Next summer’s travel

We were supposed to be in Scotland right now, and heading to Denmark at the end of the week. No reason to change the itinerary, just the post-vaccine timing. Hope we can all get a shot, as soon as one’s viable and available!

Pam, yes, "but" we're waiting until the vaccine is distributed and proven effective before committing money to anything. We were hoping to do RS Scotland in 2021 and I guess that's still possible. More than likely that is now pushed to 2022. Instead, we're looking at a road trip of the northeast US from Boston to Maine, and then back through Vermont and New Hampshire. Something like that.

We have some areas in the US we've never visited that are on our bucket list, like the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and Jellystone, home to Yogi Bear and Boo-Boo.

just be sure not to take a pic-a-nic basket!!

I just hope to drop my May 2020 trip to Scotland into May 2021. And I did posit to my husband that since we didn't get our overseas trip this year that perhaps next year (depending, of course) we can take our Scotland trip in May and my trip with mom in Sept - I don't want to put that one off as none of us are getting any younger.

This year I was supposed to be in Scotland in June and London in September. For now, we're playing the waiting game and hope to do the same itineraries on the same dates next year. Other than that, I'm not planning anything concrete in advance. For the past 3 or 4 years, every Sunday morning my wife and I have a date at our neighbourhood Tim Hortons, we bring travel books and plan our next adventure. We can't plan that next adventure right now, but I think we've got the big picture mapped out between now and 2026. Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast, RS Sicily tour, RS Greece and then some Islands, Northern France, Switzerland...

I appreciate your question and the happy stimulus it creates in focusing upon next year. We are now structuring the "bones" of a journey to stay for up to 90 days in Europe with a focus of 30/30/30 or 45/45. Our destination targets are:

1) staying on the outskirts of London
2) Croatia (which we fell in love with last October)
3) Spain (which we have many visits over the past 15 years)

If we are painting a picture we are currently using water colors to develop a sense of the journey's image. Refinement will help be guided by forum input.

Journey schedule is between April to October.

Be well!

We'll probably be driving around Nova Scotia and Newfoundland at some point in the summer, since we wilt in the heat (lived in FL for years, go figure); then Europe in the fall. Germany (Munich to Aachen and Trier) is #1 on the have-not-seen list, but a return to Greece or the UK (esp. York, Edinburgh) is also very tempting. It is great to hang out with travel books and websites and daydream about all this. We're also thinking about a first trip to Morocco, but not during the summer.

I would love to do Nova Scotia trip one summer. I have enjoyed Natalie McMaster’s fiddling for years. And the there were the stores from the book, A Dance called America which covers the Scottish diaspora to North America! I need to remember that there are other options if Canada will let us in!

I lived in central Florida for four years and it was like living in a sauna under a heat lamp for about 8 months of the year. Great place to live for the winter. I guess some people really like the intense heat and humidity.

Yes, thinking but not exactly planning. If it works out, I will probably take this year’s cancelled trip to Scotland in May and June. It was to be my first long stay. I am really happy with that planning, although I will add some time and will wait till we get closer to see if it looks feasible. It will be easy to put together quickly. And please share if you get an Elsa calendar! I have really been enjoying her (and I do miss Duncan).

However I was supposed to take a friend to Germany and Czech Republic (and maybe more) fall of 2021 on another 5-6 week trip and she has really been looking forward to it. I have a general overlook planned but can’t get motivated to keep researching (yes, I start way early). If the virus situation improves in an acceptable way, I am sure I’ll happily start back on that one! Like Allan, I know where I want to go for the next 5 years or so!

Pamela - 10 days would give you a really good overview of NS - being able to take your time and enjoy instead of hurrying from place to place. I honestly think late Sept/early Oct is the nicest time to visit - weather is great and the trees are turning.

And it DOES get hot here - we've been hitting 28C or so with humidex feeling like 34-35C at least a few weeks in July. My upstairs when I don't have the AC on is (- right now looking at the thermometer I have -) 78F. But we do have lovely ocean breezes - if the fog hasn't rolled in! Earlier this week my sister who lives near the coast about an hour away was shivering in the fog, and here we were sweating like pigs.

Based on what the infectious disease experts are saying and what's going on with the clinical trials, I would be pleasantly surprised if a vaccine is available to the general public in the winter of 21. Some very knowledgeable people are saying fall of 21 or winter of 22.

Oh I hope you are wrong about the vaccine

Thanks for the advice about Nova Scotia.

And yes, missing Duncan Chisholm! I was playing his tunes out on the fire escape at 7 PM. Nobody is clapping any more, but I still like to go out on the FE and sit for a few minutes at 7PM. It is a time to think about the day and I had been playing a Duncan tune. I need to get Redpoint on my phone.

Pam

Hi Pam! What a great topic. We were booked booked for September, but in late April one of our BnB hosts in Scotland emailed to inform us that she was canceling all her bookings through 2020. That was the nudge I needed to completely reschedule our month long trip to GB to May 2021. BA finally canceled our flight so we could re-book without penalty. So I am being cautiously optimistic about having a vaccine available by early spring. I really have to "keep my chin up" as my mom liked to say, otherwise I'm afraid I would be in rehab by then. We are revisiting some of our favorite places and adding quite a few we missed on our last trip, including one of your recommendations, Dunkeld. So 2021 will be all the fun we had planned for this year but didn't because we're staying home, staying safe. A week after returning from GB, I'm off to a dude ranch! And if Celine Dion ever reschedules her North American tour, I'll be taking my daughters to see her in Vancouver. Let's all stay safe so we can get back to traveling. Jenny

So NYC gets Duncan’s fiddle at 7pm. Excellent!

Colorado’s nightly event is at 8pm, MDT, with people howling like wolves (or injured dogs). Seems to be mostly young kids. Very strange, but it’s the thought that counts, I suppose.

I had a golf trip to Scotland in May, playing two courses in St. Andrews (Jubilee and Old Course) and at Carnoustie, tee times for all of them were pre-paid and non-refundable. We also had an 2BR apartment in St. Andrews for a week, pre-paid and non-refundable as well, and three nights at a Hilton in Edinburgh for sightseeing. Unfortunately the travel ban prohibited us making the trip. Canceling the Hilton reservations was easy, as was United Airlines. I paid with United miles and they put them back in my account with no penalty. They gave my friend a voucher for the base fare he paid and refunded to his credit card the amount he paid to upgrade to Economy Plus. The apartment owner was more difficult, offering us a 20% refund and another 20% discount if we came in 2021 and stayed with him. All of the courses agreed to give us a 60% refund or credit our payment toward a new tee time next year. This was a dream trip for us, so we decided to take his 20% ($325) and the new tee times and plan a trip next year. In the end, just last week we were given tee times in 2021 at all three courses on the same dates we had before, one day of the week later, and it looks like the flights are about the same price as the ones we had. The tee times are confirmed and we will wait for a while to book the flights to see what happens with Covid19. Since there is still a no-refund policy for the apartment we are looking at other options without one, but with his discount we can stay a week in St. Andrews for $1,300. All in all, from the horror stories I've read hear we could have done a lot worse. Hopefully the virus will be conquered and we can still do this trip.

I had to cancel our 2-week September trip to Scotland a few weeks ago, but we're hoping to reschedule it for next May. It's the first time traveling to Europe for both me and my husband, and it was supposed to be a 20th anniversary trip, so the cancellation process was a little weepy for me!

Our plans will probably be pretty close to our original scheduled trip, with a flight into London, spending a few days there, taking the train to Edinburgh, and making our way to Inverness by way of Stirling, Oban (3-island tour) and Skye. We've been working on our genealogy and discovered that both of us are related to Robert the Bruce (I guess that makes us kissing cousins?), and my side goes back to Kenneth MacAlpin, so visiting Sterling and Iona are high on our list. The upside of having to postpone our trip is that we'll have longer daylight hours, and we should be able to see the puffins on Staffa :)

I did not have any travel plans abroad this year, thank goodness! I have been planning a Scotland trip at the end of June, 2021 so, I hope travel is feasible at that time.

So, I had a lovely trip all planned in my head and I just learned that my 45th reunion will interfere. Frustrating. So. Maybe I can do TWO trips to the UK next year. One on the company and one on me. 😎. I just learned about a great B&B north of Aberdeen that is owned by the parents of one of my sales reps neighbors! How is that for working those connections!

We've got Italy on our minds for Sept. 2021 (Dolomites - Cinque Terre - Tuscany, 2.5 weeks). I've booked all lodging, as I was encountering a lot of places already booking up due to rescheduled trips or people pinning their hopes on 2021 travels. I'm hopeful that it'll be safe to travel at that time, but all of our lodging is either refundable or will allow for re-scheduling. At the very least, it's fun for me to plan (husband is super relaxed/uninterested about planning and I gleefully plan every detail). Won't book airfare or get into the finer details until early 2021 or so.

Going to Scotland the second week in May 2021 on a golf trip with a friend who just retired and has never been to Europe. So excited about showing it to him. Three nights in Edinburgh, two on the front end, and six nights in St. Andrews. His father waited until 80 to go and was disappointed that he lacked the stamina to walk the courses (no carts) and that his game had deteriorated to the point where it was not enjoyable. On his deathbed he made his son, now 60, promise to play the Old Course in St. Andrews before that happened to him. I've been there once and played the Old Course twice on consecutive days, something I'm told never happens for tourists. I was thrilled to plan this trip for the two of us last May and we had tee times at the OC and Carnoustie, two of the best courses there. Considering some of the horror stories I've heard here about financial losses related to cancelled trips to Europe, we were fortunate. Our losses were limited to half of our apartment rental in St. Andrews, which we split, so they were minimal. The courses offered a refund of 60% of what we paid, or they would reschedule for next year. Since they were so hard to get in the first place we took the latter. They gave us new ones on the exact same dates in 2021 and I have everything booked for our trip. I'm 75 and already working on my strength and stamina to be able to walk four rounds in five days. Hopefully we will be able to go.