Anyone else facing indecision on where to go?

I can't commiserate about the "where", I have more than enough ideas about that!

For me, it's more like the "if" and the "when". The situation being as unpredictable as it is, I don't even dare book anything at the moment. I sure wouldn't want to be one of those travelers getting out of a plane from South Africa or wherever and being tested positive with a new variant.

The possibility of short term international travel may just have taken a backward step in the past couple of days.

We have taken the opportunity to visit places that we haven’t previously seen in the U.K. in the past year.

Most of the places at the top of our travel list - India, Botswana and Cambodia aren’t likely to be realistic destinations for some time.

I commiserate with this, but my choice was made for me. My niece is going to Scotland for a choir trip and then London for a few days. I am planning on joining her. If it wasn't for that I would be stuck not able to figure out where to go.

I can also commiserate with Anna, I am scared to make reservations and plans because what is going to happen. I am hopeful but cautiously so.

Consider Croatia, which was one of the first (if not the first) European countries that welcomed Americans back. It's beautiful and its water quality is nicer than that in Greece.

Of course, everything can change over time.

I can definitely commiserate with you as I often have trouble deciding where to go on my international trips. I usually go on one international trip a year as I still work full time and in pre-pandemic times I sometimes joked that I wanted to go “everywhere.”

I haven’t traveled internationally since a Rick Steve’s tour in June 2019. My May 2020 Rick Steves Scotland tour was cancelled of course. Due to the pandemic and my being in a higher risk category re COVID, I didn’t feel comfortable going on a solo overseas trip this year.

I’m again signed up for a RS Scotland tour for next May and will just have to see how things play out with the COVID situation in Scotland as May 2022 approaches.

I can also commiserate with Anna as the need for continual COVID risk reassessment re travel plans and the unpredictability of the pandemic does add complexities to my travel decision making.

I had a wonderful trip planned to France and Spain for Fall 2021. I watched COVID stats and government response all summer. In the end, we decided it was too risky for us as we have a few high risk individuals in our family and we also worried about getting stuck somewhere because requirements seemed to change on a dime, and we certainly did not want to bring COVID home to our loved ones.. At the last minute, we cancelled France/Spain and went to Poland, instead. COVID stats were more favorable at the time, and airfare was dirt cheap. We had a fabulous time thanks in large part to some generous people on the forum that helped me to put together a very nice trip at short notice.

I have a "wish list" of places I want to go. At any given travel opportunity, I pick a place based on the time of year and the typical weather of each destination and the prices of airfare, etc., and now COVID risk. I commiserate with you. The whole COVID thing really stinks. I recommend planning a trip and making sure that everything is changeable or cancellable (or get travel insurance). If you are someone that can make a change at the last moment, I would mentally maintain a "Plan A", "Plan B" and a "Plan C" so that you can be flexible if need be. I'm convinced that for people that do have some risk aversion, this is the only way travel is going to work in the shorter term.
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Facing indecision on where to go? All the time!

Limited resources of time and money make every trip a choice between what will be and what will have to wait for later. It's a perennial problem for most of us!

Our 2020 trip to Germany (and possibly France) was postponed until the autumn of 2022, and that doesn't look good to me at the moment. I've had Covid, and had to go on steroids and antibiotics after two weeks. I don't take any medication and am in good health, as far as I know. I have no risk aversion, healthwise, but I don't want to be dealing with possible flight changes/cancellations, the rigmarole and cost of testing, mask wearing everywhere. We might ping out to PEI in late August/early September, see how it goes.

Go to England.

In London, the British museum occupied me for more than a day. The Victoria and Albert museum is an art museum with a lot of decorative objects, the place occupied me for at least 5 hours. The tower of London occupied me for at least 5 hours. The Wallace Collection is a small art museum that was pleasantly uncrowded when I was there. Do good research. Don't just automatically pick only the most popular sights and museums. Unless by coincidence those are really the only places you still want to see after reading about the smaller museums. When I went to London, I wrongly believed I could only go to one city per trip. Because I was young and unsophisticated and I had not read rick steves guidebooks. I wish I had at least gone to Stonehenge and the city of Bath.

Actually, the first country I went to in Europe, was Lithuania. The country was pleasantly uncrowded. I went to Vilnius for a Yiddish summer class. I got college credit for it. Actually, all 3 Baltic countries are probably pleasantly uncrowded places. Like in other parts of Europe, there are castles, ruins of castles, museums, old historic parts of cities, and so on. Yeah I know few Americans travel to the Baltic countries. England has better museums. Just pick England for your next trip.

I haven't been further than 2 hrs drive from my town since Oct of 2019, so fully commiserating.

I rebooked my Rabbies Scotland tours for May '22. but only because my credit expired at the end of Sept. I'm thinking - with everything going on - that is going to end up being pushed back again. I'm at 50/50 right now for that trip to happen. I haven't booked any other portion. I will hold out hope that maybe next autumn I can finally get my mom back to Italy - she isn't getting any younger.

I envy the people who don't mind the mess of restrictions and testing and masks - I want things to be 'normal' - yes, I'm double vaxxed and I wear a mask inside stores (because it's still required here - has been since Aug 2020, and I loathe it). But I'm the kind of person who wants things to be back to the way they were - I don't like irritations or hiccups in my travel (and yet, they always happen...lol...I just don't need more) so...who knows...maybe we won't travel until 2030! shrug

Thanks for the commiseration and suggestions everyone!

My risk aversion is low and I’m willing to go almost anywhere, so I’m quite sure I’ll make it somewhere next year. In the meantime, I’ll keep dreaming and make sure any deposits are refundable.

Having been twice to Ireland and to Greece, you can’t go wrong with either choice. I have 3 trips booked for 2022 and if the country lets me in, I’m going!