The new year is already in full swing. And because I don’t want to just be run over by the high-speed train of our modern age, it’s time for me to write my 2025 in review. What happened last year, and what exciting new adventures await me in 2026?
Conclusion after 1 year of extensive travel
Between 2024 and 2025, I travelled extensively. I met amazing people all around the world with so many diverse experiences. If, before, I thought that taking a break from my usual day-to-day life may fulfill my soul and bring eternal self-awareness, I was way off the mark. I met many other people around my age who had taken a sabbatical and come back exhausted. Today, I believe that most people need routine to feel comfortable. Slow travel makes it much easier to actually enjoy time abroad. You spend longer in one place and keep a temporary home base. Because travel also involves real work: planning routes, navigating transportation, arranging accommodation, and finding trustworthy people. I loved the freedom and the experiences, but in the end, I also felt worn out from moving so often and never fully feeling at home anywhere.
Would I do it again? Absolutely, but with fewer stops and for a shorter stretch. For me, a few months feels like a better balance: long enough to settle in, explore deeply, and move between places without rushing. This past year made it clear that constant movement isn’t my ideal lifestyle. I’m happiest with a home base I can return to, where I can pursue my personal and professional goals with energy.
My 3 favorite blog posts
It’s not only the most viewed blog post in 2025, but also the one I reflected on most. After travelling to Bolivia, I summarized my personal Bolivia travel advice: Dos and Don’ts, which helped us navigate one month in this beautiful but challenging country. I should probably write more blog posts like this.
I love challenges, and that’s maybe also why I love travelling independently. However, the travel from Samaipata to Cochabamba gave me a headache: I spent ages searching blogs, groups and websites and contacting loads of locals. It was worth a blog post, and it ended up becoming my second most-viewed post of 2025.
During our 15 days on Easter Island, my blog finally turned into a real daily journal. These posts made me realize how valuable writing is for myself. My post about Day 12 at the Kari Kari Cultural Ballet will always remind me of the show’s exceptional energy and some of the traditional dances’ names that would otherwise have slipped my mind the next day.
Isito’s 2025 in figures
My goals for 2026
Start my travel book
Travel has always been an important part of my life. So has writing. I almost always carry a paper journal on my trips. Sometimes, I make summaries or even daily journals available online on this blog. It probably all started when I regularly travelled with my parents and little brother to Bulgaria to see our relatives during summer holidays. Then, during my high school years, I started travelling often with my children’s choir to attend international competitions and concert performances. Once I left school, my international studies led me to France and India. And from there, my international career began and took me to countries like Ireland, the Philippines and Ethiopia. Last but not least, I always made the most of my yearly leave days to explore more countries like Vietnam, Cambodia and so many others.
It feels like 2026 is the year I finally preserve my most important experiences of the last couple of years in a book.
Test luxury travel in the Maldives
This blog is all about independent travel. However, I honestly often missed some comfort and downtime these last years. Since I’ve almost always worked full-time, I had to organize my trips in parallel and in addition to all my beautiful hobbies and friendships. This year, I finally want to experience a luxury destination without taking care of all local transportation, food and activities myself. In the Maldives, we’ll find out whether it feels worth spending more money for exclusive experiences.
Nevertheless, my heart still belongs to independent travel. Therefore, we’ll only dedicate a part of this trip to luxury. Half our time in the Maldives will be on a local island, with everything self-organized.
Build a sustainable investment portfolio
Especially after drastically reducing my weekly working hours in favor of travel experiences for about a year, I am planning to give my income-generating activities more priority again this year. Not only am I a dedicated humanitarian and development cooperation worker, who never actually stopped working since her studies, but I am also keenly aware of our poor retirement prospects. Therefore, 2026 is my year of investment diversification: property, savings accounts, ETFs and bitcoin are currently my 2026 goals.
If you’d like to diversify your investment portfolio with Bitcoin, I recommend Coinfinity. Create an account and use my code BRCP83SQ to receive 21% discount on all Bitcoin transaction fees for the first six months.*
If you add my code to your new coinfinity account, I’ll earn some coffee money. I promise to drink all coffees while experiencing more adventures worth recommending for your next trip! You won’t pay a higher price.
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This blog post was inspired by Judith Peter‘s #jahresrückblog25 initiative, which connects hundreds of German bloggers in the process of reviewing 2025.
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