Hi, I'm Kelly McEvers, and this is Atlas Obscura.

We are getting close to the end of the year, but before we finish 2025, all of us here at

Atlas Obscura want to share some reflections about our travels this year, the new things

we learned, experiences that made us think differently

about travel and the world, and the lessons we are taking with us into the new year.

Okay, so I'll start. I feel like I learned a few things this year in my travels. First one is

just this idea that I can't stop thinking about that I heard from an

editor once. And that was when in doubt, go. Like, if you have the position and the privilege and the

means to do a thing and a thing is being presented to you, do the thing. And so I was looking

back on the list of all the places I went this year. It's a when in doubt go kind of list.

I'm just going to read right now. San Francisco, Palm Springs, Taos, New Mexico, Costa Rica,

London, Spain, Mayorka, France, including Marse, and Nice, Scotland, the Eureka Dunes in Death Valley, Hemez Springs, New Mexico, Santa Cruz, California, San Luis Obispo, California, Mendocino County, California. And then pretty soon I'm going to Mexico and to Yosemite, all of that before the year is over.

That was just a lot of different things that came up. Some of them were purely travel. A lot of

them were actually related to being with people that I loved. And I just have thought about this

a lot lately. Life is short. And what is more important than our relationships with our family and our

friends at this time or at any time. So when I had the chance to go, I went and I'm really glad I did.

Okay. Here's the episode.

My name is Jerome Campbell, and I'm a producer with the show.

My travel reflections from this year are about getting back into Amos car travel.

I live in Los Angeles, and during COVID, I was living with two friends in very close quarters.

And I just really needed to get out of the house.

It didn't matter where, and I don't think I really had any plans of where I wanted to go.

...