By Spencer Spellman, on July 24, 2014

Travel nostalgia with Expedia

Travel and nostalgia go hand-in-hand. Trips create new memories, and, at the same time, often bring to mind some of the most memorable moments from the past. A cruise with girlfriends to create new travel moments may bring to mind a former beach trip from college with those same girls. Your kids’ first visit to Disneyland might remind you of the Disneyland visits you took with your parents as a kid. These are memories that last beyond a trip’s departure and arrival dates.They are new and old at the same time.

They also are exactly what we had in mind when we launched our most recent ad campaign, “Find Your Nostalgia.” For us, however, it wasn’t enough to reflect on past travel memories. We wanted travelers to reflect on some of their most memorable trips and experiences, while giving them the chance to relive those memories and create new ones. As such, throughout the summer Expedia is giving away free travel to people who post a throwback photo on Instagram. To enter is easy: Simply Instagram a photo from a past trip, tag @Expedia in the pic, and include the hashtag, #throwmeback. That’s it. Follow Expedia on Instagram to find out who wins each week.

To celebrate the “Find Your Nostalgia” campaign, we asked our bloggers to share some of their own nostalgic travel moments. See their experiences below and on their respective Instagram accounts.

Spencer Spellman

My throwback photo comes from one of the state park stays on my family’s three-week, 25-state, 6,000-mile road trip that we took when I was a teen. There were times when that trip seemed like hell, but looking back it now, it really set a course of travel for my life. Fourteen years later and I’ve been on a couple more cross-country road trips. I also now travel more than ever, and I gravitate to more offbeat types of travel experiences, such as adventures in state and national parks. 

Matt Villano

This throwback photo comes from my wedding day, on Maui—June 28, 2004. I never had stepped foot in the State of Hawaii until two days before the big event, but the islands have made such an impression on me that I’ve visited 14 times since. In July 2014, my wife and I returned to Maui with our two daughters to commemorate our tenth wedding anniversary. We took new pictures in basically the same exact spot.

The Planet D

Our throwback photo comes from Mount Everest Base Camp, in 2010. In 2008, we climbed to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, and after that extraordinary experience, we made a goal to witness Mount Everest one day. We couldn’t believe that we achieved that dream just two years later. The Himalayan Mountain range is remarkable. Majestic jagged peaks tower overhead as you walk for days through a little piece of heaven on Earth. It was a trek we will never forget. 

  • Matt Villano in Maui on his wedding day

  • The Planet D at Mount Everest Base Camp

  • Kara Williams’ children and their cousins in Playa del Carmen, Mexico

  • Trip Styler on Vancouver Island

  • Midlife Road Trip in Cape Canaveral, Florida

  • No Vacation Required at Bryce Canyon National Park

  • Captain and Clark in Dubai

Kara Williams

This throwback picture was taken in December 2008, when my children (yellow shirt and red shirt, far left) posed with their cousins on the beach in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, a favorite vacation spot for my extended family. All of us (13 in total!) are recreating this Mexican holiday vacation this December. You can bet I’m going to pose the children (now ranging in age from 12 to a college freshman!) the same way on the beach for a little side-by-side comparison. This photo reminds me a) how quickly children grow b) how I need make the most of every single precious moment I have on vacation with them and c) how much I love the beautiful blue Caribbean Sea!

Trip Styler

When I was young, my family spent a week every summer on Vancouver Island (on the cusp of Canada’s West Coast) at a collection of vintage cabins clustered by the beach. (This throwback photo of me and my sister is snapped on the ferry we took to get there.) To put it mildly, running around in my bathing suit on the beach was my version of travel heaven. I can still remember looking for crabs (which I nicknamed “piggies”) under rocks, eating freezies for “happy hour” every day at 3 p.m., and tumbling down sand banks with the big kids. And don’t even get me started on the nightly s’mores-gasbord by the bonfire.

Midlife Road Trip  

While in Cape Canaveral, Florida to watch the final space shuttle launch, we were touring the Kennedy Space Center visitor complex when we happened upon the Apollo 11. One of us (we’re not saying which one) decided it would be a great idea to boldly go where no man had gone before and put one of our “I’m in therapy for a midlife crisis” bumper stickers on the famous space capsule. Since hundreds of tourists see the capsule each year the sticker was bound to generate great publicity for MidlifeRoadTrip.tv. The other one of us, who decided that publicity was useless if we were in prison, removed the bumper sticker almost immediately after this photo was taken. 

No Vacation Required 

The national parks are our favorite things about the United States. This picture was shot during a hurried afternoon trip through Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah.  We had been in Zion National Park earlier in the day and were heading to another park for the evening. So, while this photo doesn’t represent much of a throw back (it’s just a few years old), it represents a journey for which we’d like a “do-over.” We want to revisit Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches, and Canyonlands. This time we want to do it at a sane pace!

Captain and Clark

This throwback photo comes from our first trip to the Middle East. We found ridiculously cheap flights to Dubai and decided to spend Christmas camped out in the desert. It was both odd and invigorating to wake up on Christmas day surrounded by camels and endless sand.