In April 2019 I was taken ill at work and rushed to A&E by a friend. I didn’t come out of hospital for almost 4 weeks after being diagnosed with meningitis. Theadora was just about to turn 1 and following my discharge I was then off work for a further 4 months whilst I recovered. In this time, I wrote a bucket list of things I wanted to do with my life…it’s strange how being so poorly can make you think about everything you haven’t done.
Over the past 6 years, despite the pandemic, I am really proud and lucky to say I have made quite a dent in my list. From visiting Silverstone to watch the British Grand Prix and attending both Ladies Day and the Grand National at Aintree, to raising money for charity by skydiving. One of my favourites was to visit St Lucia, here I am at Pigeon Island in December 2023 whilst on my Caribbean cruise.
(I raised over £700!)
However alongside all these amazing things, my ultimate goal on the list is to visit 30 countries before I turn 30. At the point of writing this post I am not doing too badly; I am 28 and have visited 22 different countries in my lifetime. So far I have visited the below countries (not in order);
| Spain | Scotland |
| Norway | Wales |
| Ireland | Antigua |
| France | St Kitts and Nevis |
| Bulgaria | Martinique |
| Morocco | St Lucia |
| Egypt | Barbados |
| Tunisia | Tortola |
| Austria | Dominican Republic |
| Greece | St Maarten |
| Netherlands | Sweden |
I love to book my holidays quite far in advance, because nothing motivates me like counting down to a holiday. This means I have bookings for another 9 countries next year alone. This means I should hit it before I even get to 2027 which is the year I turn 30! I could easily have done this already if I chose destinations, but then where is the challenge?! My dream is to spend my 30th birthday in New York so I can take a trip to Tiffany’s, so that would be my 32nd country.
You may be wondering how I have managed to visit so many different places and to be honest a lot of people ask me that, especially considering I have had a full time job since I was 17 and am a parent to a 7 year old daughter. The main answer is…I absolutely love to cruise. Since 2022 I have been on 2 cruises, visiting the Norwegian Fjords and the Caribbean. I have also booked another 3 cruises across 2026 and 2027. All being well, cruises will be responsible for 16 of my 32 countries by the time I get to my 30th birthday – that’s a whopping 50%. I will talk more in a future blog about why I love to cruise.
I am crossing all my fingers all my travel plans go ahead without a hitch so I can tick this off! Following my 30th birthday I will absolutely be turning this into 40 before 40….so watch this space!
Love, Beth x
Beth's Notebook 