Travel plan

How did covid-19 outbreak affect your travel plan?
Where would you like to go when the quarantine is over?

The problem with planning future travels is the current uncertainty. We don't have an end date, we don't know how safe flying will be, or which airlines or routes will survive and reopen. We don't know when or how different countries will open up for foreign visitors, and at a domestic level we don't know when pubs and restaurants will open even if travel is permitted. Right now various countries are scaling back their lockdowns but they're warning that if infection rates peak again they'll reintroduce more limits, so that makes people nervous about visiting, booking accommodation, etc.

Parts of the accommodation market are trying to keep hold of cash by offering changed dates of stay rather than refunds, actually same too for airlines, and so that creates a second problem - when things do reopen perhaps there is going to be a capacity problem. Are all this summer's holiday cottage bookings going to be shunted to next year, so there are few openings for new bookings?

I'm finding even the simplest of outlines for travel are daunting. I have a big birthday in just under a year's time, last night while out walking we were discussing ideas. What would normally be the easiest of trips for us to plan - a domestic trip in shoulder season when there's normally loads of availability, most likely to a Scottish island. Right now it all hinges on one of the scientific teams getting lucky with a vaccine.

So for me "where would you like to go when this is over?" is a difficult question.

Having said that, my to-do list contains the Faroe Islands, eastern Canada, Norway (12th trip!), Peru, Pompeii, Shetland, and Rio.

[ Edit: Edited on 02-May-2020, 08:43 GMT by AndyF ]

We had to cancel a trip to the Northeast USA in May and June but are holding on to our reservations to France in October. I suspect we'll have to cancel them or try to postpone them but we decided to wait a while and see what happens. Right now I'm pretty sure we couldn't even get into the country. Later, if we can get in, we'd like to know restaurants and at least some tourist sights are open.

However, if things open up too soon and the virus returns with a vengeance, leisure travel may have to wait for a vaccine and that could take years. Right now it's more like dreaming about future trips than actually planning them.

My wife and I had our first trip to Aruba get cancelled due to the country not allowing flights from the U.S., U.K., or Europe. Thankfully we didn't lose any money as got airline refunds and points put back in my Marriott account.

I had a trip to Ft. Myers, FL that my flight was cancelled as the virus broke out across the U.S. so I stayed put.

We also had a trip to Nashville, TN that we cancelled, will use the VRBO credit for the same place over Easter weekend 2021 and air fare changed to a travel certificate good for 24 months.

Tentative trip to Ft. Myers end of June, though that is in flux at this point.