2024: My Travel Year in Review

January 1, 2025January 1, 2025 Koen 0 Comments

Now that the New Year has begun, it’s time to review my travel year of 2024, reflect at its highlights, and share some fun statistics.

2024 travels

Reflecting on my travel year has become something of a New Year’s tradition for me, so with 2024 behind us and 2025 just beginning, it feels like the perfect time to do it again.

Feel free to start with my travel year reviews of 2021, 2022, and 2023, or continue below to read my 2024 review, which covers the flights and trains I took as well as the main destinations I visited.

Altogether, 2024 was a perfectly fine travel year, with especially the first half featuring several interesting trips.

street kikinda serbia — *Beautiful street in the town of Kikinda, Serbia. ©Paliparan*

Ha'penny Bridge dublin ireland travel year 2024 — *Ha’penny Bridge, Dublin. ©Paliparan*

Gergeti Trinity Church kazbegi georgia dog travel year review 2024 — *Relaxing with a sweet dog on the meadow in front of the mountaintop Gergeti Trinity Church in Kazbegi, Georgia. ©Paliparan*

Flight logbook of 2024

Let’s begin this 2024 travel review by looking at the flights I took during the year, which are all mapped out below.

I use myFlightradar24 to keep a record of all my flights, and the website serves as an excellent flight logbook.

The orange lines on the map represent routes I flew once last year (one-way flights), the red lines show routes I flew twice (either as two one-ways in the same direction or as a return flight), and the purple lines indicate routes I flew more than twice last year.

2024 flights travel year review — *All the flights I took in 2024. ©MyFlightradar24/Paliparan*

Flight statistics

In 2024, I took a total of 45 flights, for both leisure and work.

It’s a negligible 2.17% decrease compared to the 46 flights I took in 2023, and it’s also comparable to my flight counts in 2021 and 2020 (44 and 47 flights, respectively).

My 45 flights – 4 domestic and 41 international – collectively covered a distance of 86,703 kilometres (53,875 miles) and amounted to 140 hours and 45 minutes of flying time over the year.

In terms of miles flown, that’s a 16% increase in distance compared to the flights I took in 2023.

Out of my 45 flights in 2024, 23 were in economy class and 22 in business class.

I had a window seat on 43 out of 45 flights and an aisle seat on 2, thus sparing me once again from the horrors of a middle seat.

The year 2024 saw a bit of a shake-up in my top airlines compared to previous years, as ITA Airways emerged from nowhere to claim the top spot with 9 flights in total.

In second place last year was Turkish Airlines with 9 flights, followed by Air France and Saudia in joint third place, each with 6 flights, which is less of a surprise given that Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles and Air France/KLM Flying Blue are my two primary frequent flyer programmes.

The Airbus A320 was my top aircraft of 2024 with 11 flights in total, followed by 7 flights each on the Boeing 737 and Airbus A321, and 5 on the Airbus A330.

Just like the previous two years, I once again didn’t manage to try out a new aircraft type in 2024.

air france airbus a319 mountains alps sunset — *Sunset over the Austrian Alps as seen from an Air France Airbus A319. ©Paliparan*

turkish airlines airbus a321 — *Boarding a Turkish Airlines Airbus A321neo at Istanbul Airport. ©Paliparan*

lot polish airlines 737 max cairo travel year review 2024 — *Take-off from Cairo International Airport on a LOT Polish Airlines Boeing 737 MAX. ©Paliparan*

Airports and airlines

In 2024, I had the opportunity to travel with two airlines I had never tried before, namely Air India and ITA Airways.

It was certainly fun to try out Air India economy class, and my 4 flights with them in this cabin had plenty of standout features, though at least as many negative aspects as well.

Although I had flown with ITA Airways’ predecessor, Alitalia, many times before, 2024 was my first experience with the new Italian flag carrier, making it all the more remarkable that it became my most-used airline of the year.

In total, I visited 26 different airports in 2024, 6 fewer than in 2023.

Of those 26 airports, I visited 4 for the first time: Medina (MED), New Delhi (DEL), Milan Linate (LIN), and Reggio di Calabria (REG).

In 2024, I successfully retained my Air France/KLM Flying Blue platinum status for another year (until 31st August 2025) and extended my Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Elite (Star Alliance Gold) status for two more years, now valid until 31st March 2026.

economy class air india boeing 787 — *The economy class cabin of Air India’s Boeing 787. ©Paliparan*

ita airways airbus a220 domestic business class flight milan linate rome fiumicino — *Boarding an ITA Airways Airbus A220 at Milan Linate Airport. ©Paliparan*

Flying highlights

The most memorable flying highlight of 2024 was taking 5 consecutive business class flights with Saudia, which I truly believe is an underrated airline with an excellent premium product, if you don’t mind the absence of champagne or other alcoholic beverages.

In what was undoubtedly an error fare, Saudia sold €350 business class tickets from Egypt to Saudi Arabia.

That in itself is a perfectly normal price, but it seems some Saudia intern forgot to limit the fare rules and restrictions, as this business class fare allowed for some remarkably generous routings.

Instead of simply flying from Cairo to Jeddah, I managed to route my trip from Cairo to Riyadh, then from Riyadh to London Heathrow, back again to Riyadh on the same plane, on to Manila, and finally from Manila to Jeddah.

Sadly, it wasn’t possible to add stopovers, as the trick only worked when taking the first available connecting flight, with connections longer than 24 hours not allowed, but I did manage to spend about 10 hours in Manila during my layover there.

It certainly was a rather bizarre trip, as it meant spending 3 consecutive nights sleeping on an aeroplane, but all was in great comfort in Saudia’s business class, with some excellent food to enjoy.

Moreover, it earned me a bunch of frequent flyer miles that will no doubt be useful for my future travels and helped me secure my Flying Blue platinum status for another year in 2024.

saudia boeing 777 business class — *The business class cabin on the Saudia Boeing 777, which I flew from London Heathrow to Riyadh. ©Paliparan*

saudia business class meal food — *Saudia may be a dry airline, but its business class food can compete with the best. ©Paliparan*

Train travel in 2024

Frequent readers of my blog know that I love train travel at least as much as I love the world of aviation, which of course meant that in 2024 I also enjoyed many great trips by train.

In total, I travelled 18,362 kilometres by train in 2024 and spent 13 nights on sleeper trains during the year.

Although this did, of course, involve some of my usual train rides — such as those between Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria — there were certainly a couple of more exotic rail trips I took last year.

dacia night train cfr romania locomotive bucharest gara de nord — *The ‘Dacia’ night train, which links Romania with Austria, is seen here at Bucharest Gara de Nord. ©Paliparan*

bangkok hat yai sleeper train travel review 2024 — *The Hat Yai-Bangkok sleeper train is ready to depart. ©Paliparan*

railway station prague train travel 2024 year review — *Arriving at Prague’s main railway station. ©Paliparan*

bucharest sofia train — *View from the Bucharest to Sofia train as it traverses the spectacular Iskar river gorge. ©Paliparan*

Train travel highlights

In the winter of 2024, I travelled by train from Singapore to Bangkok, which turned out to be great fun.

Also in winter, I had the opportunity to take a train on the modern Jeddah-Medina high-speed railway line, which certainly impressed me.

In spring, I had a highly enjoyable trip across Europe by train from Romania to Lithuania, and in early summer, I also had a fun trip across northern Serbia by train.

Another epic train trip was taken in autumn, travelling from Germany to Kyiv in Ukraine by train and from there back to Romania.

Although there are obviously some safety issues in Ukraine, I was happy to be back in the country, and the operations of Ukrzaliznytsia, the Ukrainian Railways, never fail to impress me, maintaining a perfect on-time record despite the challenges of war.

One of my favourite aspects of train travel is the pleasure of sitting in a proper dining car with good food and a drink while watching the scenery pass by, and in 2024, I was again fortunate to do this frequently, mostly on the excellent Hungarian trains.

train rail travel poland — *View from the train linking the Polish capital of Warsaw with Mockava, just across the border in Lithuania. ©Paliparan*

jeddah high-speed railway station saudi arabia — *The modern high-speed railway station of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. ©Paliparan*

lviv luts train railway station ukraine — *The train from Lviv has arrived at the railway statin of Lutsk in Ukraine. ©Paliparan*

MÁV train dining car restaurant wagon hungarian railways hungary travel — *Delicious Hungarian food in the dining car of the ‘Corona’ night train from Budapest to Brașov. ©Paliparan*

transylvania train view — *Early morning view from the ‘Corona’ sleeper train as it rides across Transylvania. ©Paliparan*

koen train thailand travel year review 2024 — *Yours truly hanging out of the window of a third class train carriage in Thailand. ©Paliparan*

Ferries

On my travels in 2024, I also took two overnight ferries, one being the DFDS ferry from Klaipėda to Kiel and the other a Brittany Ferries sailing from Roscoff to Cork.

As I also greatly enjoyed my sailing from Salerno to Tunis in 2023, travelling by ferry might be something I consider doing more frequently in the future.

Kieler Förde ferry kiel klaipeda lithuania germany travel year review 2024 — *Sailing into the Kieler Förde after an overnight crossing from Klaipėda to Kiel. ©Paliparan*

cobh ireland — *View from the deck of the ferry as it sails by the Irish town of Cobh. ©Paliparan*

Destinations

In 2024, I had the opportunity to visit one new country: Saudi Arabia.

Although I’ve passed through the airports of both Riyadh and Jeddah on my travels, such airport transits don’t count as having visited a country, so I was happy that in 2024 I was finally able to explore a bit of Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia has gone from being one of the most closed countries in the world, with an almost impossible-to-get tourist visa, to one that has now firmly opened its doors to the outside world and is rapidly modernising.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Islam’s second-most holy city, Medina, which used to be forbidden terrain for non-Muslims but can now be freely visited by all, making it one of the most interesting destinations I’ve been to in 2024.

In countries I had visited multiple times before, I had the chance to explore new places, including Cork in Ireland, Morlaix in France, Heidelberg in Germany, Subotica in Serbia, George Town in Malaysia, Lutsk in Ukraine, and Scilla in Italy.

During my travels in Germany, I also enjoyed immersing myself in Zoiglkultur, a tradition of communal brewing and pub-going in Bavaria’s Upper Palatinate.

I also had some good fun revisiting some old favourites in 2024, including Prague, Vilnius, Dublin, Kyiv, and Lviv.

jeddah old town — *Houses in the old town of Jeddah, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. ©Paliparan*

koen medina travel year review 2024 — Yours truly standing in front of the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina. Considering the city was completely off-limits to non-Muslims just a few years ago, I never imagined I would find myself standing at this historic spot! ©Paliparan

scilla italy beach travel year 2024 review — *The stunning beach of Scilla, with Castello Ruffo providing a formidable backdrop. ©Paliparan*

morlaix brittany — *Railway viaduct in Morlaix, a town in the French region of Brittany. ©Paliparan*

heidelberg castle germany travel year 2024 — *Heidelberg Castle, Germany. ©Paliparan*

zoigl windischeschenbach Zum Roud'n — Some Zoigl pubs, like Zum Roud’n in Windischeschenbach, are no larger than the living room or kitchen of a local’s house, offering a fantastic place to discover all about this unique communal brewing and pub-going tradition. ©Paliparan

george town penang malaysia — *George Town, Penang Island, Malaysia. ©Paliparan*

subotica synagogue art nouveau — *The wonderful Art Nouveau interior of the synagogue in Subotica. ©Paliparan*

manila cathedral the philippines — *Manila Cathedral. ©Paliparan*

*Tram in the old town of Lviv, Ukraine. ©Paliparan*

Travel highlights

If I had to pick a single travel highlight from all my trips throughout 2024, I would probably choose my summer road trip through Georgia.

With its incredibly friendly people, superb cuisine, and stunning scenery, Georgia is one of my favourite countries in the world, so it was already a great pleasure to be back to revisit places such as Tbilisi, Kutaisi, and Batumi.

However, the real travel highlight was the drive into the Svaneti Mountains of the Caucasus, with Ushguli, Europe’s highest village at 2,200 metres, being the ultimate goal of the road trip.

Ushguli had been on my travel bucket list for many years, so it was certainly a highly memorable moment to finally reach this remote mountain village, which lived up to all my high expectations.

Yet, as is often the case, some of the best travel memories are made from rather simple moments, such as enjoying a gorgeous spring day exploring the sand dunes of the Curonian Spit, savouring memorable meals in Georgia, or sipping a pint of stout in some of Cork and Dublin’s finest pubs while listening to live Irish folk music.

ushguli georgia travel year review 2024 — *Ushguli, Georgia. ©Paliparan*

curonian spit sand dunes lithuania — *The sand dunes of the Curonian Spit in Lithuania. ©Paliparan*

Khao San Road bangkok pad thai beer — *Reliving my backpacking days while enjoying a delicious pad Thai and an ice-cold beer on Khao San Road in Bangkok. ©Paliparan*

Sin É cork pint of beamish — *Pint of Beamish Stout at Sin É, one of Cork’s finest pubs. ©Paliparan*

What will 2025 bring?

I tend to avoid booking my travels too far ahead, so while I have plenty of ideas for future trips, not much is firmly confirmed or set in stone.

As I had plans in the last two years to travel more extensively around Slovakia, a country I’ve never really explored outside of the main cities of Bratislava and Kosice, that should probably be made a priority in 2025.

The same applies to some lesser-known destinations in Bulgaria I’ve wanted to visit for a while — since they’re nearby and easy to reach, I should finally tick them off my list.

I’d also love to return to Serbia, North Macedonia, Bosnia, or Montenegro in 2025, as well as revisit Central Asia, with Tajikistan being an obvious destination since it’s the only one of the Stans, apart from Turkmenistan, that I’ve never visited.

Of course, most of my future travel plans will be highly dependent on time and money, meaning I could end up in a country that hasn’t been on my list at all if a great flight deal comes along.

This is of course one of the biggest advantages of being flexible and not having travel plans set in stone!

In addition to these destinations, there are a couple of exciting train rides I hope to take at some point in 2025.

Let’s wait and see what else the travel year of 2025 has in store – so stay tuned!