My travel blog The Red Phone Box travels will be 11 years old at the end of August.

Yes, I’ve been blogging about my life and travels for 11 years. So, instead of doing a classic blogiversary post like I usually do, I decided to do something different this year. I decided to do a short recap of my most memorable trips around Europe since I started blogging. It was very difficult to choose just one memorable trip per year (from 2015 to 2026) because I loved all my trips but somehow I managed to compile this list.

Here are my most memorable trips around Europe from the past 11 years:

2015 Bruges

We did several domestic and international trips in 2015 (Slovenia for our 1^st wedding anniversary and before that Belgium in spring). But my most memorable trip of 2015 was definitely our perfect day trip to Bruges. We’ve spent a few days wandering around Brussels but somehow I just didn’t fall for Brussels. However, I got instantly smitten with gorgeous Bruges. We just walked around Bruges taking in the sights and eating waffles. We also did a lovely boat trip along the canals and had lunch at the main square. That day trip became an epitome for a perfect day trip.

2016 Stockholm

That was a fun year with many local trips and two international trips (London also). We visited Stockholm in April and we had a blast. Despite the cold weather and our hotel room without a window we thoroughly enjoyed wandering around Gamla Stan. We saw the changing of the guard at the Royal palace and we actually visited a lot of museums in Stockholm. The best was for sure Vasa museum. I didn’t know what to expect of Stockholm but we both loved it. I’d gladly explore more of Sweden.

2017 Babymoon trip (Croatia)

I got pregnant with my son in 2017 after so many years of wishing for a baby. I had a healthy pregnancy but we decided that we won’t travel internationally. We spent a lovely babymoon in Gorski kotar area of Croatia. We did some walks, played board games and visited the fairy-tale’s house in Ogulin as well as Ogulin castle. However, I did a day trip to Trieste (Italy) with my best friend. We just walked for a bit around Trieste and had several cakes at several different cake shops. It was such a fun day out.

2018 San Marino (first family trip)

My son was just 6 months old when we took our road trip to San Marino. He was either crying or sleeping in the car and we’ve also had a tyre problem but once we arrived to San Marino everything went smoothly. We’ve also stopped in Imola briefly on the way to San Marino and we explored Rimini on our drive back. San Marino is a tiny country within Italy and it’s perfect for a weekend break. We climbed the towers, visited the basilica and the nation’s parliament, got a special stamp in our passports and chatted with some vampires.

2019 Berlin

I was pregnant with my daughter when we visited Berlin but I felt great. Our son stayed at home with the grandparents. I was pleasantly surprised by Berlin and its multifacetedness. We saw the remains of the Berlin wall and Checkpoint Charlie and the Brandenburg gate and several beautiful baroque squares. We had great meals in Berlin and we had fun with my husband’s relatives during our short weekend stay. We did several day trips around Croatia with our son too.

2020 Hum day trip (Croatia)

You all know what happened in 2020. COVID made travel impossible. It was important to stay at home and stay safe. However, during the summer the Croatian government lifted the ban on travelling across regions so we were able to travel freely around Croatia. We took several day trips (Zagreb ZOO, Roswell etc). Our most memorable trip of 2020 was a day trip to HUM in Istria (the smallest town in the world). It was my daughter’s first day trip. We leisurely walked around Hum, had lunch and then we’ve also visited Kotle and Roč.

2021 solo trip to Düsseldorf

In 2021 we took several day trips with kids around Croatia, Italy and Slovenia. My daughter’s first international day trip was visiting lovely Cividale del Friuli (Italy). My most memorable trip of 2021 was my solo trip to Düsseldorf to visit my best friend who after living in China relocated to Germany. It was wonderful to reconnect with my best friend again while sightseeing around Düsseldorf. We’ve also visited Venlo in the Netherlands because it was close to the airport Weeze from which I was flying.

2022 family holiday at Brijuni, Croatia

2022 was a great year for travelling. We took so many trips (Malta, London, Postojna day trip in Slovenia and several fun weekend trips around Croatia). It was really difficult to choose the most memorable trip of 2022 but I think that was actually our Brijuni trip. Brijuni islands are a national park off the coast of Istria. I loved waking up to the sounds of nature and then exploring the island and seeing wildlife everywhere around us (deer, rabbits and peacocks roaming around freely). It was so tranquil and the kids really loved it.

2023 solo trip to Helsinki

Another tough year to choose the most memorable trip because all the trips we took then are etched in my mind as some of the best trips ever. We visited Krakow, Helsinki, Padova for a concert, London for my 40^th birthday and we’ve also had several wonderful weekend trips around Croatia such as visiting Trakošćan castle. You can read about all those trips here on my blog. But I’ll choose Helsinki as my most memorable trip of 2023. It was a solo trip to finally meet my blogger friend who has become my real life friend too. She showed me Helsinki and we’ve also visited Suomenlinna island and saw a samba carnival parade.

2024 family trip to Budapest

Fun year as well since we managed to visit Slovenia, Austria and Hungary besides travelling around Croatia too. Our festive family trip to Budapest was absolutely amazing. It even snowed for a bit. We did a Danube cruise, ate so much Christmas markets food, went on the Ferris wheel, explored Castle district and generally just had lots of fun wandering around Christmassy Budapest. Then, we also stopped at Varaždin in Croatia on our way back and found a wonderful Christmas town for kids.

2025 Girl’s trip to the Netherlands

We visited Venice with kids and we had so much fun there so it’s definitely one of my most memorable trips ever. We’ve also been to another spa break with kids in Slovenia and did several day trips around Croatia. But I’ll actually choose my Netherlands trip with my best friends for 2025 most memorable trip. It was our first ever international trip together! We’ve travelled together before but not all four of us. We partied at Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, had a lovely canal boat ride, ate our body weight in delicious Dutch desserts and had a lovely spontaneous day tip to Delft. I still need to blog about both Venice and Amsterdam.

2026 family trip to Wroclaw

This year isn’t over yet but mathematically it’s 11 years from 2015 to 2026 even though when you actually include 2015 and 2026 you count 12 trips, 12 years. This year we had a lovely snow holiday in Italy, a day trip to visit Ljubljana ZOO and our kids’ first time flying. We visited Wroclaw, Poland and fell in love with it. Kids loved our dwarf hunt. I cannot recommend Wroclaw enough as a perfect family trip.

In conclusion, I’ve had a lot of wonderful trips in the past 11 years. It was virtually impossible to choose just one memorable trip for some years. I am very grateful that I’d been able to take so many trips.

So where’s London in all of this? I knew you would ask me that. Of course, I absolutely adore all my London trips so naturally a London trip would be the most memorable trip of that year. I visited London 3 times in the past 11 years: in 2016, 2022 and 2023. However, I decided not to put London as my most memorable trip because then I’d be just London mentioned three times and that wouldn’t be fair to all the other wonderful destinations and memorable trips. I’ll probably do a separate London recap post of those three London trips from the past 11 years since my last post How many times have YOU visited London? is outdated and doesn’t include those three recent trips.

Before I wrap up this post, I’d just like to express my gratitude to all my readers and followers for sticking around for so long. I appreciate all your comments and likes and I’m happy to share my travels with you.