From a Dollywood festival in the Tennessee mountains to a Brazilian whitewater rafting adventure, G&G editors had plenty to write home about in 2024. Below, find a recap of our most memorable excursions and cherished travel keepsakes from the past year, plus a preview of where we’re headed in 2025.
Amanda Heckert, executive editor
Sunset in Venice, Italy.
2024 Highlight: After two-plus decades, I finally took my rusty Italian out for una passeggiata when I returned with my husband to Rome, Florence, and Venice for the first time since spending a summer studying abroad with the University of South Carolina. After gorging on all the gelato. All the chianti. All the cacio e pepe! We did all the walking, following the golden light that lends a beatific cast to millennium-old monuments, graffitied ruins, and gondola-swarmed canals alike.
Favorite souvenir: We got the biggest kick out of the gifts we brought back for our dads: Behind the Pantheon in Rome lies the tailoring shop of Gammarelli, a family that has turned out vestments for the Holy See since 1798. That’s right: For the appropriately modest price of less than twenty Euro, you, too, can wear papal socks. Blood red or passion purple silk, of course.
Travel plans: For several years now, I’ve felt drawn to Santa Fe. Is it the prospect of red-and-green-chile-sauced “Christmas” enchiladas? The indescribable landscape? The groundbreaking arts scene? The enchiladas???? I don’t know! But this year, I’m determined to answer the call and find out.
Caroline Sanders Clements, associate editor
2024 highlight: I had a big birthday in 2024, and to celebrate, I wanted to do something kitschy and sparkly and warmhearted—something that would make me feel like a kid again. Dollywood, naturally, checked all those boxes. I hadn’t been since I was in the fourth grade, and boy, did it live up to my memory. Plus, my October birthday weekend perfectly coincided with the Harvest Festival, complete with bluegrass shows across the park, peak Eastern Tennessee foliage, and ideal cinnamon bread weather (although to be fair, when is it not ideal cinnamon bread weather?).
Favorite souvenir: While in Fort Worth for a wedding, I picked up a Willie Nelson hat that has the word “Willie” scrawled on the front in the shape of Texas and gave it to my then-three-month-old nephew, Willie. Though it may be a few years before his head fits into it, his parents are getting good wear out of it in the meantime.
Travel plans: This summer, my family is planning to escape the Southern heat for a week of hiking, swimming, and exploring in the Catskills.
CJ Lotz Diego, senior editor
Irises along the banks of the Bayou Teche in Louisiana.
2024 highlight: New Iberia, Louisiana. I road-tripped from New Orleans to Iberia Parish to interview James Lee Burke before his statue unveiling on Main Street in New Iberia, a mysterious and beautiful bayou town that inspired many of his stories.
Favorite souvenir: On that trip, I stopped at Peter Patout’s home in a sugarcane field and wrote about it for the February/March issue of G&G. Patout sent me home with his homemade—and famous—kumquat preserves, the same ones Julia Reed shared here.
Travel plans: Quebec City. I have been wanting to visit this historic Canadian city ever since Bill Smith wrote about its charming people and inviting food scene. Fingers crossed I’ll make the journey there this year. Canada is within driving distance of my in-laws’ farm in Vermont, where I hope to spend Easter. We’ve got an epic egg hunt planned for my toddler nephew, with hiding spots aplenty in the pasture, and two new llamas watching over the flock of sheep.
Gabriela Gomez-Misserian, digital producer
Painting by the water in Rockland, Maine.
2024 highlight: In August, I left hot and humid Charleston for coastal Maine. I had always wanted to revisit after a day at the beach in Ogunquit as a kid, and I was able to talk my mom and dad into joining me for a three-day plein air painting workshop with the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland. My favorite observational painters come from the Pine Tree State: Lois Dodd, Fairfield Porter, Neil Welliver. It was so cool to set up my easel in the same landscapes that inspired them and stand before their work in real life at the Farnsworth.
Favorite souvenir: We flew into Portland before driving through charming seaside towns to Rockland. There are lots of eclectic shops scattered throughout the town, specializing in handmade ceramics, gardening tools, and curious home goods. I picked up a pair of ash-wood pruning shears from the Post Supply and uber-comfortable deerskin gloves from Viand, both of which have already been put to good use in my new Charleston garden.
Travel plans: My dad is turning seventy this year, and we’re all celebrating with a big trip to Bozeman, Montana. I’ve heard my dad dream about going to Yellowstone for years, so I’m excited to get outside somewhere new with some reins and a fly rod in hand.
Dave DiBenedetto, editor in chief
All smiles in the Bahamas.
2024 Highlight: I’m not usually a resort guy, especially in the Bahamas. I prefer a bonefish lodge with the only necessary amenity being a bar that serves cold Kaliks. But this past fall my extended family (nineteen adults and nine kids under thirteen) gathered at the massive Baha Mar resort in Nassau, and we all had a blast. The water park with its towering waterslides, surf simulators, wave pools, and a bar at every turn kept all delighted. Yes. I plummeted six stories on the Thunderball, an open-drop slide that will take your breath away. While expensive, the food was good, and the casino even better at taking my money.
Favorite souvenir: The best thing we came home with was kids smiling wide.
Travel plans: This February my wife and I are taking the kids on their first ski trip to the quaint (and beginner-friendly) Cataloochee Ski Area in Maggie Valley, North Carolina. Perfect prep for a trip out West in 2026.
Stacy Hollister, managing editor
Inside the Louvre Pyramid in Paris.
2024 highlight: Generous friends and the siren call of Taylor Swift and the Eras Tour prompted a first-time visit to the City of Light. All the usual (much loved, much touristed) sights were seen—a sparkly Eiffel Tower (at day and night), museums and paintings aplenty, a cruise along the Seine, the palace of Napoleon, the gardens of Monet. Pain au chocolat was consumed on the daily. And the adventure culminated in one glorious evening in París La Défense Arena with some 40,000 of our newest and closest friends.
Favorite souvenir: Butter. Salty French butter.
Travel plans: As a nascent South Carolinian, my hope for 2025 is to explore as many of the within-driving-distance nooks and crannies of the state as possible.
Elizabeth Florio, digital editor
The enchanting Sonoran Desert in March.
2024 highlight: Though I’ve visited family in Scottsdale, Arizona, in the past, I never appreciated the city as a tourist destination until a recent stay at a spa resort on the edge of town. We got massages, ate delicious Tex-Mex, and took a day trip to the red rocks of Sedona. But the best part was sipping coffee on our patio in the Sonoran Desert, which looked as still as a stage set with its spiny leaves and statuesque cacti—until topknotted quails, fleet-footed cottontails, and the occasional javelina scurried into the scene.
Favorite souvenir: I never went to Disney World as a child, so when my mother-in-law mailed blank autograph books to my kids ahead of our trip there, I thought they were scribble pads and left them at home. One frantic gift-shop stop later, we had new ones just in time for our “character breakfast” at Animal Kingdom. The books are now filled with signatures and safely stowed in keepsake boxes.
Travel plans: We’re heading to London this spring, and I’m packing my wellies for some jaunts to the countryside.
Emily Daily, newsletter editor
Fuzzy sea otters in Morro Bay, California.
2024 highlight: Two of our memorable family getaways last year were a few thousand miles in opposite directions from our Charleston home. In July, we explored the little villages in southwestern Ireland’s County Kerry, strolling along the coastal cliffs, stuffing ourselves with fish and chips (and a pint or two of Guiness), and ogling the ancient castles atop the emerald-green hills. A few months later, we headed to another oceanside destination—Central Coast California, where we spotted sunbathing elephant seals, playful sea otters in Morro Bay, and (alarmingly loud) sea lions lounging in the marinas.
Favorite souvenir: A handful of seashells from an Irish beach and a massive box of goodies from the Brown Butter Cookie Company in the tiny surf town of Cayucos, California.
Travel plans: In April, the Bluegrass State beckons for one of my favorite weekends all year—the Kentucky Three-Day Event in Lexington, a must-visit for horse lovers.
Lindsey Liles, digital reporter
Rafting in Florianópolis, Brazil.
2024 highlight: I used to live in Brazil and returned this year for a wedding, my first time back in five years. My husband and I revisited our old stomping grounds in the far-south city of Porto Alegre before driving to the gorgeous Itaimbezinho Canyon for some hiking. We capped everything off with a week on the beautiful beaches of Florianópolis, where we signed up for a “beginner-friendly” whitewater rafting adventure that was a trip highlight mostly because we felt so lucky to have survived it.
Favorite souvenir: A Brazilian gaucho-style knife with a Damascus blade and a beautiful wooden handle, meant for slicing steak but which I use when there’s the slightest need to cut anything at all.
Travel plans: 2025 is going to be the year for a Mexico trip. I’ve long admired the art of Oaxaca—I even got to write about my favorite artists for G&G here—and I think it’s time for an in-person visit.
Allyson Sloway, social media director
2024 highlight: Palm Springs, California, although not my hometown, feels pretty dang close. When I was growing up, my grandparents had a house there that we treasured—pulling into the complex was akin to an instant deep sigh. Sadly, they finally sold a few years ago, but we rented a similar space out for my grandma’s twenty-ninth birthday back in August. (Not a typo—she’d never let me divulge the actual milestone.) I have a few must-hits for the area, like Pioneertown near Joshua Tree, the Parker Hotel’s Counter Reformation, the Kimpton-Rowan rooftop pool, and the Ace Hotel pool, but honestly, my favorite moments were spent reading, grilling out, and doing absolutely…nothing.
Favorite souvenir: A few lavender flowers, now dried, that I plucked from a lavender farm on Cape Cod. I keep them on my nightstand, and seeing them brings me instantly back to frolicking through the fields with my cousins and spotting the farm’s hidden fairy castles.
Travel plans: For the last several years I’ve traveled through the South for work, and it has been an incredible experience. However, I’ve decided that 2025 will be the year for traveling abroad. Luckily, my friends have made this easy by planning weddings in Costa Rica and Mexico. To round it out, I’ll be visiting my mom at her home swap in Ireland and visiting a best college friend at her home in Norway.
Chris Kraft, chief digital officer
Belfast City Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
2024 highlight: Belfast, Northern Ireland. For most of my life, I never dreamed of playing tourist here. Yet there I was in May, on a one-on-one tour of places where the Troubles played out in violent fashion for some thirty years starting in the late 1960s. Michael, my guide, grew up amid the chaos and showed me the “peace walls” that divided the city, the sites of bombings, and the murals that memorialize the conflict. While there, I also spent time in lively bars and restaurants, seemingly a world and centuries away from the darkest days. It’s a beautiful, complicated city.
Favorite souvenir: Lots of photos from various trips. Very fortunate to have visited several interesting spots through the year.
Travel plans: I haven’t spent much time in the Southwest, so I’m hoping to get to western Texas or New Mexico this year.
