2024 was a strange year for our travel exploits as we went into the new year with two holidays booked and, as it happened, cancelled both of them.

The first of those cancelled holidays was to be a ten day trip to Madeira, a small archipelago in the North Atlantic in the same general area as the Canary Islands. We cancelled that holiday after the tour operator changed our flight details, including an airport change from Bristol to Manchester. We cancelled a further holiday to Marrakesh for the same reason, with another airport change and much less favourable flight times.

However, every cloud has a silver lining and as a result of cancelling Marrakesh, my in laws offered us the opportunity to share an Air BnB with them in Andalucía, Spain. More on that later.

March – Cyprus

Tired of the relentless, low grey UK skies for the first few months of the year, we took the opportunity to make a late booking, low price deal, with tour operator TUI. The hotel was an all inclusive in the Paphos area of Cyprus.

Neither of us had visited Cyprus before so it was a new experience for us. I’ve blogged our holiday here.

April – Center Parcs, Longleat, UK

We spent a four day, long weekend at Center Parcs to celebrate my step daughters 40th birthday. We stayed in the onsite apartments which, for two of us, were really good. We were two of a large party there to celebrate Jo’s birthday with the others staying in chalets. I really like Center Parcs and it never disappoints. There’s something for everyone, from adults to grandchildren, and it was our first experience of playing Pickle Ball.

As we were in Wiltshire we took the opportunity to visit Stourhead, on our way home. The gardens here are really impressive although whilst we were there, they were making repairs to the dam, which meant there was limited access to some areas. That’s ok though, we’ll just have to visit again.

May – Rhodes, Greece

This was another short notice booking and a return to one of our favourite places. We stayed in a different hotel to our usual residence but stayed in the Ialyssos area not far from Rhodes City. After some initial reservation’s the new hotel grew on us and we’ve booked to go back in May 2025. Full blog here.

June – Isle of Wight, UK

We took advantage of some good weather to grab a caravan break in the Isle of Wight. The caravan is positioned just outside Bembridge and a great location for coastal walks into Ryde or, heading the other way, Shanklin. We’ve been really surprised with the Isle of Wight. It’s a lovely place to visit. Full blog here.

June – Andalucía, Spain

Towards the end of June we flew in to Malaga airport to meet up with my in laws, David and Donna, for a weeks stay in a fabulous Air BnB property they had rented just outside Nerja. I really do need to blog this holiday as we had the best of times. David and Donna were the perfect hosts and whisked us off to some fabulous places. We crammed in visits to Cordoba, Almunecar and Seville, in between some beach and pool time. Full blog here.

July – Pontneddfechan, Wales, UK

We booked a lovely little Air BnB, former miners cottage, for a weeks walking holiday in Pontneddfechan. A small Welsh village on the edge of the Brecon Beacons. We managed lots of good hikes with a ten mile walk most days. I’ve written a blog for our stay here

September – North Yorkshire, UK

This really was a short notice holiday. We booked the Air BnB on a Wednesday and drove to Yorkshire, for our break, three days later. A new area of the UK for us and we now know what we’ve been missing out on. I have blogged this trip in three parts, starting here.

October – Marrakesh, Morocco, North Africa

We’d cancelled our original ten day booking to Marrakesh but, we really did want to go back following our visit there in 2023. To that end we re booked a shorter seven day package deal and returned to North Africa for another wonderful stay. I’ve blogged that trip here

December – Marrakesh, Morocco, North Africa

Although we had only visited Marrakesh two months before this break, we were offered a holiday package so heavily discounted we just had to take it. It was good to see Marrakesh in December, with less tourists, and it was still plenty warm enough for us. We still have unfinished business here so we will be going back. I’ve blogged this holiday, in three parts, here.

That’s it for 2024. We took nine holidays, none of which were booked, or planned, at the beginning of the year. Writing this on 1st Jan 2025 we’re in much the same position as we were last year. We have one return trip to Cyprus booked for late March and Rhodes booked for late May but nothing else planned a this time. I’ve tentative plans to visit Istanbul and I hope that will be happening at some stage this year.

I’d also like to visit some new places in the UK if we can. North Wales and Norfolk are on the hit list and I wouldn’t discount another trip back to North Yorkshire and York. A cruise might be a possibility. We really enjoyed our one and only cruise in 2019 to the Dutch Caribbean. I keep looking at cruises but it would be a hefty chunk out of our annual holiday budget. I’ll carry on thinking about that option for now….

All images: ©Stephen Hyde 2007-2025 – All rights reserved.