2025: A Year of New Adventures ✈️
Here's to year of more fun and more adventures
Happy 2025, all! 🎉
I hope everyone had a restful holiday season and found some time to start planning some fun travels. I’m just back from a week staying in our favorite Sunriver/Bend area of Central Oregon. It was a week of snow-filled adventures (skiing at Mt. Bachelor and a nighttime snowshoe tour with Wanderlust Tours), enjoying the good eats of Bend (eating twice at my favorite Thai restaurant in the U.S., Wild Rose), as well as lots of downtime with the family working on puzzles, binging TV shows, reading, daydreaming about travels, and writing goals for the year ahead. I’ve decided 2025 is the year of MORE - more adventures, more family time, more fun with friends, more veggies, more boundaries, and more sleep. While I am a big fan of the concept, “less is more,” who else is ready for a year of more fun and more adventures?
Let’s go!
Let’s Me (Re)Introduce Myself
If you a recent subscriber to The Gomes Guide, you are probably wondering…who is this person behind “The Gomes Guide?” Well, let me introduce myself! My name is Shannon Gomes. I’m a GenX mom based in San Francisco where I live with my husband and two teenagers. I grew up in Sonoma County, CA, studied abroad in London, and have lived in Los Angeles, New York City, and Boston. I’m a true “foodie” who has spent most of my career in Marketing & PR (primarily representing food & beverage brands). Besides my love of food, my true passion is travel. I fell in love with traveling as a young girl, have always loved sharing my travel & food recommendations, and I’m always planning my next trip. You can read more about me here, and why I started The Gomes Guide.
So, Hello! 👋 It’s so nice to “e-meet” you and I’m so glad you are here!
Survey Results
Many thanks to those who submitted responses for my recent Reader Survey request (note: there is still time to submit - the feedback line is always open!).
🌎 Here’s all the places you’d love to see The Gomes Guide cover this year:
Vancouver, Seattle, Galápagos Islands, Machu Picchu, India, Montana, The Grand Canyon, Italy, Idaho, Great Lakes, Bay Area Hidden Gems, Dublin, Edinburgh, New York City, Key West, Peru, Scottsdale, Puerto Vallarta, Norway Fjords, Denmark, Berlin, and Joshua Tree. Wow - what a great list of locations! I will do my best to ensure a majority of these places are covered this year.
You’ll also mentioned that you enjoyed my “Where to Eat” series that I launched with my favorite restaurants & bakeries San Francisco, so I plan to cover many more cities in ‘25 - highlighting the very best places to eat while there.
Again, I love receiving reader feedback so please share your thoughts here (only takes a minute or two). Many thanks!
What to Expect in 2025
As I’ve already hinted, I will be announcing some Gomes Guide news very soon (read: website & podcast). But in the meantime, I wanted to share a sampling of the list of locations I will be covering this year including: South Beach Miami, San Francisco neighborhoods, Yosemite, Costa Rica, Rome, Jackson Hole, Big Sur, Monterey, Carmel-by-the-Sea, plus many more (including as many locations as possible that were requested in the Reader Survey results).
My new “Where To Eat” series will be featured once a month here on Substack, and I will be share to share my favorite eats in cities such as NYC, Mexico City, D.C., Nashville, Paris, Lisbon and more.
Follow and Share
I’m just building up my Instagram and Facebook following, so if you aren’t already - I’d love it if you hit “follow” on both platforms. And if you are enjoying the weekly Substack emails from The Gomes Guide, I would be so grateful if you could spread the word to your friends and encourage them to subscribe (it’s free!). Here’s the link to copy/paste and send: Subscribe to The Gomes Guide. Thank you! 🙏
Here’s to an Adventurous 2025!
As you plan your travels for this year, I challenge you to pick at least one location that may feel a little “adventurous”/out of your comfort zone. You will likely be pleasantly surprised upon arrival by how wonderful the people are and how beautiful (and safe) the location is (despite what the media or friends say!). And once you are there, try new things! Try zip-lining, snowshoeing, white water rafting, paddle boarding, mountain biking, and fly fishing; take a cooking class or go on an interesting tour (I love using Airbnb Experiences or Get Your Guide to find and book tours/activities/classes while traveling).
Wherever you travel to and whatever new experiences you try this year, may they be adventurous, fun, and memorable.
Thank you for being a part of The Gomes Guide community!
-Shannon Gomes
I love your posts Shannon - nice work!
More here too! You are rocking it, Shannon!