Oh, the best places we went in 2014!
Call us the Globetrotters, not because we’re that good at basketball, but because the Hello Giggles editors and contributors went everywhere this year.
Rachel Grate: I visited Portugal when I was studying abroad, and the beautiful castles in Sintra made me feel like I was living in a fairy tale. There’s one on the top of a hill in a national forest that’s painted rainbow colors and has a view of the ocean. Come on — places like this just don’t exist in real life!
Margaret Eby: New Orleans. It’s only a couple hours from where I grew up, and I always love visiting, but this year I went down there to do research for a book I was working on, plus meet up with a close friend of mine who works there as a charcuterie chef. It was three days of blissful walking around, meeting people, and eating meat.
Elena Sheppard: A great friend and I went to the Amalfi Coast in Italy, and good god was it gorgeous. We basically just binged on spaghetti, drank amazing wine, swam in beautiful coves, and hiked through incredible mountain towns. Take me back please!!
Carly Lane: A road trip to Atlantic City to see Huey Lewis and the News at the House of Blues. It’s hip to be square.
Elizabeth Entenman: This summer I went on a road trip from NYC to Minneapolis and stopped in Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Milwaukee along the way for baseball games. I saw old friends, made new ones, and discovered lots of local haunts!
Piper Weiss: I found a weird secret beach on the edge of Brooklyn one summer afternoon. It wasn’t even open to the public but people who lived in the area knew about it. There were all kinds of trails that led to an abandoned airplane hangar. It was really romantic, creepy, and felt like one long dream.
Sophia Elias: Plymouth, Michigan. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, so I was also able to visualize all of the goofy stories my dad told me about growing up.
Caroline Gerdes: So, 2014 has been a pretty fulfilling travel year for me. I started the year living in Washington, D.C., and moved to Pittsburgh in March. In May, I went to France, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. It was my first time in Paris and it is now one of my favorite cities. I shopped at little boutiques, drank rosé, ate Ladurée macaroons, and felt like I was in heaven.
Gina Vaynshteyn: I went to Seattle for AWP (a convention for writers and small presses), and it was way awesome. Seattle is such a rad city — there are so many amazing restaurants, bars, shops, and OH THE COFFEE. AWP itself was super great, and I got to meet the brilliant Roxane Gay, among other writers I’ve been reading and following.
Brittany Allen: This cemetery on the edge of Old San Juan in Puerto Rico. I went there with my SO this summer and it was the most beautiful view.
Lindsey Robertson: Roosevelt Island. It’s a little island between Manhattan and Queens that used to be a penitentiary and psychiatric hospital. There are apartments there now, and it’s really quite cute, but it’s also kind of creepy.
Jill Layton: Just got back from visiting the Outer Banks in North Carolina. I’m getting married there in April, so that’s definitely my favorite place of the year. And of next year too, probably.
Rachel Paige: I’ve been to Universal Studios in Florida before, but this year I went to go visit the new Harry Potter area, Diagon Alley. I was completely blown away by it. Everyone needs to go go go, especially for the Butterbeer soft-serve ice cream.
