Post written by Laura
We are almost at the end of 2025 and this time our annual reflection looks back on a year of budget travel having set out in January to explore new places and continue to have adventures within more modest means.
It seemed a long dull grey winter until my first trip of the year which took place in a very sunny but the somewhat cold Emilia-Romagna region of Italy in mid-March. This was the beginning of a little flurry of European budget adventures, this first trip to Italy with my friend Bridget and then the next two where I experienced some new destinations as a solo traveller.
Country 100
I had a milestone trip in April when I visited my 100th country! From the UN list of 195 countries of the world, Albania fulfilled this personal goal as part of my ongoing pursuit of an exciting, varied and a life well lived.
While technically this was a box ticked, I try not to think of it as such… I’m happy to return to countries, but mainly with the criteria of a different town, or a different island or a new set of experiences to look forward to. Some countries are so vast and so diverse (India springs to mind) that you have time to explore just a handful of highlights if you only have a couple of weeks.
At the age of 18 I remember a conversation with a former work colleague, of a then similar age, and we both excitedly agreed we wanted to visit every country in the world and this has been embedded in the back of my mind ever since.
However, I now have an aim to visit countries I want to visit, repeat the good ones and steer clear of those which are dangerous, difficult or too much hassle. There are no prizes to visit them all for the sake of it, although I do still have a little buzz of excitement each time I set foot in a completely new country!
Albania was followed in August by Andorra and then Kenya bringing my country count total to 102.
Most of my country list is represented throughout this blog and they are listed in the menu, and below are the handful of remaining countries which I visited many years ago and thus make up the list of 100+:
- Monaco – 1981 and 2005
- Barbados – 1989
- Malta – 1992
- St Lucia – 2000
- Denmark – 2003
10 years of From Blue to Green
Another milestone this year was the 10th anniversary of this blog! Our first ever blog post was published in November 2015 when Chris and I were preparing to take a year out of work and spend 2016 travelling the world. The above photo was taken by ourselves, back when selfie sticks were a thing! With its gorgeous location and little wooden verandah for a leisurely breakfast and relaxing evening drinks, ‘Lilac Cottage’, our delightful Hawaiian AirBnB was one of our favourite lodgings of 2016.
This anniversary blog post also happened to be our 500th published post! That was absolutely not planned and was a complete coincidence.
A summary of trips and holidays taken in 2025:
- Mar: a week in northern Italy which included a day trip to San Marino
- Apr: solo backpacking from Tirana to Podgorica to Sarajevo
- May: a short break in Gdansk
- Jun: a long weekend in Pembrokeshire
- Aug: backpacking from Barcelona to Andorra to Toulouse
- Oct: Hiking in Azores
- Nov: Kenya Safari
2025 statistics
Number of trips taken = 7
Total number of countries visited = 12 (Italy, San Marino, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poland, Wales, Spain, Andorra, France, Portugal and Kenya) with San Marino, Albania, Andorra and Kenya being new countries.
New capital cities visited = 5 (Tirana, Podgorica, Sarajevo, Andorra La Vella, Nairobi)
New experiences:
- Seeing a flooded crypt in Ravenna, Italy
- Visiting San Marino, one of the smallest and oldest countries in the world
- Visiting a Venetian mask factory in Shkoder, Albania
- Walking through the ‘Tunnel of Hope’ built in 1993 during the Sarajevo siege
- Staying in a shepherd’s hut in Pembrokeshire
- Going inside the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona
- Visiting a miniature art museum in Andorra
- Hiking through volcanic lava field vineyards in Pico, Azores
- Feeding a giraffe in Nairobi
- Camping with Maasai Warriors in Kenya
- Observing in real life the food chain following a recent buffalo kill
- Close encounters with lion cubs, a cheetah and a rare black rhino in the Maasai Mara
Budget travel experiences
I was thrilled to have had a fulfilling and enriching experience with 2 days in Gdansk for under £200! The main lesson learned on this trip was that it was entirely possible to get a good overview, stay in a lovely hotel and see some wonderful places for a low cost, however it is essential to put in the time and effort to research in advance in order to make the most of limited time and limited budget.
Booking strategically is helpful, for example, booking mid week flights, booking accommodation in advance and travelling off-season can significantly lower the overall cost of a trip. My week in Rimini in March was incredibly cost effective with my £175 share for 7 nights bed and breakfast in a 4* hotel and my £58 return flights as it was out of season.
Everyday spend via credit cards linked with airline points is another great way of reducing travel costs, for example I was able to use BA Avios points for free return flights to Ponta Delgada in the Azores and my return flights to Nairobi amounted to just £150!
And obvious cash savers are: using local transport, self guided hiking (big thanks to our friends Russell and Mike) and self guided city walking tours (Bridget found an excellent such tour which guided us both around the hidden treasures of Rimini!).
Using AI
During 2025 I also started to use ‘Chat GPT’ to help with travel planning and have got better with sharpening my prompts to maximise results! For example:
Create a two day budget travel plan for [destination] with unique local experiences and hidden gems. Include free activities and budget food options.
I was doing very well with my budget travel until the end of the year with a little splurge on a safari in Kenya! A 20% off sale with travel company Intrepid happened to coincide with an unusual 8% additional discount from one of my credit cards and my annual British Airways voucher! So what choice did I have other than to make the most of such bargains and of course, book a trip!
Budget travel cost breakdown
How much did all of this cost during 2025?
As the budget was a big factor this year, below is a summary of the total cost of each trip and full expenditure details can be found at the end of each of the individual trip posts:
- Italy and San Marino £677
- Tirana to Sarajevo £490
- Gdansk £189
- Pembrokeshire £306
- Barcelona to Toulouse £968
- Azores £890
- Kenya £2050
Total spent on travel in 2025: £5570 (this is just my travel and excludes Chris’s travel expenditure)
Not a bad effort when compared with my previous annual travel spends of £13,000 in 2023 and £15,000 in 2024!
Overall summary
Another great year of travel with 4 new countries, two major milestones and a few new experiences had and all on a much smaller budget!
A tiny bit more of our amazing world explored 🙂
frombluetogreen.com 