My 2020 travel plans

It is the end of 2020, time to quickly look back at 2019, but above all, share my 2020 plans. Also, see my continuously updated list of travel plans on the dedicated page.

Overall travel plans

I had a great year of traveling in 2019 (also see my dedicated page) and will keep many of my 2019 travel ideas for 2020:

Keep my two long hikes (3 planned)
Keep my quarterly reviews (5 planned)
Keep my two weekends away with my wife (2 planned)
Visit at least 5 new countries every year (6 planned)
During the week, I’ll try to spend less time away from home (business trips leaving on Monday rather than Sunday and returning on Wednesday rather than Thursday or Friday)

So, here are my travel plans in more detail:

Long hikes: Arctic Circle trail, Camino de Santiago and Jordan Trail travel plans

Lake House on the Arctic Circle Trail. Photo by Phoebe Smith

In 2019, I submitted Mount Kilimanjaro via the Lemosho route and finished both the Kohechi and Nakahechi parts of the Kumano Kodo in Japan. The latter as a replacement for my planned thru-hike of the Arctic Circle Trail in Greenland, which I had to cancel because of a virus.

2020 will be the year of closing the loop, tying up the open ends – a total of three long hikes.

So first of all, I’ll be doing another attempt to hike the Arctic Circle Trail in August – finishing what I was planning to do in 2019. Secondly. In 2018, I attempted to solo hike the Southern part of the Jordan Trail but had to stop in Petra because I got ill, lost and -eventually- the city of Petra got flooded. I’m looking forward to finishing the job in May of 2020. Finally, since I was a kid, I have been hiking parts of the Camino de Santiago in The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, and France. We once started out in Pieterburen, in the far north of The Netherlands on the so-called Pieterpad.

Quarterly reviews: Seoul, Malta, Bali, Skopje, Belgrade travel plans

I’ll be continuing my habit of spending a week abroad every 2-3 months to get some deep work done – my so-called quarterly review, as part of my work nomad experiments. In 2019 – during my quarterlies in Dubrovnik, Marrakech, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai-, I learned that I weather (not too hot) and nature (near places where I can easily go out for a run).

So, for 2020, I am planning quarterly reviews in Bali, Malta, Skopje, Belgrade, and Seoul. Besides that I’m very much looking forward to exploring these new cities and countries, I’m curious to see how efficient I’ll be with longer travel times – to South Korea and Indonesia this time.

Family trips: beach, forest and Hof van Saksen travel plans

Like in the last three years, we’ll be returning to Hof van Saksen for our summer holidays – our happy place in the summer. On top of that, we’re looking forward to spending some time in the woods in the beautiful Nutchel cabins in Maaseik, Belgium.

My wife and I but decided to skip the city trips and we’ll be spending time at the beach in The Hague and in the beautiful La Marquise bed and breakfast in Budel, The Netherlands.

Business trips: more of the same travel plans

For the moment, I do not have trips to clients planned in 2020 (yet), but that most likely soon will change. I expect quite some commutes to Prague, London, and Paris again in 2020.