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New Travel Plans

Posted: November 12th, 2021, 3:52 pm
by bjmarren
Hi All,

I was wondering if anyone had made any travel plans for the immediate or near future, despite Covid still being a major threat. I ask as my wife has her 60th birthday at the end of next Jan, and we would normally plan for a major trip somewhere,maybe Australia, Africa or South America. Given that there are countries where a large majority of the population has been fully vaccinated, has this change made you re-think your travel plans.

Genuinely interested, as a poster (Vince) on another non-travel board mentioned that they had sold some shares to fund a major trip to South America.

Brendan

Re: New Travel Plans

Posted: November 12th, 2021, 4:03 pm
by Lootman
Wife and I are going to the US for Thanksgiving next week. Just one covid test in each direction, no quarantine. Not expecting any problem.

Re: New Travel Plans

Posted: November 12th, 2021, 4:22 pm
by MaraMan
We just got back from a week in Gran Canaria yesterday (we are both over 60). We also visited Spain a month ago to see friends.

We aren't in the slightest put off of travelling and found the flight etc very easy. My only concern would be wearing a face mask on a long haul flight, but I guess you just take your time eating and drinking. We will undoubtedly travel further afield next year, rules permitting.

MM

Re: New Travel Plans

Posted: November 12th, 2021, 4:23 pm
by seagles
Have been to Turkey, Portugal and Fuerteventura since the first lockdown. Was in Mexico the week before the first lockdown. I must admit to being concerned about Covid but both the airlines and hotels have been brilliant on all occasions( wish the same could be said for outside of these). The requirements for travel have, in my opinion, got to the point of being quite easy to comply with and understand.
Am in the planning stages for a holiday in February, looking at Jamaica, Costa Rica or Dominican Republic. Between now and then lots could happen, so making sure that cancelling, delaying or changing is available at no charge.
My daughter works in the travel industry and tells me that they have surpassed their revenue from pre-covid, with longer and larger budgets. Told me a party of 9 from Switzerland has just paid £365,000 for the Maldives. Seems people have decided to "spend" their savings and that the restrictions or future "outbreaks" have been taken into account.

Good luck and have a great time, enjoy yourselves whilst you can, life is too short. IMO

Re: New Travel Plans

Posted: November 12th, 2021, 5:33 pm
by Dod101
seagles wrote:Have been to Turkey, Portugal and Fuerteventura since the first lockdown. Was in Mexico the week before the first lockdown. I must admit to being concerned about Covid but both the airlines and hotels have been brilliant on all occasions( wish the same could be said for outside of these). The requirements for travel have, in my opinion, got to the point of being quite easy to comply with and understand.
Am in the planning stages for a holiday in February, looking at Jamaica, Costa Rica or Dominican Republic. Between now and then lots could happen, so making sure that cancelling, delaying or changing is available at no charge.
My daughter works in the travel industry and tells me that they have surpassed their revenue from pre-covid, with longer and larger budgets. Told me a party of 9 from Switzerland has just paid £365,000 for the Maldives. Seems people have decided to "spend" their savings and that the restrictions or future "outbreaks" have been taken into account.

Good luck and have a great time, enjoy yourselves whilst you can, life is too short. IMO


I agree with the sentiments but I want to go to the Far East as is my wont over our winter but the only place with easy entry both ways seems to be Singapore which is not really what I had in mind. Oh and Sri Lanka I think so may be I could go there with a side trip to the Maldives (for rather less than £40,000 per head)

Dod

Re: New Travel Plans

Posted: November 12th, 2021, 7:58 pm
by bjmarren
Thank you all for your replies. We were in in Germany for the last 2 weeks of September and found the whole travel process quite straightforward and
stress free. People there tend to abide by the rules, so it was all quite relaxing. We're looking for somewhere warmish, and Asia would be attractive, but we've been to Malaysia, Borneo and Singapore just before the Covid, as well as South Africa. South America is attractive but a multiple location trip maybe complicated if there were different country restrictions. After the Germany trip I'm a lot more relaxed about the whole travelling thing s will probably sort something out.

Enjoy your travels, as seagles is so right, that life is short!

Brendan

Re: New Travel Plans

Posted: November 27th, 2021, 6:07 am
by SoBo65
Since Covid we have managed to travel abroad twice, first to Antigua in October 2020 and then Grenada in October 2021. We have booked holidays ahead when seeing good deals (generally top resorts / premium flights at big discounts) with BA, the majority have been cancelled or a couple where we decided not to travel with full refunds received. For 2022 we have four holidays booked, Antigua, Gran Canaria, St Lucia and Grenada, all but the last one is covered by BA's flexible policy, so we can easily change. We would normally have more variety in locations, but the Caribbean islands seem to manage Covid well so gives us assurance plus we like winter sun.

Re: New Travel Plans

Posted: November 27th, 2021, 3:26 pm
by terminal7
In the last 4 months we have been to France 4 times and last week to Venice. The cost of of testing has exceeded £1k in that time. Also the time spent on form filling has been great and now you need a European Passenger Locator Form for some European countries. However, the mental benefits of getting away at our time of life makes it all worthwhile. Also we felt 'safer' in general as more people wear masks, need to show covid passes to gain entrance to public places, museums, cafes etc in France and Venice compared with London (maybe its different out of London?).

As far as we are concerned we will continue to travel as much as we can while we can.

T7

Re: New Travel Plans

Posted: November 27th, 2021, 4:06 pm
by Dod101
I do not feel jealous of your trip to Venice at this time of year. We were there in early December a few years back and it was very cold and pouring rain most of the time. Hope you had better weather.

Dod

Re: New Travel Plans

Posted: November 28th, 2021, 5:46 pm
by terminal7
Dod101 wrote:I do not feel jealous of your trip to Venice at this time of year. We were there in early December a few years back and it was very cold and pouring rain most of the time. Hope you had better weather.

Dod


Beg to disagree Dod - I love going to Venice off season. In fact going to Venice in season is fairly challenging even if you know how to avoid the tourist traps. We were lucky with the weather - 3 out of 4 days sunny. Also we timed to be there during the 'Festa della Salute' when a temporary bridge is in place for three days across to the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute. As pretty much a heathen, I still find watching the thousands of locals - candles in hand - moving en masse to this church to give thanks re the end of the Black Death a pretty moving experience. If you want to throw in Fidelio at the Fenice and a Jommelli (true I did not know him - but listen to this and you will feel uplifted) Requiem at Chiesa Anglicana di San Giorgio. Also add to the pot 2 superb meals at (very local) restaurants that usually you would have great difficulty getting a reservation and we recharged our batteries for the slog that is facing us this winter.

T7

Re: New Travel Plans

Posted: November 28th, 2021, 9:55 pm
by Dod101
terminal7 wrote:
Dod101 wrote:I do not feel jealous of your trip to Venice at this time of year. We were there in early December a few years back and it was very cold and pouring rain most of the time. Hope you had better weather.

Dod


Beg to disagree Dod - I love going to Venice off season. In fact going to Venice in season is fairly challenging even if you know how to avoid the tourist traps. We were lucky with the weather - 3 out of 4 days sunny. Also we timed to be there during the 'Festa della Salute' when a temporary bridge is in place for three days across to the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute. As pretty much a heathen, I still find watching the thousands of locals - candles in hand - moving en masse to this church to give thanks re the end of the Black Death a pretty moving experience. If you want to throw in Fidelio at the Fenice and a Jommelli (true I did not know him - but listen to this and you will feel uplifted) Requiem at Chiesa Anglicana di San Giorgio. Also add to the pot 2 superb meals at (very local) restaurants that usually you would have great difficulty getting a reservation and we recharged our batteries for the slog that is facing us this winter.

T7


Sounds wonderful. We were there in truly awful weather but certainly avoided the tourists, having been there in midsummer that was a definite advantage. We went to a jazz club amongst other things and enjoyed that very much.

Dod

Re: New Travel Plans

Posted: November 29th, 2021, 3:23 pm
by Lootman
So the rules are changing (yet again) for arrivals into the UK. From 4 a.m. tomorrow, Tuesday, we are back to requiring a PCR test for the Day Two arrivals test. Moreover you are supposed to self-isolate until you get the result whereas up to today you can carry on as normal, and then take a PCR test only if your lateral flow test comes back positive.

Because of the need to self-isolate until you get the result I suspect a lot of people will do the arrivals test at Heathrow, so they can avoid self-isolation altogether.

It is not clear how or whether any of this will be enforced of course.

Annoying as I went overseas last week and now have to deal with this.

Re: New Travel Plans

Posted: November 30th, 2021, 3:52 pm
by stevensfo
Dod101 wrote:
terminal7 wrote:
Dod101 wrote:I do not feel jealous of your trip to Venice at this time of year. We were there in early December a few years back and it was very cold and pouring rain most of the time. Hope you had better weather.

Dod


Beg to disagree Dod - I love going to Venice off season. In fact going to Venice in season is fairly challenging even if you know how to avoid the tourist traps. We were lucky with the weather - 3 out of 4 days sunny. Also we timed to be there during the 'Festa della Salute' when a temporary bridge is in place for three days across to the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute. As pretty much a heathen, I still find watching the thousands of locals - candles in hand - moving en masse to this church to give thanks re the end of the Black Death a pretty moving experience. If you want to throw in Fidelio at the Fenice and a Jommelli (true I did not know him - but listen to this and you will feel uplifted) Requiem at Chiesa Anglicana di San Giorgio. Also add to the pot 2 superb meals at (very local) restaurants that usually you would have great difficulty getting a reservation and we recharged our batteries for the slog that is facing us this winter.

T7


Sounds wonderful. We were there in truly awful weather but certainly avoided the tourists, having been there in midsummer that was a definite advantage. We went to a jazz club amongst other things and enjoyed that very much.

Dod


If the weather is bad, I can recommend this place:

https://www.guggenheim-venice.it/

Peggy Guggenheim museum.

I was dragged there by wife who saw it on Tripadvisor, and I was prepared to put my foot down and find a nearby bar, but I was captivated by the works and could hardly make my mind up whether I liked them or not. Some were incredible!! Some were "I did this sort of thing when I was 10"! But most were really amazing and I will visit again. I hate spending money, but this was worth it! 8-)

Steve

Re: New Travel Plans

Posted: November 30th, 2021, 5:04 pm
by Dod101
stevensfo wrote:
Dod101 wrote:
terminal7 wrote:
Beg to disagree Dod - I love going to Venice off season. In fact going to Venice in season is fairly challenging even if you know how to avoid the tourist traps. We were lucky with the weather - 3 out of 4 days sunny. Also we timed to be there during the 'Festa della Salute' when a temporary bridge is in place for three days across to the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute. As pretty much a heathen, I still find watching the thousands of locals - candles in hand - moving en masse to this church to give thanks re the end of the Black Death a pretty moving experience. If you want to throw in Fidelio at the Fenice and a Jommelli (true I did not know him - but listen to this and you will feel uplifted) Requiem at Chiesa Anglicana di San Giorgio. Also add to the pot 2 superb meals at (very local) restaurants that usually you would have great difficulty getting a reservation and we recharged our batteries for the slog that is facing us this winter.

T7


Sounds wonderful. We were there in truly awful weather but certainly avoided the tourists, having been there in midsummer that was a definite advantage. We went to a jazz club amongst other things and enjoyed that very much.

Dod


If the weather is bad, I can recommend this place:

https://www.guggenheim-venice.it/

Peggy Guggenheim museum.

I was dragged there by wife who saw it on Tripadvisor, and I was prepared to put my foot down and find a nearby bar, but I was captivated by the works and could hardly make my mind up whether I liked them or not. Some were incredible!! Some were "I did this sort of thing when I was 10"! But most were really amazing and I will visit again. I hate spending money, but this was worth it! 8-)

I can visualise it on the Grand canal and read a book about the development of the building and its previous inhabitants. I do not remember the title nor where I have put it though. It was a fascinating story.

Dod

Steve

Re: New Travel Plans

Posted: January 7th, 2022, 8:32 am
by bjmarren
Hi All,

This is by way of an update of my original post which started this thread back in November As a recap, my wife has a birthday at the end of January and we usually travel somewhere to celebrate. Due to what's going on at the moment we had decided maybe not to go anywhere, but are reconsidering and trying to make plans where we can fly direct (from Sofia) and the travel time be under 3 hours. We're looking at Belgium, with trips to Bruges and Ghent. Not the best time of year maybe but we're not really interested in lying around somewhere, and much prefer going and seeing things.
Has anyone got any advice about Belgium in general? Appreciate any thoughts.

Brendan

Re: New Travel Plans

Posted: January 7th, 2022, 8:50 am
by swill453
Highly recommend a 3-centre trip if you've got long enough, Brussels/Ghent/Bruges, all well connected by public transport.

Scott.

Re: New Travel Plans

Posted: January 7th, 2022, 9:09 am
by bjmarren
Hi Scott,

Thanks for swift reply, Yeah, we heard there was options to do something like this and that is ideally want we want to do. Well have a total of 5 days in Belgium, including travel to and from but the flight times gives us at least half a day on arrival and departure so,we should be able to manage that. Just hope the weather will be ok, i.e. not peeing day all day!

Brendan

Re: New Travel Plans

Posted: January 7th, 2022, 9:23 am
by BigB
If you have any interest in WWI history a trip to Ypres/TyneCot/Passendale would be recommended, though perhaps best served by hiring a car for a day - several locations around Ypres all within a few kms. If doing this, plan to be in Ypres at 8pm at the Menin Gate - they call the last post every night at 8, and it is chilling.

Re: New Travel Plans

Posted: January 7th, 2022, 2:29 pm
by bjmarren
Hi BigB,

That would really interest me but I'm not so sure about the Missus. At the moment it's 50 - 50 if we'll go or not, depending on what happens in the next 10 days. for sure, it'll be a last minute booking if we go.

Brendan