Travel is full of lessons we can take into future trips. Photo / Sarah Pollok
Travel is full of lessons we can take into future trips. Photo / Sarah Pollok
After travelling around the US and Europe, Australia, the Pacific and, of course, Aotearoa, NZ Herald Travel journalist Sarah Pollok shares the lessons she’s learnt this year and shares her advice for travellers in 2025
Travel teaches us a lot—whether we take a quick road trip or a long-haul trip. You learn about destinations and cultures through museums, restaurants, and conversations with locals. You learn about yourself and your travel companions: how people react when they’re tired, hungry, or lost (or all three at once).
You also learn the art of travel: what to do (or not do) for better adventures. These lessons often come through experience, despite our best planning.
Reflecting on my travels this year as the Herald’s travel journalist, from as far as Utah to as near as Karangahape Rd, here are five experiences that will shape how I travel in 2025.
In August, I spent half a day in Sorrento near the Amalfi Coast and as I discovered, half a day was more than enough. My sister had warned me against the visit, describing laneways packed with sweaty tourists and shops selling identical sets of lemon-themed trinkets but I held out hope it would live up to the social media vision in my mind. It did not. After spending three hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic, (which I later read about in several reviews of my tour), we were tossed into a Disneyland version of an Italian town, filled with tourists and shops built for tourists.
Sorrento on a busy but typical day. Photo / Supplied
The main issue wasn’t the town itself (I do my best to curb my judgment towards places full of tourists, given I am one), but rather a mismatch between expectations and reality. I hadn’t researched whether I’d enjoy it and relied on Instagram-perfect posts.
A week later, I found myself much further down the coast in Minori (and I’m reluctantly sharing this destination) and my dreams of an idyllic tiny Italian town, full of old men playing cards and women baking on the beach, were fulfilled.
The difference? I poured hours into researching this second destination, combing through YouTube vlogs and diving into Reddit threads to find a spot that aligned with my desires. Travel’s unpredictability is part of the charm, but in 2025, I’ll spend more time researching both “hot spots” and lesser-known alternatives.
If you want to foster a friendship or rekindle romance, a couples’ trip appears an obvious answer. Alone together, you’re guaranteed hours if not days of quality time to talk and bond as you explore a destination or enjoy activities.
In 2025, however, I’ll be swapping intimate two-person getaways with trips involving other people, whether that’s via an organised tour or a destination that promotes meeting new people. Why? Because this year I’ve learned how others can enhance your trip as a pair.
The impact was most apparent during a trip to the Sunshine Coast with my husband. Craving quality time, we initially wished we were travelling alone but alas, it was a group trip with 14 other people. Yet, flying home after the weekend, we felt closer than ever. Why? Because, amongst a group, there was far less intensity, less pressure to entertain or be around your travel partner all day. Instead, you could peel off to chat with others, then return to your other half throughout the day.
Photo / Sarah Pollok
I then realised the “common thread” between other successful pair trips with my sister, mother and friends was this element of others to socialise with; a way of releasing some of the pressure that can naturally build during intense periods together.
Wait for the ‘one big trip’
There was a brief moment, around 2020 and 2021, when the country collectively fawned over Aotearoa. Unable to travel abroad, we explored our country and vowed to keep enjoying our backyard for years to come. Then, international travel returned and many of us couldn’t get on a plane fast enough.
This year, instead of spending most of my time in Auckland and then going on a few big long-haul trips, I decided to lean into domestic getaways, even just for a weekend. Through this, I was reminded how easy it can be to fit a cheap and quick trip into your schedule. Instead of exhausting long flights and days lost entirely to transit, one can arrive at a destination in mere hours and still enjoy world-class experiences, whether it’s a New York-style city hotel or luxe wellness spa, private island retreat or vineyard zipline experience.
There's a reason people travel from around the world to visit Aotearoa. Photo / Sarah Pollok
I’m not saying one should pretend a trip to the Coromandel is just like visiting the beaches in Greece (although I’d argue some of our beaches are better). But next year I do want to sprinkle more domestic jaunts through the year rather than waiting for that “one big trip”.
Snub tours or guided experiences
My hesitation regarding pre-organised “cookie-cutter” travel experiences or group tours is no secret. Yet every time I take a tour, I’m surprised by how much more richness I can squeeze out of a destination, compared to when I skim its surface on my own.
When my mother suggested paying $100 for a tour of the Parthenon in Athens, I scoffed. We weren’t history buffs and had even considered skipping it altogether. Thankfully, she convinced me and it’s become something I recommend all visitors to do. Alone, I could only have appreciated what I could see which, at an ancient attraction, is often crumbling buildings and dust. Our guide, however, brought each building and brick to life with rich stories and secret details. We experienced the same thing during a free walking tour the next day, where a local showed us things one can’t see (the storied past and complex culture) while we wandered through the streets.
The Parthenon in Athens is best visited with a tour guide. Photo / Sarah Pollok
This isn’t to say all tours or organised travel is perfect; I know I need a decent amount of autonomy. But in 2025, I want to embrace tours and experts more wherever I go to get the most out of a destination.
In 2024, I embarked on dozens of adventures but you’d never know it from my camera roll or Instagram feed. And while I feel deeply uncomfortable with the implicit vanity of asking someone to take my photo, I’m always envious of other tourists happily posing before beautiful scenes or famous attractions.
For some people, a photo isn’t important but for me, there’s something uniquely satisfying about a photo of yourself in a place. It’s not just yet another picture of Bali’s rice paddy fields, but you there, with friends or family.
Solo travel can make it easy to snap photos of others but much harder to get a photo of yourself. Photo / Sarah Pollok
One workaround I devised during a trip with my mother this year was embracing the wide-angle “0.5 selfie” fellow Gen Zs love to take. Rather than avoiding the cringe, we laughed at ourselves and leaned into the silliness. As a result, we have a collection of joyful memories together in incredible places.
In 2025, I want to lean even further into being the “cringe tourist” who asks for a photo because as awkward as it feels in the moment, it’s worth it for the memory.
