Ranking My Top 2025 Travel Destinations from Worst to Best
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In the spirit of all things wrapped, I thought I’d reflect on my 2025 travel destinations. I haven’t had a good musing in a while, and sometimes when you start to travel frequently, it’s easy to just move on to the next place without really digesting the one you visited.
And man, I was on the move this year.
Between travel for leisure, travel for family, and travel for work (once lol), it honestly felt like I was never really home. In a fun way, but also in an exhausting way. On top of that, I was neck deep in my graduate program and with my main job, school, and travel as my three main priorities, admittedly a lot of other things slipped through my fingers.
Like my fiction writing. And my blog. And my second job lol. And time with my friends. And my health.
I will have to…reprioritize a few things in the new year of 2026, but I am so so grateful for the experiences this year has brought me. So on that note, I decided it would be fun to rank my 2025 travel destinations along with this year’s recap haha. Because why not.
Table of Contents
This Year’s Theme
If I had to put a label on my 2025 travel destinations, I would say the theme was concert travel. Not including concerts and music events here in Portland, Oregon (where I currently live), 38% of my travels this year were because of a concert. Isn’t that wild??
And to think 2026 is ramping up to surpass that when it comes to concert travel hahah.
But I’m getting ahead of myself haha.
2025 was a year of concerts and friends. A lot of my traveling this year involved going on friend trips or meeting up abroad with friends. It even included a whole group trip – my first! So Music and friends, that’s not a bad theme for my 2025 travel destinations!
Stats
Ever since I started tracking my reading with StoryGraph (2025 Reading Wrap coming soon!), I love seeing a good chart. Why not apply that to my 2025 travel destinations?
Starting with the most basic, WHERE did I travel? The majority of my travel (75%!!!) in 2025 was done domestically, which for me is the USA.
I’ve always believed that people should explore their own country thoroughly, especially for travel bloggers and ESPECIALLY for travel bloggers from the USA. There’s just sooo much history and communities and complexities that I don’t think I would have nearly as much nuance if I haven’t prioritized domestic travel.
UNSPONSORED domestic travel, I might add. Cuz it’s one thing to have the perfect trip pre-planned out for you and you only see the good side of things.
But that’s a conversation for another post haha.
ANYWAYS, I spent a lot of time on my home turf this year, and in this percentage I also include American territories. Internationally speaking, the next continent I visited the most was -unsurprisingly- Asia at about 19%. Since I live on the west coast, Asia is generally the most convenient destination for me outside of Mexico, which I visited once this year (6.25%).
And that was it for international 2025 travel destinations! So not too varied there, but they did account for some of my favorite 2025 travel destinations so I’m not mad at it!!
If we look at the spacing of my 2025 travel destinations, the majority of my time away from home was in the third quarter of the year. Yes, I’m one of those people who divides the year into quarters.
I mean, it’s summer and the warmer fall months. It’s my favorite time of the year and my favorite weather. I’m compelled to the outside-ness of it all. Though, I see the irony in leaving Oregon during its best months, trust me.
Q1 and Q4 are tied for second, and they definitely felt busy. If I’m being honest though, if I included my family travel into the 2025 travel destinations rankings, Q4 would be first. I made last minute trips home twice this quarter and not only does my wallet feel it, my body does too.
And the last lil statistic I want to look at for these 2025 travel destinations is how many times I’ve visited these places. I know, especially in the travel blogging world, there is a status that comes with having visited so many countries, or striving to see x amount before x age, or a drive to always be going somewhere new.
While I don’t really subscribe to all that to begin with, my 2025 travel destinations were definitely not aligned with visiting new places bahahaha.
New destinations only accounted for about 19% of my 2025 travel destinations. When I say new, I mean I’ve never been there before, never passed through, never collected $200, nothing. This wasn’t intentional, I do love seeing new places, but going to a bunch of concerts ate up my PTO bahahah. That’s the way it goes sometimes haha.
Now, the middle area of this chart are the 2025 travel destinations that are technically repeats, but I visited a new city or province in that place. Maybe they were spots I’ve briefly seen, but never got a chance to stay overnight and really digest. Things like that. Those places came out to about 31%.
And lastly, the bulk of my 2025 travel destinations were true repeats. For some spots, it felt like I was coming home. For others, eh, less of a hug and more of a place I’m just very very familiar with hahha. So like coming to work? Bahahah that gives it a bad connotation, but hey, work has its own comforts too hahah.
The Ranking
Now that I’ve finally gotten to the point of this post, I just want to do a quick disclaimer and state that my rankings IN THIS POST SPECIFICALLY are not ranking the actual destination in terms of xyz or how highly I think of a certain place.
Please put your pitchfork downs.
I am ranking my 2025 travel destinations based on my personal experience there THIS YEAR. A lot of these destinations have been return visits (which I love!!!), and experiences can vary on things as big as being allowed in a certain country or dealing with racism/sexism/classism/etc to things as seemingly trivial as…I was gassy that day and was in a bad mood.
This is a very arbitrary ranking and even some of my favorite destinations in the world didn’t hit as hard this year. Speaking of, I’ve technically taken more domestic trips to Los Angeles to visit family, but I’m not including those instances.
So with that in mind, here is my ranking of my 2025 travel destinations, from lowest to highest.
Los Angeles, California (for Blackpink)
Starting off lukewarm on this 2025 travel destinations list, Los Angeles, California. I saw lukewarm because I don’t think I’ve had any particularly bad-bad travel destinations this year (I didn’t get detained, so maybe my bar is just low lol), but I did have a harrowing experience.
I absolutely loved finally seeing Blackpink in concert. It was so so much fun and I went with my good friend RR and her group of friends (who I’m now claiming as my friends too) to Blackpink’s Deadline World Tour for their second night in Los Angeles. The tickets were a battlefield to snag, but it was so so worth it. I had an amazing time and am already wishing upon a star for a comeback in January and an encore tour in Latin America for 2026.
So…why am I ranking this trip so low?
Well friends. It finally happened. I had my first run in.
With bed bugs.
After the Blackpink crew departed, I stayed a few extra days in Los Angeles and decided to also have my first hostel experience. YALL.
No.
No no.
I’m never staying in a hostel ever again. This was horrific. I cannot be convinced otherwise hostels have forever been ruined for me. Goodbye.
Hawai’i Island, Hawai’i
Ahhhh the Big Island of Hawai’i. It really does hurt to rank one of the islands this low on the list. If y’all have been around for a while, Hawai’i was actually the destination that solidified my love for travel way back in like 2017 or 2018 (I forget lol). I was crashing on my high school friend’s couch in O’ahu since she was doing her grad school program there and it really just changed the way I look at both the world and myself.
But sadly, I just didn’t have the best of luck on this trip. Truthfully, I was overdue for a “bad trip,” one where everything that can go wrong does go wrong.
I’ll leave the unfortunate details for another post, but yeah, it didn’t pan out very smoothly. Hawai’i itself, wow what an island, and so so different from O’ahu and Maui. I’ll definitely plan a redemption trip sometime in the future, but for 2025. Eh, it happens.
At least there were no bed bugs though.
Los Angeles, California (for KDot)
NOT A GOOD YEAR FOR LA. This leisure trip was once again for a concert, this time for Kendrick Lamar and SZA at their Grand National Tour. The tour was great, I met up with a friend I’ve been in a virtual book club with for like 5 years lol, and checked out a few of my favorite LA shops.
Overall, a good time.
Though, I’m ranking this one low because I was also hanging out with my sister (for the concert) AND SHE IS THE SLOWEST PERSON ON EARTHHHH. She dragged her feet the entire way from her house to the SoFi Stadium and we missed SZA’s pop-up AND didn’t have time to check the merch booths before the show started.
Y’all.
I got to her house at 2pm!!!!!!!!!!! Aside from that annoyance though, it was a solid trip. I’d say this is where the rankings start to pivot toward more positive.
Astoria, Oregon
I had technically been to Astoria before, but only technically. I’d never stayed overnight or really seen the town or surrounding areas, so this was one of those “repeat-but-newish” trips I was talking about.
I spent 3 days in Astoria over a long weekend and had a really great time. Quite honestly, I was pleasantly surprised! Even though I visited in January 2025, the weather was clear and not too cold. I learned more about Astoria’s history and why it was once called the “New York City of the West” (WILD right?!??!) and was overall impressed by its food scene.
It was a humble trip, but a good one nonetheless.
Seattle, Washington (for Rauw & Doechii)
I really like Seattle as a city. It’s an easy distance away from Portland (3 hours by car or train, 30 minutes by plane) and is a lot bigger so bigger name artists usually opt for Seattle if they only have one PNW concert date.
I visited Seattle twice this year, both for concerts and both roughly had the same itinerary. And would ya look at that, I feel roughly the same for both of those trips.
The first trip was in April 2025 for Rauw Alejandro’s Cosa Nuestra tour. I stayed at a the ever affordable and dependable Hilton Homewood Suites since the tour was at the Climate Pledge Arena. Nothing fancy, we just needed to wobble home safely after the concert haha. I believe we also went to an afterparty which was boring, lol, but aside from that had a GREAT time eating and shopping in Seattle.
The second trip was just last month in November 2025 for Doechii’s Live from the Swamp tour! I was actually able to get VIP for this concert and WOWW she really is an amazing performer (I’ve only seen her live once before at Coachella). Not saying Rauw isn’t because he is and boy can that man wiggle, but I was just a lot closer for Doechii haha.
Again, ate good, shopped good, slept good. No complaints for Seattle this year and saw two amazing artists.
San Francisco, California (for Media Trip)
Unlike Seattle, I don’t really like San Francisco as a city. I’ve never felt this mystical magic that seems to pull people to the Bay. In fact, I usually actively avoid even passing through San Francisco if I can help it.
This press trip to San Francisco changed my mind.
AND NO NOT BECAUSE IT WAS COMPED.
Though that was nice – but not a factor in its 2025 travel destinations ranking. During this trip, we didn’t even do wildly outlandish things that I never could have found or booked or paid for myself. The hotel, though very nice, was the average price of a SF hotel. We went to Alcatraz and Angel Island and a few cruise tours.
Literally the most popular things to do in SF anyway haha.
But what it did show me was a new part of SF, the Mission Bay neighborhood, and now that along with the Mission are kind of the only parts of San Francisco I like. Maybe it’s the SoCal indoctrination that makes me subliminally drawn to the word mission. *shudder in sticky popsicle sticks*
-that was just a joke missions were horrific and so was recreating them out of popsicle sticks-
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Every year I try to visit at least one new state, and for 2025 that was Iowa!! Land of….
….
….
Corn?
Heck, I didn’t know and I didn’t care, I was just excited to see somewhere new! I spent 3 days in Cedar Rapids and, like most of my experiences in the Midwest, was pleasantly surprised. The city had some cool history, great food, and a really cool event scene. Who would’ve thought?
It also had Mount Trashmore. That was enough to steal my heart.
So in addition to having a good experience, Iowa ranks higher than some might expect for this 2025 travel destinations ranking because it was new to me. Call it the “newness” bonus if you will. And I eventually found out Iowa is the land of soybeans and specifically for Cedar Rapids cereal. The more ya know.
Oman
Mmmmmmmmmmm unpopular opinion. But
I think
Oman might be might least favorite country in the Middle East.
IM SORRY IM SORry IM SORRYYYYYYY
Granted, I say this after my first and only visit so my opinion may change in the future. But…I think my expectations were too high. That may have worked against it, but it also has the newness bonus working overtime for it right now otherwise I doubt it would have been as high on this 2025 travel destinations list.
I only spent 5 days in Oman in September 2025, which really isn’t at all a lot of time for a typically “adventure-based” destination. I’m not really big on wild swimming, or swimming at all, so while it was cool to see one wadi…do I need to see more? Ehhh.
I didn’t have any standout great food memories. Well, except for the worst high tea experience I’ve ever had, but I won’t hold that against Oman haha. I stayed at a REALLY nice hotel and there was a super cool museum I went to. I enjoyed learning more about Oman first hand (and then also second hand cuz I had to look up some Omani history that the museum quickly brushed over lol). Oh I also missed my midterm because of the timezone difference haha.
Maybe Oman should be ranked lower on this 2025 travel destinations ranking lol.
Chicago, Illinois (for Suenos)
Ahhhh the prettiest major city in America. How ya doing Chicago? I’m not surprised with Chicago ranking on the higher end of this 2025 travel destinations list, I really love the city. Plus, I visited for the annual Suenos Music Festival in May 2025!
Once again, a music trip hahah.
While the lineup for this year’s Suenos wasn’t a drop to my knees screaming in glee typa lineup, I still really enjoyed it. Shakira is an incredible performer by the way, and I was singing along even if I didn’t know half of her songs.
This year the festival also expanded a lot, adding a second stage (and a third one they didn’t announce and I missed Caleb Calloway *cry*), and it was a really fun time.
Chicago the city was also fun! I have yet to find a good boba spot, but I bought my new favorite +Ksubi jeans on sale and got a free room upgrade! It was also my first time (I think) taking the public transit into town, and wow. What a luxury. Chicago hits again, congrats on the 2025 travel destinations ranking placement.
Cancun, Mexico
I’ve been to Cancun soooooooooooo many times, but honestly I love it bahahah. You cannot make me hate Cancun. Aside from studying abroad, Cancun was my first experience traveling abroad, which really sticks with you. This time, finally, there was no hurricane hahah.
The primary reason for this visit was to celebrate my dear friends A&J and their new baby E! I attended their destination wedding in Cancun four years ago and they invited everyone back in October 2025 for the dopest sip-n-see I’ve ever heard of. We stayed at the Finest Playa Mujeres which is kid friendly and just amazing. It’s probably my favorite all-inclusive in Cancun.
I had my first tennis lesson, ate a lot of tacos, and watched a Mexican Halloween show. No not Dia de los Muertos. Mexican Halloween.
It’s…something.
But most joyful of all, I was able to catch up with A&J&E and spend some quality time with my blossoming friends. That’s the biggest reason Cancun ranked high in my 2025 travel destinations, it was such a beautiful time.
Outside of that, I also went to XENSES and a few new restaurants in Cancun. All great times.
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas will always be that chaotic city that keeps drawing me back. I love Vegas DOWN. I’m already booked for Vegas in 2026, so it’s no surprise it made the list for my 2025 travel destinations. But this highhhh??? What happened?
I visited for my friend RR’s bday (yup, same one from Blackpink!) just last month in November 2025. It also happened to be the same weekend as F1 Vegas.
Idk if I’d recommend that to anyone who isn’t also visiting F1 events.
BUT aside from the traffic and hassle of rerouting due to F1, I had a super fun time. I met more of RR’s friends (who I’m also claiming as my own now) and we ate goooood. We also had a fun night out clubbing, virtual racing, and post-buffet karaoke. It was only like, 2 days, which is honestly enough for Vegas lol, but we had a balllllll.
Palm Springs, California
Oh now we’re really getting into the favorites of the favorites on this 2025 travel destinations list. Palm Springs is one of my all time favorite domestic cities. If by some chance I win the lottery, I’d love to retire here.
I visited for Desert X 2025, which is a biennial outdoor art exhibition. I’ve gone to every one since the first in 2017, so it’s tradition now. I love Desert X, but in addition to seeing some really cool art, I also did a few tours this time around in March 2025! The main tour highlight was the Palm Springs Black Heritage tour which was incredible! Some of my family hails from Palm Springs, so it was really cool to learn about the city’s Black (and Indigenous) history.
But no, I didn’t say hi to said family members because they’re all coocoo for coco puffs.
On the same topic, the new Agua Caliente Cultural Museum opened in late 2023, so I finally got to visit and it is so so well done. The Sec-He Spa also opened, though they were all booked for the weekend I visited 🙁 Oh well, maybe next time!
A few other new things, I went horseback riding which was super fun and I also got a day pass to The Good House, a Black owned boutique hotel and spa in Desert Hot Springs. I would love to stay there as a guest next time! Such a lowkey chill spot. Great massages too!
Puerto Rico (for Bad Bunny)
I’ve been to Puerto Rico once before for WITS, a women-centered travel conference, but apart from driving out to Bad Bunny Beach, I only really got to explore San Juan. And as wonderful as San Juan is, I was finally able to see more of this beautiful island.
Technically, we were joined by our friend RR (shoutout for making the most cameos!!!) to see Bad Bunny’s groundbreaking residency, but before that, we headed to the city of Ponce in the southern bit of Puerto Rico.
It was extremely hot.
But the food was also incredible and we got to do a fun Don Q tour and mixology class! Highly recommend by the way. Then we headed back to San Juan for the immersive concert, some beach time, a lil clubbing, even more incredible food, and my first ever bioluminescence tour! It wasn’t that bright, but it was still super cool!
Japan
Japan snagged second place in this 2025 travel destinations round-up. If you know me at all, this shouldn’t be a surprise.
I love Japan.
This time though we headed to the northern island of Hokkaido for some winter fun in February 2025!!!
I was able to meet up with my longtime internet friend Yishyene from Small Crazy for the naked man festival in Noboribetsu. Yes, it’s called the naked man festival. I suppose it’s government name is the Noboribetsu Onsen Festival, but since it has a bunch of men in loincloths running around splashing each other with buckets of hot water….
Yeah, naked man festival.
It was such a fitting meet up for us, and wow she really is such a deeply wonderful person. And also a great snowboarder hahah. While our trips only overlapped like 1.5 days, it was just the start of an amazing trip to come.
Also in Hokkaido, we met up with our Japanese friend E who flew up from Tokyo to join our roadtrip in Sapporo. It was truly a winter wonderland of a trip. We then flew south (or rather west?) to Fukuoka, one of my new favorite cities in Japan, to gorge ourselves on ramen. Then we took the Hello Kitty Bullet Train (RIP) to Hiroshima for a lot of haunts and…bunnies?
Then it was back to Tokyo for my first time clubbing in Tokyo (RIPPPPP lol) and shopping. We did so much, and even though most of it was new, it still feels like I’ve only just scratched the surface of Japan. 10/10 trip. Can’t wait to go back and see more.
Pakistan
AND THE NUMBER ONE SPOT GOES TOOOOOOOOOOO
Jeevey jeevey yall.
Pakistan is at the top of my 2025 travel destinations. Pakistan not only exceeded my travel expectations, IT SET A NEW BAR. Because holy crap I had no idea the experience I was about to have.
This rave review is in part due to my fantastic group trip. I visited Pakistan in September 2025 with Ready for Road, a Pakistani travel company, and hosted by probably my longest travel blogging friend’s Eli from The Partying Traveler. He had been hosting Pakistan group trips for a few years, and he FINALLY added running water to his itineraries so I decided to join.
You can read my review of the group trip for the full scoop, but in short it was amazing. I mean, you could’ve probably guessed that since I put it as number 1 on this ranking of 2025 travel destinations haha, but I really can’t stress enough how great of a time I had.
But on top of the wonderful experience, it had also been quite a while since I visited a country that really challenged me. Challenged my comfort, challenged my understandings, and challenged how I was going to move through the world going forward.
That last time was when I visited China in 2019 so, yeah, it’s been a minute.
Thank you for that Pakistan.
Conclusion
And yup, that’s it! My complete ranking of my 2025 travel destinations!!! Again, this is just for fun and a good way to look back on the extreme fortune of being able to take even one trip for leisure.
Of the 16 trips noted in this 2025 travel destinations wrap-up, most of the domestic trips were on my long weekends. For those who didn’t know, for my main job I work a compressed schedule (3 and 4 days of 12 hour shifts) which allow me to have 3 and 4 day weekends every week. It also pays pretty decently. That’s the main reason I am able to travel so much.
For additional income, I have a second part time job and do some freelancing on the side. I don’t have any kids, though for my two cats I have an automatic litter box and an automatic feeder. I’m working on replacing their automatic water fountain haha. My boyfriend’s mom is also nearby, retired, and able to check in on my cats when I am away and is a HUGE help.
I really wouldn’t be able to travel as much without her.
I do have some long term chronic health conditions, but for the most part as long as I have my medication I am sufficiently able-bodied. I thiiiink that probably covers most of why or how I’m able to travel frequently 🙂
Depending on my mother’s health next year, I’m not sure what my travel forecast will look like in actuality for 2026, but so far is looking concert and adventure heavyyyy. I have some fun trips booked, this time leaning more new than repeat, and I’m super excited!
If you’ve made it to the end of my 2025 travel destinations rankings, let me know about your year in travel! What was your most and least favorite trip of the year (if you’ve had more than one) and where you hope to go in 2026!
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