From Orvieto to Thailand and the Norwegian fjords, these are the places that exceeded my expectations, helped me grow, and reminded me why travel can be life-changing.
Some travel experiences stay with you long after you return home. They shape how you see the world and yourself. Looking back on my travels, these are the places that left the biggest impact on me. Each destination exceeded my expectations, challenged my comfort zone, or helped me recognize confidence I didn’t know I had. These are the places that truly changed how I travel and how I see myself.
Orvieto
I vividly remember the first time I set foot in Orvieto in the summer of 2008. Orvieto is a hilltop Etruscan town in Umbria, Italy. It is halfway between Rome and Florence and built on top of a cliff with walls surrounding it. The actual town is dense with winding narrow streets and the perimeter looks over the Italian countryside, filled with vineyards. It is magical.
I was going to be studying abroad for the summer and was staying with other architecture students in a B&B that was just down the hill from the town, Casa Selita. The first time I set foot in town, I rode up the escalators with my roommate and came out from inside the dark escalators buried inside the cliffs into a magical medieval hilltop town. I felt like I was on the set of a Disney movie. We wandered through the winding streets to find the piazza where our school was. We walked down Via Lorenzo Maitani and were greeted by the afternoon sun reflecting on the gold mosaics on the Duomo.
Orvieto is one of the places I have returned to, and plan to return to again. On my second visit, 10 years after my first, it still felt just as magical and safe as I remembered. I will be back again.
Paris
There isn’t one single trip to Paris that I can point to where I felt a change, but each time I go back to Paris I can tell that I am different. Something about this City has made me recognize how I have changed as a traveler on each visit. My first time in 2008, I was approached multiple times by someone pretending to “find” a gold ring on the ground. I still don’t know what the scam is, but it made me feel unsafe.
On my second trip in 2018, I was worried about being alone, but had a completely different experience that helped me recognize a confidence in myself that I didn’t know was there, and I think it came from the different experiences I had in Paris.
On my third trip in 2025, I wasn’t worried. I ventured more into neighborhoods and found myself feeling safe and comfortable, I was a different person. Paris helped me see that.
Venice
Venice didn’t change me as much as the entire world changed when I was in Venice. I included it on this list since my life after visiting Venice was never the same. I arrived in Venice on February 29, 2020. I left work on a Friday, got on a plane, and arrived in Venice on the last Saturday night of Carnivale of 2020. When I departed, everything in Italy was fine. By the time I landed, there had been a few cases of Coronavirus in northern Italy. We were greeted at the airport by security in white hazmat suits with temperature guns they were putting to everyone’s forehead. At the time, I had no idea what was going on or why that was being done.
We wandered the streets that night, through the parties, and spent the next day attending a costume contest in Piazza San Marco and admiring the elaborate costumes and masks throughout the city. On Monday, we departed early and spent the day on the islands of Burano and Murano. Since we did not get SIM cards for our phones, we spent the entire day completely disconnected from the outside world and blissfully unaware of the news that broke that day.
We returned to our Airbnb to change and go out to dinner. Once our phones connected to the wifi, they blew up. News had reached the states of the outbreak of Coronavirus in Northern Italy. We spent some time checking the news, responding to frantic texts from family and friends and trying to figure out what to do. At the time, we didn’t know if we were going to be able to leave Venice, or if we would be quarantined where we were. That night, we decided it was best to go out for dinner and wine since we didn’t know if it would be our last night in Italy.
We were able to finish our trip. On our last night in Milan, the travel warning for Italy had changed to a level 4, do not travel. Our flights were the next morning and thankfully, we were able to make it home without issues. We were not allowed to return to work, and things were never the same. I still can’t believe I left work on a Friday and didn’t know that would be the last time I would work a full week in an office.
Porto
Porto was my first stop on a four-month solo trip in 2018. I didn’t speak Portuguese and I was really worried if I would feel safe in a country that I didn’t know the language. I was also worried about spending that much time alone. I had traveled solo before, but only for a few days or a week before joining friends again. This was the first time I was embarking on a trip where I would be solo for an extended period. There were a lot of unknowns.
Thankfully, Porto was a perfect place to start. I navigated to City, had delicious solo meals, tasted port, and went on a group tour of the Douro River Valley. Porto gave me the confidence to be able to continue on my solo trip.
Thailand
My first time in Asia was in 2023. I had done my fair share of solo travel, but I was worried about being in a completely different culture. Just like Porto, I found Thailand easy to navigate solo. The people were friendly, even riding songthaews in Chaing Mai with complete strangers felt safe and adventurous!
Another thing I was worried about for this trip was that I didn’t have time to plan as much ahead of time as I would have liked, and it turned out to be a blessing. I had my flights and accommodations booked, but no itinerary of what I wanted to do each day, no tours booked, no dinner reservations. In some cities, some of that needs to be booked ahead to not miss being able to visit, but I didn’t have that experience in Thailand. I arrived in Chaing Mai and walked into one of the may tourist offices that are everywhere, asked about what tours were popular, and booked one for the next day to go on a hiking tour with waterfalls. I did a similar things in Koh Phi Phi booking a boat tour for the next day. In Koh Lanta I booked my scuba diving excursion the day I arrived on the island. If I had booked these ahead of time, well, I probably would have chosen other tours, and I would have paid more. That being said, if you are in Thailand during a peak tourist season, you probably should book ahead, but I had no issues and found I paid less by booking last minute in person. Most of the tours were also offered on Get Your Guide.
Cordoba
Granada and Cordoba are on my list for being places that blew my expectations completely out of the water. After years of architectural history, I was excited to visit the Alhambra in Granada and the Mezquita-Catedral in Cordoba. The Andalusia region of Spain was already on the top of my list so I was starting out with high expectations.
I started out in Andalusia in Seville and found that even after years of Spanish, I had an extremely difficult time communicating. This region is known for speaking very fast with an accent and I felt like I suddenly knew absolutely zero Spanish.
After being completely humbled in Seville, I took a day trip to Cordoba to visit the Mezquita. This is the first time I got emotional and almost cried (maybe I did cry?) because of architecture. I don’t know if it was the first two weeks that I had spent alone or just feeling like I had my butt kicked in Seville, but that cathedral blew me away. I had seen photos of all the matching horseshoe arches and expected to love it. I had no idea how large it was and was completely overwhelmed by the scale of it.
Granada
I went to Granada to see the Alhambra. The Andalusia region of Spain was on my radar from all the architecture history classes I took in college and I wanted to see the Moorish architecture of the region in person. I remember getting off the bus in Granada and walking up narrow winding streets up hill to find my hostel in the Albaicin neighborhood of Granda. It was as if I had entered another world. Perhaps I should have expected the north African influence here, but I wasn’t and it blew me away.
Another reason the City of Granada left an impression on me was it was the first time on this solo trip that I left myself with a day with no plans, and it turned out to be such a blessing. I ended up meeting new friends in the hostel that I would see again in Malaga and Helsinki. I am such a planner so it was a good reminder to me that sometimes you need to leave yourself a little room in your plans to let the magic happen.
New York City
My first trip to New York was in high school for a Student Government trip, and I remember I was inspired to visit because of the show “Felicity”.
I made multiple trips after that over the years but the most impactful were the trips I made over three summers of being a camp counselor at a sleep away camp in Pennsylvania. This was pre-smart phones so I was navigating with paper maps and the transit maps inside subway stations. On those visits, I learned how to navigate a huge City on foot and on public transportation. I visited the MET by myself, the first time I went to a museum solo. It gave me confidence to navigate on my own.
Bergen and the Norwegian Fjords
My first stop in Norway was Bergen, the gateway to the fjords. On that trip, I did multiple hikes solo in the trails above the City. I had a paper map that I got from the tourist office in town. I was worried about hiking solo in a foreign country where I didn’t speak the language. It turns out, Norwegians are some of the friendliest people, especially when hiking. I found it easy and safe to hike solo and gained confidence to go on solo adventures outside of City limits.
My next stop in Norway was a couple nights in the tiny town of Gudvangen to go on an all-day kayaking trip with Nordic Ventures. I kept staring up at the cliffs of the fjords and seeing waterfalls everywhere and thinking this is the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. It was an experience I had on my bucket list and I am so thankful I did it. I wish I had done a multi-day trip with camping, but perhaps I still will. This place made me thankful for following my gut and deciding to stay in a tiny town just to be able to be able to stay in a place with the beauty of the Fjords.
What about you?
These places reminded me that travel is about more than checking destinations off a list—it’s about growth, perspective, and confidence. I’d love to hear from you: what places have had the biggest impact on you or helped you grow as a traveler? Share your thoughts or favorite destinations in the comments—I’m always inspired by how travel changes us all in different ways.
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