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Welcome to the rabbit hole, Alice... Trip planning in the “age of COVID”

Are you actively planning any future international travel right now?
What aspects of your trip planning are making you think that you’re more like the Hookah-Smoking Caterpillar than Alice, down this rabbit hole?

Every winter, I leave Canada from January to April to escape the cold.
COVID-19 royally screwed up my return home from Australia this past April, and I had to completely cancel all of my future travel plans for the remainder of 2020, as well as my snowbird winter in Hawaii for 2021.

Trying to salvage my winter escape to more forgiving weather, I found that trip planning was suddenly like stepping into a different dimension altogether. I’m currently planning a trip with the totally alien premise that I may not actually board my departing flight at the last minute.

I booked a direct Transat charter flight from Canada to Lisbon with a minimal deposit and fully flexible cancellation policy (unheard of). I’ve had to also plan my arrival in Lisbon in a way to account for the maybe possibility of quarantine and testing, before continuing on to Madeira.

Every accommodation in Portugal is booked after very carefully choosing a third party website, that could increase my chances of actually getting the promised refund back from a totally cancellable booking. I have to keep reminding myself that all the pretty photos of gyms and pools are illusory, and instead I find myself paying much closer attention to the interior lounge space and kitchen equipment, LOL!

At least Portugal’s mask wearing, physical distancing, reduced seating and capacity of public venues, all mirror what we’ve gotten used to at home already... and we won’t be wearing toques and heavy parkas & boots outside once a week, and our flannel pyjamas all day the other 6 days of the week.

Posted by
8377 posts

Diane, I'd be satisfied if I could plan a trip to Canada.

Posted by
11033 posts

Definition: Especially in Canada, Toque is the common name for a knitted winter hat. In the USA and most other parts of the world, it is simply called Beanie. It is a type of hat with no any brim.

I learned something today.

Posted by
1446 posts

Joe, a toque is what Kevin wore in Home Alone, and hereabouts it’s pronounced “too-k” (‘oo’ like moon).

Posted by
4759 posts

Joe, I think Americans may be more familiar with the term "watch cap". Beanie is a new one to me. But they're the same thing as what Canadians call a toque (too k)

Posted by
8377 posts

We mostly call them knit caps around here. Fleece caps if they're fleece. Stocking or wool caps in my childhood. This is the first time I've heard toque. Beanie is what we called the sewn cloth caps that schoolgirls used to wear - like a baseball cap without a brim. Interesting regional differences.

Posted by
1329 posts

Diane, I have had four trips cancelled this year. One to Québec. And I still have a trip to Lyon olammed for Christmas that I booked right before the apocalypse. Of course I booked it at a time when I normally booked nonrefundable trips because they were so much cheaper. So I cannot cancel yet.

Also planning Paris for March correcting my mistakes from the past.

Posted by
1541 posts

I must admit, DH and I have bed toques for the winter. We set our furnace low for winter nights, and it gets chilly! A warm head makes all the difference.

My friends and family laugh... until they try it.

Posted by
4526 posts

Diane, if you aren't used to booking apartments for winter climates, a tip someone passed on to me is about heat. Ensure there is heat, and check with the host that it actually accessible 24/7. If you think there will be days you just stay in to relax or weather out the rain and grey or you need to isolate, you don't want a place that turns the heat off 9 - 6 during the day. Some places will also leave heating costs out of the picture and charge per consumption - which is expensive by North American standards. If that is the case, look whether they have a working fire place and that you can use it.

Posted by
164 posts

Toques...parkas...boots....just the thought is enough to make me cry....

Posted by
1321 posts

I cannot bring myself to start planning a trip to anywhere. It all seems so feudal - for us vaccines are the key. My husband is over 65 so we are hoping we can be near the front of the line when we can get vaccines and then hope they are effective. Once vaccines available my thoughts are 1) a week cycling in France or Italy plus another 2 weeks visiting, 2) a week in Morocco - sitting home watching all kind of food and travel shows on Netflix has wet the Morocco whistle, 3) a week sailing some Greek islands (we did Croatia in 2019 and I liked it more then I thought I would). I'm sure more will be added to my list as the year drags on. Maybe back to New Zealand.

Posted by
546 posts

Diane, I'd be satisfied if I could plan a trip to Canada.

Same here! Being in New York City, I've had the opportunity to visit Montreal and the Eastern Townships several times over the last couple of years and I've really enjoyed it.

I had been hoping this year to do either a snowshoeing-themed trip in Charlevoix (in the winter) or a Saguenay fjord/Tadoussac whale-watching trip (in the summer), but for obvious reasons neither of these are going to happen!

Posted by
7049 posts

Travel planning during an unprecedented worldwide pandemic seems like an oxymoron - how could it go smoothly or predictably when international border controls and requirements and other rules (for lodging, flights, etc) are constantly shifting? Unlike the OP's home country, roughly half of our country is living in an alternative universe where there is no pandemic (supposedly it's "under control" or conquered) and life is supposed to proceed "as normal". People seem flummoxed when their plans don't come to fruition.

Posted by
17639 posts

Are you actively planning any future international travel right now?

I am not going to go any place that I am not going to enjoy. Fortunately there are a few places that, today, I can get into that I have been wanting to see or return to for some time. So, yes, I am planning. I have trip insurance that lets me cancel for no reason and medical insurance that does cover COVID once there. Might prove to be the best $300 I ever spent. The other thing I have done is book the RT to Europe independently of the connection to the final destination. That way I had some flexibility between 4 countries when the time comes.

If you know what you are getting into, are willing to take the financial and medical risk; then go for it. But make it a well informed decision.