2025 Travel Roundup: trading boarding gates for a baby bump (again)
I feel like I say this every year but where on earth has the time gone in 2025? It feels like only yesterday I was writing up my 2024 roundup and reflecting on our incredible time in Tokyo and Osaka. This year, we’ve done far less travel but we’ve embarked on another adventure – growing our little family to become a family of four.
We made the annual birthday pilgrimage to Melbourne in January for my birthday. Usually this involves a tipsy day out at the Australian Open, though this year I traded the Aperol Spritz for soda water. We watched both mens singles finals with our best friends and enjoyed all the fun the tennis – I was impressed by my own stamina since I was still in the first trimester!
I stayed down in Melbourne for an extra week to spend some quality time with my family whilst my partner was away for work. We had a great time exploring Melbourne as tourists – something we don’t usually get the chance to do. There’s always so many things to love about Melbourne.
We visited Healesville Sanctuary, the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria and went to the digital Van Gogh exhibition at the Lume (which is unfortunately now permanently closed).
There’s honestly so much to do in Melbourne with kids. We’re heading back to Melbourne for Christmas this year and I can’t wait to show my daughters the iconic Christmas windows and experience the city lights.
That’s almost completely the extent of my 2025 travels, with the exception of a little friends trip out to Farley in the Hunter Valley region. We stayed at an amazing AirBnB that was home to two friendly ponies that my daughter was able to feed. I, of course, was the designated driver and toddler wrangler, but even then I loved discovering new wineries to visit like Mount Pleasant and Piggs Peak.
You might be wondering why I’ve laid so low this year. The truth is, I’m not someone who can feel comfortable travelling when pregnant. After losing our first baby, I’m just too nervous to be far from home and my obstetrician – even when all is progressing well.
Our second daughter was born in August and once again our world changed forever and for the better. Our eldest loves being a big sister to the baby and we have embraced the sleepless nights of the newborn era once more.
It’s amazing how on the second time round, the newborn stage that seemed so hard with the first now seems far more relaxed and calm. I’m now on parental leave from my work and I am loving the slow, repetitive days watching my baby girl grow.
Now we’re closing the pregnancy and having babies chapter of our lives, we can’t wait to start exploring the world together – starting with Melbourne for Christmas and then a trip to Japan in January!
Thanks for reading along for another year.
Bring on 2026.
