Our Best Travel Moments Of 2015

What an amazing year! After moving from Hungary to California in 2014, we knew that 2015 will be full of new experiences – just as 2014 – and so it was.

We’ve never been to the US before and during our 1 year of stay we wanted to explore as much as we can. We think we did a good job: 13 states + the District of Columbia, some of the most well-known cities (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Seattle, New York, Miami, San Diego), 17 national parks and countless state parks, natural reserves, beaches, national monuments and recreation areas.

We’ve completely fallen in love with US parks! And with California.

All of our wonderful US experiences only convinced us that we just couldn’t be ‘done’ with the US. We’ve visited places we were dreaming about a long time ago, but we also got to know places which we haven’t even heard about before. And we added a whole lot of US places to our travel bucket list which are the reasons to return soon.

Then we moved back to Hungary this summer and visited some places nearby. Like Prague what we’ve planned to visit for years, but we never got there – until this year. Or Bratislava what we haven’t really planned, but it was close by, so why not? Or Hungarian castles, because we love castles…

So here comes the list of places what we loved the most this year – in no particular order. (We already feel bad though that we haven’t put all of the US national parks what we’ve visited on the list 😀 – they are all just incredibly amazing!).

Kauai, Hawaii, USA

Best experiences:

helicopter tour above the island
hiking on Kalalau Trail along Na Pali Coast
scenic drive through Waimea Canyon State Park
kayaking on Wailua River to Secret Falls
snorkeling at Tunnels Beach

Read more:

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming/Idaho/Montana, USA

Best experiences:

scenic drive at Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
catching some spectacular geyser eruptions
Porcelain Basin in Norris Geyser Basin
West Thumb Geyser Basin at Lake Yellowstone
Morning Glory Pool
Grand Prismatic Spring
Mammoth Hot Springs
observing wildlife

Yosemite National Park, California, USA

Best experiences:

hiking to all of the waterfalls in Yosemite Valley
watching a huge rainbow after a spring storm at Tunnel View
the view from Glacier Point

Glacier National Park, Montana, USA

Best experiences: all of our hikes, but especially Grinnell Glacier Trail and Highline Trail with incredible views and thousands of wildflowers all the way

Read more: Wildflower Bloom In Glacier National Park (photo essay)

Sequoia National Park, California, USA

Best experiences:

hiking Lakes Trail to Pear Lake in fresh snow in May
the view from Moro Rock
walking under the biggest trees on Earth (and of course, visiting General Sherman, the greatest of all sequoias :))

Niagara Falls, USA/Canada

Best experiences:

watching fireworks above the Falls
night cruise to the Falls
visiting lovely Niagara-on-the-Lake
hiking in Niagara Falls State Park and in Whirlpool State Park

Read more: Niagara Falls In 2 Wonderful Days

Watkins Glen State Park, New York, USA

Best experience: waterfalls of the Gorge Trail

San Francisco, California, USA

Best experiences:

views of Golden Gate Bridge
Pacific coast
those typical streets
Alcatraz cruise
planetarium of California Academy of Sciences
walking on Embarcadero Waterfront

Miami, Florida, USA

Best experiences:

South Beach
having birthday cocktails in the city center
trying jet ski for the first (and definitely not for the last!) time

New York, New York, USA

Best experiences:

watching the sunset from Brooklyn Bridge
walking in Brooklyn Bridge Park and in Central Park
night view from the top of One World Trade Center
visiting American Museum of Natural History
Liberty Island cruise

Read more: Highlights Of New York City

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Best experiences:

strolling on the Strip and going into the famous hotels & casinos (no, we don’t like gambling by the way, but really liked the architecture, the decorations, the lights and colors)
Bellagio Fountain shows
Mirage’s Volcano Eruptions

Prague, Czech Republic

Best experiences:

walking on Charles Bridge and in the charming narrow streets of the old city center
the view from Letenské Park
visiting St Vitus Cathedral, Jerusalem Synagogue and St Nicholas Church

Read more:

Our Best Of Prague
On The Streets Of Prague (photo essay)

Our plans for 2016

So what’s next? As we will stay in Hungary for a while now, we plan to visit all the nearby countries next year (from which we’ve only been to a few so far – yepp, our own backyard effect :D), especially Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia – oh yeah, and Hungary, too. 🙂

We’ve been dreaming about visiting Northern Europe for a while and next summer might be the time for it. Or France. Or Portugal.

We want to focus on Europe for next year, that’s for sure. It’s just funny that we’ve seen more of the US than of Europe – though we were grown up here. That should change soon. 🙂

What are your favorite travel experiences this year?