2019 Gold List

It is shortly before eight and I am waiting in the first class lounge of the Swedish Railways for my train to Linköping. Seeing all the Very Busy People eating breakfast at Scandic, I felt thankful once again for not having to be part of this world but rather having my green bike and my Nydala running trails.

While I could not resist some black coffee from Beirut Café, I have no international travel planned until 30 January next year when I am off to London and South Devon Ultra. As it stands now, this means that I will be in the UK when the new Brexit deadline expires on 31 January but I would not put too much into that ;-) Regardless of that, the fact that I am done travelling for 2019 also means that I can now put together my customary annual Gold List (click here for the 2018 and 2017 lists respectively). In total I travelled 73,909 miles, visited 13 countries (of which Ghana and Lebanon were new) and four continents. Here are some of my favourites.

Best Coffee: Kalei Coffee, Beirut
Best Independent Hostel: Somewhere Nice, Accra
Best Chained-brand Hotel: Alila Ubud, Bali
Best Airport Lounge: Polaris Lounge, SFO
Best Award Value: Upgrading Istanbul – San Francisco r/t to business class using my annual TK Elite Plus Vouchers