Covid Plan B for Rick Steves Loire to the South of France tour in September

My first response is that I sincerely hope (dare expect?) this test to enter the US requirement is gone by then.
Current situation (can and probably wii change) people have used their travel insurance to offset cost of additional days. 7 day isolation period. Negative test or Certificate of recovery needed to enter US, and airline has to be willing to reschedule you.

the airline has to be willing to reschedule you but the cost can be horrendous. It is whatever that ticket would cost now -- not what you paid.

Many airlines have more generous change policies than previously. All my data is anecdotal from reports, but I am getting the impression that 200-300 more is the norm. If you have had a different experience, let us know.

Thank you everyone for your comments. Not as bad as it could be but reason to stay safe!

dbyrne7012,
When are you taking the SoF tour? I'm on it Sept 11-23. PM me if you want.
Kathy

I'm on the September 25th through October 7th tour, is that the same tour as you? I'm also worried about the trip home, although I will have insurance and getting stuck in France wouldn't be the worst thing in the world...although Nice would be very expensive.

If you do did covid, heaven forbid, your tour guide would be able to assist you.

This is a great trip as I did it a couple of years ago. Go and have fun, life is short.

Hi All,
If you test positive for COVID while traveling internationally, this is current info that you need to know. At the first sign of any sore throat or sniffles or anything else that could feasibly be COVID symptoms, get a test. You can take some of your free government issued tests with you and use them, but if they come back positive, immediately go get an official, reported COVID test so the start date is documented. From that date, you have to wait till Day 11 to be able to fly. They will not make any exception. If you wait till you take the "1 Day Before Proctored Test" and come up positive, you start your wait time from them. We are currently consigned to the Brussels Airport hotel until 5/16 after having tested positive yesterday. We had 'colds' starting on 4/23/22 but didn't get tested. And here we are. This is an untenable situation. We will not travel internationally again until this ridiculous situation ends.

here is some recent news pressuring the admin to drop testing

https://ftnnews.com/health-a-spa/43920-us-travel-industry-asks-biden-administration-to-end-pre-departure-testing

Hang in there Shirley! Thanks for the helpful first hand advice.

Thanks everyone for your advice. Shirley, hope your quarantine is not too bad and is over soon.

I'm sorry to hear about Shirley's experience with testing positive and like others I am also concerned about having a plan B in place before our trip to France scheduled June 16-July 2. We only have a hotel in Paris through the night of July 1 as we plan to fly home on July 2. Does anyone have experience with what to do for a place to stay if we test positive? I'm wondering what other people are doing for a plan B for accommodations? I looked into reserving a hotel ahead of time that would be refundable if we find ourselves in that unfortunate situation of testing positive the day before our planned departure but the cancellation dates are too far ahead of time to be useful. Do I just wait and start looking on July 1 for somewhere to stay for the next 10 days if we test positive and hope that whatever I can find at that point will be affordable? We have some trip insurance but it wouldn't cover all expenses. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Excellent question, Karen. I have had the same questions as you and am interested in the responses of those with input to give. We are are going to France in 3 weeks for 2 1/2 weeks and have no other hotel than the one the night before we fly home. So if one tests positive, one has to right away try and find another hotel but how do you do that when you can't give the hotel an end date for your stay? And do you tell this hotel why or is it better not to? Surely many have faced this, hopefully we will hear from a few.

We are leaving May 22 for France. Will be returning June 12th. I was soooo hoping this ridiculous testing requirement for vaccinated Americans would be over by then but now I have my doubts!!
Is it too late to buy some travel insurance to cover the possibility of testing positive and having to pay for hotel and new flight?
Can you please tell me what insurance you purchased, which company?
Thanks so much and so sorry to Shirley!

I would think any tour including Steves would have arrangements for dealing with this i.e. getting the testing done and then making the arrangements for medical certification of recovery etc.