Back when I first started this blog, I wrote a post sharing my travel mug collection and the related trips, and then I updated it a few years later in 2016. While I have not been collecting mugs nearly as rapidly as I did between the first two posts, I definitely have enough to share an update again! My travel mug collection posts have been very well received in the past, so hopefully it’s another enjoyable/useful post.
Ever since Daniel and I celebrated our first anniversary in Orlando back in 2012, we have collected a Starbucks mug each time we take a trip together (and there is a Starbucks mug available). You will notice that there are two types of mugs in the pictures below. We started out by collecting the Global Icon series. Starbucks has since discontinued this series in the U.S., so we then we collected the new You Are Here series for U.S. destinations and the Global Icon series for international destinations. Now, they have the You Are Here series for both U.S. and international destinations, and the designs have changed. Needless to say, the collection has evolved over time. So now it’s time for you to join me on a trip down memory lane as I talk through our collection!
Orlando – As I mentioned above, this was the first mug in our collection. We picked it up while in Orlando celebrating our first anniversary at Disney World!
Washington D.C. – Our next mug was picked up in the city we lived in for three years – our nation’s capital! This mug is very special. It represents the time we spent living and playing tourist in D.C. together as newlyweds. See some of our D.C. adventures here.
Memphis – Up until 2014, I traveled to Memphis for work constantly. In fact, I counted once, and I went to Memphis twenty times between 2012 and 2014! I have mixed feelings about this mug because I associate it with work, but I bought it to remember the time that my company flew my husband out to stay with me to make up for the fact that they had extended my three day trip into a two week trip. While most of the time Daniel was just working in the hotel room and waiting for me to get back to the room at 2am, Daniel and I were able to enjoy one Sunday together doing some sightseeing, so I really enjoy remembering that day when I use this mug.
Alaska – In May 2013, Daniel and I took a trip to visit our good friends in Alaska. It was an amazing trip full of time with friends, whale watching, and enjoying the great outdoors!
Seattle & Pike Place Market – On our way to Alaska in 2013, we had a very extended layover in Seattle and fell in love with that city. And, of course, we had to visit the original Starbucks and pick up a Pike Place Market mug as well while we were there. Read more about our Seattle adventures here.
Boston – In the fall of 2013, we spent a long weekend in New England. We had two days in Boston, one day in Portland, Maine, and one day in Rhode Island. Click here and here for pictures and a recap of this trip.
Nashville – We picked up this mug while spending last Thanksgiving with Daniel’s family in Nashville, but it reminds me of three trips. In college, Daniel and I took a road trip with our friends (the couple who currently lives in Alaska) to Tennessee, and we have loved Nashville ever since. Our time there last Thanksgiving was very special as well. In this post, I talk about what we did while we were there during the holiday. We visited Nashville again in 2018 during the first year of our son Carson’s life. Read about our trip to Nashville with a baby here.
Dallas – Both of us grew up in the Dallas/Fort Worth area (Aledo to be exact), so we have spent a bit of time in Dallas over the years. We picked up this mug in December 2013, when we went with Daniel’s parents to visit his aunt who was working in Dallas. We’ve been to Dallas many times since then – my sister now lives there, my grandparents are close to the area, I go for work trainings, I have several good friends there, etc.
Philadelphia – In January 2014 we went to Philadelphia with my cousin Josh and his wife Meredith. We had such a fun time exploring this historic city with them. I wrote in detail about this trip here. It’s hard to remember this time before kids! They have three kids now, and our second is on the way this spring.
London & Paris – In May of 2014, we traveled to Europe for the first time and spent nine days exploring London and Paris. It really was a dream trip. I recap our trip to London here, here, and here and our time in Paris here. [I never did finish my final two Paris posts, so maybe I will revisit them again soon.] In October 2018, we went to London with our 18-month-old – click here, here, and here to read about our time in London with a baby.
New York City – In the fall of 2012, we took the train to New York City. That city is just gorgeous in the fall! We saw Wicked, explored Central Park, woke up early to peek in at Good Morning America, and met up with a couple of great friends. We went again at Christmastime in 2014 and saw the musical Once, swooned over the gorgeous Christmas decorations and store displays, and discovered more delicious food and drinks. I really should do an updated NYC travel post because we’ve been three more times since 2014 – In 2016 we went at Christmastime again with our good friends Kaelin & Andres (so fun to travel with friends!), in the summer of 2017, we went right before Daniel’s work conference, and again in the summer of 2019, we took a baby-free trip before another conference for Daniel. We love NYC!
Virginia – This mug was given to me as a birthday gift in 2014. To me, it represents our time living in Northern Virginia as well as our trip to the Shenandoah National Park to do the Skyline Drive in the fall of 2013. I wrote about that trip here.
North Carolina – In mid-2014, we went to North Carolina to visit my cousin and his wife who are some of our best friends. It was our second time to visit them, so we decided to pick up a North Carolina mug to remember all of the fun we have had with them. Later that same year, we met them in the Outer Banks for another fun time together – read about that here.
Florida – We picked up our 16th mug in summer 2014 when we visited Daniel’s grandma in St. Petersburg, Florida. It was our second time to go there together. In 2016, we went to Florida with Daniel’s family (including his grandmother) to go on a cruise and spend Christmas together. And then again for Christmas 2019, we traveled to St. Pete for Christmas with his grandmother.
Chicago – I used to go to the Chicago area every year for a work training, and I usually would stay the weekend after to explore the city. I got this mug when Daniel came to join me after a training in November 2014. Click here to read about our weekend in Chicago.
Austin – We moved from DC to Austin at the very end of 2014. My sister bought me this Austin mug to add to my travel mug collection. We have have made so many memories in Austin – it’s now home!
Texas – I grew up, went to college, and currently live in Texas. I love this state!
Las Vegas – During spring of 2015, Daniel had a work conference in Las Vegas, so I joined along to work remotely during the week and visit the Las Vegas Strip the weekend after. This was our first time in Vegas, and after expecting to not really like it, I loved it! Read about our weekend here.
Peru – During August 2015, we headed to South America! Over the years, I have been to South America several times, but Daniel had never been, so it was special to bring him back to Peru. To read all about our trip, including time in Lima, Puno, the Sacred Valley, and even our journey to Cusco on a Peruvian train, click here, here, here, and here. Unfortunately, I still haven’t written posts about Cusco and Machu Picchu, the main event! Hopefully I will get to those soon and link them here. We couldn’t decide which Peruvian mug to get, so we just got all three (for Lima and Cusco we got the cute mini versions!).
During early winter 2015, we took a trip to Austria and Germany to see the Christmas markets! I was a magical time of year to visit this part of the world. No one knows how to do Christmas like Austrians and Germans! I can’t wait to write about this trip in the future – I’m very overdue!
Vienna – The capital city of Austria is one of the cleanest and most beautiful cities I’ve ever been to. It also has my favorite Christmas market from this whole trip, the Christkindlmarkt. We only had a couple of days there, and that definitely was not enough time to see all this city has to offer!
Salzburg – Our second stop in Austria was the home of The Sound of Music! Why yes, we did do The Sound of Music Tour, and we loved it! It’s a great way to see locations of popular scenes from the movie, but it is also as a fantastic way to see some of the surrounding Austrian countryside! Salzburg itself is just stunning.
Munich – After our time in Germany, I can confidently say I love German food! Schnitzel, bratwurst, warm pretzels with cheese, apple strudel…. I love it all! And I haven’t even mentioned the delicious Christmas market food! This mug represents all of our time in southern Germany. In addition to Munich, we also visited Nuremberg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, and Fussen (and the Cinderella castle!).
If you have been reading my blog lately, you know I can’t stop talking about our big backpacking trip across Western Europe that we did this past winter (January through March). Nothing could keep me from my travel mug addiction, so we collected as many as we could and ended up sending home two shipments of mugs since we didn’t have the room (or the strength!) to carry them all around with us. Not all cities have a mug, so that helped me limit myself. I was so sad that Italy didn’t have any at all! They are too particular about their espresso to allow Starbucks in the country (at least at that point there were none – I believe I heard they started opening them there later on).
Edinburgh – This is the first mug I bought on our backpacking trip. We fell head over heels for Edinburgh. Read about our time in Scotland’s capital here and our amazing day tour of the Scottish Highlands here.
Glasgow – Our final stop in Scotland was Glasgow, and it was a good one! Click here to read about our weekend in Glasgow.
Dublin – The next place we picked up a mug was in Ireland, the country I had been dreaming of visiting for years! Our first stop in Ireland was Dublin, and it was the only Irish city we visited that has a Starbucks mug. I recapped our three days in Dublin here. Here are the rest of my guides to road tripping through Ireland: East Coast, Kilkenny, Ring of Kerry, Dingle Peninsula, Cliffs of Moher, Sky Road + Kylemore Abbey, and Galway.
Bruges – After our Irish roadtrip, we took a plane to the mainland and found ourselves in Bruges, Belgium! I cannot even begin to tell you how enamored I am with this charming city. I will go back. Click here and here for a guide to Bruges.
Nice – We began our time in the south of France with a lengthy stay in Nice. It was magical! We took day trips to Monaco and Cannes and spent a lot of time exploring Nice’s colorful streets as well. Here is my guide to Nice, and here is my guide to Cannes.
Monaco – While staying in Nice, we took a day trip and crossed the border into Monaco! We explored Monte Carlo and the surrounding area, including Èze Village, for a day.
Berne, Geneva, Zurich, and Lucerne – Switzerland really loves their Starbucks mugs! Every city we visited had one. Despite how incredibly expensive Switzerland is, its almost untouched beauty, endless cheese options, and amazing public transportation made it an incredible place to visit. Berne and Zurich were our favorites! You can read about Geneva here, Lucerne here, and the Bernese Oberland here!
New Orleans – In summer 2016, we took a road trip out to New Orleans to visit our friend Brittany and explore a city that we had never been to before. Brittany gave us a personalized food tour to different areas of the city, and we did a walking tour on our own. We had a lot of fun exploring this unique city!
Washington D.C. – As I mentioned above, we already had a Washington D.C. mug from our time living there during 2012-2014. However, we have gone back several times to visit since then, so we decided to pick up the new You Are Here series mug to represent those trips. Although I had gone back to visit my friends in 2015, I actually picked up this mug on our trip in spring 2016 to celebrate the wedding of our good friends Dave & Lauren. We visited friends there again in 2017, and I went for a work trip in 2019.
Portland & the Oregon Coast – In the fall of 2016, we flew to Oregon for one of my favorite domestic trips. We started with a few days in Portland, headed over to a bed and breakfast on the Oregon coast, and ended with a day trip to Willamette Valley. Surprisingly, I never wrote a post on this, so I really need to go back and do this. It was such a great fall trip. We picked up the Portland mug and also the Oregon mug to represent our time in Oregon outside of Portland.
Louisville – In summer 2016, we also did a long weekend in Louisville, Kentucky. I met Daniel there after his work conference ended. That was another great, foodie-focused trip that I still need to write about.
Montreal – We traveled to Canada for the first time in Summer 2017, the weekend Hurricane Harvey hit to be exact. We spent our time in Montreal and enjoyed the architecture, food, and language in this French city despite being without my luggage (due to Harvey delays) the entire trip.
San Francisco – In Fall 2017, we traveled to California for a wedding, and we decided to spend the week before the wedding on a California coast road trip! I had never been to California before this trip. We started with a weekend in San Francisco then made our way down Highway 1, hitting many of the highlights. We ended with the wedding in Los Angeles. We didn’t explore much in LA, so we decided to wait to purchase that mug when we have time to explore the city a bit more.
Copenhagen – In December 2017, we made our way back to Europe for our “babymoon” in Copenhagen! We ended up going during the Christmas season, so we spent a lot of time exploring the Christmas markets in addition to the food scene, some museums, and Frederiksborg Castle, just a train ride outside of Copenhagen.
San Diego – In September 2018 we took our first baby-free trip after Carson was born. We left five-month-old Carson with my parents in Waco, and he had a great time! The vacation part of the trip was four nights long, after which I went back to Waco and Daniel stayed for a work conference.
Montana – In January 2020 we took another “babymoon” to Whitefish, Montana! This time, 20-month-old Carson stayed with Daniel’s parents in Fort Worth and enjoyed every minute.
Oxford – Even though we explored Oxford in early 2016, we actually picked up this mug as we were passing through on our UK trip in Fall 2018 with our toddler (see related posts here, here, here, and here). I give Daniel a hard time that he is the reason I didn’t get an Oxford mug during our 2016 backpacking trip because, during our Oxford day trip, he wanted to catch the next train out, and we didn’t have time for a Starbucks stop. So, I had to grab it this trip!
I hope that you enjoyed a peek at our collection of 47 mugs! I have a few more that people have given to us as gifts, but I’ll share those once we visit the place they came from. You are probably wondering how in the world we store all of these mugs….
This little cabinet used to do the trick into 2017! But as you can see, I quickly grew out of it, and now our mugs fill up one shelf of a kitchen cabinet and a few shelves of our china cabinet.
It’s obvious that Daniel and I have made travel a priority in our lives, and I love how our mugs remind us of all of the memories we have collected over the years. Let me know in the comments if you collect anything when you travel!
{To see all of my travel stories and guides, click here to explore my Travel with Me series!}
{Thanks for reading! Want to know a little more about me? I’m a CPA learning how to balance a career with motherhood and regular travel while planting roots at home in the Austin, TX area. When I’m not exploring my home city with my husband Daniel and baby boy Carson or cuddling with my chubby orange cat Banana, I’m probably either out on a playdate with my son or planning, packing for, traveling to, or daydreaming about our next adventure. After all, my travel mug collection is never complete. If you have wanderlust too, be sure to follow me on Instagram (and InstaStories!), Pinterest, and Facebook, or subscribe to my blog!}
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