Happy New Year!

A new year means new adventures! 2025 will look a little different than other years for us. But before we get into that, let's do a little 2024 recap!

2024 Recap

Where we've been

26 countries: United States, Sweden, Georgia, Armenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Norway, Germany, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Greece, Bahamas, Mexico, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Hong Kong, Taiwan, United Kingdom, Italy

5 states: California, New York, Utah, Washington, Oregon

Top 10 experiences (in no particular order):

1. Learning the culture and tasting all the delicious food/wine in Tbilisi, Georgia
2. Seeing the northern lights in Norway
3. ​Exploring 5 countries with a 3-week Balkans trip​
4. ​Having one of the most surreal/horror 3-hour escape room experience in Athens​
5. ​Relaxing and swimming in the clear water of Exumas, Bahamas​
6. ​Trying ALL the food on an epic food tour in Singapore​
7. Snorkeling one of the most untouched coral reefs in the world in Timor-Leste
8. Seeing old friends and making new ones at 5 travel conferences/conventions this year (Traverse, Women in Travel Summit, TravelCon, ITB Berlin, WTM London)
9. Cooking fresh pasta in a cooking class in Sicily
10. ​Celebrating our birthdays, 10-year anniversary, and getting engaged in Italy​

We haven't shared a lot of these experiences on social media or our blog yet, but we will soon!

Interested in visiting any of these destinations or experiences? We are here to help and provide personal recommendations from our experiences. We offer FREE travel planning and booking services. Complete our travel planning inquiry, and we will reach out for an initial consultation.

Life Update

We have a lot of personal changes coming in 2025! For one, we're getting married! Yep, after 15 years of knowing each other and 10 years in a relationship, we're excited to finally celebrate our love with our family and friends.

We also decided to establish a home base in 2025 to better balance travel, family, health, business, relationships, etc. After 3.5 years of full-time travel, this year will be an adjustment, but we still plan to travel extensively and share all our adventures with you!

2025 will be a year of major progress, but we couldn’t be happier with the direction we’re headed ❤️

What's new for Mind Over Matter Travel?

There is a lot in store for Mind Over Matter Travel this year! Having a home base will allow us the time to build aspects of our business that we've discussed for a while. We don't have too many details to share now, but just know there will be several developments (and as part of our mailing list, you'll be the first to know when they happen!)

Keep an eye on your inbox for more updates 😊

Bucket list travel opportunity

A key way to have a transformative travel experience is by taking advantage of travel opportunities. I found this one for you:

Win a $50,000 Trip of a Lifetime! Travel and Leisure is giving away $50,000 to embark on the vacation of your dreams. The deadline to enter is February 28, 2025. ​Enter here!​

Transformative travel tip

Overcome Travel Guilt! You may wonder, "What is travel guilt?" Travel guilt can revolve around several travel-related issues, such as feeling guilty for:

• Indulging in traveling while others are struggling or serious issues are occurring in the world
• Taking time away from work or family to travel
• Contributing to over-tourism or sustainability issues
• Using travel to escape personal issues at home
• Not taking full advantage of a destination or not seeing all the top things when visiting a destination
• Sharing about your travels with others

As full-time travelers, we come face-to-face with several of these scenarios, and the guilt would constantly eat at us if we let it. The truth is that we are the creators of our reality and our perception of that reality. Here are ways that we, and you, can overcome travel guilt:

• Identify and acknowledge any guilt you may have
• Practice gratitude for the life you live and the opportunities you have
• Reframe your mindset to recognize travel as an investment in your personal growth
• Communicate openly with family and friends about travel and what it means to you
• Educate yourself and work to offset any potential negative cultural, economic, and environmental impacts of your travels
• Identify your travel "why" and reflect on it throughout your trip
• Set realistic expectations and allow yourself flexibility

By using this tip, you can have an even more purposeful and transformative adventure!

Travel must-haves

This is usually the section of the newsletter where I share one of my travel must-have products, but instead, I'm sharing a free list of 75 bucket list experiences around the world! 2025 is the year to start checking some of these off!

You can get the bucket list for FREE here! I hope these experiences inspire you to travel more this year.

What's next?

A new year means new travel plans. While we will spend the majority of the year in California (with local trips), we do have some exciting trips planned for 2025:

• January: California
• February: Arizona
• March: Caribbean
• April: California
• May: New York
• June: California
• July: Portugal
• August: Portugal
• September: Ireland
• October: California
• November: California
• December: California

If you've been to any of these places and have particular suggestions, my inbox is always open! Or if you are looking for specific insight for us to share while we're there, let us know.

If you want to follow our journey, connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

As always, thanks for being here and following our journey into 2025 🤗

✨ Elaina