2025 TRAVEL: Where We Went This Year
ICYMI, we hit 30 locations over 52 weeks
The year that’s about to end involved the most travel we’ve encountered yet for Photowalks, reaching north, south, east and west.
If you’d like to follow along, here’s some quick thumbnail descriptions of our visits. I was inspired to write this by seeing the 52 travel places the New York Times brought readers to in 2025. My location choices were rather different, with nothing more exotic than the best of the USA and a Japan trip. Just remember in reading along that we all love different things: I’d rather eat grilled cheese than caviar. I’m that sort of person.
So take my comments with a grain of salt.
January:
Las Vegas: we returned for the annual CES electronics show, once again, and did an episode on where to see the best under-rated desert spots, including Valley of Fire State Park and the nearby Nelson ghost town. I attended another conference in New York, and while there, during 10 degree weather, did a Photowalks episode on how to get great photos of the city indoors.
February
At the IMM conference, I met Chris Stanley, who told me about the beautiful Texas island community of Galveston, a place I’d never even considered visiting before. But I liked what he had to say, and jumped at the opportunity to check it out. Chris promised a small Gulf Coast city with “historic architecture, beaches, diverse people, a lot of restaurants along with nature opportunities,” and he wasn’t kidding. Plus, did you know that the Juneteenth holiday started in Galveston?
March
New Orleans. Continuing our visit to the Gulf, we returned to New Orleans for the first time in several years. My friend Trevor Hughes from USA TODAY just wrote a piece on what a tough year NOLA has encountered, starting with a terrorist attack and prison escape, political scandals and more. I focused in my episode on the positive: the never-ending spirit of the locals, the amazing music and food scene and wonderful architecture. Let the good times continue to roll.
April
Chicago. From one great city to another, we began our unforgettable drive from the Windy City, up and down nearly 2,500 miles of Route 66, (which turns 100 in 2026) all the way to the Santa Monica Pier. Here, again, we fell in love with the architecture, and when it comes to food, Chicago is my kind of town: deep dish pizza, Italian beef sandwiches and those great hot dogs!
Springfield, Ill. Talk about an under-rated town! Our second stop on Route 66 brought us to Lincolnville. This isn’t where Honest Abe was born, but it’s where he practiced law and called home, before moving to the presidency. One of the great museums is in Springfield, devoted to Lincoln.
St. Louis. It’s hard to do a rural backroads Rt. 66 trip and end up in a big city with massive gridlock. That’s my memory of St. Louis. Yes, going and seeing the Arch, the largest statue of its kind in the United States, was fun, but I preferred the next stop, Joplin, Missouri, for some of the prettiest, and greenest countryside we encountered on the trip.
Springfield, MO. Yes, another Springfield, the one where we stayed in the Elvis suite in a pink cadillac bed at the Best Western. And not just that! The city is where the “Corn Dog” was invented at the Cozy Dog diner. Plus, there’s a really cool Steak N’Shake that looks just like it did in the 1950s.
Tulsa. Another city, but easier to navigate, and so much to see! Some of the best Route 66 neon along the route, and two amazing museums devoted to Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan.
Stroud. Gotta love a town named after your wife.
Oklahoma City was mighty pretty, as the song goes, but not as memorable as Tulsa. That is, until viewer Mike asked if he could drive me around to the outskirts of town, and we got to go to the round barn, Pop’s soda bar and the backstreets of Luther, where I picked up one of the my favorite photos from the trip.
May
Amarillo. This little city in Texas is known for one thing: steak. Big steaks. Steaks that are so huge, they dare you to eat them—and if you can, they’re free. We didn’t take the challenge, but enjoyed the Big Texan, and the row of antique shops right there on Rt. 66—along with those Cadillacs buried in a field on the side of the road.
Tucumcari, New Mexico. The great band Little Feat once sang about this town in the song “Willin.’” “I’ve been from Tucson to Tucumcari, Tehachapi to Tonopah.” If you haven’t there, Tucumcari was once really popular, but fell apart when the great highway came in and stopped routing 66 drivers to the town. At one time, it had some of the best neon on the road—and in fact, many of those signs still exist and are incredible. But there’s also a lot of sadness in town, with too many deserted motels, restaurants and businesses.
Alburquerque. You all know the biggest city in New Mexico as the fictional home of the Walter White family from “Breaking Bad.” The scenery is amazing. But before we arrived, I read an article in the NY Times that said the city suffered from some of the worst crime in the U.S. and that an area near Route 66 was called “the war zone,” by local officials. That got me in the mood! Luckily, we didn’t experience any issues, despite walking considerable miles around town. The people were incredibly friendly, and we had a great Mexican feast at the Garcia’s restaurant.
Flagstaff. One of the most under-rated small college towns in the U.S., a small city in Northern Arizona right on Route 66, pine trees everywhere, with a very walkable downtown (actor Ted Danson narrates the city walking audio tour) and it’s a dark sky city—great for astronomy. That town that Nat King Cole didn’t want you to forget—Winona, is just a few miles away.
June
Detroit. The Motor City, which everyone told me had come back from bankruptcy and the dead. I saw some beautiful art deco buildings while I was there, a gorgeous riverfront and beautiful new buildings, but I also couldn’t help but notice too many abandoned homes. That said, all I really remember is amazing Detroit style pizza at Buddy’s, which I liked even more than Chicago deep dish.
Cincinnati. A totally under-rated city with amazing architecture (more striking than Chicago) great people, beautiful views from all over (especially the Kentucky side) and would you believe it’s the most popular travel video I produced this year, based on YouTube views?
Cleveland. Another under-rated city, the home of Superman’s birth and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, more art deco and a revitalized downtown.
Columbus. The largest of the Ohio cities, thanks to Ohio State, Columbus is where fast food restaurants go to test new recipes, and is the U.S. capital for the production of whistles. Who knew?
August
Glacier National Park. We stayed at one of the great KOA campgrounds (at KOA’s invitation) just about three miles from the park, one of the most popular tourist spots nationally. But it’s not as crowded, in any way, as say Yellowstone, in the southern part of the state. Still, we had to arrive early to visit, and so glad we did—that’s when the light was best for photos.
Missoula. This Montana college town is where a river indeed ran through it, has views everywhere you look, great people and is only 90 minutes south of Glacier. I’ll never forget my rafting trip, and getting to do my first in-raft interview for Photowalks.
Cranbrook, BC. KOA also suggested we go over the border to British Columbia, about an hour’s north, and visit another one of their camps. While the people couldn’t have been friendlier and accommodating, in Canada, many campgrounds there are referred to as “RV Parks,” and that’s exactly what this was. We stayed in a nice cabin, but we were surrounded by RVs—not exactly the photogenic setting I had hoped for. But Cranbrook is a cute small town, and there are many other great Canadian towns nearby. We were thrilled to be supporting our great neighbor to the north, and wish we had more time on this trip to explore more.
September
San Francisco. Every September I go to the Bay Area to cover the reveal of the new iPhone, and I always shoot a lot of video while there. This year I did my favorite in the series: a complete half-hour on the majestic Golden Gate Bridge. If you haven’t seen it, please take a look. After that, I started working on a four-part series about one of the best road trips ever, the Pacific Coast Highway, from San Francisco to San Diego.
While on the road, I stayed overnight at the Best Western near Pismo Beach, where I rode my car on the sand, and spent a few nights in the “American Riviera,” of Santa Barbara, one of the most striking beach towns anywhere. Love those red tile roofs, the history, the Mission and of course, La Super Rica, a hole in the wall that happens to be one of the greatest Mexican restaurants anywhere. Just ask Oprah. And thanks Millie Matz for inviting us to stay at the Best Western Plus on quiet Bath Street.
October
We went out to film our semiquincentennial series of episodes documenting living history in our backyard, with the coming 250th celebration of America’s independence. Highly recommended for anyone interested in how we dealt with a mad, tyrannical king and broke away. The series will kick off in early January with the Boston episode, where it all started, and continues with stops in Providence, New Haven, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, DC. Foodwise, the highlight was in New Haven, Connecticut—faint semiquincentennial angle there for me, but the pizza at Sally’s and Pepe’s was out of this world, even better than Buddy’s.
December
We returned to Japan and spent two weeks in the Kansai region, Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto, where we celebrated Christmas with an afternoon lunch at Kentucky Fried Chicken. Kyoto is Japan’s oldest city and has been over-run by tourists big time, so in the episode that debuts in February, I’ll show you the other side of Kyoto—and it’s just as beautiful, plus shine a light on Japan’s second city, Osaka and the most under-rated city in the country, quiet yet cosmopolitan Kobe.
For 2026, if you’re keeping score, we’ve got a big dance card already. It’s back to Las Vegas and New York in January, Atlanta, Charleston, Savannah and St. Augustine in February, a return to Europe in April, followed by another back-roads trip, through Indiana and Kentucky. And that’s just the first half of the year!
Better get those iPhones all charged up!
Thanks so much for coming along for the ride!
Jeff