My 2024 Travel Roundup

Introduction

In 2024 I spent the first 5 months teaching English in South Korea, before heading home for a few weeks, and then coming back to South America, my favourite continent in the world, ready for my second long-term trip here.

Overall I visited 14 countries, of which 5 were new countries and 9 were repeats.

Blogging was a rollercoaster ride, with my first real traffic growth taking me from nothing to Mediavine Journey within 4 months, although progress has stuttered since.

This year was one of learning, earning and of course, travelling.

Some of the highlights included leaving behind my draining teaching job in South Korea, seeing my football team promoted to the Premier League (we don’t talk about what’s happened since…) and reuniting with my girlfriend for an endless adventure where we will travel continuously for as long as we wish to do so.

Lowlights were minimal, but my 5 remaining months in Korea were less-than-enjoyable, and Suriname threw up many challenges ranging from multiple scams to being followed by a lunatic, and dodging a potential kidnapping attempt. Suriname finally gave me a clear answer to the question “what is your least favourite country?”

In all honesty, I see few lowlights from travel. Every day on the road is either a good day or a lesson. And if you learn from the lessons, then it’s hard to see them as negatives in the long run.

Travel isn’t always wild parties and beautiful beaches, no matter what your favourite travel Instagram influencer may tell you. It’s a fact that you will have some brilliant times, but also some pretty tough ones.

Anyway, let’s have a look back at the highs and lows of 2024.

January

Countries Visited: Japan, South Korea

The year started just as 2023 ended, in Tokyo with my Dad.

New Year in Tokyo was a massive disappointment, as everyone gathered in busy Shibuya full of anticipation for midnight.

10, 9, 8… 3, 2, 1…

…nothing.

A few people cheered and that was it. There was no fireworks display or celebration.

Oh well, at least Japan was amazing in every other way.

We had a relatively muted day walking around the Imperial Palace, visiting Shinto temples, and spending time in a fun nightlife spot called the Golden Gai which has many themed bars that seat up to 12 people (often a lot less).

But the next day was the big one. We did a day tour to Mt. Fuji.

The mountain was covered in fog all day. We went to see it from various places, and finally, just as the sun started to set, the fog cleared and we were able to see it in all its glory.

The following week, Dad came to join me in South Korea, and we visited the DMZ together.

This is the border between North Korea and South Korea. And whilst you can’t cross it, it’s fascinating to stare across into the reclusive north with your own eyes.

A few days later, Dad went home and it was back to work for the rest of the month…

Japan was a country that really lived up to the high expectations it came with. A real gem which I would recommend to anyone. Unique, exciting, technology 20 years ahead of the rest of the world, stunning mountains and temples, safety levels so high you can leave your laptop in a cafe and it almost certainly won’t be stolen… and so much more.

Overall, 2024 got off to a great start.

February

Countries Visited: South Korea

A bleak month in the harsh Korean winter without much in the way of activities.

But at least my blog finally started to take off.

I started this website in August 2023, and had almost no clicks until February 2024.

Yet finally, I had managed to “get” how SEO works. I did a redesign of my site, adding a much better navigational structure and scrapping some categories I didn’t have much content on.

Most of my 2023 posts were pretty rubbish in all honesty. I’ve no-indexed almost all of them, and may delete them in the future.

For now though, they’re still around. So if you want to become a good blogger, check out my 2023 posts for good examples of what not to do!

March

Countries Visited: South Korea

Another uneventful month, but at least the winter began to subside and my blog traffic continued to increase.

To be honest, March was so quiet, I have nothing else to say.

April

Countries Visited: South Korea

A much busier month than March. On the blog front, my traffic continued to grow for the third month running which was great to see.

What wasn’t so good was my time in South Korea. My relationship with my bosses began to fracture.

Employees are legally entitled to take 11 days of holiday at any time of their choosing during their first year.

And with my football team Southampton looking increasingly likely to end up in the Championship play-offs, I was desperate to take time off work just in case we reached the play-off final and a chance of promotion to the Premier League.

Now my boss really wasn’t happy with this, and refused my request.

I wasn’t happy either, and contemplated a “midnight run” after May 10th (pay day). This is a term that means fleeing Korea without telling anyone you’re leaving. Hagwons are such a bleak place to work, that they even created a term for this action!

However in a twist of fate, my boss called me into his office and offered the chance to leave on May 31st (3 months early). He said he would pay for my flight home and received 3/4 of my severance pay (equal to a month’s wages).

This offer seemed strange as I wasn’t entitled to severance (only if you stay for 365+ days are you legally entitled to it). And I knew that hagwon bosses often play shady games to screw their foreign teachers out of money.

I was suspicious, and said I’d think about it. Several weeks of bluff and game playing would follow…

On the travel front, I saw a bit more of what South Korea had to offer.

Beopjusa Temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a real gem. I was surprised to be the only non-Korean tourist there. But if you want an off-the-beaten-path place worth seeing in South Korea, this is it.

The next couple of weeks brought in further trips to Seoul and Daegu too.

I didn’t like Seoul during my first visit, but loved it by this point as the city grew on me with each trip!

Daegu was most notable for the awesome Donghwasa Temple. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t my best friend on this visit, but I still enjoyed my day there.

May

Countries Visited: South Korea

Would this be my last month in South Korea? I was desperate to leave. But at the same time wary I could get scammed.

I needed to ensure I was paid the final month’s salary, flight ticket home and severance pay by May 10th (pay day).

And sure enough, I (surprisingly) was paid both the flight ticket and severance then. I was only missing the final month’s wages, which would normally be paid on June 10th.

They said they couldn’t pay this as I hadn’t worked until the end of May yet.

Fair enough. But they also suddenly told me I had to buy a flight ticket home and show them evidence as this was “legally required” apparently…

I spent enough time in the “Legal Office for Foreign Teachers” group on Facebook to smell a rat here.

There was no legal requirement to do this. And it would mean spending hundreds of pounds to leave on June 1st with no guarantee of receiving my wages.

I stalled on buying the ticket, which enraged my bosses. Three weeks of stress, battles and almost daily meetings ensued.

At the end of my second-last week, my boss said he would not pay my wages (completely illegal) unless I showed him proof of a flight ticket out the country. He also demanded I paid back the flight ticket money and severance. I refused!

I went home for the weekend and immediately spent 8 hours straight digging through Korean labour laws, speaking to a legal expert and uncovering other things.

I found out that my employer had registered me illegally as an independent contractor rather than an employee to dodge taxes.

I could face fines of (at best) hundreds of pounds through no fault of my own, so I was horrified by this.

I also found I was owed overtime for working above the contracted 30 hours per week, as well as my employer having taken far too much from me in taxes.

He took too much tax from my wages, and didn’t give enough to the government, but due to the way Korean law works, I was the one who could get in trouble for this.

Oh, and I was owed several days of holiday pay…

I sucker punched my boss on Monday morning by sending a strong and carefully-worded message outlining everything I’d discovered and how much he owed me.

Suddenly his tune changed and he was pleading with me to drop my demands as he could lose his job, if he did things legally…

He no longer asked for a flight ticket before I left the country, but still pushed back on just about everything else.

I made it through to the final weekend before my last week.

On the Sunday, a rare bit of joy. My beloved Southampton beat Leeds in the play-off final to win promotion back to the Premier League.

Suddenly I went into work on Monday re-energised and ready to fight.

After 3 more challenging days, we finally came to an agreement that I would receive the missing holiday pay and wages, but nothing else. I lost battles on taxes, overtime and a suspiciously high amount in building maintenance fees that had been deducted from my pay.

But to be honest I was just happy to get out of there.

On Friday morning, they finally paid the final month’s wages, and I sent the money home that same afternoon.

My ordeal was finally over.

If you every consider becoming an English teacher in South Korea, be sure to go through the government program EPIK. It has much more regulation than the wild west world of hagwons, who take advantage of unsuspecting teachers in their thousands.

June

Countries Visited: South Korea, Mongolia, China, UK

June started with a trip to Seoul to cancel my phone contract. And the next day I was off.

I grew to love Seoul, and Korea has some cool things going for it; but ultimately it’s a country I was delighted to see the back of.

The darkness turned to joy as my plane approached Mongolia, and I landed in the capital Ulaanbaatar.

Ulaanbaatar was a strange blend of the Soviet Union and, oddly enough, South Korea.

It had some cool places, but this city alone isn’t worth coming to Mongolia for. In fact the cities aren’t why you come to Mongolia at all…

After taking in everything from Buddhist monasteries to Mongolian throat singing (a bizarre yet fascinating thing to watch), I finally made it out to the wilderness.

A trip to Terelj National Park was the warmup. But staying in a ger with Mongolian nomads, who I helped herd sheep with, and do some less glamorous activities for… that was amazing.

We also went horse riding around the steppe and this whole experience propelled Mongolia right to the top of my list of favourite countries in the world.

After Mongolia, a 4-day stop in Beijing followed.

Must admit I didn’t like Beijing.

The Olympic Park was cool, as was the Mutianyu Great Wall. But the Forbidden City was awfully crowded and hot, with rude people pushing through the entry queue.

China overall was a lot of hassle, with airport-style security in the metro stations, payments made through phone apps (I wasted 4 hours searching for cash because transfers wouldn’t work without a Chinese card) and a constant feeling of being watched.

Of course China is far more than Beijing. But I’m in no hurry to go back.

The next stop was home, where I spent a few weeks finally enjoying a bit of rest, as well as continued blogging which saw me hit record traffic for the 5th consecutive month. The good old days!

July

Countries Visited: UK

Another quiet one which revolved around blogging and planning for a big Latin American trip over the next year.

I hit 8.5k monthly sessions and was accepted into Journey by Mediavine. A proud moment, just 10.5 months after I started blogging and 5 after I picked up any organic traffic at all.

Unfortunately I peaked at 11k a couple of weeks later and have been slipping ever since as Google decided to replace helpful content with outdated forum posts and AI overviews that spill more false information than Pinocchio.

The phrase “blogging is dead” has been banded all over the place in 2024, and whilst I don’t necessarily agree, I would advise against anyone starting a blog now with monetisation being the main objective.

Do it for fun, and if you wish to monetise, don’t make the mistake of relying on Google traffic.

August

Countries Visited: UK, Paraguay

After another week at home, it was time to head to my girlfriend’s country, Paraguay, and start a new chapter on the road after spending a long time apart during my 9 months in Korea.

We discovered some of the world’s best steakhouses in Asuncion, as well as trips to the rural areas, meeting indigenous peoples in the Chaco, and enjoying the holiday cities of Aregua, San Bernardino and Encarnacion.

We also visited Paraguay’s only UNESCO World Heritage Site: the Jesuit Missions of Santísima Trinidad de Paraná and Jesus de Tavarangue.

They’re cool to see whilst in Paraguay, but they’re no Machu Picchu or Tikal, to name just two major ruins in Latin America.

Paraguay appeals to those who are more interested in the food and culture than glitzy tourist attractions. I’ve been 3 times at the time of writing, and really love this country, although the missus isn’t as enthusiastic as I am about her homeland!

September

Countries Visited: Paraguay, Argentina, (Plus Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay Day Trips)

After a few more days in Paraguay, we headed to Argentina.

September was mostly spent in Puerto Iguazu and Buenos Aires.

We spent almost a week in the Iguazu region, visiting the famous Iguazu Falls in Argentina and Brazil, going to a Brazilian ice bar, and also seeing the Saltos del Monday waterfalls and Itaipu Dam in Paraguay.

Then after a tiring 21-hour journey to the capital, we spent most of our time there, with a day trip to Colonia del Sacramento thrown in. This involved taking a ferry to and from Uruguay on a day which started with 1 hour’s sleep and a trip to a hospital from hell which had been taken over by drug addicts and homeless people. We made a hasty exit without waiting for a nurse…

In Buenos Aires, some of the best bits including seeing the highlights of La Boca, visiting Parisian-style Cafe Tortoni, drinking in Palermo’s bars, and many other activities, some of which are included in this one-day Buenos Aires itinerary.

On September 29th we flew to Ushuaia for the start of a magical Patagonia adventure.

We started with tours of winter wonderland Tierra del Fuego National Park, and the freezing-cold Beagle Channel where we saw sea lions and cormorants.

But Ushuaia is one place where you really feel a buzz of excitement.

Don’t miss my post on Ushuaia’s top activities.

On the blogging front, September was a disaster. My traffic collapsed by 75%, something which mostly coincided with failing Core Web Vitals due to speed issues with this site.

I implemented several fixes, but it would take a (long and stressful) month for them to recover.

This was the first month where my blog had suffered any real major setbacks. And in all honesty, it was tough to stay motivated. But I plowed through regardless and was rewarded a month later…

October

Countries Visited: Argentina (Plus a Chile day trip)

October was an incredibly busy month. After Ushuaia, our Patagonia adventure continued with trips to El Calafate, the incredible Perito Moreno Glacier (serious bucket list stuff), El Chalten (the one place we found a little underwhelming), a day trip to spectacular Torres de Paine in Chile, penguin paradise Punta Tombo, and alpine-style Bariloche which is famous for its amazing chocolate!

Exhaustion and hammering the budget meant we decided to have a relative rest week in one of my favourite Argentinian cities, Mendoza. However we did still squeeze in a wine tour (Mendoza is famous for its wine – see more in this 21-day Argentina itinerary) and a DIY day trip to view Aconcagua: South America’s tallest mountain.

We ended the month, and our Argentina trip in Salta, a city in the north with a far more Andean feel and culture than anywhere else in Argentina.

After a brutal overnight bus journey, we had the smart idea of another 8-hour round trip to visit Cafayate, a small town that reminded me very much of Peru. More specifically, small towns in the sacred valley such as Ollantaytambo.

Cafayate is famous for its alfajores at Calchaquitos. My girlfriend recommended them after her mother came here a few months previously. And they really did live up to the hype!

Cafayate also had some really cool sand dunes, which we visited with a friendly local taxi driver who took us up a steep dune to a spot without other tourists.

A good month of travel ended with good news on blogging too.

After declining through July and August, before collapsing in September, my blog traffic finally started heading in the right direction again, mostly due to passing Core Web Vitals once more.

November

Countries Visited: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Suriname, Guyana

We started November by finishing our time in Argentina with trips to the 7-coloured mountain (a less-impressive version of Peru’s Rainbow Mountain) and Salinas Grandes (again, a less-impressive version of Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni).

Speaking of Uyuni, that would be our next stop. We took the bus to La Quiaca and crossed the border into Villazon of Bolivia.

Then a horrible 6-hour journey through high altitude followed, and we arrived in Uyuni. Both of us felt pretty rough at times during this trip. Illness related to high altitude can be punishing, and often strikes at random.

We booked a tour in a hurry on arrival, keen to start the next day. We ignored our usual rules of researching the best prices/quality, and ended up booking the first tour we found, mainly due to the fact we needed to start our 3-day adventure through Uyuni to the Atacama Desert the following day.

The tour was magical. The salt flats were amazing, as were several lagoons we visited which were full of flamingos.

There were other small stops including deserts, volcanoes, a Dakar Rally monument, a salt market, an abandoned train graveyard and an active geyser.

It wasn’t all smooth riding however. We struggled with the late nights, early starts, bumpy vehicle and going up and down areas with high altitude.

In fact, on the final day I was very ill for a couple of hours, shaking violently and constantly feeling on the verge of vomiting.

However, we ended up visiting some thermal baths, and they were the perfect cure. Especially given the fact I was also very cold.

We arrived later in Atacama, and didn’t give ourselves any rest time.

Straight away we went shopping for tours, and booked 3 across the following couple of days.

Firstly, a trip to Laguna Cejar. Here we saw more flamingos and were able to float in neighbouring Laguna Piedra. A salt lake similar to the Dead Sea.

Then we visited the Valley of the Moon. Cool if you’ve never seen lunar-style landscapes before. But not so much if you have. It reminded me in many ways of Peru’s Colca Canyon.

Lastly the highlight. An astronomical tour which involved learning a lot from a professional astronomer, viewing telescope images of several stars and the moon, and taking pictures in front of all the stars. Awesome stuff!

After Chile, we headed back to Salta, then Asuncion for some much needed rest and recovery time.

I only had 2 weeks however, as a solo adventure in the Guianas awaited.

The missus isn’t quite crazy enough to spend 4-figure sums travelling to a remote and expensive part of South America with a lot of crime and little of interest.

I guess the Guianas are a hard sell from a tourism perspective.

I flew to Suriname at the end of the month and spent a day there (which included getting scammed by a rogue money exchanger) before going from capital Paramaribo to Georgetown, Guyana.

A return to Suriname would follow a few days later in order to explore it properly. But Guyana came first, and it was cool in some ways.

I went to see my local cricket team, Hampshire Hawks, play in the inaugural Guyana Super League. We lost the game, but it was still enjoyable and one of the few times the Guianas felt like a relaxing holiday rather than a rugged adventure.

I then dashed through crime hotspot Stabroek Market to see how locals lived their lives. It was fun, but you could definitely feel an edge there.

Seeing more of Georgetown’s very few sights of interest followed, before making it back to my hotel before sunset. You don’t go out in Georgetown after dark if you know what’s good for you…

I endured a crazy bus journey on the way back, with a maniacal money collector and drunk driver swigging beer whilst dicing with death on multiple occasions during this 20-minute ride from hell.

It was bad enough that they were blasting out truly terrible music so loud it felt my eardrums may burst at any moment (not an exaggeration).

Yet they also narrowly avoided mowing down an elderly man and a motorcyclist in separate incidents moments apart. Then they just missed out on a ditch and a river which we so easily could’ve ended up in.

And best of all, the unhinged money collector got into an argument with a passenger as he got off. The passenger subsequently pulled out a long, sharp object which he waved at the money collector as the madnessmobile zoomed off once more.

I only saw it for a split second, but I’m pretty sure it was a knife…

December

Countries Visited: Guyana, Suriname, France (French Guiana), Brazil

December started as November ended: in Georgetown.

I found some manatees in the national park which were cool, and walked around pretty much every site of interest I hadn’t seen yet.

Georgetown has little to offer, but the lily pads in the botanical gardens were kinda cool. The gardens overall were disappointing though, and the entrance fee (free) matched the quality of the place.

After 3 days in Georgetown I went back to Suriname to explore further.

Suriname quickly cemented itself as my least-favourite country in the world (from 72 visited at the time of writing).

I was scammed a second time, followed down the street by a crazed lady high on drugs and drunk on vodka, and avoided what appeared to be a kidnapping attempt, when a shady character tried convincing me that his unmarked van with zero passengers was the bus to Albina. Yeah right…

I believe it was a kidnapping attempt having heard some horror stories from people taking that same journey.

To cap it all off, I had terrible luck with my hostel roommates. The worst I’ve had in over 150 hostel stays (I estimate) over the years.

Admittedly the latter was just bad luck and could’ve happened in any country. But I shared a room with a selfish neanderthal who would take the only fan and point it towards himself only on multiple occasions.

Initially I set the fan to rotate between my bed and his, but every night he would take it for himself… He also loved daily loud phone calls in the bedroom at 2am among other questionable behaviours…

My other roommate turned out to be an unhinged guy with anger management issues.

For the first time ever, I found myself in a heated argument with another guest. It became so unpleasant that I got the receptionist to move me to a private room where I could get away from this guy who seemed like he had the potential to be violent.

That’s one way to get a free upgrade I guess…

Even without the hostel incident, Suriname had very little of interest and I was very relieved when the tiny wooden boat across the Maroni River arrived safely in French Guiana.

This territory isn’t a country in its own right. It is still part of France.

French Guiana is stupidly expensive, quite boring, and despite being the safest of the three Guianas, it was still pretty dodgy compared to elsewhere in South America.

There was one reason I wanted to visit however. The city of Kourou hosts Europe’s only space station. Countries from around Europe contribute towards satellite launches there, and even the French president has been known to attend.

The space station was cool, but in hindsight I wouldn’t go so far out of the way to see it with the benefit of hindsight. It was good, but not THAT good.

Midway through December and I made it from Kourou, to Cayenne, then St. George’s which is a small border town between French Guiana and Brazil. Of course, with this being the Guianas, something had to go wrong.

Sure enough, the tyre of our shared taxi burst which left us stranded beside the jungle for a while whilst we waited for a fix.

Eventually I was dropped in St. George’s, walked over 7km to the border crossing, then walked a further 4km through Brazilian border town Oiapoque to get stamped in at the police station since the internet was down at the official border crossing.

Finally, I took a bus to Macapa, flew to Belem, flew to Sao Paulo, flew back to Asuncion to reunite with the missus, then took buses to Foz do Iguacu, Cascavel, Porto Alegre and lastly Gramado, with barely a day of rest between.

Gramado is a small town in south Brazil known for its Christmas displays. Admittedly nothing can replace the magic of Christmas in Europe, but this lovely spot was a welcome change from the chaotic Guianas and hours of endless travel.

Gramado has an abundance of chocolate shops, similar to the more famous city of Bariloche in Argentina which should be on your Patagonia itinerary. The best one is called Lugano (which has multiple branches across the town). Here you should definitely try the incredible fondue!

After 3 nights in Gramado, we moved to nearby Canela, another festive spot. Canela isn’t quite as magical as Gramado, but a nightly light show in December makes up for it.

Next on our Brazil agenda was Florianopolis, a coastal spot best known for its beaches.

To be honest, Florianopolis sucked. There were few good accommodation options, the beaches weren’t great, there was little else of interest, and it took 6 days to find a really decent restaurant there (Ponta D’Agulha Costelaria), although the ribs made the wait worthwhile!

The silver lining was the coast, which had a lot in terms of running tracks, a cycling lane, and even outdoor gyms. A good spot for fitness fanatics.

Our penultimate stop for 2024 was Camboriu, a beach resort city with a lot more going on. We were kicking ourselves for spending 1 night here and 6 in Florianopolis. In hindsight, we would’ve done things the other way round.

Then we settled in Sao Paulo, where we will be seeing in the new year on Avenista Paulista, just a few hours from the time I write this.

Travel Plans for 2025

Admittedly, plans can and do change, meaning nothing is set in stone at this stage. We have already scrapped the idea of spending several months in Central America and the Caribbean.

I love Central America, but have been to every country there, and seen most of what I want to see.

The Caribbean is a region that we decided to sideline for now as it’s very expensive, and only Cuba gives us real excitement to visit.

Instead, we will be in Brazil until at least mid-February. The Amazon is high up our wish list, although we are yet to decide on which country we will visit from. It could be Brazil, Peru, Bolivia or Colombia.

Those countries are on our radar from February onwards. And Venezuela is high on the agenda too. This country will be my final one in South America, and it seems to be much safer than it once was.

Afterwards, we plan to visit Europe for a few months, then gradually make our way through Central Asia and surrounding countries.

Exciting times await, and we can’t wait to see where 2025 takes us, regardless of whether we stick to this plan or not.

I would love to hear your own travel highlights and lowlights for 2024. Let me know in the comments below, and I hope 2025 brings you a lot of cool adventures!