CIAO FROM MILAN, ITALY!!!

This is where I will be celebrating NYE this year and ushering in 2026! Let’s hope that it will be better than Frankfurt! I am once again gaining an extra 7 hours!! I am currently in the middle of my amazing Europe trip, where I am travelling through the UK, Italy, Paris and Copenhagen before coming back to Singapore! I would like to recap some of the amazing milestones of Seeing The World In Steps for the past 12 months. As we wind down 2025, it is time again for me to reflect on my year, especially regarding travelling. It has been a fruitful year of travel with some new destinations and airlines! Let me share some significant milestones that I checked off this year.

2025 in Travelling

I spent a total of 97 days overseas across 14 trips! It’s a little lacking as compared to the past, and I am sure I will never hit the heights previously. It is still above average and one of the most well-travelled years. I probably just fell slightly off the mark that I set back in 2023. I had a rather quiet first quarter of the year before travelling through March and April. I then had a fantastic, amazing trip in the middle of the year, where I visited a new country, tried out a new airline and visited a new city to celebrate my milestone 30th.

I was back down under in Australia and found another new love that I have for this world in Tasmania before embarking on a lovely, cosy, relaxing friends trip to Hua Hin to celebrate decades of friendship. I am embarking on my year-end, finale of travelling to Dubai for my mum’s birthday and then to Europe for the festive season.

In 2025, I went to 14 countries and 25 cities, with 3 countries and 8 cities being new ones. I am glad to add these to my list. I am still making my way towards the 250th city. Hopefully, that will be somewhere around 2026.

I am ending 2025 with 40 countries! That title belongs to Sri Lanka! This is so unexpected! This is my current count! 40 Countries and 223 Cities! I took a total of 33 flights and flew 74,717 Km around the world. Some of those are long-haul flights. That is 1.9x around the world with close to 111 hours in the air. There is a mixture of both first-class flights and budget airlines! I still managed to keep up the record of at least one first class a year.

I am glad to be able to try out a couple of new airlines this year, with the highlight being Starlux. What an amazing flight that was! Another lovely surprise was Sri Lanka Airlines.

Travel plans in 2025

February – Kyushu Trip

April  – US / Canada Trip

May – Maldives Trip

June – NZ Trip

August – Hokkaido Trip

October – Iceland Trip

December – Beijing Trip

I am four years away from my target of reaching 60 countries, and by the time that I am back in Singapore next year, I should be on Number 42. This is the target that I gave myself back in 2020. I am still some way off my target and have plenty more to go. If all goes as planned, I will be adding about three countries in 2026. Let me see where I can add on. Probably some Scandinavian countries during my Iceland trip. Grazie and Happy New Year from Seeing The World In Steps! May you travel even more in 2026!