January has arrived, which means it’s time for Pipeaway’s annual ritual of staring into the rear-view mirror and asking uncomfortable questions. What actually worked? What spectacularly didn’t? And which “great idea” quietly sank without leaving a trace? In this yearly self-check-up, I try to make sense of the past twelve months – not to beat myself up, but to learn how to steer this ship forward with fewer crashes, fewer algorithm-shaped icebergs, and at least a vague sense of direction.
If you’re a travel blogger yourself, or simply someone who loves wandering the world through stories, photos, and the occasional rant, this 2025 year review might offer a few useful insights. At the very least, it may lead you to discover Pipeaway articles you somehow missed.
Staying on AdSense is, quite simply, NonSense. If you have the chance, leave it
The year 2025 was once again shaped (some might say bruised) by Google’s ever-evolving algorithms and their relentless impact on small publishers. The February update sent Pipeaway’s search positions, impressions, and clicks plunging straight into the abyss. The September update, in contrast, lifted the site back onto the first page of the world’s most powerful search engine, only to deliver fewer clicks than when the site was languishing on page two. Make it make sense.
On the brighter side, 2025 marked the first full year of Pipeaway running on Mediavine’s Journey instead of Google AdSense. The result? Ad revenue increased tenfold. Consider this your friendly public service announcement, dear bloggers: Staying on AdSense is, quite simply, NonSense. If you have the chance, leave it.
As for domain authority (a MOZ metric), Pipeaway clawed its way back from a DA of 31 to 35 (it lasted from September to November), before slipping again to 32 in December. Progress, regression, repeat. Reaching the pre-2023-update glory days (DA 39) remains unfinished business.
Without further ado, here’s Pipeaway’s review of 2025 that reveals highs, lows, favorite picks (countries, cities, hotels, food), the most-read articles of the year, and a closer look at which traffic sources and backlinks actually managed to bring real humans to the site.
IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN PREVIOUS YEAR REPORTS, YOU CAN FIND THEM RIGHT HERE:
2024 YEAR IN REVIEW: CHASING MILES, LIVING THE JOURNEY
2023 YEAR IN REVIEW: IS EVERYTHING IN OUR HANDS?
2022 YEAR IN REVIEW: READY FOR RESTART
2021 YEAR IN REVIEW: GOODBYE TO A TRAVEL BLOB
2020 YEAR IN REVIEW: OVERTOURISM AS A DISTANT MEMORY
2019 YEAR IN REVIEW: DOES EXPLORING THE WORLD IN CRISIS MAKE ANY SENSE?
2018 YEAR IN REVIEW: HIKING MOUNTAINS, VOLCANOES, AND CHURCHES
2017 YEAR IN REVIEW: 3 CONTINENTS, 14 COUNTRIES, AND ONE BIG ADVENTURE
Highlights of Pipeaway’s 2025
First, the lowlights
I’m writing this part from Gran Canaria, half-lying in bed, in a brand-new year that immediately introduced itself with an upset stomach. I still don’t know what I ate to deserve this, but somewhere between fasting, sipping lime water, and staring at the ceiling, I’m forcing my brain to function. Fortunately, the weather isn’t great either: fewer outdoor temptations, and zero guilt about ignoring them.
I returned to this Spanish island after six long years, mainly to visit friends I first met through Couchsurfing. The Canary Islands have always been close enough to visit, well-connected, and blessed with reasonably priced flights courtesy of European low-cost carriers. But it was this human connection I made in 2019 that brought me back to “subtropical Europe”.
Clearly, the charm of destinations is not the only incentive that makes us travel to a certain place. People are those who make us feel the connection.
And that realization brings me to my biggest blogging sin of 2025.
Despite meeting genuinely extraordinary individuals on the road (some of them even pre-interviewed), I didn’t publish a single interview in Pipeaway’s selection of extraordinary travelers last year. Not one. No algorithm to blame, no technical excuses to hide behind. Just a failure to follow through.
So here’s a note to myself: this section needs to go up the priority list again. Interviews deserve a proper place in the editorial calendar, scheduled in advance and treated as the valuable assets they are. Some of the best travel stories are told by those who experience them.
Trips for Every Season
In 2025, Pipeaway covered a lot of extraordinary places, enough for you to plan travels in any season. What could that year-round travel menu look like?
Starting in spring, nature lovers might enjoy Alpine adventures along the dreamy Hallstätter See in Austria, or maybe test their nerves at the vertigo-inducing Bisse du Torrent Neuf in Switzerland.
When summer temperatures rise, you could surrender to romantic holidays in Aphrodite’s mythical sanctuary – Kythira Island in Greece.
Discover your inner playfulness at Herbstmesse Basel, a rare medieval autumn fair at the crossroads of France, Germany, and Switzerland, with some rather modern amusement attractions. Across the Atlantic, rides at Pigeon Forge will ignite your child’s spirit. Those who want to deepen their connection with family members of different ages could fall in love with fall during a multi-generational trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
And when winter rolls in, hardly anything can beat Scandinavian holidays. Festive lights, design-forward environment, and hygge in all its forms – especially in the major Scandinavian cities. Of course, you could fly your sleigh somewhere completely different – for instance, to Gáldar Navidad, the unexpected Christmas market in Gran Canaria, proving that winter magic doesn’t actually require snow.
Basel – from fantasy to controversy
In 2025, I spent a considerable amount of time in Basel, Switzerland. Just six and a half hours from the UK’s capital (travel by Eurostar’s Chunnel from London to Paris, then hop on a TGV train to your final destination), this Swiss town hosted memorable events worth taking a journey for.
The activities in Basel are plentiful year-round, but 2025 brought a particularly curious mix of international spectacles: some playful, others politically charged, all impossible to ignore.
At the lighter end of the spectrum stood Fantasy Basel, the Swiss Comic Con, one of those gatherings you just have to witness firsthand. Fans who made a hobby out of their passion for imagination meet at Messe Basel, cosplaying their favorite characters from pop culture, and blurring the line between devotion and performance art.
If the US President were to attend this event, he might decide to come as Jesus. Late to the actual Comic Con party, Mason Storm’s Trump eventually did appear in Basel, crucified. The controversial artwork prompted an uncomfortable question: saint or sinner?
I tried to connect the dots between “icons” and icons myself, resulting in the article that confronted two institutions rarely mentioned in the same breath: Kunstmuseum Basel vs. Eurovision. Thanks to Nemo’s victory the year before, Basel hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 2025.
The world’s greatest televised music competition did not just get people talking for its impressive lineup of cross-national artists, a living illustration of Eurovision’s motto “United by Music”. The most pressing question of ESC’s Basel edition was: why is Israel in Eurovision?
Yuval Raphael ultimately finished second, but I argued that Israel was the real Eurovision 2025 winner.
The country should determine its next Rising Star on January 20, but to help them out, especially at a time when art is increasingly used to whitewash the brutality of real-world atrocities, I dug up the top 15 of non-washed songs, and reflected whether one of these could represent Israel in Eurovision 2026.
Tips for every reason
2025 was also the year of viral videos, none more emblematic than those AI cats Olympics, aimed at our flawed perception developed through centuries of experiencing the inexperience when meeting new technologies.
Yet despite its impressive capacity for deception, AI can also help backpackers and travelers alike. Especially when it comes to documenting trips, artificial intelligence can even be a perfect assistant for making travel videos.
No matter what kind of traveler you are, whether you like everything planned to the last detail, or prefer answering the call of an unknown adventure, there are moments when the assistance of other, actual humans can be essential. Especially if you experience a disruption in your itinerary, you might want to look into how to get a flight cancellation and delay compensation.
Favorite country of 2025 – Egypt
In 2025, I spent a total of 212 days abroad, moving between Thailand, Malaysia, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Hungary, and Spain. In November, I added one new stamp to my passport – Egypt – bringing my lifetime total to 49 visited countries.
If we also count the 94 summer days I lived and worked for a hotel on Makarska Riviera in coastal Croatia, the number of nights I slept “somewhere else” climbs to 306.
This means I was in my hometown of Zagreb for barely two months. I spent twice as much time in Switzerland alone (my favorite country of 2021)! So, am I allowed to call my hometown – a hometown anymore?
Statistics aside, the title of my favorite country of 2025 travels goes to the newcomer. Egypt isn’t the easiest country to travel through, I learned that quickly, but I still loved exploring a land once ruled by an ancient civilization I previously knew only from books.
Together with my friend Nikos, I began the journey aboard a Nile cruise, exploring ancient temples, tombs, and relics between Luxor and Abu Simbel. Then we detoured to Hurghada, for a brief immersion in the Red Sea, before concluding our nine-day Egyptian adventure in dusty Cairo. The undeniable highlight was the newly opened Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, a place that somehow manages to feel monumental even by Egyptian standards.
There is still so much of Egypt left for me to discover. But I’m glad I finally set foot in a country of my late father‘s unrealized travel dreams. I might have seen his beloved pyramids only through the museum’s windows this time, but it’s a beginning. I’ll be back.
Favorite city of 2025 – George Town, Malaysia
As my favorite city of 2025, I solemnly declare George Town, on the Malaysian island of Penang. It’s one of those places where I could imagine myself staying for a while, if only to dedicate serious time to its gastronomic pleasures.
Penang offers no shortage of things to see and explore. From the famous bicycle siblings street art to the illuminated Kek Lok Si Temple at night, the island’s tourism thrives on visual landmarks. But George Town’s real magic isn’t confined to checklists or photo spots. It’s in lived version of multiculturalism.
My favorite time to visit is early in the year, when Penang’s festival calendar turns the island into a living showcase of coexistence. Few places display cultural diversity so vividly. From Bai Tian Gong (or Pai Ti Kong, the Hokkien New Year), through Chap Goh Mei (the Chinese Valentine’s Day), to Thaipusam in Penang (the Hindu festival dedicated to Lord Murugan), George Town becomes a stage for celebrations that don’t compete for attention but share it.
In the growing collection of uninterrupted Pipeaway Walks videos, you can now step directly into these moments – witnessing the explosive energy of Chinese Pai Ti Kong, and following the raw, powerful procession of Thaipusam as it unfolds through the streets of George Town.
Favorite accommodation of 2025 – Hilltop Wellness Resort, Phuket
From the Secret Rooms of Hotel Jama in Postojna, Slovenia, to hidden gems on the Greek island of Kythira (just check out the coziness of The Pigeon House), the world is full of wonderfully quirky places to stay, as long as you permit yourself to experiment. How else are you supposed to stumble upon this masterfully overengineered sink faucet?
Personally, I find charming apartments (places like Kamaraki Aroniadika) a great solution if privacy is high on your priority list. If social interaction is what you’re after, dormitories might be your natural habitat. Just be warned: hostel experiences can range from strange to kinky, often within the same night!
But for the right balance between privacy when you need one and conversation when you crave it, Hilltop Wellness Resort in Phuket takes the crown as my favorite accommodation of 2025. This is an ideal retreat for single female travelers, but judging by this very writer, the appeal of the resort’s fantastic yoga sessions, heritage-inspired activities, and even island tours offered to the guests is far from exclusive.
If you’re curious, you can dive deeper into the full Hilltop Wellness Resort review, enjoy an aerial view of the property, or quite literally walk into a room that has a yoga mat and yoga blocks as a standard amenity.
Favorite food experience of 2025 – Plearn Restaurant, Phuket
If Penang is Malaysia’s island of gastronomy, then Phuket is Thailand’s good-food island. Not only for its vegetarian festival offer that accompanies peculiar traditions such as the Nine Emperor Gods Festival that began two centuries ago at Kathu Shrine, or for its street food achieving Michelin-level recognition, this island is a place where you can explore traditional cuisine packed in a modern way.
Worth mentioning are, for instance, handcrafted chocolate bites at PARADAi Phuket, infused with distinctly local flavors – from Thai milk tea and miang kham to green curry, and even soup-inspired profiles like tom yum and tom kha.
Still, for my favorite food experience of 2025, I pick eating at the Plearn Restaurant, part of the already-commended Hilltop Wellness Resort. From Thai herbal juices to carefully balanced signature cocktails and deeply considered dishes, their menu is a journey in itself, one that makes your plate and palate travel to four distinctive regions of Thailand.
If you are a fan of sour and spicy soups, their tom yum goong and kaeng som arrive at the table as a performance as much as a meal, engaging the senses before the first spoonful even lands.
For something refreshing, yet still firmly rooted in that modern-meets-traditional philosophy, order the Subtle Tomyum signature cocktail with lemongrass-infused vodka, galangal, and chili.
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Pipeaway’s top stories of 2025
Pipeaway’s most-read stories of 2025 brought one unique (nearly) sleepless airport adventure, an exclusive report on a Eurovision scandal that lasted for a blink of an eye, and a practical guide for navigating the biggest event that hit Basel this year.
These were the articles that captivated readers the most in 2025!
1. Airport Jewel Overnight: Best Things to Do at Singapore Changi Airport in 24 Hours
1. Pipeaway’s most popular article of the year was a deep dive into a 24-hour stopover at Singapore’s Changi Airport – a place where waterfalls roar, butterflies roam, and rooftop pools overlook the runway. Follow my hour-by-hour journey through the world’s most extraordinary airport, and discover why you might actually want your next layover to last all day!
2. Eurovision Controversy Continues: Baby Lasagna Atop Subliminal Jihad-Funding Messages?
2. Pipeaway’s most-read Eurovision article of 2025 had no connections to Israel, believe it or not (or I, at least, hope so!)! At the center of this story was Croatia’s Baby Lasagna, whose high-energy Basel performance featured hidden “jihad” messages. After Pipeaway published its findings, Baby Lasagna’s videos were banned in Switzerland. Basel City and the Swiss National Cyber Security Centre gave contradictory statements on the takedown, and in the end, the neighboring canton of Baselland had to take the blame for the YouTube removal.
3. ESC Basel Public Viewing Locations: Where Can You Watch Eurovision in Basel?
3. Eurovision in Basel had everything from stadium-scale screenings and drag-hosted rooftop parties to disco churches, cozy cinemas, and even a unicorn-guarded museum courtyard. It’s no surprise that Eurovision fever set this article ablaze, too. The superfans wanted to know where to be, especially if they don’t have to break the bank in the process. Can Vienna top that?
Pipeaway’s evergreens
Among the oldies-but-goldies, Budapest desserts sweetened up the top five, nudging one long-standing favorite (on the benefits of sitting at the back of a plane) down the chart.
These were the readers’ favorite Pipeaway classics in 2025:
1. Clothing-Optional Resorts in Greece for Your Best Naturist Holidays
2. Top 5 Jjimjilbangs in Seoul
3. Fat People on Planes: How to Survive Flying While Fat
4. 7 Best Nude Beaches in Greece’s Cyclades Islands: Naked and Unafraid
5. Budapastry: 12 Best Hungarian Desserts in Budapest
Traffic sources in 2025
Organic search remains the backbone of Pipeaway’s traffic, accounting for 55.4% of visits.
But the highest growth in traffic acquisition has been noticed in direct visits (which more than doubled to 34% of total traffic), and email clicks (now at 1.85%), mostly thanks to the weekly newsletter. I choose to see this as a sign of growing Pipeaway brand loyalty, and quietly hope it continues.
Organic social media acquisition, however, has been more than halved, and now sits at 5.8%.
Among platforms, even if with lower traffic volume than before, Pinterest still leads, contributing 84.7% of Pipeaway’s social traffic (up from 81.1% in 2024). Pipeaway’s Pinterest account now boasts 1,041 followers (a 1.7% yearly growth) and 101k monthly viewers. Over 2025, pins were displayed 1.3 million times, racking up 51.2k interactions. The top-performing pins were tips on landing a pilot job, petting hyenas in Africa, sneaking into Berghain, free things to do in Basel, and Barbie hotels.
Facebook follows with 11.3 % of social traffic. The follower count at Pipeaway’s Facebook page dipped slightly to 12,069 (1.1% decrease). As I minimized activity on social media, the reach naturally dropped – to 42k views, with only 541 interactions (97.7% drop from those 2024’s viral posts). Paradoxically, link clicks from Facebook increased to 170 (a 46.6% boost from the “viral year”), proving once again that social media algorithms are gloriously inscrutable.
Still barely holding for the third spot, eX-Twitter contributed just 2.2% of social media acquisitions. The Pipeaway Twitter account currently has 1,388 followers (down 25 from 2024). Pipeaway’s Bluesky social account started a year ago, with just basic posting of updates when the new article is out – now it has 26 followers, and traffic is roughly one-quarter that of Twitter!
Pipeaway’s own newsletter proved that a smaller, curated network can outperform mega-platforms
In the fourth place, we have a climber in acquired traffic – YouTube brought 1.1% of social media-sourced views. Pipeaway’s YouTube channel saw 87.1k views in 2025, a 333% increase from 2024. Viewers spent a total of 997 hours watching videos (up 92%). Subscribers grew 29.8%, from 275 to 357. The most-watched videos were AI Zoolympics (11,221 views), ‘Free Palestine’ at Eurovision (10,971), and the Swiss-banned Baby Lasagna’s video with subliminal messages (10,706).
Instagram-sourced traffic continued to be minimal, now contributing just 1% of social traffic. Pipeaway’s Instagram followers’ base decreased by an additional 2.5% last year, now at 5,233. Instagram reach dropped to 15.3k (23.5% yearly loss), reflecting my decision to deprioritize the platform.
Meanwhile, Pipeaway’s own newsletter proved that a smaller, curated network can outperform mega-platforms. After cleaning inactive subscribers, 417 readers now receive a weekly email. In 2025, 52 newsletters generated 1936 incoming link clicks (three times the number from 2024), averaging 37 clicks per edition. Open rate hit 31.6% (above MailChimp’s 29.8% industry average), click rate 1.3% (room to grow toward the 3.5% benchmark), and unsubscribes dropped to 0.46% (competitors’ is 0.21%)
A 2025 twist? AI has become a traffic source! In Pipeaway’s case, ChatGPT sent the most artificial intelligence-sourced traffic, practically matching the combined contributions of Facebook and Twitter. With fewer numbers, it’s been followed by Perplexity and Gemini.
Greatest Mentions of 2025
As of January 2025, 1,518 domains are referring to Pipeaway. That’s a modest 1.4% increase from the same month last year. Let’s take a look at what drew this attention!
While major outlets largely slept on it, Pipeaway’s Baby Lasagna story caught the eye of bz Basel, a regional Swiss newspaper, and was then republished by another CH Media outlet – Watson.
One of Pipeaway’s content follow-ups from Cyprus, however, got quite a serious development. Two years after our interview with Alexey Gubarev, the Russian-born Cypriot behind the MadWay Rally, Cyprus Daily News–associated website Cynews.cc published an article exposing alleged corruption schemes involving a suspicious Bishkek development project and even gold smuggling to Cyprus, possibly involving relatives of Kyrgyzstan’s President Sadyr Japarov. Pipeaway’s interview was used to illustrate “the scale of Gubarev’s spending on entertainment events, which are available to very few”. A month later, Boris Demash, the news outlet’s founder, was arrested on charges of defamation and a disinformation campaign targeting the entrepreneur.
Pipeaway’s 2024 big research also led to Cyprus, but this year, it circled back to the Balkans. Bulgarian outlets Club Z and Zarata Novini referenced our investigation into the lost suitcases for sale scam after exposing a fraud at Sofia Airport.
But mentions weren’t limited to investigative reporting. Listicles, guides, and lifestyle blogs frequently linked back to Pipeaway content:
- We3travel.com featured Zagori, known for its ancient Greek bridges, in a list of lesser-known Greek destinations locals wish tourists would ignore.
- Africa Wanderlust included Lopburi in its roundup of places where animals are treated like VIPs, citing my Monkey Buffet Festival.
- Chiang Rai Times linked to my article on Phuket’s vegetarian food while covering the island’s Vegetarian Festival.
- The Helpful Panda referenced Pipeaway’s coverage of Chap Goh Mei, the Chinese-Malaysian festival where oranges fly in the name of love.
- The Gone Goat used my Crazy House review in their Dalat itinerary, proving bizarre accommodations are forever relevant.
- Mostly Amélie, a Berlin-based lifestyle blog, linked to Pipeaway’s report inside Berghain while covering her guide to the KitKat Club.
- Hungary Unlocked featured the best Budapest spots for traditional sweets, linking out to patisserie-cafes mentioned in my article on Hungarian desserts.
Thank you to my supportive circle
In 2025, hotels and hostels partnered with me, enabling stays that wouldn’t be possible without them. I always acknowledge these collaborations in the articles themselves. But the quiet support of the people who help me behind the scenes and without grand mentions sometimes remains in the shadows.
I want to express my deepest-bow-level gratitude to the friendly hosts who continually back me up around the world. In 2025, this incredible circle included Corrado in Trieste, Mladen in Sion and Basel, Nikos in Athens and Egypt, and Paul & Lars in Maspalomas.
I am endlessly thankful for their time, space, encouragement, and company. Whether we spent shared moments in stay-ins or chased outdoor adventures, every experience felt brighter by not going through it alone.
Having such selfless, generous individuals as friends is perhaps the greatest, comfort-infusing privilege a traveler can hope for.
Thank you all.
Looking Back, Looking Forward: What’s Next?
As 2025 fades into the rearview mirror, the 2026 plan is simple: keep exploring, keep learning, and keep sharing. More interviews with extraordinary travelers, more hidden corners of the world, more food worth falling into, and definitely more stories that make you shake your head or laugh out loud.
But 2026 will also be a year of grounding for this travel blogger. After being absent from my hometown of Zagreb for practically 10 months of 2025, I’ll finally be spending more time in Croatia, but then again, in a new place I’ll call home.
As soon as I finish my winter break in the Canary Islands, I’ll be flying to Budapest, spend some nights in Hungary, and then return to Zagreb via bus or train.
Starting in February, Dalmatia will be my base. I accepted a one-year contract with a hotel, and will be more or less anchored in southern Croatia, somewhere between Split and Dubrovnik.
Surely, I’ll try to find some time to hop over to nearby Mediterranean destinations (some of the countries I might still get a chance to visit are Turkey, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Italy, Greece…).
When winter arrives, I might be tempted to chase the sun somewhere else entirely, depending on how the new gig goes. I’ll embrace it as both a challenge and an opportunity.
Wish me luck.
I wish you the same for whatever challenge you decide to tackle in 2026.
Wherever you are, stay safe and curious!
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