North shore mountains in Kauai via Find Us LostIt’s that time of year again. Normally the end of the year sneaks up on me, and I start reviewing everything I still want to get done. This year feels a bit different. Though 2018 flew by, I can’t help but acknowledge how much we have done this year. I took on travel blogging as my full-time job at the start of 2018. We both took the leap and started traveling full-time. We celebrated our 1 year anniversary. We took on so many projects, saying ‘yes’ to most everything that came our way. If 2018 was our year of saying ‘yes’, 2019 might be our year of saying ‘no’! We’re happy to have had so many experiences this past year, but we’re also ready to figure out a balance of travel and down time as we head into the new year.

This blog continues to be my favorite place to connect with you. I love sharing our travel guides, life updates and new destinations here, and I’m looking forward to incorporating more travel tips and blogging advice in 2019. I hope you’re as excited as I am for the new year!

As we reflect on 2018, I want to share some of your favorite posts from this year. Have a look below at the posts that you loved the most from each category of our blog:

Travel Guides

Travel guides include day trip guides, weekend guides, complete guides per country, and more. They always cover recommendations on where to stay, eat, and go.

The Complete Santorini, Greece Travel Guide – this guide tops the list at our most-loved and most-visited, and I recently updated it with even more recommendations and local tours to take.

The Complete Kauai Travel Guide – we just returned to Kauai last month! The North Shore of the island is one of our favorite places in the world, with beautiful jungle landscapes and laid-back beaches. I just gave this guide a ‘make-over’ with new photos and plenty of local restaurants to try.

The Complete Budapest Travel Guide – if you haven’t been to Hungary yet, add it to the top of your list for 2019. We couldn’t get enough of the architecture, bath houses, food, and friendly locals in this affordable European city.

The Complete Amsterdam Travel Guide – it’s a good thing we spent two years in Amsterdam, because I can’t get enough of exploring this city! Take a peek at this guide for some of our favorite local spots, hidden gardens in the city, must-see neighborhoods, museums, and more.

A Weekend Guide to Lisbon, Portugal – after taking a girls trip here during this past summer, I shared this new guide packed with trendy restaurants, shops, and tips for a day trip to the must-see castle town of Sintra.

  • Runner up: Our Guide to Visiting Sintra Castles in Portugal was our top-performing new guide in the past few months, sitting just beside our Lisbon guide. Might be time to plan a trip to Portugal if you aren’t already!

Destinations

Designed to inspire your next trip, Destinations features photos along with tips for places we’ve visited around the world, as well as lists and round-ups of some of our favorite places.

10 Romantic European Destinations For Any Budget – our top-viewed, and one of my favorite posts to date! These European destinations are beautiful and affordable, making each one an easy contender for your 2019 travel plans.

A Guide to Europe’s Best Christmas Markets – we missed the Christmas Markets so much this year. If you haven’t been to Europe in the wintertime, this list of our favorite markets will make you plan a holiday trip stat.

Winter Wonderland in Lapland, Finland – Lapland is quickly becoming one of the trendiest European destinations, and it’s easy to see why. This post from our trip to the east side of the country soared to the top of our most popular posts. Here’s the accompanying Finland Travel Guide from our time there!

6 Dreamy Winter Destinations in Europe (With Travel Guides) – I loved putting this list together, because not only does it showcase some of our favorite snowy destinations, it highlights itineraries for each. Turns out you felt similarly, which is why this post is one of our most-loved!

White Sand Beaches in the Cook Islands – our trip to the Cook Islands in 2018 was easily one of our favorite trips to date. We fell in love with the friendly locals, incredible beaches, and remote landscapes on this slice of paradise. A must if you’re considering somewhere tropical.

  • Runner up: This post about Our Kauai Wedding Day, which (of course) was one of our personal favorites as well!

Discussions

Besides sharing our latest travel updates, I also share travel advice, photography tips, and our thoughts on living abroad and working remotely in Discussions.

How to Choose the Best Camera (and Lens) For Travel Photos – the first of our photography series on our blog, and still one of most visited posts to date. Jacob broke down everything he looks for when choosing the right camera set up for you. The perfect post if you’re getting into photography, or looking for a new camera set up.

How We Shoot and Edit Photos – we receive questions constantly about our photography process and how we achieve a certain look, and this post breaks down how we shoot and edit our photos. If you’re looking for more info about what camera equipment we use, this post inspired our most photography post: Our Travel Photography Gear.

Traveling and Living Abroad: Our 1.5 Year Update – this post shared a month-by-month breakdown of how exactly we went from full-time jobs to living abroad, to traveling so much, to how I decided to become a full-time blogger. If you’re considering a major life change, this is a very real, unfiltered post of how we got to where we are now.

From 9-to-5 Jobs to Travel Bloggers: Our 2 Year Update – the follow-up post to the blog post I mention above, which outlines how we decided to hit the road with our suitcases. Our most recent update can be found here: Full-Time Travel: 3 Months In.

6 Reasons I Love Living in Amsterdam – we may have left Amsterdam to travel full-time (for now!), but it’s still our favorite city in the world. I broke down some of the reasons why we love it so much in this popular post.

  • Runner up: Your response to our post Introducing Our Lightroom Photo Presets was incredible. It’s intimidating to release something and be completely unsure of how it’s going to do, but your positive words and messages surrounding our preset launch is what made us end the year on such a high note. Thank you for your support, we truly wouldn’t be able to do this without you! You can visit our Presets Shop to check out our preset collections if you haven’t already. They are designed to make photo editing easy and inspiring.

Do you have any favorite posts from 2018 that didn’t make this list? Anything you want to see us write about in 2019? I’d love to hear about them! Leave your thoughts in the comments below.