Around the World in 2025: Global Travel Planning’s Year in Review

This week Tracy and Doug reflect on a year filled with global adventures, practical travel advice, and behind-the-scenes stories from life on the road and behind the microphone.

From Tracy reaching her seventh continent to shared reflections on travelling at pace, they look back on some of their favourite destinations of 2025, including Sri Lanka, Spain, Malaysia, Morocco, and more, along with standout podcast episodes and memorable moments from the year.

Listeners will enjoy a candid conversation about what it is really like to record a podcast from hotel rooms around the world, how the Global Travel Planning community has grown to listeners in 138 countries, and the realities of adapting travel plans when things do not go to plan.

The episode also includes cultural observations, practical transport insights, particularly for train travel lovers, and honest reflections on both the rewards and challenges of constant travel.

Whether you are actively planning your next trip or simply dreaming of future adventures, this episode offers inspiration, thoughtful insights, and practical tips to help you travel smarter and with confidence.

📝  Show Notes - Episode 86

🎧 Listen to next

• Episode #59 – Sri Lanka Travel Planning 3 Week Itinerary + Essential Travel Tips
• Episode #38 – Top Tips and Insights for First-Time Travellers to Tokyo Japan
• Episode #51 – Spain Travel Planning: 3 week itinerary [Trip Report]

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Chapters

• 0:03 Welcome And Year-In-Review Setup
• 0:54 Meet Doug And The Train Thread
• 2:50 Milestones And Global Audience
• 4:24 Top Episodes: Sri Lanka, Japan, Spain
• 7:30 Europe Tips And 2026 Focus
• 9:15 Early 2025: Scotland Base And UK Trains
• 10:55 Morocco To Iberia: Wins And Wobbles
• 13:16 Barcelona, Sitges And Food Tours
• 15:04 Istanbul Detour And Qatar Pause
• 16:36 Sri Lanka Highlights And Rail Journeys
• 18:18 Malaysia Loop And Into Singapore
• 19:47 Back To Australia And WA Road Trip
• 21:20 The Big Perth–London Flight And Solo Weeks
• 23:08 Crossing Australia Return And Great Ocean Road
• 27:19 Antarctica Voyage And Penguin Obsession
• 29:23 Community, Guests And Behind The Scenes
• 30:58 2026 Schedule Shift And Platforms
• 32:33 Top Three Moments: Doug’s Trains
• 34:10 Top Three Moments: Tracy’s Big Three

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:03

Welcome to the Global Travel Planning Podcast. Your host is founder of the Global Travel Planning website, Tracy Collins. Each week, Tracy is joined by expert guests as she takes you on a journey to destinations around the world, sharing travel inspiration, itinerary ideas, and practical tips to help you plan your next adventure. Join us as we explore everywhere from bustling cities to remote landscapes, uncover cultural treasures, and discover the best ways to make your travel dreams a reality.

SPEAKER_01: 0:54

Doug's here. Hello there. So Doug is joining me on the podcast. Now you will have heard him throughout the year. He's been on quite a few episodes talking about the different places that we visited and um sharing some tips about train travel in particular.

SPEAKER_02: 1:06

Yeah, it's always about train travel with me.

SPEAKER_01: 1:08

Yeah, yeah. So Doug obviously is a resident train expert on UK travel planning and obviously on global travel planning as well. But um yeah, so this year we've done a lot of travel, there's been a lot of stories, there's been some fantastic global adventures. In fact, I was thinking about it, and um I've I managed to set foot on six out of seven continents in 2025. I think you were on five.

SPEAKER_02: 1:29

Yeah, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01: 1:30

Yeah, which is which is crazy. Um, not that I'm a big one for counting countries or continents, but I have to say it was I'm quite impressed myself.

SPEAKER_02: 1:39

You did actually buy a flag for the last one.

SPEAKER_01: 1:41

I know, I know, I know, I know, but I'm kind of like, I don't know. I get torn between this kind of counting countries, not counting countries. I don't know how thoughtful you have to do it thoughtfully, I guess is the question. I don't know. I don't want to just be ticking things off a list. Uh anyway. So this year, I guess we went weekly on the podcast, so that was something different.

SPEAKER_02: 2:01

Yeah, really good.

SPEAKER_01: 2:02

Uh yeah, but I am gonna kind of there's a bit of announcement around that uh the end of the podcast because it has actually been rather difficult because I do this podcast every week, and also we've got the UK Travel Planner podcast every week, which has been quite incredible because we've had to we've had to, I don't know, we've recorded episodes in all sorts of places, hotel rooms all over the world, haven't we?

SPEAKER_02: 2:23

Yeah, didn't we actually record one in different countries?

SPEAKER_01: 2:26

Yes, we've recorded we yes, we've recorded where you were in a different country from me, which is kind of normal because a lot of the podcast episodes I do with people around the world that they're not sitting in my in my office at home.

SPEAKER_02: 2:36

But we're usually together.

SPEAKER_01: 2:37

We are usually together at do episode. But yes, we've done a number of episodes where we've been separated by uh not only continents but incredible number of hours. Oh dear.

SPEAKER_02: 2:47

It's the hours of the tricky bit.

SPEAKER_01: 2:48

Yeah, uh absolutely anyway. So we're this year we've released 51 episodes. Obviously, we had last week off, which was really great to have a bit of downtime over Christmas. So I hope you guys had some uh a really good time over the holidays, and obviously we're heading into 2026. Can you believe it? Um, so 51 episodes this year. We now have a total of 86 episodes out. Um, we are now close down to to 50,000 downloads.

SPEAKER_02: 3:12

Wow.

SPEAKER_01: 3:12

Yeah, as we're headed in 2026, which is really cool. Um, for a for a podcast which is kind of general travel. Um, our UK travel panel podcast um this year we crossed half a million downloads, which is fantastic. So if you are planning any travels in the UK, I would pop over and follow the UK Travel Panel Podcast. Now, I'm not sure where you're listening from, but we have had listeners from 138 countries and territories around around the world listening.

SPEAKER_02: 3:41

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01: 3:41

Isn't it incredible? Um, we're talking about not counting countries, but I'd actually probably like to visit all 138 countries and territories at some point because I've certainly definitely not up to that number for sure. Um, so most of you are from Australia, uh, the United States, the UK, Canada, and New Zealand. So hello to you guys, but also a hello to everybody else from around the world. Let us know where you're listening from, where we want to hear. So get in touch via Speakpipe and say hello. We do listen love listening to all those messages. So, as I say, every download, every message, and every share really means the world to us. Um, so thank you for being part of our growing global community.

SPEAKER_02: 4:22

Most definitely. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01: 4:24

Yes. Um, so we're gonna have a quick look back at the top episodes of 2025. So if you've missed any of these, um maybe go and have a uh look back, um, download them and um take a listen. Um so interestingly, our top, top, top episode of the year was our episode about Sri Lanka.

SPEAKER_02: 4:44

Yeah, it was. We thought we enjoyed that. We loved it. We really, really enjoyed visiting. It was the first time for both of us as well.

SPEAKER_01: 4:49

Yeah, we did, and actually, um we yes, Sri Lanka was someone that's kind of always been on my bucket list to visit. And so we we did we had a lovely trip to Sri Lanka. Actually, planned pretty last minute.

SPEAKER_02: 5:00

It was really.

SPEAKER_01: 5:00

Um, so if Sri Lanka is on your 2026 visit list, I would take a listen to that podcast. We are actually planning to do some more Sri Lanka episodes as well, particularly talking about trains in Sri Lanka.

SPEAKER_02: 5:11

Yes, we did. We did uh a few fantastic train journeys there and a few other things as well, or just train journeys, and it's sort of so that seed in my head. Want to do more, got to do more.

SPEAKER_01: 5:22

Yeah, so more train journeys for sure, but also um we're gonna sort of share some tips about a lot of these trips that we've taken in terms of focusing on the trains, because we have been asked a lot uh by a speak pilot. People got on Twitch and said, Can you share a little bit more about how you organised that? Um, so then the second um top episode this year was uh with a guest, um Helen, who came on, who is our Japan expert friend. Um, and she came on um to talk all about uh top tips and insights for first-time travelers to Tokyo, Japan. Um so Helen will be coming on in 2026 to talk more about Japan. Uh, and you can find out uh more about um you know tips from our website. Obviously, that we have got quite a lot on global travel planning about travel to Japan, but um Helen Foster is our expert and she's at Japanese.com, so you can check her out there. Um and she's on uh Facebook as well. So um thanks to Helen to come on, that was a fantastic episode. When Japan, I guess, is on our to revisit list, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02: 6:20

Most definitely. I again a train it was uh it was on my booking list to get to Japan to experience the Shinkansen services, and wow, I was not disappointed.

SPEAKER_01: 6:30

No, unfortunately, Japan was something place we went to in 2024, so yeah. Um and then um our third uh top episode downloaded for 2025, so our Spain travel tips, which again was our trip report from our trip to Madrid, Madrid, Seville, and Barcelona in March. It was and Sidges, and Sigges, of course, yeah, which is south of Barcelona. So if you're planning to visit Spain in 2026, I'd take a listen to that episode. Most definitely. Um so our fourth top episode and kind of close runner-up for 2025 was our 15 Essential Europe travel tips for first-time visitors.

SPEAKER_02: 7:04

Most definitely, yeah. Yeah, we covered a lot of very important topics in that.

SPEAKER_01: 7:07

Yeah, we did. So um there will be more coming about different destinations in Europe in 2026. So it's quite interesting. So we had Sri Lanka, Japan, uh, Spain, and then kind of Europe general as our most popular episodes. So again, next year there'll be a lot more uh focus on those destination uh travel stories and travel tips. Um, basically looking uh to share not only kind of destination guides uh from people who live there, know the place or visited, really you know, know it in depth, uh, but also we're sharing a lot of our own kind of travel experiences as well and travel tips. Um and Doug will be talking a lot more about trains as well.

SPEAKER_02: 7:43

Yes, I have experienced in lots and lots of different countries with trains.

SPEAKER_01: 7:47

Yeah, you do. So that we know that is certainly a growing, there's a lot of growing interest in train travel.

SPEAKER_02: 7:51

There really is globally, uh, train travel, particularly because of the the green element, it's uh it's just a growing industry.

SPEAKER_01: 7:59

Yeah, absolutely. Right, okay, so that those are our top episodes. If I haven't mentioned one of your top episodes, get again, get in touch with our speakpipe. Tell me what episodes resonated with you in 2025. So I'm just gonna do a quick recap of our travel because we did do a lot of travel in 2025. I should say 2026, potentially we're not gonna be traveling quite as much. Yep lately, because it was a bit crazy this year. It was a lot. We do actually need to spend some time on it's very easy to travel quickly and not to reflect thoughtfully. And I know this is something I talked to Amanda Kendall from the Thoughtful Travel podcast a lot about. Actually reflecting and really enjoying your experiences. I think by by later on in the hour starting to feel a little bit burnt out with travel, which sounds crazy, and I know people are probably going, What? How can that happen? But it does. Um it does, it you just can get there, just it just can be a lot more tiring than I think people expect to do it, can it? The full time, I guess we've been doing it recently. Yeah. Um, so we started off the year, actually, we ended 2025 by flying from Budapest into Edinburgh, uh, where we spent the first six weeks of 2025.

SPEAKER_02: 9:02

That's right. We uh we're based in uh in Edinburgh mostly for that. I travelled up and down the country a few times by train, obviously, uh whilst you stayed there, and then we consolidated, and then sometimes you went out and I stayed. And so, yeah, we we did quite a few different trips out. We did some itinerary consults as well while we were there.

SPEAKER_01: 9:21

Yeah, we did a lot of itinerary consults for UK travel planning.

SPEAKER_02: 9:23

I went across to Belfast as well. You did, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 9:25

So that'll be coming to YouTube soon to our UK travel plan and YouTube channel. Um, there'll be a lot coming on that. So uh yeah, I went down to London for a for a few days, came up on the Caledonian sleeper, but I'll talk about that in a little bit.

SPEAKER_02: 9:36

And I was stranded in Inverness.

SPEAKER_01: 9:38

Yes, with the weather wasn't great, was it? Yeah, yeah. So that was basically the first six months of the yeah. Then we f we followed that up, I guess, with the next six weeks. So we're talking kind of end of February, oh no, mid mid-February until the end of March, where we headed to two new destinations for both of us, and that we went to Morocco, uh for which we thoroughly enjoyed on Intrepidur, which was fantastic. We did, so that was brilliant. So we've got that as I said, was another very popular episode of the year, and then we flew from Marrakech to Madrid and travelled round from Madrid down to Seville, then over so so we've both been to Spain a number of times before, and then we travelled across to Portugal by bus, which was an adventure.

SPEAKER_02: 10:20

It yes, an adventure stroke experience.

SPEAKER_01: 10:24

Um unfortunately, our time in Portugal was a bit marred by not fantastic weather.

SPEAKER_02: 10:28

That's right.

SPEAKER_01: 10:29

Um, so we did spend a bit of time in in um Lisbon and then went up to Porto. So Portugal really um Portugal, we need to come back and see more of you. Um because uh unfortunately, as I say, the weather was did not really behave at the time we were there.

SPEAKER_02: 10:43

No, and then we were coming back into Spain, and that was marred unfortunately by um n uh train strikes.

SPEAKER_01: 10:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_02: 10:49

So but it's just prove the point, you know, you can be flexible, we sort of adapted, moved on, changed plans, made the best of it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 10:55

Yeah, changed plans instead of uh taking the train, which is what we plan, hope to do via uh from from Porto via variety of means we're gonna do different trains to get to Barcelona, cancel that and basically fly to Barcelona. Uh but we had a fabulous time. I will say, stand out for me. I love Morocco, we both loved it, and um, I will be back in 2026 in Morocco in March. But I um I loved our time in Seville.

SPEAKER_02: 11:20

We did. We were fortunate of the weather there as well, but again, none of us have been to actually Seville. We've been to Spain many times, but none of us have actually been to Seville in the past.

SPEAKER_01: 11:28

No, absolutely loved Seville, and uh big thanks to Walks and Devau Tours as well because um we were treated to lots of different tours in Seville, uh, food tours, fantastic Alba who took us out for did Seville and a day tour with us. It's just marvellous, absolutely just loved it, it was fantastic. So huge thanks to them for that because that was brilliant. Um, we then we spent a little bit of time in Barcelona again. Actually, we did some food tours for Kitus de Vauer, which was amazing. I'm surprised no wonder I've put so much weight on this year. Um Barcelona, I don't know, it's probably it is so popular, it is so touristed, over touristed, uh, that I did not enjoy it as much as Seville, I have to say.

SPEAKER_02: 12:10

No, I I'd agree with you there, but what I how many times have I been to Barcelona and that area before? The walks that we did, I learned more about the hit the local history uh than the previous times. Well that's always the advantage of doing a tour. But part of that uh the tours is it's food, but it's also history, it's that blend between the two.

SPEAKER_01: 12:32

Yes, yes, that's what I was all about Deval tours, they're great for that because you you you you're learning about history and you get to try the local food and learn about the food and drink as well, which is which is fantastic. Right, the history of actual tapas dishes, yes, but also we didn't actually stay in Barcelona stay in Sigges, which was your move, and that was a very good uh recommendation.

SPEAKER_02: 12:50

That's right. Uh Sigges was um uh a resort, not really a resort, uh a holiday resort, I suppose you might call it from for a lot of Spanish people as well. But my childhood uh was very much involved a summer holiday from the UK to Sigges with my parents, and so it's the first time we've been back in 30, 35 years, probably a bit longer.

SPEAKER_01: 13:13

Yeah, I loved it, it was great.

SPEAKER_02: 13:15

Uh yeah, you totally embraced the place. I loved it. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01: 13:17

I'd go back to Sidges tomorrow, absolutely thought it was beautiful and lovely, and just a lot of character to it, very lovely. Um, we flew, unfortunately, we had planned to you know, great plans here again. We had planned to go from Barcelona um to um Istanbul by train, we just didn't have the time to do it, unfortunately. So that is put on the back burner. That is something that we do intend to do at some point. Um, so unfortunately, we had to fly from Barcelona to Istanbul. So Turkey again, in fact, we did a lot of new destinations for us in 2025. So Turkey as well was new for us. We we only had a few days in Istanbul, but it was good and a good good introduction.

SPEAKER_02: 13:58

It was a good introduction. I mean, I was slightly disappointed we didn't do my train with sort of doing the interrail thing again, which we've done in the past, but yeah, on the back burner to do in the future. So, yeah, Turkey still enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_01: 14:11

I had a good time in Turkey, and then we flew. So the intention was to go to um stay some time in Sri Lanka. Now, I don't like flying, which always people think is really funny when I say that. Um, but I so I didn't want to do this journey back to Australia in one go. So hence we were basically you're kind of wondering how we're doing this. We're kind of hopped back, and I didn't want to do any flight that was longer than five hours. So the obvious destination to stop between Istanbul and Colombo in Sri Lanka was Qatar. So we stopped off in Qatar for I think three days, and actually that was just to have a break, um, have a bit of a rest because we had been doing a lot of travel. But actually, we did take a day and and took a private tour around Qatar, which was interesting.

SPEAKER_02: 14:53

We did, we did a harbour cruise as well, which was really good.

SPEAKER_01: 14:55

Yeah, we did. So that was that was a very short trip, but still very interesting to spend that time at Doha. Before then, we headed to Sri Lanka for three weeks now. Um Sri Lanka, as I say, was been our top episode of 2025, and I think Sri Lanka is a destination that and we speak to so many people who want to visit or have visited and loved it.

SPEAKER_02: 15:14

Yeah. I mean the first thing I'll say about the place was what lovely people.

SPEAKER_01: 15:18

Yes, yes. We'd we met some fantastic people. Really? Um huge hello again to Imasha, who was at the hotel that we stayed at in Colombo um in his fabulous, and still follows us on on uh Instagram. Uh yeah, we met some we did meet some wonderful people in Sri Lanka and stayed in some wonderful um hotels. Um met some of the just staff at the hotels were just went above and beyond, were just really lovely.

SPEAKER_02: 15:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 15:44

Um home stay as well and candy, and of course, lots of train travel.

SPEAKER_02: 15:48

Lots of train travel. It ticked every box for me because a lot of people want to talk about cricket as well, which was fantastic for me. It's like a common language, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 15:57

So after that, we flew from Colombo to um Kuala Lumpa, where we've been before. We spent a couple of days in Kuala Lumpa and then decided we'd head up to Penang.

SPEAKER_02: 16:06

Yeah. Which we've been to before, which we thoroughly enjoyed being there as well. So we took the train from uh Kuala Lump up to Butworth.

SPEAKER_01: 16:12

We did.

SPEAKER_02: 16:13

Um, which was pretty amazing, I have to say.

SPEAKER_01: 16:16

Yeah, we have got a podcast about this trip to Malaysia, and then uh we spent a few maybe four or five days, I think it was, or maybe longer, I can't remember now, in in Penang before we then went to Ipo, which is somewhere we had not been before, um, on our way back to Kuala Lumpur and spent, I think, five, maybe it was five days in Ipo. Um again, food was really good. We love Malaysia, Malaysian people are really friendly, really friendly. Um, and then we headed down to um Singapore was our kind of final uh stop before we headed back to Australia at that point, and um we've got the bus.

SPEAKER_02: 16:47

We've got the bus, we've done this same route before, and we've sat in the same seats on the same flute on the same bus, possibly. So, yeah, that's an experience.

SPEAKER_01: 16:57

I'm really enjoyed. However, I believe there's now a direct train that you can get from Color Love Pass. You can indeed Singapore, so I think that might be on your bucket list to try.

SPEAKER_02: 17:04

That chumster bus for me.

SPEAKER_01: 17:05

Yeah, but otherwise we found the bus really good. So basically, we got back into Australia in May. We flew into Perth from Singapore. Um, we then spent a few weeks in Western Australia and actually headed north. We actually um hired a car and drove up to Calbarry and spent a few days up there, which was lovely. Really beautiful, went via the pinnacles. Um, so give us a chance to see a little bit of WA before then flying back end of May. We did. And then we had June, July, and August at home. Yes, incredibly. Um, and then we decided that Doug was gonna go to the UK to do some uh work for our YouTube channel, our UK Travel Planning YouTube channel.

SPEAKER_02: 17:43

And that was gonna be trains, trains, more trains in the UK. Which it was. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 17:46

Um, but we decided we're kind of sitting, and this is basically probably about a week before we decided to do this um because we were looking at flights from Perth. Uh, Doug decided he wanted to try the 17-hour direct flight from Perth to London. Um so we're kind of looking about the 12th of September. So this was kind of end of August. And I just kind of went, let's just drive to Perth, shall we?

SPEAKER_02: 18:08

Randomly.

SPEAKER_01: 18:09

So everybody thought we were nuts. Uh I was a little bit concerned, was that it we were biting off more than we could chew. Um, we just had the car service though, so we just the only thing we had to do was change the um oh, what's it, what do you call it? The thing when you turn the car on the battery. I had to change the battery, so we did that. Um and we planned our route. We basically spoke to a lot of people and said, right, what which is the best way to do this? Yep. Um, we've got 10 days to cross Australia. Um, and so again, we've got a podcast all about that journey. Um, we had so much fun.

SPEAKER_02: 18:40

We do, we've done road trips before within Queensland itself, uh, but it's the first time we've driven across to Western Australia or WA.

SPEAKER_01: 18:48

Yeah, um, and that was brilliant. So we went when across, we went to New South Wales, South Australia, um, into um so obviously starting Queensland. Yes. Uh, New South Wales. I actually loved the New South Wales Outback.

SPEAKER_02: 18:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 19:00

I mean, for me, the Queensland Outback is my favourite, absolute favourite, but I did enjoy New South Wales um outback because we saw lots of animals.

SPEAKER_02: 19:07

Well, I'll just gonna say we've been in Australia eight years, but we still get a fill from seeing the wildlife.

SPEAKER_01: 19:11

Oh, absolutely. I still love Australia so much, and there's so much, you know. And I guess the question people say is like, oh my goodness, was it boring? Um, you know, driving for 10 days, you went, I don't know, was it 4,600 kilometres or something like that? I can't remember, it was a lot. Um, no, because the scenery and the geography of Australia changes rapidly. It's so much because you can't believe how much variety in what you can see. Also, we just love looking for animals. There was so many, I don't know how many, how many emu did you see one day?

SPEAKER_02: 19:41

It was like 60 or something, some close to about 50 six, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 19:43

Yeah, that was in New South Wales. That was crazy. Um, so uh I based myself over in Perth for six weeks while Doug went to the US UK, US went to the UK.

SPEAKER_02: 19:52

I went to the UK, and to be honest, that flight, the 17 hour flight, didn't really notice it was a 17 hour flight because I tend to switch off and don't. Really watch much on the TV, but I always download audiobooks, which passes the time for me nicely. And I was fortunate on that flight, there was uh a little couple uh flying to the UK and they were from Queensland as well, and we had a lovely chat the entire trip. It was really nice, you know, sort of doze off a little bit. Get waked up and chatting. And it was lovely. We kept in touch and they sent me a video of their um their trip around the UK with friends in a couple of years. Yeah, because they're a camperman, didn't they?

SPEAKER_01: 20:26

Yeah, so that's really cool. Um, and you can actually listen to that episode where Doug talks about his trip back to the UK on the UK travel planning podcast. Um, so I basically stayed in WA. Um, I spent a little bit of time in Fremantle, which is I love Fremantle. I met up with quite a few friends. Um, yeah, and it was really cool. And then you flew back, and then we had to drive all the we forgot this, you see, driving all the way over. You actually have to come back.

SPEAKER_02: 20:49

So we did a slightly different route on the way back.

SPEAKER_01: 20:51

We did it, we did. We actually went to the southern kind of southern um coast of WA to start with. So um went to Albany, which we really loved Albany, didn't we? Yeah, Esperance. Then up, uh, did the Nollarbore again. I love the Nullabore. I have to say, people say it's boring, but you know what? I love it.

SPEAKER_02: 21:09

We we've thoroughly enjoyed it, didn't we?

SPEAKER_01: 21:11

Yeah, absolutely. Both times loved driving on the Nullabore. It's it's fantastic. Takes a few days, but enjoy it because we I just think it was fantastic. We then went through Adelaide, um, met up with Josie. Hi Josie, uh, from Josie Wonders, and then we went into um New Uh Victoria and uh did the Great Ocean Road. Unfortunately, the weather at this point wasn't playing ball. Um, so we had it, we had a one rainy day, but we had a fantastic day seeing koala.

SPEAKER_02: 21:40

Yeah, we really did. That was lovely. That was good seeing them in the zoo, but seeing them in nature.

SPEAKER_01: 21:45

Yeah, and then we drove up through Victoria and met up actually from uh with Carol Carolyn from holidays to Switzerland, which was really cool. So met up with her. So it was great. It was like meeting up all these um other uh travel podcasters that I know and travel bloggers. Um and then back through uh the coast. Oh, actually, no, we went to Canberra, so that means we've been to all eight states and territories in Australia, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 22:07

We did indeed.

SPEAKER_01: 22:07

Um so we spent a couple of days in Canberra.

SPEAKER_02: 22:09

Yep. Visited the War Memorial there, which is very special.

SPEAKER_01: 22:13

Yep, and then we came via um the coast of New South Wales up back into Queensland, which was cool.

SPEAKER_02: 22:19

We did. So I think it was about 6,000 kilometres on the way there, and about uh was it oh no?

SPEAKER_01: 22:24

No, it was 4,600 there and 6,000 back.

SPEAKER_02: 22:27

Just over 6,000 kilometers.

SPEAKER_01: 22:28

Yeah, so um it took us longer, we took 15 days to come back. We did it in 10 days going over and 15 back. Obviously, I wouldn't do it that fast if we didn't need to, but I had to be back for a specific reason.

SPEAKER_02: 22:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 22:41

So I was back four days before flying to South America and then catching a boat to Antarctica.

SPEAKER_02: 22:49

Which I'm jealous about being in Antarctica, but not for the boat ride.

SPEAKER_01: 22:53

Yeah, so that was my seventh continent. So um Antarctica I'm gonna talk about in January, so that it's it's gonna be a whole podcast all about how amazing Antarctica was. Um it was, it was fantastic. Also, it was my first visit to South America, but so didn't spend as much time as I would love to have done in Argentina. Chile, unfortunately, was just a change of plane, but actually it just highlighted that we will be going back to South America soon.

SPEAKER_02: 23:18

Yeah, I've not been to South America, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 23:20

Uh there's so much to see in South America. So um I did see a little bit of Buenos Aires and a little bit of Oshuaia, uh, which was fantastic, and then uh spent five days um in Antarctica.

SPEAKER_02: 23:31

You do. So I should point out you're now an expert on penguins.

SPEAKER_01: 23:35

I can distinguish five different breeds of penguins. Uh I can. I have learned all about penguins. Um, but yeah, that is probably one of the highlights of Boyer. But yes, it was it was just fabulous. Uh fantastic group as well that I went with on the trip. Um just loved it. Antarctica kind of was everything and more expected. Um, but I you know I could just do with a bit of that silence a bit more because it was just so wonderfully quiet.

SPEAKER_02: 24:00

And then you find out two of the people you're with actually live around the corner from us.

SPEAKER_01: 26:13

Yes, I know, which was amazing. I know that was that was just incredible as well. Just finding out, literally, exactly. Um so I did go with um 12 other Australians, which is really cool, and it was just brilliant. And it's a long flight. It was a long, it was four flights. It was uh the jet lag really was it has finished me off for the year, I think. It was really tiring, but um, yeah, you can see more of my pictures and bits and bobs from Antarctica on our um Instagram actually. So Global Travel Planning is on Instagram. Please go and follow us on all of these. If you're enjoying the podcast, please go and support us as well on Instagram. Check out the website, globaltravelplanning.com, YouTube. Hopefully, next year I'll be able to develop a little bit more on that. Um, we are working really hard, but as I say, it's been it's been a tough year with travel and trying to juggle um a lot of the work as well around it. So it doesn't say I'm not moaning, by the way. I absolutely love it, so I'm not moaning. But let's just talk around up our year with our top three moments of the year. So, what were your top three moments, Doug?

SPEAKER_02: 27:18

Oh, it's trains, isn't it? It's always gonna be trains with me. The the train from in this is Sri Lanka, the train from Ella to Candy, which was just so special on so many different fronts of the actual train itself, with training with no windows in, and then we're going to descend the doorways, don't lean out.

SPEAKER_01: 27:37

I think people have the windows pulled down. I think there was windows.

SPEAKER_02: 27:39

Yeah, there was yeah, some of the ones, yeah. The windows were pulled down and bars on things like that. But yes, you got a good view of the the T Plantations, it was just it's hard to describe, but you know you need to be there.

SPEAKER_01: 27:53

Well, we've got videos, so people can look it on YouTube and or Instagram and see some videos of it.

SPEAKER_02: 27:57

It was just a special moment to be caught up in that. You know you're on a special moment. Yeah, yeah, and it's one of those train journeys that's shown on TV programs around the world all the time. Yeah, it's one of those top, top, top ones. Um, are there well the second one is one I've done this year, is called the Night Riviera. So the that one this is a UK one, it's an England one in England, it runs from London, Paddington, night service, night train, down to Penzance, all the way down in the tip of Cornwall. And I've done this train journey many, many, many, many times, but it's the first time I've ever taken the sleeper service, and it was just special being at Paddington that late in the evening, the lounge, the staff were absolutely incredible. They were just so obliging, so kind, and so really wanted to put your experience first. So that was a special moment waking up in Cornwall as well.

SPEAKER_01: 28:50

Perfect, and we actually have got a podcast in the UK travel planning, and we've got an episode of the on the uh UK Travel Plan podcast all about that trip. And then your third one?

SPEAKER_02: 28:58

The third one is one we've done this year as well. This is in Malaysia, this is the train journey from Kuala Lumpur to Butterworth.

SPEAKER_01: 29:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 29:05

So we were in first class on that one, and you've got your own little screens and great scenery. Food, got food? They got food, it was just yeah, it was just marvelous. It was really very comfortable that trip, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01: 29:15

So I think at the moment, uh we'll we'll probably talk a little bit more in depth of some of these train journeys in 2026 for sure. Yeah. So my top three moments. Um kayaking in Antarctica. I actually had had booked it and then I chickened out, and then I decided no, I was gonna do it. And actually, it was absolute highlight for me. Went out kayaking. Uh we're drawn by a leopard seal, which was a bit worrying, so we couldn't kayak until the leopard seal kind of left left the area. We then had a minky whale go past, and we had loads of penguins just by the kayak kind of coming up and just swimming. It was just so cool, and it was just so beautiful. Um, and uh big hello to Maggie who joined who joined me in the kayak, it was fantastic. Um, second one was um seeing a leopard in Sri Lanka. Um, I think it was an animal thing going on here with these as well. But yes, uh seeing the actual leopard in Sri Lanka, which took a little bit of doing. We had to go out two days on a row to actually try and see it. Wild animal, so you never know what you're gonna see. Um, my third one is a train one as well, interestingly. And this is the Caledonian sleeper. Again, we've got loads of information and podcasts about the Caledonian sleeper on the UK travel plan and podcast. But um, I deliberately just chose this trip because I I wanted to wake up in the Highlands of Scotland. So even though we were staying in Edinburgh, I actually took the train, the Highland, the Caledonian Sleeper Highlander from London up to Inverness, just so I could wake up and see the Highlands, which is what I did. Then I had to jump on the train back to Edinburgh. Um, but it was lovely, I just loved it.

SPEAKER_02: 30:41

Yeah, I know you did, and that goes from London Houston.

SPEAKER_01: 30:43

Yeah, it's it's just one of my favourite train journeys throughout the world, that really is. Yeah, so those are our top three. I'm wondering what our top three will be next year. Who knows? So, obviously, just a little bit behind the scenes is that obviously I want to say thanks to everybody who came on the podcast this year, all the guests that have come on. Um, it's been fantastic to talk to you. We've just had some fantastic stories shared, lots of fantastic trips. Um, you know, just meeting listeners while I've been traveling, we've been we were writing notes on trains, on ferries, on flights, we're you know, uh reaching out across time zones, across continents to arrange uh interviews with with guests from all over the place. Um, and you know, we've been discovering every destination has its own story to share. It's just fabulous.

SPEAKER_02: 31:31

And it you know, it doesn't matter you can speak to different people about various destinations and just listening to what people have got to say isn't that it's not always staying in the you know the top top hotels and things like that. It's you know sometimes just the people and scenery and places.

SPEAKER_01: 31:44

Yeah, so so that's basically uh 2025. Now just to give you a little bit of a um heads up for 2026. Okay, so the good news is that we're gonna be continuing destination guides and stories from travelers from across the globe. The bad news, I guess, for the first six months of the year is that I'm gonna have to just rewind a little bit, a bit of self-care here, and I will be doing episodes every other week for the definitely for the first six months of 2026. Um, I'd love to be able to continue to do weekly, but I've just found that it's just been too hard to try and juggle everything. So, first six months, it will just be every other week. We'd really appreciate your continued support to follow us. Um, I know I'm sure that's disappointing for some of you who who like listening every week, but do tune in the UK one because uh we are on the UK one talking every week. Um, but I just had to make that decision to kind of just just uh rewind a little bit to um because I am so pretty pretty exhausted, I think.

SPEAKER_02: 32:43

There's a lot of work involved.

SPEAKER_01: 32:44

There is. Um, but you can follow us via our Facebook group, um Global Travel Planning, also on Instagram, Global Travel Planning, and I said hopefully we'll get some some stuff up on YouTube, definitely YouTube short shorts. I'm gonna look at because I know there's a lot of people saying do some stuff on YouTube Shorts. But obviously the the the website, globaltravelplanning.com as well. Uh we're gonna be um developing a lot more on that throughout 2026. Um, but yeah, just want to again say thank you for your support, thank you for your messages. Again, we've had some fabulous messages via SpeakPipe. Thanks for those of you who sponsor the podcast as well. That's fantastic. Um, and just sharing your love of travel because that's what makes this community so special.

SPEAKER_02: 33:25

Most definitely so.

unknown: 33:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 33:26

So if you've enjoyed the show, please follow, share it with a friend, or leave a quick rating or review because it really helps other people to find the podcast. But I guess um, just from myself and dog, yeah, we're just gonna say um happy new year, and we will see you in 2026 for another year of travel inspiration, exploring the world together. So, as we end every episode, happy global travel planning. Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Global Travel Planning Podcast. For more details and links to everything we discussed today, check out the show notes at globaltravelplanning.com. Remember, if you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving us a review on your favourite podcast app because your feedback helps us reach more travel enthusiasts just like you. Anyway, that leaves me to say, as always, happy global travel planning.