My annual reflection on the blog hits and misses, what was popular, and what wasn’t, expanded this year to cover my two podcasts (The Tramping Life and Exploring Timor-Leste). This blog, JontyTravels had a significant increase in visitors, from 45,000 last year to over 70,000 this year, with over 115,000 page views!

That was despite every post in 2025 being about Timor-Leste, but only one of those posts made the top ten most popular this year – Watching and swimming with Blue Whales in Timor-Leste. There will be more variety in 2026, with all 95 blog posts already written and scheduled to post twice weekly, on travel and hiking in Indonesia, Timor-Leste, South Australia, New Zealand, Samoa, the UK, India, and Nepal.

As usual, my most popular blog posts were New Zealand tramps (multi-day walks ranked), New Zealand Great Walks ranked, and Things I learnt hiking the Peaks of the Balkans. These were followed by a couple of ranking posts from 2021 and 2023 respectively – Australian road trips ranked, and New Zealand cities ranked.

The top ten was rounded out with Welcome Flat Hut, The Red Sea and Dead Sea, Peaks of the Balkans – Valbona to Cerem over Presllopi Pass, and Durmitor National Park – Black Lake, Snake Lake & Zabljak.

The least popular (based on views) posts that were published this year were Fatululic, Covalima, Cristo Rei Ridge Hike, Mt Fatocama Loop, Turiskai to Laclubar hike – Tetuluai to Larmera, Tapo to Atsabe hike – Atsabe to Bandeira waterfall and Letefoho, and Bihare to Darlau Hike. Even the least-viewed posts had at least 25 views, though, a big improvement on previous years when some posts struggled to reach double digit views.

In June I launched Exploring Timor-Leste, the first travel podcast on one of the least visited countries in the world. Its 25 episodes covered the various things you can do and see in Timor-Leste, along with three guest interviews. It has had over 3,000 downloads, which is better than average for a new podcast, and pretty good, I think, for such a niche subject.

The most popular episodes were Introducing Timor-Leste – 10 Incredible Travel Experiences, Exploring Dili, Timor-Leste’s Capital, and Exploring Timor-Leste on Foot – Ten Amazing Hikes. The least popular episodes were Hot springs, rice fields, and historic sights in beautiful Bobonaro, Exploring beaches, hills and snake roads in the municipality of Manatuto, and Exploring Covalima, Manufahi and Viqueque.

In September I launched The Tramping Life, a podcast dedicated to hiking in New Zealand, interviewing a guest every fortnight about their experiences tramping. With over 6,500 downloads in the first three months, it is in the top 15% of all podcasts (based on Buzzsprout stats), which for a niche New Zealand podcast isn’t bad!

The most popular episodes were Lou Sanson – From Track Cutter to DOC Boss and Megan Dimozantos – Advocacy, Adventure, and the Future of Tramping, while the least popular are always the most recently released. There is a clear correlation for this podcast (but not Exploring Timor-Leste), between time and download numbers.