Christmas trip- how many on here are still going?

Back last summer my wife and I were considering a Christmas Markets tour, maybe by river cruise. We never acted on it. Probably for the best, as Germany and Austria are in poor shape right now.

OTOH, Italy, Spain, and Portugal seen pretty safe. Spain and Portugal have some of the highest vaccination levels in the world (for major countries) and their transmission rates are relatively low.

My parents from NC are still coming to visit me in Vienna over the holidays. They are vaxxed, boosted and over 70. They’ve been here dozens of times and we are just doing family stuff. We are totally comfortable.

I was toying with the idea of a short trip to Xmas markets in December somewhere in Europe, but I decided to be more cautious and will spend time here in Israel visiting the Galilee and Golan Heights instead. I might venture into Nazareth, though in the past the holiday decorations were very low key.

I was in Budapest for a week last month and there were almost no Covid precautions being taken, 3 weeks later there is a huge spike in cases and deaths. I feel like I got out just in time, even though I'm vaxxed. I did catch a bad cold - first one in nearly 3 years.

I am over 70, vaxed and boosted. I am going in less than three weeks with my 27 & 37 year old daughters. We are doing four days in Krakow and six in Vienna with a day trip to Budapest.

Of course I am a fatalist. I believe if something is going to get you, it will get you even if your are hiding under the covers in your bed at home. Having said that, I don't step into the street in front of moving buses, I just try to maintain a sensible approach. You have to live life, none of us get out alive.

We are still hoping to but don’t know if that is naive. We’re supposed to fly into Nuremberg 19 December where we’ll spend a few days before heading to Salzburg and then Vienna. Everything we’ve booked is refundable or changeable - some things requiring 7 days notice so that might be our deadline to decide. We would have to eat indoors at restaurants since we’re staying at hotels. We’re vaccinated and boosted. It is so hard to know what the right decision is.

I think its on for me too.

We are anxious as well. Need to decide if go on or postpone our trip that departs on Dec 20.

We leave Thanksgiving day for Munich flight going to Salzburg Nuremberg and Vienna. We are vaccinated and have received boosters but don’t want to spend money If it’s going to be locked down. It’s so hard to know right decision.

We are heading to Munich - Salzburg - Vienna in December …. We are all vaccinated and it feels fine to us. We are spending Thanksgiving in Kentucky … which feels riskier! My understanding is that the precautions in Germany and Austria will make us feel safer (e.g., less resistance to masks).

We are visiting family over Christmas in Hagen Germany. Before that we are visiting Salzburg, Vienna and Nuremberg. All of the adults are vaccinated with recent boosters and our younger ones will be fully vaccinated about a week before we leave. We are cautious ourselves and intend to stay vigilant in our precautions while traveling. I swear the surge that Germany and some of the other countries are currently experiencing are still less that the numbers in many areas here in the States.

Thank you all so much for your replies. There's so much to consider right now, and I appreciate everyone's perspective.
I was awakened this morning with a text from daughter- Upper Austria and Salzburg are going into total lockdown, starting on Monday. That may have made our decision for us :( We could use our tickets to fly to/from Vienna and from there go somewhere safer. I really don't want to not go, because I don't want daughter to be there alone for Christmas :( And, maybe things will calm down in a month. Ugh- this is too stressful!

I swear the surge that Germany and some of the other countries are
currently experiencing are still less that the numbers in many areas
here in the States.

You are correct, and it is worth considering if it puts your mind at ease; so I checked a few and from fewest cases per capita to greatest number of cases per capita based on the most recent 7 day average:

Florida (67/million)
Spain
Texas
South Carolina
Italy (135/million)
France
California
Washington
New York
Germany (524/million)

It is something I will consider prior to the next trip; but I will check it then as this is so fluid. I think i did the math correctly. Feel free to check me. Always best to check these sorts of things yourself and not trust a my math.

We're still on track for our (more New Years than Christmas) trip, leaving for London and Paris on Dec 31st.

My main concerns are more about logistics than covid proper - will restrictions be introduced? Will things we're looking forward to seeing be closed? Am I ok with getting stuck abroad for another week if a test comes back positive?

We're both vaccinated, and received our boosters this month. So I feel comfortable with our levels of protection, especially as we're both more than comfortable wearing masks all the time. I also feel fairly comfortable with how the places we're visiting are managing risk and where their numbers are at. I just don't want the trip to consist of us being unable to see and do much while there. Time will tell!

Well, a lockdown in Salzburg and Upper Austria is reported to be announced tomorrow. Talk is that the entire country will follow. Please keep an eye on it everyone.

I leave two weeks from today for the UK and will be there for one week. I am fully vaxxed including a booster. I plan to mask up, it doesn't bother me to wear one, and I've always been a Clorox and Purell carrying tourist so will continue with that. I'm traveling solo and am ready for a worst-case quarantine before flying home. Flights and trains are all booked first class to allow for a bit more space when in transit. I was ready to sit out from travel for another year until I found an awesome deal on the flight - too good to pass up when I'm already as careful as can be.

I've always been curious how numbers are calculated and reported across the world, and if some areas under report or overreport somehow. And what outside "influences" there may be in the reporting. For example, take Austria vs Florida...

Austria vs Florida population: 8.917mil vs 21.48mil
Austria vs Florida daily case count: 14,416 vs 1,548
Austria vs Florida vaccination rate: 70.6% vs 58.9%

Now these numbers were just quickly gathered from some simple google searches. Austria surely seems to be "out-vaccinating" Florida, Florida is almost three times the population of Austria, but yet Austria's daily case count is over nine times that of Florida. Maybe Florida is a bad example to compare to. Sometimes it just hard to really digest the numbers.

I think you should look at the number of individuals tested. Over 600,000 people had PCR tests yesterday in Austria. Current rules here require testing to go to work if you’re not vaccinated or recovered. Children test 3X/week in school. The emphasis here has always been on routine, free testing so that cases can be identified and dealt with. I wonder how common testing is in Florida?

I look at the "per X" numbers. Cases per 100K for instance. Another thing I started looking at is number of tests vs number of cases. When you're not doing a lot of testing, you may very well be missing a lot of cases. I rely on the number on this site. If you click on a country you can see more data.

Yeah it makes sense that the volume of tests performed should be factored in as well. And I agree, the "x" per 100,000 is one of the better indicators to use.