Oh, the Places I Went! (2025)

[canyonwalker]

Every year around the new year I write a variety of retrospectives about the year just finished. Several of those are about travel, as that's the main theme of this blog and one of the things I most enjoy in life. My travel for 2025 is done for the year so I can post this summary a few days early.

Here are Five Things about my travel in 2025:

1. I traveled 89 days and 72 nights in 2025. These figures are down slightly from 2024's tallies of 94 and 81. I/We just didn't get out as much as I/we wished. More on that below.


2. Business travel was up.... Business travel made up 40% of my travel in 2025. That's double 2024's 20% share. Partly that's because I actually traveled on business more in 2025 than 2024. Though it wasn't for customers and trade shows. I mean, I did travel for a few each of those, but not significantly more than in recent years. The increase in 2025's business travel came from internal training meetings.


3. ...And leisure travel was down. Business travel took a larger 40% share of my travel in 2025 not just because I had more days on the road for my job than in recent years but also because I spent fewer days traveling for fun. Why? Basically because being sick sucks. January was a loss because Hawk was sick for 6 weeks. October was a loss because she was recovering from foot surgery. Other than last Sunday's same-day mileage run December was a loss as well due to sickness. And the suckiness of being sick is going to pinch leisure travel this coming year, too, as Hawk has another surgery in late January. Aside from business travel I do solo, we likely won't go anywhere in January, February, or March.


4. I flew 48,300 miles in 2025. That's down from nearly 55k in 2024 but is in line with my average over the past few years. Next year might be a lower mileage year with a few months of no leisure travel... but if I follow through on plans to retire early in the year I expect to travel a lot more.


5. Bucket List items checked off: 1. It's been a slow year for progress on bucket lists. This year I didn't visit any new national parks. I'm still at 53/63. I finished visiting all 50 states and Washington, DC in 2024. I did visit two more countries this year, Italy and Spain, bringing my tally to 25 countries.

More 2025 retrospectives to come.

Comments

[morningloryblue]

I hit 1K for United again this year and I spent 183 nights at Hilton at the Diamond status. Next year, I will go down to zero as I gave up my corporate role and I am working as a higher education leader these days.

[canyonwalker]

I haven't been UA 1K since 2012. Back then for a few years I was flying up to 150,000 miles a year. That was mostly enterprise sales driven. The nature of sales work has changed since then. Few sales meetings are in-person anymore.

[morningloryblue]

Do you miss the more frequent travel or glad for the reduction?

[canyonwalker]

With flying itself I have a love-hate relationship. I've often joked that it seems like a form of mental illness to want to cram myself into a seat, with my elbows pressed against my sides and my knees practically up to my chest, in a narrow aluminum tube with 150 strangers for hours at a time, to go hurtling through the sky at 550 mph. It's equal parts drudgery and exhilarating.

As for the meetings themselves, the reasons why I (want to) travel: basic status meetings can be handled fine via teleconferencing. But anytime we need to establish a new relationship, substantially expand or repair an existing relationship, or discuss anything complex or high-stakes, I'd much prefer to do so face-to-face.