I’ve combined my year end list of travel destinations (previously: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011). Last winter, I travelled to the Bay Area several times for interviews. I stayed in a few different towns (Sunnyvale, San Jose), but for simplicity I only included San Francisco. I also drove across the country again, which explains the stops in Laramie, Salt Lake City, and Reno. In June I returned to Northfield for Reunion, and I visited Chicago with Divya in October. My only international travel was to Istanbul for VLDB, which was awesome. Istanbul reminded me somewhat of Budapest with more Arab/Islamic influence, and it’s definitely a place I would like to return.

• Omaha, NE*
• Ithaca, NY*
• San Francisco, CA*
• Mountain View, CA*
• Laramie, WY
• Salt Lake City, UT
• Reno, NV
• Northfield, MN
• Salem, OR
• Istanbul, Turkey
• Chicago, IL

View Places 2012 in a larger map

As usual, I’ve compiled a record of my travels in 2011 (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010). Athens was the most interesting place I visited, though it was for a conference, and I had a relatively little time for sightseeing. I also drove all the way across the country (and back), which was interesting if fairly uneventful. I’ve only included cities in which I spent at least one night, and I’ve starred those that I visited multiple times on non-consecutive days. I stopped at the cities marked with a † on my cross-country drive, so my experience of them was largely limited to interstate hotels I found on Hotwire.

• Omaha, NE*
• Ithaca, NY*
• New York, NY*
• Santa Clara, CA*
• Elkhart, IN†
• Laramie, WY†
• Salt Lake City, UT*†
• Reno, NV*†
• Athens, Greece
• La Porte, IN†
• Bowling Green, OH

It’s time for my annual year in places. As before, I only counted cities in which I spent at least one night. I visited those cities with a * on multiple non-consecutive days. The list is chronological by first visit. See also my lists from 2007 and 2008.

• Omaha, NE*
• Asilomar, CA
• Ithaca, NY*
• Fairfax, VA*
• Mountain View, CA*
• Providence, RI
• Lyon, France
• Paris, France
• Memphis, TN

Just like last year. I spent at least one night in each of the cities listed, and I visited cities with a * multiple times on non-consecutive days. The list is roughly chronological, but it’s entirely from memory.

• Omaha, NE*
• Ithaca, NY*
• Fairfax, VA*
• Vancouver, BC, Canada
• Niagara Falls, ON, Canada
• Toronto, ON, Canada
• Los Angeles, CA
• New York, NY
• Memphis, TN