2024, Won't See You No More: Closing the Door on a Year Loaded With Travel Galore
Scoping out the Grand Canyon by my lonesome in June
Are you beginning to notice a theme? If you follow along with this blog and check in every December/January when the ole year-in-review post hits the airwaves, you’ve perhaps realized that these posts are getting rhyme-ier and rhyme-ier titles as we go (take a peek at last year’s, I dare you). Here at All Things Wanderful, we’re all about fun and whimsy and shenanigan-ery (and, evidently, creating new versions of words by appending cute little suffixes).
But hey, don’t let me fly off the handle here. We’ve got work to do! Well, we need to cover the bases, at least; you know, all the numbers, all the viral content, the most hype trips of the year, whether we hit our artificial goals, etc., etc. So let’s dive into some of that, shall we?
Stop me right now if you’ve heard this before, but, hand to god(s), we had another major, major year here on the blog, shattering records all over the place. I mean, are you ready for these percentages? I don’t know if you are. I think you’re gonna have to convince me. “Uhh, how the heck am I gonna do that?” you ask, staring blankly at your phone/tablet/laptop screen as you read these words. Well, it’s simple, Fred: all you have to do is read the following quotation about the subject that’s brought us all here, that lovely, glorious, worldview-expanding, cranium-opening, beautiful, wondrous, amorphous, multi-adjective-inducing thing — travel!
Are you ready? Here it is:
"Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind."
If that sounds at all familiar to you, it could be because you have scrolled by those words on the home page of this site countless times, perhaps without really taking a moment to soak them in. The quote comes from Anthony Bourdain’s book “No Reservations: Around the World on an Empty Stomach” (2007), which grew out of his show on the Travel Channel, also called “No Reservations”, that ran for eight seasons between 2005 and 2012. When I first read those words, they resonated so strongly with me that they essentially became a new mantra. They describe, more accurately than I can even express, the reason I love traveling — and writing about it. And I’d imagine Bourdain’s words hit home with you, as well, if you are sitting here reading this.
Okay, wow, we got very serious there for a minute. But that’s okay. Not everything has to be funny. And, honestly, if I treated everything like a joke, I would undoubtedly be risking my wife — Sally Field, in this case — asking me for a divorce; taking full custody of our three kids, including adorable little Natalie; and being forced to dress up as a burly English woman and become their nanny, all just to see them every day (as opposed to the meager court-appointed Saturdays only).
All right, how about those percentages though? I was not lying about 2024 breaking site records. The three metrics I like to keep an eye on are visits (+46%), page views (+46%), and unique visitors (+46%), all of which hit new highs. Those increases year-over-year are second in the blog’s history only to the astounding jump seen between 2021 and 2022, when visits went up 72%, page views rose 55%, and unique visitors danced to the tune of a 77% (!) bump. Those were some wild times, my friend. Forty-six percent increases (rounded) across the board are also really damn good, though, with much of that traffic again coming from older content.
For the second year in a row, a ditty from 2021 — The Northernmost Point of the Continental U.S. ...Is Only Accessible Via Canada? — was the most-viewed post on All Things Wanderful. However, while none of the overall top six posts for calendar year 2023 were actually published that same year, the second-best performing post for all of 2024 was posted in March. Am I going to tell you, right here, right now, what post that was? No, no I am not. Because that post is the granddaddy of them all on this year’s top five list, and I’m going to make you scroll even further down this page to find out just what it was. You can do it, I believe in you. But once you’ve done that, come back up here and let’s finish out this recap, eh?
It’s obligatory, by this point, for me to give a brief, run-of-the-mill summary of the Year That Was in Travel, so let’s get to it. The first and biggest bonanza of the year was easily the week I spent in Ireland and England in March/April, during which my traveling companion and I spent at least one night in Cork, Galway, Dublin, and London. As you might recall, that seven-day European adventure was chronicled in a seven-part series (which may or may not make an appearance in the list below (okay, come on, you know it definitely will)). Those seven posts, plus another Euro-centric piece published in the first few months of the year, eventually inspired me to make Europe its own category on the blog, whereas it had previously been grouped with Africa.
My next big hullabaloo came at the end of May in the form of a trip out west, when a friend’s wedding brought me to Las Vegas for just the second time ever. Never one to waste an opportunity, I parlayed said friend’s nuptials into a miniature road trip featuring the great state of Arizona, the only new state I visited in 2024 (#sad). Not sad were my stops at the Grand Canyon and in Flagstaff and Phoenix, where I met up with a relative and another friend. Also not sad: driving through the Arizonan desert in a rented Dodge Challenger. Good times, good times.
Following those two outings, the only other major hurrah of the year was a jaunt to Sleepy Hollow, New York, and the Hudson Valley, which took place in mid-October. The hometown of the Headless Horseman was not quite what I expected, but we made sure to squeeze the most out of it, filling our three days there with some spooky good fun.
If we zoom out to take a look at the last few years, I feel as if a murky conclusion can be drawn. In both 2022 and 2024, there was kind of a major project on the blog, and both of those years saw amazing numbers in terms of visitors and views. In ‘22, it was The Mitten State of Mind series that helped pull people in. In ‘24, my Ireland and England travelogues undoubtedly brought eyeballs to these digital halls. Conversely, 2023 really didn’t have a significant series that stood above the rest — unless you want to count the three posts I cobbled together out of a road trip out to Oklahoma in May of that year (the other two entries concerning themselves with the Flint Hills in Kansas and a trio of stops along Route 66) — and the numbers, while still very good, were not explosive. Something to consider going forward, I suppose.
That’s probably enough blabbing from me for now. You go ahead and dive into the top five most popular posts of 2024 and I’ll see you on the other side for one last note.
5. Road Tripping Across Arizona, from Hoover Dam to the Grand Canyon & Beyond
The Grand Canyon: the biggest, most beautiful hole in the ground you'll ever see
-published Sept. 12
On the first day of June in This the Year of Our Lord Two-Thousand and Twenty-Four, I entered the great state of Arizona for the very first time, crossing off the thirty-fifth state on my way to visit all fifty. As the title of the post plainly reveals, my time in the Grand Canyon State included stops at Hoover Dam, AKA Clark Griswold’s second-greatest nemesis (trailing behind only a shuttered Wally World), and the Grand Canyon itself, as well as several spots around Flagstaff and a brief jaunt to the Phoenix area.
One big takeaway from this trip? Always upgrade your rental to a sports car. The reason? You may never feel like more of a bad ass than when driving through the desert in a Dodge Challenger with classic rock blaring from the stereo. What an experience.
An excerpt: “My main objective was to visit that gargantuan hole in the earth that has entranced visitors for centuries. So, after finally making a stop at the damn dam and a nearby overlook of Lake Mead, I instructed the Google Maps machine to take me to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Once there, I spent hours wandering around by myself, taking countless photos and videos, draining my phone battery with nary a charger in sight, and, at times, just sitting and staring at the magnificence of one of the most beautiful landscapes found anywhere on this rock we call home.”
4. Where to Find One of the Most Mesmerizing Views of Washington’s Mount Rainier
Mount Rainier emerges through the clouds in late afternoon
-published Jan. 31
While this trip out to Washington state took place in December 2023, it wasn’t until the following month that I actually got around to putting this photo essay together on our time skiing at Crystal Mountain Resort, which culminated with a ride on the gondola up to the summit once our day on the slopes was done. Standing up there in the bitter cold air, I honestly felt like we had climbed up into the heavens — no cap (as the kids say)! The photos give you an idea, but you have got to see this for yourself.
If you are going to pay Washington and Crystal Mountain a visit sometime, however, I would suggest waiting until the ski season has kicked into high gear. We visited so early in December that hardly any of the runs were open. It was still a great time, and those mountaintop views will likely be seared in my mind for time eternal, but it would have been that much sweeter if we had had access to more of the mountain.
An excerpt: “‘Is this Heaven?’ No, and it isn’t Iowa either. It’s Washington, baby, and the view from up here is one of the most breathtaking ones you will find anywhere in North America. Where is ‘up here’, you ask? ‘Up here’ would be the summit at Crystal Mountain Resort, where, after a brief ride on a gondola, you are afforded one of the most fantastic views of Mount Rainier that you may ever see.
“I am not exaggerating when I say it felt like we had ascended Mount Olympus and entered the realm of the gods. And anyone who has been ‘up here’ would likely agree.”
3. Two Peas in a European Pod: One Week in Ireland & England (7-Post Series)
Longmoore Street in Westminster, London (…because I had to get that stereotypical travel pic)
-published between April 9-July 31
The biggest trip of the year (!) was chronicled in a series of seven posts which followed the action during my time in Ireland and England much like previous series on Iceland and Israel/Jordan. These kinds of travelogue posts are some of the most fun to write, but can also take some time as evidenced by the elongated period between the publication dates of Day 1 and Day 7, which are nearly four months apart from one another.
In reality, only a couple entries in the series (Day 1, Day 4) cracked the top five for this year’s most-clicked content, but with Day 2 sitting right at the cutline as the 6th most popular post of the year, it seemed only fitting to highlight the series as a whole (this little maneuver also allowed me to sneak Arizona into the top five, which is technically the 7th most popular post).
An excerpt (from Day 7): “In that moment, we were soaking in the sights and sounds at one of Dublin’s most recognizable sporting venues not within the confines of a vacuum, but at the close of a weeklong excursion that had seen us drive through narrow, winding roads in and around the Wicklow Mountains; endure the “mild” conditions of Gem’s quaint Cork-based Airbnb; kiss the Blarney Stone and gain the coveted gift of gab (allegedly); live and die at the final port of call for the ill-fated RMS Titanic; eat Italian food at a pit stop in Limerick; ride bikes in the rain as we searched for Ed Sheeran’s elusive Galway girl; completely miss the sheela na gig carved into Merlin Castle; learn about the ghosts and ghouls of London from a Chicago Bulls cap-wearing tour guide; break our backs sitting in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse theater for 2.5+ hours; run into some sticky tables at Nancy Hands; pretend like we had stumbled into a land of pure imagination at the Guinness Storehouse; and visit the Hex Girls at Sphynx Tattoo to commemorate the whole dang thing in ink.”
2. The Best Beaches in Chicago to Get Your Volleyball On This Summer
The natives of Chicago take part in the annual summer tradition of smashing balls at North Avenue Beach
-published May 27
The most interesting thing about this post, which provides an introduction to my favorite places to play beach volleyball in Chicago, is that it sat in the hopper for over a year before being published. If you need evidence, go ahead and click on the photo to the left, and then take a peek at that URL. Don’t worry, we’ll be right here.
See what I mean? The reason this post sat in the drafts folder for so long is because I procrastinated like a mother in the summer of 2023. In fact, instead of finishing this write-up in a timely manner, I was probably out playing volleyball. As I recall, by the time it came together, we were already well into the fall and it didn’t make sense to put it out into the world at that time, so I waited all the way until May 2024, when beach season was underway once more, to publish. And hey, I guess I made the right call, seeing as it lands here as the second-most popular post of 2024.
An excerpt: “…I’ve got to be honest: North Avenue Beach is kind of the place to be when it comes to beach volleyball in Chicago. Less than a mile north of Oak Street, it’s one of the larger beaches in the Windy City, featuring so many courts, you won’t even know what to do with yourself. Except for the fact that, during the week, a handful of leagues take up a good percentage of the beach — we’re talking like 80-90 percent of the available space — relegating the rest of us peasants to choose from only a handful of spots.”
1. Fantasizing About a Euro Trip? The 5 Cheapest Airports in Europe to Fly Into
Barcelona El Prat Josep Tarradellas Airport in Spain is a prominent gateway to other European destinations (Photo: Tobias)
-published March 12
At the top of the heap in 2024, in what turned out to be not much of a competition at all, stands this little ditty trying to help you pinch your pennies on your next flight to Europe. Helped along by some expert-level use of SEO (thank you, thank you *bows several times), this sucker rocketed to the top of the list. And so I say muchas gracias to all of the wonderful people out there who typed some magic combination of words in the Google search machine and just so happened to find my blog post. I see you, and I appreciate you.
For this one, I scoured the Interwebs and pulled together multiple sources to craft a list of European airports that you can fly into without blowing a hole in your wallet. And, shortly after posting in early March, I took my own advice and flew into the Dublin Airport (DUB) on a cute little Aer Lingus flight. I guess that would make me a man of my word? Yeah, let’s go with that.
An excerpt: “Look, folks, if you clicked on this, it’s possible you’re thinking about making a trip across the pond, and that’s super. It’s also within the realm of possibility that you’re simply curious to see which cities and airports would land on a list such as this and have no plans whatsoever to do anything with this information other than file it away for a rainy day. And in that case I would say: hold your cat close (because, you know, curiosity can get violent sometimes).”
~~~
In 2023’s year-in-review, I committed myself to writing at least a dozen posts in calendar year 2024. Well, here we are on the other side and I am happy to report that I ended up penning not 12… not 13… not 14… but 15 (!) posts throughout the year. Throw a guest post on top of that and the grand total for 2024 was 16, or four posts every quarter. Not too shabby.
I’m not going to waste my time or yours trying to figure this out definitively, but I’m guessing those 15 posts were the most I’ve written in a year probably since 2020.
Okay, I lied. I just went back and counted the number of posts for each of the last five years (excluding guest posts and year-enders), and, umm, wow. Here’s that breakdown:
2024: 15
2023: 9
2022: 12
2021: 18
2020: 29
That’s right! In the height of the pandemic, I was a frickin’ writing machine! I guess that makes sense, given all the quarantining and what not. Honestly, not sure we will ever see those kinds of heights again, but I think keeping the target right at a dozen posts per year is extremely reasonable. So that’s just what I’ll do.
What will those dozen or so posts contain in the Year of Our Lord Two-Thousand and Twenty-Five? Well, you’ll just have to keep checking back here to find out, now won’t you?
-LTH
*P.S. Take a peek back at the end-of-year posts from previous years by clicking on these links: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017.