What are your thoughts about travel in the time of Covid?

Parents Forum Parent Cafe
6058

I just started making the Mixbook. It’ll take awhile. I’m only through our flight there, lol. But, I did our New Year’s card/Xmas letter and made ornaments for the kids last week…

We flew to Vienna and stayed at a cool Airbnb in Stephensplatz, in the medieval cobble stone area. We went to a bunch of Xmas markets and toured St Stephen’s crypt. I really liked that. I hadn’t seen so many bones up close like that before (We skipped them when we were in Paris - a big regret.) We also climbed the south tower which I loved. And also attended the high mass on Xmas day at St Stephens. That was really neat. We are technically Catholic (though I don’t think any of us personally affiliate with it anymore) I actually understood a lot of the sentences, many phrases, and a ton of words during the German homily, but not enough to get “the message” lol. It was given by the Cardinal, which we also thought was cool.

Then Xmas afternoon, we toured Schonbrunn. Over the next few days, we did the Belvedere, Sisi’s Museum - one GF was reading a historical fiction novel about her and only realized we were there looking at everything! I started it yesterday. We saw the Spanish Riding School training practice and tried to do a brewery tour, but they were closed for 2 weeks. So, we toured Karlskirche instead. Ate dinner near the Prater on the last night which was a DISASTER, but it’s all we talk about now. That and younger S’ broken suitcase which had to be drug everywhere by his luggage strap - now affectionately called “Baggie.”

Then, we rode the train to Innsbruck. We all LOVED Innsbruck. We stayed at an old family hotel (Hotel Heimgartl) - which is probably below CC standards, but we loved it. The owner was so cute, and he kept trying to make sure our stay was perfect. We toured old town, and they had an incredible Xmas light set up in the park. Next day, we went up to the top of the mountain (the definite highlight) and strolled through the zoo on the way back down. Older S has been trying to get some Swatch watch forever, so we tried in Old Town twice, but no luck.

Next day, we took another train to Zurich just for the evening/night. But, we were able to tour Old Town and went to the flagship Swatch store, when they had 1 watch left for older S. He was chuffed. Next morning, we all flew home - or we flew to Dulles. Next morning, younger S & GF flew up to her place where he stayed for the week and flew home.

We counted younger S went through 7 airports in 2 weeks - and all flights were ON TIME!!!

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6059

What a marvelous trip full of memories. It also makes me realize how little I know about that part of the world. I would have NO idea where to visit!

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6060

Sounds like a great trip, and you’ll have of nice memories. Thanks for sharing.

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6061

I have my parents to thank. They took us to Germany - England in 2012. And in 2015 we went to Switzerland- Austria - Hungary - Slovakia - Czech Republic, and Paris. They (and we) love history, castles, museums, etc. That’s where I got the courage to do something like this. A trip in a non English speaking country without a guide. And while most people did talk English to us, even though I tried my German lol, we did not hear much English around us. Especially when we were in the trains, public transit and Innsbruck.

Where I live, this is just not done. Traveling anywhere via plane is rare, let alone across the ocean.

Edit - I just checked my parents’ website. In the last 14 years, they’ve been to 47 countries. And they have a lot more planned in 2023. Something like 103 days of travel.

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6062

Your parents sound like mine! They traveled everywhere they took me many places, including South Africa five times. Such a wonderful experience.

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6063

Well we didn’t vacation much growing up, usually just to visit the grandparents. But twice - though once I was 2, so it doesn’t really count - we spent a month touring the US in a full passenger 1978 Chevy van. We slept in every motel 6/super 8 or the back of the van. Ate chicken pate sandiwches every day for lunch, lol. I think we saw every famous and maybe not so famous site from the Midwest to the west coast.

I think the big flurry now is trying to finish up their bucket list before it’s too late. They are in their late 70s, and while in good health now, my Dad has already outlived all male relatives in his family.

I am very thankful they took us though, as it also opened up my kids’ eyes. They love to travel. Older S is going to Alaska next month. My parents spent a month there a few years ago, so they were chatting about it. And younger S is planning his first big trip (with GF) to Iceland in June. Twice, his summer study abroad was cancelled for covid, and he has tons of $$$ left from his college $$$, so we are encouraging him to do some travel with it.

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6064

That’s cool. We traveled around the US when I was growing up (to engineering educators’ conferences). The international travel was when I was an adult.

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6065

Traveling as a child was what made me aware I was a born homebody! Disneyland…so cool but after day 2 I started longing for MY bed ( no lumpy mattress) MY own room ( sleeping with 3 others in the room, no just no), even MY tableware ( yes…at age 6…why the heck is low to mid priced restaurant silver ware so tinny…yuck. Why does that stupid plastic pebbly drinking glass make everything lukewarm…I want a cold, cold drink). England and France at age 10, I liked it well enough but after 72 hrs couldn’t wait for all of the above. I’m just not meant for travel, to say the least!

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6066

Yes, you are definitely at the other end of the travel lovers spectrum - and I think that’s great too. Know what you like, or don’t like, and be comfortable with it. I have plenty of things where I don’t like what almost everyone in the world seems to.

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6067

So interesting! I could travel non-stop and love it. My daughter dated a sweet guy like you. I didn’t say anything but I was worried because she loves to go all over the world. He didn’t even like traveling to see her when they ended up living 500 miles apart, so they broke up.

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6068

I could travel full time.

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6069

And so this comes back to “ travel in the time of Covid” where we left the Midwest for sunny California for 6 weeks and had our car full of my stuff shipped out. With my stuff around me and a beautiful house to roam around in ( I find living in a one room hotel claustrophobic) I enjoyed being away. But I guess that’s because I had just recreated “home”.

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6070

There are stories out there about people who live on cruise ships. They looked at the cost of assisted living (they’re not quite that bad off) and decided the per day cost of cruising worked out for them.

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6071

Me too! Really. I would never tire of it.

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6072

Cruise ship living as an alternative to senior facility living has been noticed as a possibility for a few decades, long before COVID-19: Living on cruise ships is cost effective for elderly people - PMC

Of course, cruise ships and senior facilities had similar problems with trying to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the early days.

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6073

In the early days? I’d say it is still a serious problem, but not quite as serious.

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6074

deleted wrong thread

6075

I’m glad we’re not related. It’d be a bummer in my family if someone didn’t truly enjoy exploring and traveling from tents (often) to resorts (sometimes) along with everything in between. We love family trips - and sharing individual trip experiences.

It’s great that we can both do what we love, of course (no shaming here), but reading your post just made me thankful that my parents, kids, and DILs are all on the same page!

If we had the $$ for it, I’d love to live on the road (or train/boat/whatever) 24/7 getting as many countries/states/provinces in as I can - H too. For now, as soon as we’re done with one trip we’re planning another with a couple of closer locations tossed in on whims in between, but we do have to return home to continue earning a living in between.

One of my oldest’s elementary teachers asked us about our travel on a parent teacher conference. After we mentioned a little bit we asked why the topic came up. She said my S had “corrected” a friend who thought going 30 minutes away to his grandma’s house was a trip. “A trip means you’ve spent at least one night away from home and NOT with a relative!” This would have been when he was roughly 1st or 2nd grade - and no such “official” designation exists in our family, but evidently he thought it did!

Any of mine would drop everything and travel at a moment’s notice if their jobs allowed for it. We parents too, of course.

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6076

My parents liked to travel and my DH too. I’ve gone on some nice trips pre-Covid . But I haven’t been anywhere or done anything where I’m happier than when my foot crosses the threshold of my house. And I don’t really want to do it again very much. When my older daughter turned 25 I gave her and her now fiancé use of all our air miles as a gift. 500k. I knew they enjoy travel more than me.

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6077

I think I fall somewhere in the middle but maybe more to being a homebody.

I don’t mind traveling and when we have a pleasure trip, we have a great time.

But I have to admit to liking my house and my stuff. My husband is definitely a homebody, he likes being with his stuff. And his hobbies. And his house.

So much of our travel is visiting family that pleasure travel gets put on the back burner.

I’m very anxious to fly. My husband (although he would deny this) is anxious to leave and get the house ready to travel.

Neither of us likes to plan travel, it’s just not comfortable or easy for us.

We like our house, we have lots of things we like to do near our house. Last year we took a ton of day trips to play golf. Played many courses that we had always wanted to. But slept in our own bed every night.

I kid my husband that it was his perfect vacation. Because he never had to leave his stuff. He thinks everyone feels the same way he does.

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