My 2025 Year-in-Review

I haven’t written one of these yearly reviews before because, to be honest, it didn’t cross my mind to. However, I’ve been reading a few other bloggers’ yearly reviews over the past week or so. As a result, I figured it would be fun to write my own…

… halfway through January 2026, but anyway. 

2025 was a rollercoaster of a year, and when I look back, I’m proud of what I achieved. More importantly, I am also grateful for the life I’m building (and those of you who support me by reading my guides, sending messages of support, and sharing the links with others). 

I have no idea how long or short this piece will be, but let’s go. This is my full 2025 year in review, and I’ll cover: 

• What my travels were like in 2025
• What I did with my blog this year
• My overall top highlights
• What the year was like on a personal level
• The biggest lessons I learned
• My favorite posts
• The plans I have ahead for 2026

Without further ado, let’s jump right in. 

My 2025 Travels: A Recap

I invested a lot of time and money into my blog in 2025, and the biggest in those two respects related to actually going out and traveling. I like to visit places in depth before I write about them, and most of the destinations I visited were places I had already been to. 

We started 2025 in New York City and then spent a few days in Reykjavík before heading back to Copenhagen. I’ve been to Iceland several times, but I will never tire of seeing the winter sunsets here. The lighting in January—when it’s not cloudy, anyway—is something else. We were greeted with the Northern Lights while walking home from dinner one night, too. 

Later in January, I spent a weekend in Hamburg. Then, in April, I went to the Faroe Islands (again). The trip was partly for my 30th birthday, but it was also to collaborate with Guide to Faroe Islands. I cannot state enough how beautiful the Faroes are, and I’m excited to return once more; there’s still a lot that we didn’t see or do that I really want to. 

Next, my girlfriend surprised me with a trip to Norway in June. It was the classic Oslo – Bergen route, which I’ve done a few times before, but is always good fun. I always enjoy exploring the fjords near Bergen (and the city itself is lovely); we sailed along the Osterfjord, along with doing a sunset hike to Fløyen and another hike on Damsgårdsfjellet.

We usually spend some time in Finland during the summer, since my girlfriend is from there, and 2025 was no different. After that, we travelled through the Baltic countries. I’ve been to all of them before, but it was nice to be back. While in Estonia, I did collaborations with the tourism boards in Tallinn and Tartu. Lithuania was my favorite leg of the trip, and sailing above the country in a hot air balloon was memorable. I also really, really liked Vilnius. 

The end of the year was pretty stacked, with weekend trips to Stockholm and Paris. I needed *a lot* of convincing to visit Paris, as historically, I have been the CEO Paris Hater™️. However, I actually enjoyed going back this time—and I’d like to visit again in the near future.

And then, in December, I visited my 30th country. Japan was top of the bucket list for me and my girlfriend, and a few months before the trip, we found well-priced and direct flights from Finland to Japan. Our two weeks in Japan were amazing, and I was already looking for flights back by the time we arrived back in Europe. You absolutely will be seeing lots of Japan articles in due course, and the country—along with Asia—will become another part of this blog in the future. 

On either side of the Japan trip, we spent some time in Finland (mainly for Christmas and New Year’s Eve). Much of the time in Helsinki was spent in saunas, as you can imagine. 

I travelled a lot in 2025, which—while fun—was also exhausting. First World Problems, I know. In 2026, I want to have more of a balance between being at home and on the road. Personally, I enjoy having a base that I enjoy living in (Copenhagen) and traveling from there—rather than being on the road constantly. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way to go about it, but that’s just my personal preference.

2025 Was a Game-Changing Year for My Blog

2025 was transformational for my blog; two years after starting this website as a passion project, I was able to become a full-time travel blogger. This, to me, still feels surreal to say. 

In January, I had around 10,000 monthly sessions. Over the following six months, I soared way beyond 100,000. I said to myself that I’d go full-time as soon as the site’s revenue covered my expenses after tax, and I did precisely that in July. Ironically, I did so six years to the day after quitting my last full-time job (in the time between that, I had been freelancing). 

Over the course of the year, I received 1.1 million pageviews and 845,000 sessions. These numbers blow my mind, to be honest. I said this earlier, but I’ll say it again: I’m grateful to everyone who has supported me and continues to do so. 

I was pretty active with my publishing, with over 100 new posts going live. I pretty much worked based on my energy levels; I’d post three times in some weeks, and none in others. I actually didn’t post at all in December (besides visiting Japan, I was also very burnt out); next year, I want to focus more on consistency. However, I’m happy with my output—and more importantly, I think that I offered value in the posts I shared on this site. 

What Was 2025 Like on a Personal Level?

To be totally honest, I spent most of the year in full-on grind mode with my blog. Until I went full-time, I woke up every weekday at 5 am to write for at least an hour before starting my day. Away from that, my other main focus was on learning Danish and passing my PD3 exam. 

For those of you who don’t know, PD3 is the B2-level Danish language exam. You need to pass the test if you want to apply for citizenship (though it’s not the only requirement). While I don’t need it for permanent residence as an EU citizen (I have an Italian passport), you do need it if you want permanent residence as a non-EU citizen. 

Anyway, I passed PD3 after six months of intensive Saturday morning classes. Well, I say “intensive”—the truth is I skipped the final few to focus on the areas I felt needed my attention. I was amazed that my spoken Danish got the highest grade because I thought it would be the worst. 

Otherwise, I also celebrated five years of living in Denmark. So, I’m now eligible for permanent residence. While I will likely spend more time in Japan (I don’t yet qualify for the six-month digital nomad visa) and other countries in Asia over the next few years (I have a fair few I’d like to visit), I see Copenhagen as being my permanent home and recently got a long-term apartment to reflect this. I enjoy traveling, but I always love coming back from trips because Copenhagen is just… really nice.

The Blog Posts I Had the Most Fun Writing Were…

(And you should definitely read these 🤠)

• Gásadalur: Photographing the Faroe Islands’ Most Iconic Village
• My Favorite Things to Do in Copenhagen as a Local (+ What I’d Skip)
• A Complete Faroe Islands Itinerary (5-10 Days)
• A Simple and Fun Norway One-Week Itinerary for First-Time Visitors

The Biggest Lessons I Learned in 2025

I learned *a lot* throughout the year. Some of my lessons were related to blogging, others to running a business, and there were a fair few life lessons as well. Below were some of the most important ones I learned. 

• Life on the other side of risk is good, even if the initial phase is a struggle.
• I would much rather go after my passions, even if it means being broke for a while, than “be realistic” and take the safe route. 
• Achieving your dreams won’t solve all of your problems. Paradoxical, I know. 
• Receiving troll comments is actually kinda funny. 
• Stress in life is inevitable, but I’d rather own my own stress as much as possible. 
• Living with regret in 30 years is something I want to avoid at all costs. 
• I really, really hate hot weather. 

My Overall Top Highlights of 2025

While 2025 was filled with highlights, some moments really stood out. 

1. Watching sunset from a lake with a view of Mount Fuji (honestly, this was one of the most magical moments of my entire life—let alone a single year).
2. Getting accepted into Raptive to run premium ads on my site; this was pretty much the catalyst for going full-time. 
3. Seeing the Northern Lights in Reykjavík. 
4. Visiting the Faroe Islands as part of a collaboration with Guide to Faroe Islands. This was the trip that really gave me the belief I could make this “travel blogging” thing work. 
5. My trip to Paris. More specifically, visiting the Eiffel Tower and seeing the city from above. 

My Plans for 2026

This year, I want to be more intentional in all areas of my life. I still want to travel, but I would also like to be more selective with my trips.

Speaking of which, I see the blog evolving. I still enjoy sharing detailed travel guides for Northern and Northwestern Europe (and I don’t think this will ever change), and I have a solid base of articles now. To build on this, I also want to cover other regions—while continuing to also publish and update guides to Scandinavia, the Nordics, etcetera. For example, I want to build on my NYC catalog—since I regularly visit my family there and have been 15+ times—along with sharing detailed guides to Japan and other places. Being more flexible will allow me to help you even more, I think. 

I also want to spend more time at home and exploring Copenhagen. While I’ve already shared countless articles, I have a huge backlog of ideas that I think you’ll like. I just haven’t yet taken the photos for these, and I’m coming up with concepts in my head. I would like to do some more short getaways in Denmark and Southern Sweden, too.

On a personal level, I would like to be more balanced. I basically spent all of 2025 in hustle mode, which was necessary at the time because I was basically working two jobs. However, continuing like this would actually be detrimental. I neglected my training and diet toward the end of last year, and I want to dial both of these in. Moreover, I’d like to go back to reading more. 

I would also like to learn a new language. In 2025 (and the years before that), I focused on passing my Danish exams. Now that I’ve done that, and I feel like I have a good grasp of it, I want to learn more. I did some French lessons before and after my Paris trip, which was quite fun; ditto with Japanese before I went to Japan. I’m not sure which one I want to focus on first, but maybe they’re so different that I could actually do both. Korean would be cool to learn too at some point… as would Chinese, German, Italian, and basically every language. 

Another thing I want to really focus on this year is writing more of the articles I enjoy. I’ve published over 160 pieces on this site now, and I have a pretty good idea of what I do and do not like. I would therefore like to focus more on what I do like, because that’s how I can serve you better. 

Some of My Top Photos From 2025…

I haven’t edited my Japan photos at the time of writing, so you’ll have to read my guides when they go live instead… in the meantime, here’s a selection of my top picks 🙂

Anyway, yeah. I hope you enjoyed reading my 2025 review, and perhaps you learned some useful things that you can apply to your own life. I have plenty of interesting ideas for 2026, along with lots of useful guides to travel in Northern Europe, Japan, and other regions. If you want to stay in touch, you can always subscribe to my newsletter.

Here’s to a great year for both of us 🙂