an adult. We did a variety of tours while in town and I loved all of them. The Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center helped me to learn everything I had missed in school. We did a car audio tour where we drove through the battlefield listening to the stories while stopping to admire the thousands of monuments. The Civil War Ghosts walking tour did an excellent job of telling stories of both factual history as well as the paranormal. It did however leave me with more questions than answers.

Watch My Gettysburg Instagram Highlight

But if was the Hickory Hollow Horse Tour that made me really FEEL Gettysburg. The guided, group horseback riding tour has you ride your horse through the battlefields while listening to an expert in a headset (also on horseback with the group) narrate what happened around you. The visuals of how the fighting swayed from one side to the other over the three-day battle explained to me how “the high ground” was vital to winning. Gettysburg is not mountainous but when you are sitting on a horse in a wide open field and can actually see the blindspots on the horizon, the Battle of Gettysburg becomes even more impressive.

Gettysburg was never on a my list of places to visit, despite being a huge historic event that happened in my state. I thought it would be a boring place to see, just open fields where people died. But I’m thankful that a pandemic (and a horseback riding tour) made me see through that blindspot.

Related: Best Places to Visit in Pennsylvania

6. Getting Back on Skis in Keystone, CO – January

As a kid, I skied nearly every year. My family did annual, trips to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania but I had also skied in Colorado and even Switzerland. However, I wouldn’t exactly call myself a “good” skier. I can ski and I can ski pretty well but I’m a nervous skier with very bad knees so my skiing career didn’t really go far. I hadn’t skied in several years but on a press trip in 2019 to Rochester, New York I got back on the slopes for the first time in a long time and was reminded how much I enjoyed it. So when the opportunity for a press trip came up in January to Keystone, Colorado, I was in!

I brought my cousin along for the ride and hit the Keystone slopes. It was her first time ever being on skis and my first time in a year (but really it had been several years). We took a lesson from an awesome ski instructor who appeared to be living the dream, hitting the slopes for ski season and then traveling the world in the off season. Skiing is in no way an easy sport and while I had a great time remembering my ski skills on the slopes and admiring the outstanding mountain views, my body could only handle so much. Me and altitude don’t get along very well and my knees could only hold out for so long. But I enjoyed every second that my body allowed me to ski.

Watch My Keystone Instagram Highlight

7. Watching My Nephews Play at the Beach in Sea Isle City, NJ – September

I grew up vacationing at the Jersey Shore. Me and my extended family were always at the shore every summer. In my 20’s, my time at the shore was a bit more alcohol-induced and hazy. But in my 30’s, my now adult family decided to return to our vacationing roots at the shore. For the last four or five years I’ve spent a week in Sea Isle City, New Jersey with my immediate and extended family. This year it was just my immediate family who enjoyed quality time together.

My nephews are 4 and 1 years old and watching them play in the sand and the ocean makes these family vacations super special. This year did not include no-shower happy hour, dining at restaurants or amusement rides on the boardwalk, but it did include seeing my nephews skim board, destroy sandcastles, ride bikes and eat sand (ew). Maybe I could have done without the eating of the sand 🙂

8. ATV Riding in the Poconos – August

After five months of not physically spending time with friends, by August, it was time. A small group of friends decided to get corona tested before renting an awesome house in Poconos, Pennsylvania. We again did very little but hang out and eat but we were hanging out and eating amongst good company. Cooking, drinking, playing games around the campfire and FREAKING OUT when a bear was spotted enjoying his own feast on our trash outside brought us all many, much-needed laughs. We also managed to find some adventure too, by taking a guided ATV tour through the woods. The hour-long tour had us twisting around turns, dipping down hills and picking up speed on hills.

Watch My Poconos Instagram Highlight

During the pandemic I had enjoyed just driving to nowhere. I participated in a few drive-by celebrations in the beginning pandemic months and they always ended so quickly. So then I would just drive. No one would be on the highways and I just drove (twice through the Philly Airport just to see what it looked like vacant) and sang in my car at the top of my lungs. It was therapeutic. So when I hopped on an ATV in the Poconos, it was taking that driving therapy to the next level. I never hit crazy levels of ATV speed but with the wind and dust hitting my face as I zoomed through the wilderness, I felt like I was free, and I was leaving the pandemic in the dust.

9. Getting Outside and Exploring West Virginia Over Thanksgiving – November

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. For me, it has everything you need, delicious once-a-year foods, quality time with family, all in one day or one meal and with little stress (unless of course you’re the chef I guess. I’ve never had to be the chef haha). So this was the first holiday in 2020 that I was most disappointed wasn’t going to be “normal.” I decided sitting around a table with family wasn’t going to work for me this Thanksgiving. But I also didn’t want to sit alone in my apartment wishing I was eating turkey and stuffing. So I decided to take a solo trip to a state I had never been to.

I had toured much of Pennsylvania in the summer, and I eventually would like to have visited all 50 states. I have the tougher ones like Alaska and Hawaii checked off already so in a pandemic I thought perhaps I would check off the states that are within driving distance. I didn’t exactly know what to expect from West Virginia. I had some preconceived notions (which may or may not have been accurate) but I wasn’t expecting the beauty in its nature. West Virginia’s tourism tagline is that it is “Almost Heaven,” and I can see why. It’s almost like you can reach out and touch the sky in West Virginia. The mountains, waterfalls and scenic views are indeed heavenly.

Watch My West Virginia Instagram Highlight

I stayed at the Stonewall Resort (just luxurious enough for my budget) and I got outside to explore what West Virginia’s wilderness had to offer. I “hiked” a bit. I say “hiked” because I’m not a hiker…at all. But I guess when you walk outside in nature for an extended amount of time, it’s called hiking. So yeah, I “hiked.”

Related: 3 Best Hotels (I Stayed In) In 2020

Clearly I’m not a hiker because I got a hint lost on a marked, walking trail in the woods. The markers suddenly disappeared and I came to a fork in the road and I didn’t know what to do. I also fell flat on my face in the dirt. That was fun. My hands, pants and shirt were covered in mud and I had no water and was ready to be done “hiking” but I had to figure out my own way back to the resort. Much like 2020, sometimes you have to wipe away the dirt and push on. No one saw me fall but it was such a dramatically epic, is she gonna go down or isn’t she, kinda fall, that I do wish someone had caught it on video. I would have enjoyed laughing at myself at a much later date. I made it out alive obviously and will “hike” again because the best stories come out of falling on your face.

10. Seeing the Newport, RI Mansions Decorated for Christmas – December

I visited Newport, Rhode Island in the fall of 2019 on a press trip at my former job, and I knew I had to return. I loved the history, riches, architecture, waterfront coastline and the food in Newport. The Newport Mansions are the main event in this small New England town. The Gilded Age of the late 1800’s had the family’s of old and new money building what they called summer cottages in this charming nautical town. The rest of the world would call them giant mansions.

Watch My Newport Mansions Instagram Highlight

There are more than 10 historic mansions in Newport, mostly all located on Bellevue Avenue, and at least five are open to the public for touring in normal times. Due to the COVID-19, only two mansions, The Breakers and The Elms are currently open for touring. To get to see these opulent homes at Christmas time was a real treat. Decorated in only the most classic of Christmas decor with a giant Christmas tree in nearly every luxurious room, the Newport Mansions almost come to life as you listen to the stories of the families who lived there in a self-guided audio tour (download the app on your phone).

I found myself trying to imagine a time when these mansions were indeed filled with everyday life. A life filled with parties and riches. A life of wealth. I dreamed of what a life like that would be like, and was reminded that my own life is already filled with wealth. A wealth FOR life.

Cheers to new adventures and stories in 2021