Despite a sagging economy, increased issues involved in air travel, and juggling a host of responsibilities, I still managed a fair amount of travel this year.

Here’s how my travel resolutions stacked up for the year:

Montefollonico Italy

• Visit two new countries – I accomplished this with visits to Switzerland, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
• Visit two new states – Not so good here.  Visited lots of new cities, but no new states.
• Re-visit five places that I’ve already been, but see and experience them differently -  I did pretty well with this one, although didn’t quite make it to 5.
• Discover new restaurants, hotels, and resorts and share those experiences with you – This one was pretty easy, as I discovered new places in the Seattle area, as well as discovering others on my travels.

Here are some of my other travel highlights of 2009:

• Visited two new island in Hawaii, the Big Island and Kauai
• Visited Houston.  Had a chance to explore a little bit on layovers, and am looking forward to a return trip to explore more.
• Returned to Italy, visiting several new places:  Lake Maggiore, Ancona, and lots of small towns in Tuscany.  Drank lots of wine and ate lots of pasta and gelato.
• Took the overnight ferry from Ancona (Italy) to Split (Croatia).
• Explored to areas in Croatia, Split and Dubrovnik.  Both are UNESCO World Heritage sites, and both were absolutely fabulous.  Definitely need more time there, so will plan to go back again.
• Traveling between Split and Dubrovnik meant passing through Bosnia-Herzegovina.  Although it was only two checkpoints and a stop for gelato (in both directions), it still counts as visiting another country.
• I had a great weekend in Napa Valley, and was surprised at how much had changed since I’d last been there.  About 12 years ago.  If you haven’t been recently, it will be like you haven’t been at all.
• I spent a little time in Portland, Oregon, discovering some of the new spots that have resulted from that city’s revitalization.
• I spent a week in Miami Beach for Pow-Wow, and had a wonderful opportunity to discover what’s great about the area.  In addition, I also got to meet blogger and Dine Magazine Editor, Katherine Lynch.
• And finally, I spent a bit more time in Las Vegas.  I was there for a couple of conferences and trade shows, as well as spent some personal time there with friends.  I was able to discover some new places and things there, got to meet blogger Lynn Goya.

What will 2010 hold for travel?  I’m giving some thought to my travel resolutions and will share them with you as soon as they shape up.

What were your travel resolutions or goals for 2009?  Did you meet them?

Photo credit: Mary Jo Manzanares

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Welcome to the January 7, 2009 edition of Carnival of Travelers.

This month’s carnival theme is Travel Resolutions –—getting rid of those barriers to traveling, finally going to the destination of our dreams, finding ways to afford to travel, and setting goals of things to see and places to go that further our love of seeing the world.

We have a varied group of posts this month, so enjoy reading them and setting your own resolutions for 2009.

• Travel Advocate presents Hidden Hotel Travel Dangers Safeguarding the Room for Kids posted at The Travel Advocate.
• Sean Reynolds presents European Motorcycle Trip posted at Creativity, saying, "On a Thursday in early August 2008 I left the midlands of Ireland to go on a bike trip. My steed was a 2004 Honda Deauville, a 650 cc shaft driven V twin. This is not a very fancy motorcycle but is ultra reliable with lots of packing spaces and is comfortable over long distances. I would suggest using the higher fairing windscreen though as there can be constant wind pressure on the head area."
• banquet manager thatsme presents World’s First Zero Star Hotel posted at So You Want To Be a Banquet Manager….
• Matthew Paulson presents Family Skiing Made More Cost Efficient posted at American Consumer News.
• Jack Norell presents Travel resolutions for 2009 – eyeflare travel advice and tips. posted at Eyeflare – Travel Articles and Tips, saying, "New year equals new travel resolutions. Or rather, in my case, re-visiting some old ones. I am however, going to change some travel habits this year. With that said, these are my travel resolutions for 2009."
• GregBrave presents 8 Steps to Travel Courage | NZ Tramping: New Zealand Tourism by Greg Brave posted at NZ Tramping.
• Andrew Edgington presents What is a Realistic Traveling Budget? posted at Cheap Flights, saying, "Discount Travel Techniques that anyone can employ and really make big savings on family holidays and international flights. You will feel like you are on holiday permanently."
• Sheila Scarborough presents Get in shape for 2009 with a Fit City vacation posted at HomeAway Blog.
• And finally, my post Join Me on a Blind Date with The World, about my goal to participate in the round-the-world scavenger hunt, posted at Flyaway Cafe, and my resolution to use public transportation more often with my post Resources for Using King Country Metro Bus System posted at The Seattle Traveler.

That concludes this edition of the Carnival of Travelers.  Next month’s carnival will have the theme of History & Travel.  All submissions should relate to this theme.  You can submit your blog article for the next edition using our carnival submission form.

Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Thanks to everyone for participating this month.  And please, make sure your links are working.  A number of posts were excluded because links were broken.

Happy New Year!

Image credit:  SXC

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My travel resolutions last year were sort of a mixed bag, but I have a feeling 2009 is going to be a year of more travel and more travel experiences.

I want to discover some new places, but I also want to revisit some spots to see how they’ve changed, or how I’ve changed and now see them differently.  So my resolutions are a combination of old and new, all with the goal of seeing the world one place and one experience at a time.

Here they are –

1. Visit two new countries
2. Visit two new states
3. Re-visit five places that I’ve already been, but see and experience them differently
4. Discover new restaurants, hotels, and resorts and share those experiences with you.

Keep reading this year, and you can help keep track of how I’m doing.

How about you?  What are your travel resolutions for 2009?

Image credit:  SXC

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