Curious as to what everyone is thinking in regards to traveling when it’s possible. It’s one of our favorites things to do now at this point of our lives.
We had previously purchased tickets in January for Italy taking our sons (their first visit to Europe). Multiple Tours paid for (refundable), hotels reserved, restaurants picked out. Unfortunately, I think it’s a 99% no-go. Just waiting for Delta to cancel the flight in hopes of getting a refund instead of a credit.
Will you fly on a plane, stay at hotels, etc. until there is a vaccine? What is your deciding factor?
I just read an article on The vaccine candidate Johnson and Johnson is hoping that works. If it does, their estimated timeline is Fall 2021 to have the first billion manufactured. So, how long will it take to get to the general population? Spring 2022?
If we really are looking to 2 years of no vaccine, I think my determining factor in the next 12 months will be the statistics in the places we want to visit domestically and if we can drive there. Not sure when I’ll be ready for plane travel. If there is an antibody test that is proven may be an indicator.
Travel is our favorite thing too. We cancelled three trips and have a fourth that probably going to get cancelled as well.
That said, my D’s co-op starts mid May and we have to get her there with her car. It will mean a hotel stay and a flight home for me. I’m frankly very nervous.
H has to resume traveling for work this summer. Probably by July 1.
We will likely make no leisure travel plans until al states are reopened and we are past worrying about a second wave.
@momofsenior1 , good point about the second wave. I haven’t thought of that. It will be good to be past that to feel somewhat comfortable.
I am really bummed because my oldest S is living with his GF and who knows what the future holds for them. I was trying to squeeze one more big family trip in just in case. Both boys have been so pumped about this. She was also planning on going with her own family this summer, so it worked perfectly. Oh well.
We love to travel and it’s a good thing as no one in our family (including our kids) lives anywhere near us. We have already cancelled a planned trip in April to see MIL and H’s extended family (both our kids were planning to meet us there). We just cancelled the May trip to see D and SIL and then on to another part of the country to visit my sister and her family. It looks like the June wedding we planned to attend will likely be postponed.
At this time we hope to travel in August at the earliest, but we will see.
We had a trip to Disneyworld scheduled for May to celebrate D16’s college graduation but that got cancelled and we are sitting on quite a lot of airline credits right now. Frankly I wonder if we will ever use them. Our current thought is for H and I to travel in the fall if things clear up (not to Disney), but the kids won’t be able to go since hopefully D will be working and S19 will be back at school. I think we are more likely to drive than fly. We would still have to stop for fuel and rest stops, but you can be careful and wont have the hours long exposure that you would have on a plane. I don’t think we will get on a plane again until there is a vaccine.
We love to travel as well. We have a camping trip in ME scheduled for mid June. The campground will be making a decision by June 1. If they open, we are there. It’s a very well spaced campground with only a registration building and bathrooms. They have enough bathrooms where even at full capacity you only really see a few people at night when brushing your teeth. I’m happy to wait on the porch and allow one family a time in the bathroom if that’s what it takes.
If they do not open up, we will try to find somewhere to go in a state that has already opened up. Camping or Airbnb will likely be our best and safest bets. We will probably try to find an open national or state park and just hike.
Our other scheduled vacation this year is to a beach house that my husband’s family owns. Where their house is located is not heavily populated and few of the homes are used as rentals. We could bring everything we need and not have to go to a grocery store or populated area our entire visit. Happy to just walk or go to the beach. Again, easy to space ourselves out/away from others. It does not get crazy crowded.
We have hopes of a ski trip to the west, maybe Colorado, for late winter next year. Crossing our fingers.
Edited to add that for any trips this year we would be driving.
We are struggling with this issue too. As reference, we went on 5 week long vacations last year, and we’d hoped to do something similar this year.
I cancelled our big bike trip in Italy (60th bday present for husband) scheduled for July, just last week. I “lost” about 1,300 on the deal, but that includes close to $1,000 I’d paid for travel insurance. If I didn’t cancel 91+ days out, I would have lost a lot more, unless the vendor cancelled the trip. We decided it wasn’t worth the risk - we’d rather not be in Northern Italy this July, period.
We have a bike trip in the US currently scheduled for October, and we can drive to the starting location for that, so we are hoping we can go. If it doesn’t seem safe then, we will cancel and lose whatever we lose.
We have a wedding to go to in November. We can drive there also, and assuming it happens we will likely go and spend several days on that trip.
We have family that lives a couple of hours away, in a place where it’s nice to ride bikes. If we feel we won’t be endangering them, we may go hang out at their place for a couple of days at some point. (But if we’re going out to work, we might feel like that’s not appropriate, as we don’t want to put them at additional risk).
We love to travel too, 4 international trips this summer (2 Italy trips, 1 Greece, 1 Vietnam) and we are also hoping the airlines will cancel their flights so we can get a full refund.
I requested a refund to the Greece domestic flights from Athen to Santorini from the Aegean airlines. After hitting the submit button I feel like it falls into a black hole. It has been 2 weeks i haven’t heard anything back from them if my refund requests are approved or not.
The rest of the tickets are via United and Eva Airlines. I’ll wait and see, no rush to cancel them yet.
Like you, I live to travel for pleasure. I do have to travel for work (internationally), but they aren’t as enjoyable as travel for fun with the family and friends
We have canceled May and September travel. Have forgone planing summer trip to see grandson. DH has decided when hospitals open to go ahead and get knee replacement done since we won’t be going anywhere. We have season football tickets that usually entail an overnight. Does not look that that is happening this year. Waiting for universities to decide the season. So far our big trip is the February 3 weeks we spend in Hawaii, already booked. Hoping that is still possible then.
If a reliable antibody test comes out, I will travel anywhere, once things become more stable. I’m pretty sure my family has had it.
What if stats show that in fact the mortality rate is far below what is currently suggested? Risk factors could be addressed by some vulnerable groups, such as those who are overweight. What if the actual mortality rate turns out to be much less deadly than seasonal flu? If that turns out to be the case, I will travel again. Seasonal flu vaccines are guess work for the most part. Seasonal flu doesn’t stop people from traveling.
And I’m not trying to compare this to seasonal flu. I’m saying that if COVID19 is here to stay, and I suspect it is, we will have to get back to living. There will be an increasingly more accurate base of knowledge about this disease. There will be better treatments. It will become more manageable. Right now, I think part of the problem is that there are too many unknowns. I’m not going to wait until a vaccine comes along. I will wait until there is more knowledge and more accurate serology tests.
This would have been a week that my daughters and I were planning a domestic trip probably to the west coast. We held off making plans when we were initially planning in like February because you could just start to see what was coming down the line. I’m thankful that we took heed and did not book anything.
All I want is to be able to go to our cottage. I can do without any other type of travel outside of our state. Right now we cannot even do that as the US/Canada border is closed. I’m on the struggle bus with even though it’s not a first world problem because our location is somewhat remote and if we could get there we would not even really need to see anyone. I just keep hoping…
I was actually planning to post a similar thread yesterday but our internet was weird and I can’t figure out how to start a thread from my phone.
I’m in a big quandary. We have a trip planned and booked for June. The plan is/was - My brother and his wife are flying in from England (we started alternating visits after Mum died). They are flying in to New Orleans and we are meeting them there. My daughter and her husband (who live an hour away from us) are coming and my son and his wife who live 20+ hours away from us are coming. 6 of us were spending 6 days in NO - son and wife just a long weekend cause they recently moved and are in new jobs. Then 6 go on to a cabin in Avery island area (Tabasco factory and other things plus a couple of peaceful days after the busy city). Daughter and sil leave for home. 4 of us go on to Tupelo for one night (Elvis birthplace), Memphis for a couple of days then Nashville. As my brother calls it - a little bit of jazz, a little bit of Rick and roll, a little bit of country.
All the VRBOs I booked except one are cancellable. I cancelled Tennessee early on because the balance due date was April. Nashville and Avery island I have till June.
The quandary is NO. I have a large deposit of $800 down (house that sleeps 8) and the balance of $1600+ is due in a couple if weeks. This was the one that was not cancellable. I bought insurance for it (4 old people in the group) but the insurance does not apply because it was booked after 1/29 and they say people could have anticipated a quarantine situation by then. I don’t think most of us were taking it seriously then. I sure wasn’t when I booked.
At present my brother and his wife’s plane tickets are outside the window of where the airline in the UK will refund based on travel restrictions (May 31). The NO house is also outside the window that VRBO is asking their landlords to refund or at least give a credit for deposits (also May 31).
So quandary is what to do when balance comes due. We absolutely want to do this trip - I was so excited especially when the kids all jumped on board. It’s rare the 8 of us can get together. But don’t know if June is really possible. I’m hoping the host will be willing to work with me and to at least give me a credit for the $800 for a later date. The house is lovely and well located so we would absolutely book there again. I don’t want to pay the $1600+ balance and risk losing that too. We don’t know if the UK will extend the stay at home and travel restrictions beyond the current (next review is May 7th I think he said,) enabling them to cancel their flights.
We’re in an awkward spot. Just outside the may 31 date wherever could get out money back on flights and house or at least a credit/voucher. More money coming due. Very uncertain that mid June will be safe for travel especially as my husband is 78 and has lots of health issues, brother is 69, I’m about to be 67.
If it gets where he can cancel his flights then I think we should postpone the trip. Hopefully VRBO host vwill work with us. If we don’t know the status of the flights by the date the VRBO balance is due, that’s where it gets really difficult to know what to do.
It’s a mess.
Oh and my husband has said he may not even come if we do decide to do it. He has COPD and heart and lung damage from a clot and targeted chemo radiation for esophageal cancer plus a host of other health issues. So very high risk
We have a wedding in Denver in August. We hope that is able to happen, but we are not particularly optimistic. When we sent the RSVP in, we said we would be there if our flight isn’t cancelled, and the event is really happening.
We have already cancelled three other trips. One in April, one in May and one in June.
For us, the issue is whether the airlines will even be flying all their flights. Our May flights were completely cancelled.
We have a September vacation planned but it’s a driving trip. However, if nothing is open, or limited things are open, we won’t go.
From what I’ve read there is almost no chance that there will be a vaccine similar to a polio or small pox vaccine that has high level of protection for most people forever. It will at best be equivalent to a flu vaccine. It will greatly reduce your risk but not eliminate it. There will still be some small chance you can get it and some ( even smaller) chance you could get deathly ill. And you’ll probably need one every year and slightly different strains could mean that years vaccine not a perfect match. I get the impression from some of my friends that future headlines like “ COVID Vaccine only 60 percent effective” will negate any chance of travel for them even though they travel now with some ( small) chance of getting deathly ill from the flu. Thoughts?
@maya54 , that could very well be true. But my hopes are they will have some sort of treatment if you do get it. At least something better than being put on a ventilator and hope for the best.
If they have a vaccine, I’ll be traveling for sure!!
@maya54 I agree with the prediction that any vaccine will be similar to the flu vaccine - only decreases the risk and for a limited time. But I also think that within a couple of years people will view COVID in the exact same way they view the flu and that it won’t impact their plans any more than flu currently does. I’m also assuming that by then there will be better understanding of the C19 risk profile and some established protocols to effectively treat some of the more dire C19 medical complications.
It’s amazing how quickly people acclimate to a new “normal”. Flu’s been around and killing thousands of people a year for over a century. I know people who have died of the flu, including one in his late 40s/early 50s. We could prevent most of those flu deaths in the same way we’re acting to stop C19, but we don’t. And as the reality of the extent of the economic disaster and unintended emotional consequences of the shut downs dawns on people, more will start to look at the data and make decisions similar to what they do now with similar data - go about their lives.
I’ve cancelled a number of trips this spring and have gotten all my money back (I had to make some extra effort to get one of them fully refunded). Currently, I still have a domestic trip scheduled for mid June and an international trip for late August. I’ll probably take the domestic trip (with lots of precautions) but cancel my international trip later. They’re both fully cancellable.
We (daughter & me) have a hiking trip planned for October.
No plane tickets purchased yet, but I did pay for the lodging deposits.
I have had C19, and my daughter has a probable case right now.
I have no idea if that trip will happen. It might make financial sense to lose the lodging deposits and kick the can.
On the other hand, we will both probably be back at work, in person, by then so will exposure to other people matter?
Lots of uncertainty.
If the Utah trip gets cancelled, I would still want to see her, and I’d probably meet her in West Virginia to hike there. Any difference? Driving v flying.
Driving 100% if it were me and I wanted to be sure the trip happened. You hopefully don’t have to worry about catching it again (although nobody knows for sure yet if you have immunity from reinfection or how long any immunity might last), but I think airline schedules are going to be wonky for the next year or so, especially to less traveled places like WV.