AK Month-to-month Recap: December 2025

December was one in every of my greatest journey months in fairly a while, taking me to seven totally different international locations — 9 should you embody France and the Netherlands.

From the seashores of St. Vincent to the snowbanks of Vermont, let’s check out December 2025!

Locations Visited

• Willemstad and Sint Michiel, Curaçao
• Oistins, Bridgetown, Worthing, Speightstown, St. Lucy, Cherry Tree Hill Reserve, Bathsheba, Church Hill, and Welchman Corridor, Barbados
• Union Island, Petit Rameau, Mayreau, Kingstown (St. Vincent), and Port Elizabeth (Bequia), St. Vincent and the Grenadines
• Morne Docteur, Victoria, and St. George’s, Grenada
• Fort-de-France, Martinique
• Marigot Bay and Soufrière, St. Lucia
• Portsmouth, Cabrits Nationwide Park, Toucari, Savanne Paille, Morne Trois Pitons Nationwide Park (together with the Emerald Pool and the Middleham Falls path), Wotten Waven, and Marigot, Dominica
• Grand Case, St. Martin
• Philipsburg, Sint Maarten
• Revere, Beverly, Swampscott, and Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA
• Portland, Maine, USA
• Newington, New Hampshire, USA
• Waitsfield, Vermont, USA

PHEW. That was so much.

Highlights

The month started with two extra days in Curaçao. Whereas we had one wet day, we used that to go to the Curaçao Liquor Distillery and the subsequent day, we visited stunning Blue Bay, which was positioned in a gated group and type of jogged my memory of The Villages in Florida…however with a spectacular seashore.

Subsequent, we spent a number of days in Barbados. My impression of Barbados? It’s an ideal Caribbean island if you wish to DO ALL THE THINGS. There are every kind of excursions — historic, meals, water-based — and tons of nice eating places and bars. A number of totally different cities, every with a distinct vibe.

I beloved the white sand seashores in Barbados (Dover Seaside was the place we camped out one afternoon) and we did lots of cool excursions, together with the Barbados meals tour, a drive into Harrison’s Cave, and I did a round-the-island tour that gave me overview of the island.

And we had been fortunately on the island on a Friday, so we obtained to expertise the Oistins Friday Night time Fish Fry, which is a enjoyable evening out with music, camaraderie, and nice meals.

Up subsequent was our Star Clippers cruise by means of a number of Caribbean islands. Star Clippers hosted me and Charlie for every week on the Royal Clipper, which was a unbelievable expertise I haven’t stopped fascinated with.

The Royal Clipper is the star of the present. As I talked to the opposite company, I discovered that everybody right here comes for the ship particularly. It’s so elegant, and retro in one of the simplest ways. Each evening, you set sail and folks go as much as the solar deck to only watch the sails in movement.

This was Charlie’s first cruise ever (!) and my third small ship cruise, after Antarctica and Japanese Canada. However being on a clipper ship is a totally totally different expertise. You are feeling such as you’re crusing in Pirates of the Caribbean. Plus, you are able to do cool stuff like climbing the mast and sitting within the internet on the bow.

Our cruise departed from Barbados and visited Grenada, a number of islands in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (that is what drew me to this explicit itinerary), Martinique, and St. Lucia. Each island had one thing I appreciated about it, however I particularly beloved the castaway really feel of the Grenadines and the luxurious fantastic thing about St. Lucia.

Keep tuned for a full put up on the Royal Clipper expertise. There’s SO a lot to share.

Subsequent up was Dominica. I’ll admit that we had a a lot harder expertise right here than on different islands, which I went into in my worst journey moments of 2025 put up, however there have been some actions we loved, like the recent springs of Ti Kwan Glo Cho within the city of Wotten Waven, and the boat trip we took down the Indian River.

Dominica is just not the place for me, however I believe a few of you’ll take pleasure in it, particularly should you love locations which have little or no tourism.

Our ultimate Caribbean vacation spot was Grand Case, St. Martin — a city on the French facet well-known for its culinary scene. There are a LOT of fine eating places and cocktail bars on this city, together with small guesthouses, excessive finish boutiques, and some small however good seashores.

And to be sincere, Grand Case was the proper finish to our journey. We lounged. We ate. We briefly ventured to the resort-filled Dutch facet for a catamaran trip, which was tremendous enjoyable, however confirmed that we massively most well-liked the French facet. Did I point out the grocery shops have French merchandise for French costs?

We’ll in all probability return to St. Martin sooner or later, because the island is well-connected to each Boston and Europe and makes stopover. And you may go to so many islands by ferry from St. Martin/St. Maarten, together with Anguilla, St. Barth’s, Saba, and St. Eustacius.

Subsequent we headed to the States to spend time with my household for Christmas. Three Christmas dinners with varied relations, and journeys to Maine and Vermont! It was so good to spend time with household, although we had been up and down and far and wide!

This was my first time in Vermont in about 20 years — however immediately I fell again in love with the mountains, the small cities, and the quiet environment. Charlie’s impression? “New Hampshire is Temu Vermont.” I imply…

And we obtained again to Prague simply in time to throw our annual low-key New 12 months’s feast with buddies.

Challenges

I went into this in depth in my worst journey moments of 2025 put up, however Dominica was a tricky vacation spot for us. Dominica may be very totally different from different Caribbean islands — it’s not a seashore vacation spot, the island may be very undeveloped throughout the board (made worse after extreme hurricane harm in 2017), and the tourism business is thus at its nascent stage.

The hardest factor about Dominica was the roads — they had been in horrible situation, particularly within the north of the island, and driving them was so terrifying that my coronary heart was in my throat the entire time. And once we overnighted close to the airport in Marigot, we needed to drive throughout to only discover a place the place we may purchase meals. The final place closed at 5:50 PM.

I don’t say this to be important of Dominica, nor wouldn’t it be truthful to check it to more-developed islands. However I believe it’s essential to share what it was like so you may decide whether or not you need to spend your journey coping with stuff like this.

I do suppose it might have been so much higher if we had employed a driver, are available in by ferry reasonably than by airplane, did excursions out of Roseau, and introduced a stash of protein bars for when there was nowhere to eat.

Rattling, Barbados was costly!! Effectively, a lot of the Caribbean is dear, however Barbados left me aghast at a few of its costs. Notably when Charlie and I went to a restaurant for one order of waffles, one breakfast sandwich, and two cappuccinos and the invoice was $50 USD.

Having an allergic response to Elf on a Shelf cereal. Yeah, this was so ridiculous it was humorous. The cereal is made with meals dyes that include warning labels within the EU, and my cheeks turned so crimson, I appeared like an precise elf.

What I Watched This Month

Down Cemetery Street is a creepy British thriller on Apple TV+ starring Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson. It’s a restricted sequence — simply eight episodes — and because it’s primarily based on a ebook sequence, they’re making multiple season.

Now, I’ll be sincere. This began SO robust, with the type of cliffhangers that freak you out and make you need to binge straight by means of. The sequence is shot superbly (I really like how a lot cash they throw at Apple TV+ sequence), and there’s a lot attractive UK surroundings on display, particularly in Oxford.

And Emma Thomson and Ruth Wilson are a pleasure to look at, as they all the time are.

However because the sequence goes on, it begins to pressure credulity — approach too many plot holes and coincidences. The tone type of jumps round between seriousness and comedian reduction; it virtually looks like two exhibits.

Numerous viewers say that Down Cemetery Street is the weakest of the writer’s novels, so I’m hoping that they iron out these points within the subsequent sequence. When you love thrillers, UK surroundings, and Emma and Ruth, I nonetheless suggest it, although!

What I Listened To This Month

I’m listening to all 500 of Rolling Stone‘s 500 Biggest Albums of All Time, which I’m having fun with immensely. I’m loving discovering new artists and listening to albums I’ve one way or the other missed my total life till now!

In December, I listened to albums quantity 175-163. Solely 13 albums — not nice, however nonetheless one thing. It’s laborious for me to maintain up when on busy journeys like this one.

Favourite Discovery: There are two new albums that I beloved this month — however it type of felt like I had listened to them each earlier than, as they each have so many well-known songs!

The primary is the Saturday Night time Fever soundtrack. Clearly an iconic album — it’s one of many best-selling albums of all time, the one disco album to win Album of the 12 months on the Grammy’s, and it’s even within the Library of Congress!

And naturally I knew so lots of the Bee Gees’s hit songs from the soundtrack. However I completely adored David Shire’s rating for the movie, which is about pretty much as good as disco will get. And I LOVE disco.

The second is Billy Joel’s The Stranger. This album is INSANE. How did Billy Joel write so many excellent songs, all of them totally different from one another, on a single album?! “Vienna,” “Movin’ Out,” “Simply the Method You Are,” “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”?! I knew each single one in every of them, regardless of by no means listening to the album earlier than!

I really feel like he doesn’t get the songwriting credit score he deserves. He’s completely one of many greats.

When you’ve by no means listened to the complete albums earlier than, begin to end, I extremely suggest you give each a hear!

Different Favourite Discoveries: Folklore by Taylor Swift, Murmur by R.E.M., Bridge over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel, At Folsom Jail by Johnny Money.

Favourite Revisited Album: DAMN by Kendrick Lamar. You in all probability know by now that I’m a giant Kendrick fan — and DAMN is a particular album to me as a result of it’s a hip-hop album I associated to fairly a bit.

This album is an existential stroll by means of the thoughts of a person infatuated with loss of life. He makes a selection and is both saved or damned, relying on the order you hearken to the songs.

What I really like most is that there are recurring themes about being a artistic on the prime of your sport, the toll it takes on you, and the fixed terror that you simply’re going to lose it. That’s what I relate to, particularly “FEEL” and “FEAR.”

“DUCKWORTH” is without doubt one of the wildest too-coincidental-to-be-true tales ever instructed in a rap track. Oh, and this album was the primary non-classical non-jazz album to win the Pulitzer Prize. How about that!

Favourite Songs: “Manhattan Skyline” by David Shire, “Solely the Good Die Younger” by Billy Joel, “DUCKWORTH” by Kendrick Lamar, “Kissability” by Sonic Youth, “The Solely Dwelling Boy in New York” by Simon & Garfunkel.

Get the playlist: I’m making a playlist of my favourite songs from the five hundred albums — most one per album — on Spotify. You’ll be able to hearken to it right here.

Lowlight of the Month: The soundtrack to The More durable They Come. This was principally a number of variations of the identical track, which is an honest however not wonderful reggae tune, and whereas I admit it was influential in popularizing reggae within the US, I don’t know why it’s on this record.

What I Learn This Month

The Index of Self-Harmful Acts by Christopher Beha (2020) — After predicting each 2008 election consequence accurately and attracting a following, statistician and blogger Sam Waxworth is employed to be a author at {a magazine} and finally ends up getting entwined with a wealthy New York household, every member on their strategy to their downfall.

I take pleasure in novels that target a number of totally different characters all through the ebook, having the whole lot converge on the finish. And this ebook was like watching a automotive crash, particularly because you quickly be taught that each one however one character are horrible individuals (although very entertaining to learn).

Total, I couldn’t put it down. And the ending was fairly satisfying.

Depraved: The Life and Occasions of the Depraved Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire (1995) — The novel that impressed the musical, Depraved tells the story of Elphaba, a younger green-skinned woman in Oz who was the sufferer of a propaganda machine and became the Depraved Witch of the West.

Guys, I received’t say I hated this ebook, however I disliked it enormously. HOW ON EARTH DID THEY TURN THIS INTO THE MUSICAL?! It’s so totally different, it was like they plucked three small plot factors after which ran in a totally totally different course!

However sure. Your complete ebook was written in a approach that felt harsh and discomfiting, with some bizarre intercourse stuff thrown in for shock worth. Plus, Elphaba is a depressing particular person, whereas Glinda has no character. You understand how some books you simply need to keep in eternally? This was the alternative.

I’m genuinely surprised that this ebook turned a bestseller. I can see which area of interest fantasy followers would love it, however should you’re not into that…phew. I received’t be studying the sequels.

Coming Up in January 2026

Every year, I hold January freed from journey plans and spend the month working. I really feel lots of productive New 12 months’s power every year, and I really like using it out.

We’ve been having fun with a prolonged interval of subzero temperatures, which signifies that the snow has been sticking round rather more than normal! It’s such a pleasant improve from the same old grey days of January.

And it’s so good to be house after being away for a month, cuddled up with the cats. Murray is sleeping in entrance of my keyboard as I write this.

The remainder of the month can be quiet and comfortable.

What was your favourite second from December? Share away!