My year of travel 2016

This post summarizes how my 2016 went. I feel it went better than expected. Though I had to cancel a few trips, still managed to embark on a couple of trips every month on an average, small or big.

January:

Visited Singapore on invitation from Changi airport, took part in the Changi Challenge.

February:

Visited Australia for the first time, spent about a week exploring Melbourne and Sydney, using Air Asia’s cheap ticket (booked a year ago). Also had stop over at Malaysia both during onwards and return trip to explore Putrajaya and Maleka…

Read all Australia posts here

Attend a Flipkart-Indiblogger outdoor meet in Bengaluru, Drove Audi for the first time (Q3).

March:

Spent a weekend in JLR Bannerghatta campus, went on a biking trip (a day only)- not much to travel otherwise.

April:

A weekend trip each to Madurai and another trip to Cochin, both because I had booked Spicejet tickets on a sale several months ago.

May:

Sri Lanka – second visit. Explored the Southern side this time- Galle, Matara etc. Had a day trip around Bengaluru with Revv’s Ford Aspire

June:

Went to Subramanya in a Nissan Sunny. 2 days well spent in the Western Ghats.

Macau and Hong Kong – two special administrative regions on the China border. Spent a week exploring these two awesome locales.

July:

Jaisalmer – on invitation from Suryagarh. Visited the ancient Kiradu temple ruins. Also spent a day at Jodhpur.

August:

Visited Andaman for the first time- 3 days were not enough- should go there again

Visited Valparai, Conoor with relatives, went to Athirapally waterfalls for the first time.

September

Hampi, on invitation from Orange County.

Vijayawada, because of a cheap ticket on Spicejet sale – went to Dindi, Rajahmundry and Amaravati as well.

October:

Bali trip finally happened. Spent about 4 days there, rented a scooter and rode for about 820 kms exploring length and breadth of Bali. There are still pending items – Indonesia will need few more trips in future. Read my travel guide to Bali and all Bali posts here.

Went to Bengaluru and had a day out with Revv Car’s Honda city, courtesy Revv.

A weekend trip to Hyderabad to experience the new Tata Hexa. Onward journey was with Indigo and return with Air India.

Maldives: A 2 day visit to Maldives with Srilankan Airlines.

November:

While October was the most traveled month, November was probably the least traveled month. Except a weekend trip to Bengaluru and Shravana Belagola, didn’t travel anywhere – spent most of the weekends at home. Had a ticket to Australia which I had to cancel.

December:

A visit to home town to attend a wedding, on my return journey got first-hand experience of the cyclone- lived without power at home for a few days. Attended a few events including an Unconference on How to Travel the world on budget. With another 10 days left, I might just have one last trip before the year ends.

Summary:

Vehicles I drove this year- Audi Q3, Nissan Sunny, Ford Aspire, Honda city, Tata Hexa, Honda Scoopy, Activa, Scorpio, Etios. In terms of flights, about 40 take offs in total. Flew most of the Indian airlines this year but yet to try the Vistara – hopefully in 2017.

Events attended- Flipkart Indiblogger meet, Indiblogger Tata Hexa Meet, Unconference on How to travel the world on budget, StoryMirror creative writing workshop, UrbanTree bloggers meet, Social Beat Chai Pe Charcha sessions and few book launches.

Countries visited: Australia, Macau, Hongkong, Indonesia and Maldives for the first time, Singapore, Srilanka, Malaysia repeat visits.

I am certainly not the most traveled person. There are many other bloggers and travelers who have traveled lot more or have done fewer but longer trips. Note that all my travel is in addition to going to office. Only 2 of the above- Australia and Macau-HK ones were done with one week long leave. Everything else are either weekend trips or weekend +1 or 2 days leave. If you notice carefully only 3-4 domestic and 1 international trips were on invitation or sponsored. Rest were all self-funded. Did spent most of my savings on travel this year, let us see how 2017 goes.

How was your 2016?

Update: Check my 2019 travel year *