Writing a travel review of the past year is some kind of a must thing to do with bloggers. We planned to write it sooner, but there was just so much going on in December and January that we just could not do it before.
If someone would told us that the year 2014 would be so busy with traveling, writing and working with this travel blog we would just smile and not take them seriously. We would never even dare dreaming that we will be visiting 7 destinations; after all we have both full time jobs. Well, but if you know what you want and have your priorities straight, everything can really be done – we are living proof.
Travel to Uganda (January)
Uganda’s tourism Board promotes Uganda as a pearl of Africa. Before traveling to Uganda, we had no idea what to expect, as we have never visited any of the Sub-Saharan countries. We traveled around Uganda with a rented 4-wheeler, what is actually our favorite way of traveling. Due to our own transport we did manage to see the majority of the country and were impressed over the diverse landscape, people and wild life. Seeing Uganda, we can easily say, the country truly is the pearl of Africa.
Istanbul, Turkey (April)
I first visited Istanbul when I was 18. I spent almost 3 weeks there and fallen in love with Istanbul completely. In about 14 years, I was there few more times (8 times to be exact) and Istanbul has never disappointed me. This was also the main reason, why Simon just had to see it too. We traveled to Istanbul only for 4 days, but it was enough to know, we will be back again.
New look, logo and English version (June)
We first started with the travel blog in our mother language Slovenian, but after a while we decided to do an English version for it too. That is why Nina Travels was launched. With the new version of the travel blog, we have decided for a new look/design and logo. We hope you like it.
Romania and Moldova (August)
We were a bit tight with budget and time for the summer and did not even know where to go. The only thing we were sure about it, was not staying home. Romania and Moldova are pretty close to Slovenia, so we have decided to travel there with our 4-wheeler. We did not know what to expect and we were blown away. Both countries are amazing and we were often asking ourselves, why we have not traveled there sooner.
Hamburg and north-west Germany (August)
We have not planned to travel to Hamburg and it just came to our lives from nowhere. Well, actually it did not come from nowhere. Traveling to Hamburg was actually our very first invitation to attend a press trip. We were super happy when we got the news, little bit surprised, but also a bit nervous, as we did not know anything about press trips. At the end Simon could not join me due to its work, but luckily I was able to go. It was amazing experience and what I loved the most was all the beautiful places we visited. Honestly told, I am not even sure, when we would decide to visit this German region, but it was well worth it, as North-West Germany is beautiful!
Munich, Germany (September)
It looked like I did a good job at the press trip to Hamburg as Simon and I were invited to another press trip from Germany Tourism Board. This time we both were able to go (woohoo) and we visited Bavarian capital Munich. The main reason for our travel to Munich was the famous beer festival Oktoberfest. It was AMAZING to be a part of this long German tradition. Wearing a dirndl made everything even more unforgettable.
New social media accounts (Oktober)
We did take long, but we finally realized that we cannot be recognizable travel bloggers if we only had Facebook. We finally joined Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube – welcome to join us :).
Australia (November)
After the travel to Munich we were sure our travels for 2014 came to an end, but we were very wrong. We signed up to an international competition Big Blog Exchange, organized by Hostelling International. We have never thought to have any changes to be chosen as one of the TOP 16 travel blogs in the world, when we got surprising news. »Congratulations, your travel blog Nina Travels was chosen as one of the TOP 16 travel blogs in the world!« What? What? We had to read the e-mail several times to believe it. Pinching ourselves did help too. We were traveling to Australia. Oh my… I can still hardly believe it did happen, as traveling to Australia was on our list forever! The whole experience was life changing and one of the best travels ever.
Carinthia, Austria (December)
It looks like our hard work with the blog has been noticed in Austria too. We got another invitation for a press trip, so we were traveling to Carinthia, Austria in December, to attend their Christmas markets. It was beautiful, but I guess having lights, Christmas decorations, stands, mulled wine and chocolate is a recipe for success!
Our 2014 year was truly amazing. We are thrilled to be so busy with traveling, adventures and surprises. The feeling to be invited on your very first press trip is out of this world. We are stepping in 2015 highly motivated, but we realized that it will be hard to beat this amazing year! Thank you to everyone who read our blog, thank you for your comments, shares, likes and just being there. We could never do it without you!
I envy your adventures from 2014, Uganda probably most of them, as I have never been to Africa yet! Hope you wil have a lot of adventures in 2015, too!
Thank you Gabor 🙂 We really recommend Uganda – it is amazing, also because is far less touristy than their two neighbours Kenya and Tanzania. Happy traveling to you too! 🙂
Congrats on an awesome 2014- you sure got around! Here’s to an equally fun and exciting 2015! Looking forward to following your new adventures 🙂
Thank you Hannah – we are very happy looking back on the traveling and the work we have done! 🙂 Will be more than happy if you follow our travel blog and happy traveling to you too 😉
Seems like you had a busy, and adventurous year! Need to read up on your Ugandan travels!
Andrea, Uganda is amazing and we definitely recommend traveling there. It is also lot cheaper than Tanzania and Kenya, but still as beautiful or maybe even more 😉
Wow. Quite a lot of travel, congrats!
Also, great to see the logo, I’ve been meaning to get on that to help solidify the brand.
Cheers,
Ben
Hi Ben, thank you 🙂 Regarding the logo – the sooner the better. 🙂 Happy traveling!
Wow, that looks like a very busy and very varied year! Congrats on the Big Blog Exchange, I think I might give it a try this year, fingers crossed 🙂
Thanks Els! You should definitely try with the Big Blog Exchange… We had never though to have an even tiny chance, bit look where did it bring us 🙂 It really was an unforgetable adventure, not to mention that traveling to Australia was on our TOP priority list for a long time, but it always was a bit to expensive to really go there. Good luck! 🙂