I’m going to do something a bit different with my year in review post than in past years. Normally, this is an article to talk about where I went during the year, how many new countries I visited, count my number of flights, and remind both you and myself of some of the highlights. And yes, I’ll probably get to a bit of that at the end.

But today, as I am writing this, it is Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. And while I am not in services – as an atheist, the prayer part of the religion seems a bit pointless – Judaism is a huge part of my identity, and today is a great day for reflecting. So I’m going to observe the holiday here, with all of you.

2024 was a year where a lot went right. From a travel standpoint, I married some short (1-3 weeks) trips with a long 3+ month Europe itinerary. I saw friends and family, had new experiences, and ate some great food. More importantly, though, I found peace. Despite some challenges (food poisoning in Athens, unseasonal cold in Hawaii, a bus full of sick people on my Sicily tour, and more), I still was happier and calmer than my normal day to day at “home” in Los Angeles. I did my best to keep my anxiety under control and to not allow these things to ruin my own personal experience. That’s a big win for me.

As regular readers know, I have struggled with anxiety and depression throughout my life. As a result of those tendencies and my own failures at managing them, when things go wrong I can find myself spiraling downward. I’m not saying that didn’t happen this year; it did. But I did a better – far from perfect, and there is always more room for improvement – job of not allowing those spirals to consume me, and to emerge ready to make the most of what sometimes was a far from optimal solution. I’m proud of myself for that.

But I can’t take all of the credit, of course. This year, A traveled with me basically all of the time, with the exception of Sicily, when she stayed in London and then worked in Germany. Her presence is a big part of my remaining stable, despite the challenges that can arise out of traveling with a partner. And the highlight of my year was her telling me while we were in Greece that this was “the life she was meant to live.”

From the standpoint of The Royal Tour, 2024 was a challenging year. With Google making changes to their algorithm to push their own AI and Reddit to the top of search results, my blog hits are down well over 60%. While I don’t make money doing this, and largely have no intention of ever trying to do so, it has still been hard to see that. And it’s sometimes been hard to motivate myself to keep writing as much as I do when so few people (comparatively) are reading than in the past couple years.

It has led to a lot of reflection about what this is and why I do it. And while I tell myself that I write for me, for a sense of purpose, it is hard emotionally when I have a day when the readership just isn’t there at all. In frustration, I decide that maybe it’s not worth continuing. This is an area I need to work on in 2025, both from a blog standpoint (finding more readers somehow) and from a personal one (accepting that numbers don’t dictate my worth as a writer). It is ok to be frustrated, but I would like to be better at showing gratitude for those who do read, and for the life and sense of peace that this has given me.

Reflecting back to Jewish teaching today, we learn that “he who saves a single life, it is as though he has saved the entire world.” We are taught that a single being has as much divine presence as the entire world, and that caring for that one single person is of the utmost importance. I don’t pretend writing about travel is saving a life, but perhaps I can adapt this. “He who has inspired a single person to travel and to learn, it is as though he has inspired the entire world.” That makes me feel a bit better.

Bottom line, 2024 was a good year. I am lucky to have had this year, and this life. I’m still well under a decade out from my suicide attempt, and this bonus existence is incredible. It is crazy living a life on the go, but exciting, rewarding, and so much more fulfilling than I could have ever imagined my life to be, especially to do so with an amazing partner.

Yom Kippur is the day of atonement. And I’ve been far from perfect this year. I’ve been frustrated at what wasn’t when I should have been grateful for what was. I’ve been impatient at lack of results when I should have been amazed at the progress made. I’ve sometimes lost sight of the moment for focus on the larger picture, and allowed negativity to cloud my sense of awe. I will strive to be better, and acknowledge that I’ve come a long way already.

As always, The Royal Tour owes so much to a lot of different people, and my reflections wouldn’t be complete without expressing my overwhelming appreciation. To those who have contributed an article (or over a dozen in the case of Sam), thank you. Without your content and your perspectives, this website would be barer and poorer. To those people from various tourism boards, museums, and tour companies who have believed in me and my writing enough to make it worthwhile to host me, I am humbled at that belief, and I hope the stories I’ve written have been worth it. To my mother and A, who have spent so much time helping me to edit, thank you for helping me seem like a better writer than I am. And to every person who has read even a single article here, I hope to never take for granted that you chose The Royal Tour, for any reason.

Ok, now for some numbers. In 2024, I visited only five U.S. states, obviously none of which are new since I’ve been to all 50. I went to nine countries (plus a gray area one), of which one – Malta – was new, as was the gray area place (Scotland). It makes my total 61 full UN member states, and 71 including those semi-country places that some count and some don’t.

I actually found more excitement returning to places than in seeing new ones. Greece, Athens in particular, was a revelation to me. I was there more than a decade ago for a day, and hated it. So returning and loving the place was an experience I cherished.

I got to experience remains of Ancient Greece and Rome, and meet the Phoenicians for the first time. I marveled at the most beautiful cathedral I’ve ever seen (St. John’s in Valletta, Malta) and at Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in Japan. I smiled beneath cherry blossoms and cringed inside a mud volcano. I relaxed on beaches, summited a side crater of Mt. Etna, and sat in plush lounges sipping scotch. I am a lucky guy.

Thank you all for being a part of my year, and of my journey. I can’t wait to see what 2025 brings.