Since my last 40 before 40 update post, where I was at 24 countries visited, I’ve done quite a bit of travel. I’ve also rejigged which countries I’m counting, so the number has changed. This post, two years after my last one, is an update of where I’m at, just under two years before the end of my challenge. Let’s have a catch up, shall we?
In order of visiting, I’ve listed my countries below. After consulting with J I’ve decided counting the UK, and any of the countries within it, is cheating-which does make this challenge more difficult, but it should still be achievable by December 2026 when I’ll turn 40.
1) Spain. I’ve visited Palma, Barcelona, Salou and Ibiza. I really want to see some more of Spain, especially as J has never been, so hopefully I’ll get to do that over the next couple of years.
2) France. I’ve been to Paris a few times, but to be quite honest I’ve not yet fallen in love with the city. I think another trip is needed, where I can do all the things I want to do, myself, and see if I can really ‘get’ the city. I also did a French exchange trip at school, exploring various other parts of France, which was a real experience! It’s not something I have photos of to write about, and as a teenager it was mostly going to the park or cinema with my group, but it was still good.
3) Cyprus. I’ve only been as a child on a family holiday, so again I have no photos to share. But this summer two of our friends are getting married in Paphos, and I’ll definitely have time to explore when we’re there, so watch this space.
4) Cuba. Wow, what can I say about Cuba? This was an absolute dream trip, paid for by Unite, my trade union. I was sent as an active part of their Young Members network, in collaboration with Cuba Solidarity Campaign, to find out more about this amazing country, CSCs work, and how we could help. I’ve definitely not done content on Cuba justice and at some point I’ll do a really really detailed post about the country and everything I found out whilst there. I’ll definitely revisit too. We were there for their May Day parade, and watching them celebrate the country’s freedom was just amazing.
5) Belgium. I visited Bruges on a mini cruise with my best friend in 2011, which feels like forever ago. There were definitely photos but I’ve no idea where they are, which is a shame. I want to go back to Bruges so there will be content when I do, and I’ve since visited Brussels and Ghent which were lovely. High on my list is Antwerp, which I’d like to do alongside Bruges, as they’re fairly close together.
6) Italy. I first went to Riccione on a course, again through Unite, but this was basically work and we didn’t see any of the town. Later I visited Rimini and Venice with J, including Burano, with it’s colourful houses I fell in love with.
7) Turkey. I’ve done two girls trips to Turkey, one to Marmaris and one to Bodrum. I am desperate to explore Istanbul! I’ve not got any Turkey content on the blog but this will change, I promise!
8) The Netherlands. My first trip with other bloggers was to Amsterdam and since then I’ve been back four or five times. I’ve still not seen everything I want to, and whilst I’m working on a big guide to the city, I’ll need at least a few more trips to finish that research. There’s a lot of Amsterdam content on the blog.
9) Poland. Wroclaw was my first ever solo trip, and I loved it. I think how beautiful the city was really helped me to catch the travel bug and I’ve since been to Gdansk, Sopot, Gdynia and Poznan too. Poland is one of my favourite countries so far and I plan to visit other cities too, especially as the flight is short and it’s cheap to stay and exist in.
10) Germany. I’ve been to both Berlin and Hamburg. Berlin was my first big city solo trip and I did find it a bit overwhelming, as there was so much to do and I’d planned badly. That trip taught me a lot about how I handle trips, especially solo ones. I wrote two posts about spending 72 hours in Berlin (part one and part two) a review of Berlin Zoo, a Berlin street art post, 8 photos to make you want to visit Berlin, and a post about Berlin’s public transport, in collaboration with Visit Berlin.
Hamburg was the start of my first multi country trip, and it helped me to catch the travel bug. I wrote about spending 48 hours in Hamburg, and how to do a trip to Hamburg for under £200 about that trip.
11) Denmark. Copenhagen was the second city on that first ever multi country trip and I loved the city. I’m heading back in a couple of weeks with J as he’s never been, and it’s going to be lovely to revisit some of my favourite spots with him. I wrote about spending 48 hours in Copenhagen and also about the brilliant Christiana after this trip.
12) Sweden. Stockholm was the third and last city of that first multi country trip, and I wrote about 48 hours in Stockholm. I’m about to do a day in Malmo, so there will be content coming up about that too.
13) Portugal. I’ve visited both Porto and Faro, and I am DESPERATE to see Lisbon. Porto was a trip I nearly didn’t make it on, as my abusive boyfriend had been arrested that morning and I felt guilty getting on a plane (he wasn’t meant to be coming with me anyway!) in the end I did go and I am so glad, as it did help to show me I was important too. I’m heading back to Porto with J in April-a totally different trip, and it will be so lovely. I’ve written about spending 48 hours in Porto and Porto’s street art on here.
We did a weekend in Faro which was more of a chilled, relaxing trip, so there’s no content for that. We went in November for some winter sun and I’d highly recommend it to anyone.
14) Czechia. I’ve visited Prague both solo and with J, and Cesky Krumlov with J. I’ve covered spending 48 hours in Prague on the blog and I do intend to write some Cesky Krumlov content soon.
15) Austria. I visited Vienna during Covid times, which was very strange-I definitely saw the city when it was quieter than it would be. I spent a day there again when I was in Bratislava, as I was waiting for J to catch me up, and loved the city just as much on my second visit. I’ll absolutely visit again. I wrote spending 24 hours in Vienna about the city.
16) Latvia. Riga was the first stop on another multi country trip, mostly because there was a cheap flight out of Leeds! I really liked the Latvian capital and it’s a city I would recommend as a more unusual destination, without being really difficult to get to. It’s becoming more popular now so you’re likely to see more people visiting, and my spending a day in Riga post gets a respectable amount of views each month.
17) Lithuania. Vilnius worked really well as part of a multi country trip with Latvia and Estonia, so I did all three together. I found the city a bit confusing in terms of where things are and it’s one that needs a good plan before you go, but I did enjoy my time there. I wrote about spending a day in Vilnius and also about visiting Uzupis, an independent republic within the city.
18) Estonia. Tallinn was the third city on my multi country trip around the baltics, and honestly I think it was the prettiest. It’s perfect for onward travel to Finland, too. I wrote spending a day in Tallinn about the city.
19) Finland. Helsinki was supposed to be the fourth city of a six country trip, after the baltics, but ended up being the city that broke me. Not really, but it was the one where I realised I’d taken on too much and ended up flying home earlier than planned. Still loved the city, would like to go back and do some of things I wasn’t well enough to do at the time. (Travelling with fibromyalgia is not always easy!) I did write about spending 48 hours in Helsinki, as I managed to fit a fair bit in to my time in the city despite flares.
20) Slovakia. Bratislava ended up being the city I had my first date with J, so it will always be special. We actually spent most of our first week together at my next city, but the first time we met in person, our first coffee etc etc was all Bratislava, and we walked to find the blue church together before leaving. I’d already spent a couple of days there by myself before he came to join me including staying in a ridiculous multicoloured hotel, and I wrote about spending a day in Bratislava. It’s also only an hour by train from Vienna, so ideal for a multi city trip. A very special city for halfway through my challenge.
21) Hungary. Budapest was the setting for most of my first date with J. It’s a city that had been high on my to visit list for so long, that I was meant to visit in May 2022 but missed out on when I cut that trip short, so being able to be there in September and see the city with someone else was very special. It’s one of the best cities I’ve been to-Fishermans Bastion is beautiful, the parliament building all lit up at night is spectacular, and the ruin bars are fantastic. Definitely add Budapest to your list if you’ve not been yet.
22) Romania. Bucharest was a city I was supposed to visit in early March 2020, but I’d decided not to go at the last minute due to being worried about getting stuck there if this Covid 19 thing I’d heard about caused problems. It turns out I would have got back home before we locked down, but only just, and I maintain that not going was the right decision. I visited with J in April 2023 instead and really liked it, although we did miss out on going to Brasov as the trains weren’t running as well as normal, and I’d not researched properly. I’m still sad about missing Brasov. I wrote about spending 48 hours in Bucharest and about visiting Bucharest Zoo too.
23) Montenegro. I thought that when I met J my days of doing multiple countries in one trip may be over, but luckily he agreed to try exploring the Balkans over two and a half weeks in summer 2023. Podgorica was our first stop and whilst it’s not somewhere people talk about visiting, it’s such a beautiful city I know that will change. Spending 48 hours in Podgorica is growing in popularity as a search term and I really hope people use this content to plan their own trip to this gorgeous city.
24) Kosovo. Pristina isn’t a city anyone I speak to has heard of, and when you say Kosovo people tend to think of the fighting in the 90s. But the country is so much more than that, and spending two days in Pristina as well as visiting their bear sanctuary was a good way to find out more.
25) Albania. Tirana was an obvious third stop when we were exploring the balkans. Buses between the cities aren’t regular so you do have to really plan, and we’d heard good things about Tirana. We actually ended up spending more time here than we needed so that J could do some work and I could do some blogging, and we had a day trip up into the mountains on their cable car which was stunning. Tirana is definitely getting more popular now, I’d recommend you visit before it’s absolutely heaving with tourists. I wrote about the Dajti Express cable car, two quirky bars you should visit in Tirana, and also wrote a food review of Mrizi i Zanave. I still need to write a spending time in Tirana post!
26) North Macedonia. Skopje was the second to last city on our balkans adventure. We stayed somewhere fancy as it was so cheap, and spent time exploring the city, seeing their zoo, and hanging out in our swanky apartment too. Skopje content is still being worked on.
27) Bulgaria. Sofia was a bit disappointing, but I think thats mostly due to the accommodation we chose-which had a pool and cooking facilities, but the cooking facilities had no way to actually cook in them, we were told we weren’t allowed to cook when we queried it, and the pool had no water for most of our stay. That said, Sofia was cool-we visited the red flat, did a food tour, and saw a lot of the city-and I would recommend it, just don’t stay where we did! I do have photos, of course, but can’t find them in time for this post…oops!
28) Hong Kong. We visited Hong Kong as J had a really cheap, just pay taxes flight ticket from a competition. We spent nearly a week exploring the city and I absolutely loved it, and I’ve written a few bits of content so far. There’s my visiting the Big Buddha post, my experience of Hong Kong and a Hong Kong photo diary. I have so many more posts I want to write about the city so watch out for those.
29) San Marino. We visited San Marino as a day trip from Italy in May 2024. Whilst there’s not a lot to do and you only really need an overnight maximum, the country is beautiful and well worth a visit. I wrote about spending a day in San Marino, and the photos are stunning.
30) Slovenia. Ljubljana has been high on my list to visit for ages and during the May 2024 summer trip we finally made it. We also visited Lake Bled for a few hours and that was gorgeous. I’d highly recommend Ljubljana as a city break and it’s one I could easily go back to. Embarrassingly I’ve not got any Slovenia content up, yet, but it’s coming soon.
31) Croatia. Zagreb was the last city of our 2024 summer trip, and the one where I lost my phone, and so a lot of my photos of the trip. Luckily for me I’d taken lots on my camera too, but I’m still sad about those I lost. (The old phone was a huawei which meant I didn’t have google photos. My new phone is backed up!) We visited more museums than we usually would on this trip, both did some work in a cafe in a park, went for a few drinks, and had a lovely end to our trip. There’s Zagreb content coming up.
32) Norway. Oslo had been at the top of my list for quite a while, and we visited for our second anniversary in September 2024. We did our first free walking tour (a bit of a travel blogger cliche!) some island hopping and ate plenty of food. I didn’t love the city as much as I’d expected to and that’s okay, we can’t love everything. Oslo only really needs a couple of days in my opinion unless you’re massively into museums, which we’re not.
33) Morocco. Marrakech was my first trip to Africa so ticking off a new continent as well as a new country, and the trip was my 38th birthday present from J. A week in a warm country, just before Christmas, is exactly what we needed and I spent a happy time exploring the souks, riding a quad and a camel in the agafay desert, wandering round some of the most beautiful buildings and getting henna done. We even tried a moroccan hammam, which was such a relaxing experience.
I’ve written everything you need to know before visiting Marrakech, a Marrakech photo diary, and everything we spent during a week in Marrakech. I’m working on more Marrakech content too.
34) Switzerland-Zurich. We recently spent a day and a half in Zurich, in January this year. We did a free walking tour, ate fondue and just explored, and it was lovely. There’s no content up from this trip yet but there will be soon.
When we visited Zurich we were meant to also visit Vaduz in Liechtenstein, which would have been my 34th country. Due to weather (we flew from Manchester on a very snowy weekend) our flight was delayed by 20 hours, so our two night, two and a half day trip turned into one and a half days, which meant we had no time for Liechtenstein. I am still very sad about this and will definitely get Liechtenstein on this list when I can.
Where to next?
We already have country number 34, Greece, booked and paid for. We’ll be exploring Athens, in July, before our friends’ wedding in Paphos, Cyprus. Before that, later this month I’m revisiting Copenhagen in Denmark and adding a new Swedish city, Malmo, to my list. We’re then revisiting Porto in April for J’s birthday.
In September we have a couple of ideas for a trip but it’s looking likely to be Turkey (Istanbul) with two new countries, and then we’ll be going somewhere, maybe Malta, for my birthday in December.
In 2026 we’re thinking of America for the World Cup, and a safari somewhere for my 40th, which, at this point, is looking highly likely to be my 40th country. What a way to end the challenge that would be!
Leave a Reply