What holidays I've got booked so far for 2020

I saw a tweet doing the rounds the other day that said something like 'not sure whether I should be saving for a house or booking holidays'. Well, I've already done the buying a house part, so it looks like there's no other option but to keep booking holidays to my hearts content! Which is a good job because after an impressive 5 new countries out of a total of 11 holidays last year, I'm a mission to do even better this year.

And in typical Jenni style, I'm already well on my way with 1 ticked off (Berlin) and 5 more booked. So with half of my holidays for this year already rubber stamped, I thought I'd tell you a bit more about where I'm heading...

Venice

I went to Venice with my mum back in 2017 and fell in love with the place. It was my first time in Italy and the country has held a special place in my heart ever since (I loved Milan just as much). So naturally, now that I'm in love (with a boy instead of a place), it's time to head back to the floating city that originally stole my heart. Cue lots of pizza, pasta, wine and gelato, as well as ticking off a few hot spots that I missed last time (like Burano).

The trip was dirt cheap (presumably because we're going in February) and the flights were only £40 return! Last time I went to Venice, I stayed on the main land just a short train away from the island but this time we're staying right in the thick of it, along the midpoint of the grand canal. We've done Air bnb (mainly because Ollie likes modern hotels and the ones in Venice are quite the opposite) and it worked out at about £100 per night. For the amazing location and a whole apartment to ourselves, I think that's pretty good!

Dublin

When I first booked to take Ollie to Dublin for his birthday weekend, I originally intended to keep it a surprise until the very last minute. But unfortunately, I take after my mum in the secret-keeping department (see also, no secret-keeping skills whatsoever) and told him about it 2 days after I booked it.

I've never been to Ireland before and this year, I want to see more of the UK and its surroundings; places you can go there and back in a weekend (with no annual leave days lol). The Dublin flights worked out perfectly for that with the outbound going early on the Saturday morning and the inbound coming back late on Sunday night. So we'll have a whole weekend to explore and celebrate!

I won't include which hotel I've booked (because I'm standing strong on keeping at least a part of this trip a surprise) but for anyone planning a trip to Dublin, the hotels are pretty expensive. Luckily the flights were reasonable so it evens out, but don't choose Dublin on the basis of it being close and hoping for a bargain because it seems quite the opposite.

Cologne

Easter weekend is a great time to book a holiday because you can go on a 4 day break without using any holiday (you can tell this is a big factor for me and my holiday booking process right?). Since me and my family haven't been away since our short stint in Krakow in November, we'll be about due some quality time by April and so we started looking for destinations.

After a bit of toing and froing (vetoing places I've been to recently, places my mum and dad have been to and don't feel the need to go back, or places I'm already planning to go this year), we landed on Cologne. The flights were very reasonable and there were loads of lovely hotel option but we eventually chose the Maritim, which looks really central and has a pool.

I haven't seen much of Germany before but after my Berlin trip, I'm excited to explore more and we've unknowingly booked the weekend when it'll (hopefully) be cherry blossom season in Cologne so I'm excited to (hopefully) see that.

The funniest part though is that Ollie is on a stag do that same weekend and it was going to be in Hamburg. So when I then booked Cologne, we were both going to be in Germany the same weekend. Then the stag destination got changed at the last minute; to Cologne! So we'll now be in the same place for Easter and are even on the exact same flight back. Let it be said right now that I am not following my boyfriend on a stag do - him and his stag do are following me!

Zimbabwe

I've then got a peachy little gap over the spring/summer months where I have nothing currently booked (but don't worry, I'll fill that soon enough), before my biggest holiday of the year. A holiday of a lifetime, if you will. Me and my family are flying to Zimbabwe for 4 nights at Victoria falls (split into 2 and 2 at different lodges) and 4 nights at the Hwange National Park for a safari.

A safari is something we've wanted to do for ages and researching it just highlighted to us how vast Africa is and how you can't possibly do it in one holiday. We were originally looking at including Cape Town too before concluding that that's a holiday of its own. So instead, we'll be spending just over a week doing rafting, hot air ballooning, breakfast at an elephant cafe, boat rides, game drives, high adrenaline activities and (hopefully) seeing the Big 5.

Cuba

Politics aside, the trade embargo between Cuba and the US is the reason that Cuba is filled with the beautiful classic American cars that it's now famous for. And with the vote moving more and more each year towards lifting the embargo, I really wanted to travel to Cuba before it all changed. So that pushed the country right to the top of my list and as such, it's mine and Ollie's main holiday this year!

We opted to go in November to avoid the rainy season, the hurricane season and December (who wants to go on their main summer holiday when the Christmas countdown has started?) and I'm already majorly excited. The holiday itself wasn't too expensive; £1,375 per person for return flights, transfers and hotel (bed and breakfast). We could've got it way cheaper (£800 for the same) but that would've meant indirect flights and we couldn't be bothered with the faff, so we paid more and have done a package with Virgin.

Cuba is somewhere that I'm majorly excited about because I've been in love with the idea of the place for as long as I can remember and I've never been to anywhere in the Caribbean before (despite a lot of my top must-goes all being there). The countdown is well and truly on!

Obviously it goes without saying but blog posts for each of the above are pending...