Here’s what’s coming up in 2026

It wouldn’t be a new year for me without having a whole lot of travel plans. So here’s a quick overview of what I have coming up in 2026.

You can certainly expect more details, like a detailed itinerary, as we get closer to each departure date.

Spring: a three-part adventure

I’m doing a two-month adventure in March, April, and May, but it’s really three separate trips back to back.

Bulgaria and Romania

I’m starting off with OAT’s Eastern Balkan Experience. I was supposed to do their tour to Bulgaria and Romania in the fall of 2024, but they canceled that tour. It seems they were getting some negative feedback, so they canceled all departures in 2024 and 2025, and they completely revamped the program

The tour starts in Bulgaria, where we will visit Sofia, Plovdiv, and Veliko Tarnovo. Then we head to Romania, with stops in Bucharest, Sibiu, and Brasov.

Budapest

We have one last night in Bucharest at the end of the tour, and the following day I will fly to Budapest for a week on my own.

I last visited Budapest in 1989, on my first trip to Europe. At the time Hungary was still behind the Iron Curtain. I imagine much has changed in 37 years!

The Silk Road

After my week in Budapest, I’ll fly to Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. There I’ll join another OAT tour, The Silk Road: Central Asia’s Ancient Trade Route.

The pre-trip extension covers Tajikistan, with visits to Dushanbe and Khujand. The main trip is all Uzbekistan: Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, and Nukus. And the post-trip goes to Almaty, Kazakhstan, and Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan, before ending in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan’s capital.

Summer: Southwest Indian Ocean

In June and July I’ll take my second trip of the year. I started planning by booking a tour with Explore! Worldwide called Madagascar: The Lost Continent. After my African safari in 2024, I knew I wanted to have more wildlife encounters, and Madagascar seems like a great place to do it.

Since I was already traveling a long distance to get to Madagascar, I decided to extend my trip by visiting some nearby islands. I settled on Mauritius and Réunion. 

I also want to see some parts of Madagascar that aren’t included in the tour, so I found a private guide to show me those places.

I’ll have five nights in Mauritius and four nights on Réunion, and I’ve booked day tours to various parts of both islands. Then the Explore! tour of Madagascar starts in the capital, Antananarivo, and ends there after fifteen days visiting national parks, wildlife reserves, and cultural sights.

After the tour I’ll fly from Antananarivo to Morondava. I’ll stay there one night and then meet my guide, who will take me to Bekopaka, gateway to Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park. I’ll stay there three nights, then return to Morondava for a final night, and an early flight back to Antananarivo before heading home.

Fall: East Asia

My third trip, in the fall, includes two back-to-back OAT tours: South Korea & Japan: Temples, Shrines & Seaside Treasures, followed by China’s Imperial Cities, Natural Splendor & Modern Marvels. And then my first ever Road Scholars tour, Walking Western Japan: Mountain Paths and Hidden Temples.

The first tour includes a pre-trip extension to Mongolia, including the capital city of Ulaanbaatar and the Gobi desert for a total of nine nights. Then we head to Seoul for five nights. Finally, in Japan, we’ll visit Tokyo, Toba, Kyoto, and (on the post-trip) Hiroshima.

The second tour starts with the pre-trip extension on Taiwan, with five nights in Taipei. From there we fly to Shanghai, and the tour in China includes Guilin, Chengdu, Xian, and Beijing. Then I’m doing the post-trip to Tibet. 

At the end of the Tibet post-trip, we return to Beijing for one night. From there I’ll fly to Fukuoka to being the The Road Scholar tour. This is going to be at a much faster pace, with mostly one-night stays and hikes from place to place. It’s on the island of Kyushu, which is not covered at all by the OAT tour.

Since this trip isn’t until fall, and I have two other trips first, I haven’t begun making any additional plans, but it’s possible I will do some additional traveling before or after. In fact, the Road Scholar tour was my first “additional plan,” added to my itinerary since I originally wrote this post.