Kate’s Holiday Bucketlist for 2017

Dexter, (12 going on 18), is currently fixated with visiting Japan. Or, less specifically, “anywhere in Asia please.” I have no idea where this obsession has come from, other than to say it’s probably my fault for hosting Japanese students as a favour to his big brother’s school when Dexter was growing up. Which, as an aside, is an awesome thing to do and we all loved every minute.

But I totally agree with him that it would be an amazing place to visit, and so very different to anywhere we’ve ever been before. I think it’s ‘slightly’ out of our budget (SO out of our budget), but stranger things have happened. I was invited to Korea last year, but couldn’t go because it was his 11+ … so please send us both some positive Japanese vibes!

He’s yearning to be surrounded by new technology, bright lights and sushi … and I’m yearning to do Tai Chi under a Cherry Blossom tree in a big park next to a temple. Not quite on the same page, but, budget permitting, I could make it work.

There are two places I’ve been thinking about visiting in 2017 – one is quite attainable, if I start saving now, and that’s Croatia. It looks like such a beautiful country and Dexter is curious too, which is always a good thing bearing in mind it’s hard to tear him away from YouTube. I’ve seen a few vlogs about Croatia, I think Rick Stein may have visited in one of his programmes and a friend of mine, Clare, went to a music festival there this summer – all of which have only added fuel to the fire, so Croatia is definitely at the top of my bucketlist.

And secondly, the Maldives. Now this might not be possible until I win the lottery, but I was watching a vlog last night by Fun for Louis and he’s currently out there with his girlfriend. I think it might be a sponsored deal with Baros, an exclusive 5* resort on a tiny island (that takes only 10 minutes to walk around), but it worked. I’m sold. (And I’m not paid to mention it here!)

You take a water taxi direct from the airport to the island, with your private hosts for your stay, you’re given sarongs to wear around the island, the food is incredible, your ‘hotel’ room is at the end of a pier, jettied out onto the water and you even have your own swimming pool. It’s absolutely stunning, and a girl can dream right?!

Something a little more low-key I’d like to do more of in 2017 is visit more of the UK. We have had some really special weekends away in the UK this year, visiting places we’ve never been to before, and doing things we’ve never done before (me in a wetsuit, enough said), so I’d like to do more of that. Perhaps a country lodge somewhere in the country, or another attempt at surfing, but perhaps in Cornwall this time … the UK really does have a lot to offer.

Oh, one more thing, I was invited to New York by my lovely blogging friend Alice, but, as Dexter and I have never been to America before, I’m not sure he’d ever talk to me again if I went without him, so I’ve decided to think on that one, and hope that if I do go, he’d forgive me! In time, anyway.

So that’s some food for thought. It’s always good to talk about your dreams out loud, however big or small, just so you’re ‘putting it out to the universe’ in the hope that at least one of your dreams might come true one day.