Travel hopes for 2022

Booked Portugal for April, delayed by 2 years!

Hope the virus doesn't go off between now and then.
 
explanade said:
Booked Portugal for April, delayed by 2 years!

Hope the virus doesn't go off between now and then.
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Portugal seems to do an amazing job of managing Covid transmission, so hopefully you won’t be impacted, and you might even visit at a nice low point in any outbreak!
 
I would think warmer months are always better for travel than colder months as far as viruses like COVID are concerned.
 
In general true but warm places have had big waves, like FL the two previous summers and India last spring.

I don't recall when Brazil had their waves.

The other thing is, most of the northern hemisphere went through this Omicron wave in December and January and one theory is that the spread is so fast and wide, the spread drops as fast as it rose because there are so many people with immunity.

But what if that immunity fades 6 months out? That's right in the teeth of the summer.
 
Last year we planned a trip with my sister and brother-in-law to Marco Island, FL for March 2022. The flights were more expensive than I expected, over $1400 for 2 of us. I tracked the price on Google Flights and grabbed the tickets at a low point, just under $1000.

My sister called a couple weeks ago and said we needed to move the trip as her husband is having surgery the last week in Feb. and he may not be fully recovered in time. So I cancelled the flights in March and got a full refund. The trip is now in June and when I checked the flight it was just under $700 for 2 of us! And a little sign in the corner on the airline website offered a $250 credit for opening a credit card and making a purchase. The tickets I was buying count as the first purchase.

I had to unfreeze 3 credit bureaus before completeing the application but it all went through just fine. We got our flights and within a week the $250 credit was posted on the account. And we get free bags, too!

After the winter we've had here in NE Ohio I'm really looking forward to Florida in June. I just hope BILs health issue is resolved and we can all enjoy the vacation.

As for Covid concerns, we are staying in a vacation apartment/timeshare resort with a full kitchen. There are restaurants at the resort that are open air or we can take food back to the unit. My sister is very careful about crowds and closed areas. It's at the beach, so plenty of circulation.
 
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Still holding firm on my summer trip to Europe. It's about 1000 miles from Kyiv.

I noticed that Rick Steves has cancelled his tour that visits Russia (St. Petersburg). Other than that, everything is still running including the eastern Europe tours (Bulgaria,Czechia, Poland, Hungary). Note that none these countries were ever part of the Soviet Union, though they were behind the 'Iron Curtain'. Also note that two (Hungary and Czechia) were invaded by Russian led armies when they got too 'uppity' for Moscow. All four countries are now part of NATO.
 
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Yesterday I made reservations for a tour of E. Europe I'm taking in August with Overseas Adventure Travel. (Albania, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia- none of the areas currently under threat.) I'm still reeling from sticker shock. The inter-Europe hops (LHR-TIA and LJU-LHR) are done. I even booked LHR-TIA with BA miles.

The trip from my home airport to and from LHR- Crazy. Gone are the days when you could redeem 50,000 AA miles for a round trip in Business (which late DH and I actually did once, to Madrid). I was seeing 170,000 miles and up, plus a $1,100 surcharge plus, in my case, $650 to buy 19,000 extra miles. I decided to book only one way with miles and chose the trip home from LHR since the cash price was $1,300 more than the other direction. I opened up my search for the paid ticket to other airlines (if you're flying Business Class, status doesn't matter since their love can be bought). They all tried to steer me to flights with 1-hour connections in ORD. One offered a 45-minute connection in Detroit.
Really? I tried booking on UA as two segments to get a better layover- and the price doubled. I finally got a 3-hour layover in DFW on AA.

I guess there's a lot of pent-up demand out there.
 
Just made reservations for third trip to Hawaii: Maui and Kauai in May. We're planning to do without a car rental - best rate on Maui was over $700 for six days - and do tours, cycling, walking and Uber instead. Everything is changeable or can be cancelled without cost. We opted for hotels as opposed to resorts as we like to be on the move not lounging poolside. That worked well on our previous visits to the islands.
 
Ian S said:
Just made reservations for third trip to Hawaii: Maui and Kauai in May. We're planning to do without a car rental - best rate on Maui was over $700 for six days - and do tours, cycling, walking and Uber instead. Everything is changeable or can be cancelled without cost. We opted for hotels as opposed to resorts as we like to be on the move not lounging poolside. That worked well on our previous visits to the islands.
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Someone on another forum said check out Costco car rentals.


Or make a booking but check a week or two out to see if prices have changed.
 
athena53 said:
The trip from my home airport to and from LHR- Crazy. Gone are the days when you could redeem 50,000 AA miles for a round trip in Business (which late DH and I actually did once, to Madrid). I was seeing 170,000 miles and up, plus a $1,100 surcharge plus, in my case, $650 to buy 19,000 extra miles. I decided to book only one way with miles and chose the trip home from LHR since the cash price was $1,300 more than the other direction. I opened up my search for the paid ticket to other airlines (if you're flying Business Class, status doesn't matter since their love can be bought). They all tried to steer me to flights with 1-hour connections in ORD. One offered a 45-minute connection in Detroit.
Really? I tried booking on UA as two segments to get a better layover- and the price doubled. I finally got a 3-hour layover in DFW on AA.

I guess there's a lot of pent-up demand out there.
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I found an award in business class to Brisbane in November for $189k UA miles.


Supposedly Delta has awards to Sydney from LAX for around 140k miles round trip in business class, though travel is only through May.
 
explanade said:
I found an award in business class to Brisbane in November for $189k UA miles.

Supposedly Delta has awards to Sydney from LAX for around 140k miles round trip in business class, though travel is only through May.
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That's a good deal. My brother took my SIL to Australia a few years ago when he had a business conference and he had to fork over 400,000 AA miles for her Business Class flights.
 
Ian S said:
Just made reservations for third trip to Hawaii: Maui and Kauai in May. We're planning to do without a car rental - best rate on Maui was over $700 for six days - and do tours, cycling, walking and Uber instead. Everything is changeable or can be cancelled without cost. We opted for hotels as opposed to resorts as we like to be on the move not lounging poolside. That worked well on our previous visits to the islands.
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Car rental prices have gone crazy this year. We just booked a 2 week rental in Newfoundland for August. The price was $2500 CDN for a mid size, Toyota Corolla. Only 1 place could give us a car with a drop off to a different airport (with a $500 drop off charge); the rest of the rental companies had no one way drop offs available. However, the drop off charge disappears if you wait to travel in November, when most sights are closed...LOL!

Even in Southern Ontario, car rentals are now almost $100/day. Looks like rental companies are trying recoup their COVID losses in 1 year.:(
 
jcfradio said:
Car rental prices have gone crazy this year. We just booked a 2 week rental in Newfoundland for August. The price was $2500 CDN for a mid size, Toyota Corolla. Only 1 place could give us a car with a drop off to a different airport (with a $500 drop off charge); the rest of the rental companies had no one way drop offs available. However, the drop off charge disappears if you wait to travel in November, when most sights are closed...LOL!

Even in Southern Ontario, car rentals are now almost $100/day. Looks like rental companies are trying recoup their COVID losses in 1 year.:(
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I don't know about Canada per se but I'm seeing high prices in Europe as well.

But I notice that within a month, a rental of similar duration is much less.

Now it could be seasonal. I was checking rates for April and it's well over $100 a day, which I've never seen in years of renting in Europe.

But if you check rates in mid March instead, it's more like $50-60 a day.

Is it because they're pricing rentals further out at high prices or because the later in the spring and summer, it's peak season?

There are some predictions that European travel could be at 2019 levels or greater.

So maybe that's a factor.
 
explanade said:
Someone on another forum said check out Costco car rentals.


Or make a booking but check a week or two out to see if prices have changed.
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I did and it was over $100 more for a smaller car. I used Autoslash.com and have found it will provide Costco rates when they are cheaper but of course you have to input that you're a Costco member. I'm sold on autoslash.com for rental cars and they've expanded to hotels where IMHO their pricing is good but not necessarily the best. I have someone on this forum to thank for recommending autoslash.com several years ago.
 
Starting to think about another international trip in May-June. Namibia or Ireland/Scotland. Our most desired destinations are still problematic, so we'll continue going where we can--and hope that we still manage to avoid crowds for a while longer....

OH--on rental cars, we didn't find them very expensive internationally in the past year. Jordan, Iceland, Spain, and Colombia were all not too bad for week to month long rentals.

_____________
E.T.A.--luckily, we've been able to avoid domestic travel with car rentals since Feb of 2020.
 
We got a message the other day from RCCL about our Baltic Cruise starting the end of May, 2022. They said they plan to still do the Baltic Cruises, but may make an itinerary change (i.e. St. Petersburg.) They're offering cruise credits--to be used on another RCCL cruise within a year. But if they do an itinerary change, full refunds may be received.

Our 1/2 price flights into London are non-refundable. Plan B would be to go into London for a few days and then move on to one of our many other favorite places in Western Europe. I'm thinking about Budapest and driving down to Slovenia for a few days. Or, Lisbon--far from Kiev.

When the work week starts, I wouldn't be surprised to see RCCL change their tune on the Baltic Cruises and go elsewhere.
 
I’ve booked a farmstay in Scotland in late August, and I’m looking at London and Cornwall mid-June.
 
explanade said:
Or make a [car rental] booking but check a week or two out to see if prices have changed.
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I agree on this- I rented a car last October and got a much better deal a month or so later. I cancelled the original. At the time, Costco had nothing but I've gotten good deals from them before.

Bamaman said:
We got a message the other day from RCCL about our Baltic Cruise starting the end of May, 2022. They said they plan to still do the Baltic Cruises, but may make an itinerary change (i.e. St. Petersburg.) <snip>

Our 1/2 price flights into London are non-refundable. Plan B would be to go into London for a few days and then move on to one of our many other favorite places in Western Europe. I'm thinking about Budapest and driving down to Slovenia for a few days. Or, Lisbon--far from Kiev.
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Really unfortunate about St. Petersburg but I get it. DH and I loved it when we visited in 2003. I have airfare to London in August that can be changed but not refundable and if the E. Europe trip falls apart I also plan to find some other way to make good use of it. The other direction was purchased with miles so that can be changed easily. Similarly, I want to make a side trip from Munich in May- had hoped for Bucharest but maybe not, depending. Malta might be an interesting trip instead.
 
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As of today, my pilgrimage to Israel is still on for June. Fingers crossed. I have also booked a flight to Vienna for September: I'll visit Slovenia and the Czech Republic as well for genealogical work. And I booked a dream trip to Egypt complete with a Nile cruise for January 2023 with Road Scholar. Again, fingers crossed these all happen!
 
explanade said:
Someone on another forum said check out Costco car rentals.


Or make a booking but check a week or two out to see if prices have changed.
Click to expand...

We have used the car sharing app "Turo" a couple of times and REALLY hope it lasts...much more reasonable than the traditional car rental and, well...it's pretty awesome. I am afraid as it gains popularity, the cost will increase substantially as we have seen with Uber and Lyft.
 
ExFlyBoy5 said:
We have used the car sharing app "Turo" a couple of times and REALLY hope it lasts.
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I used it twice last year when the car rental companies were either out of vehicles or outrageously expensive. I loved Turo! So much easier and more pleasant.

There was one occasion when we went from the plane through the terminal to the parking garage and went past some extremely long, slow lines of people waiting to get to a rental counter. Walked right past them, found our contact waiting for us, had a pleasant conversation and went on our way with his car. Just a great experience. A bit more expensive than traditional rentals, but well worth it IMO.
 
Ian S said:
I did and it was over $100 more for a smaller car. I used Autoslash.com and have found it will provide Costco rates when they are cheaper but of course you have to input that you're a Costco member. I'm sold on autoslash.com for rental cars and they've expanded to hotels where IMHO their pricing is good but not necessarily the best. I have someone on this forum to thank for recommending autoslash.com several years ago.
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Costco provides a free second driver, that's a big one when you are traveling with a partner who is not an immediate family member. That fee can easily be $10 a day in some states. Usually there is a cap on the fee at some point. But, my experience tells me the cap is easily more than $100. Usually $150-$200.
 
braumeister said:
I used it twice last year when the car rental companies were either out of vehicles or outrageously expensive. I loved Turo! So much easier and more pleasant.

There was one occasion when we went from the plane through the terminal to the parking garage and went past some extremely long, slow lines of people waiting to get to a rental counter. Walked right past them, found our contact waiting for us, had a pleasant conversation and went on our way with his car. Just a great experience. A bit more expensive than traditional rentals, but well worth it IMO.
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I have found the couple of times I used it, they were far cheaper than the traditional rental especially if you don't mind the older cars. I have booked a car for an upcoming trip to Alaska and I got it for 7 days for a little less than $500 all in...and that is with the price-doubling/highest level of insurance. I also like that you see reviews of the host (owner) of the car...there is no real decent reviews of a rental car company since they can be all over the place depending on the location/time of rental.

The convenience is outstanding too. Both times, the hosts met me us at the airport. One of them even at the baggage claim area.
 
braumeister said:
I used it twice last year when the car rental companies were either out of vehicles or outrageously expensive. I loved Turo! So much easier and more pleasant.

There was one occasion when we went from the plane through the terminal to the parking garage and went past some extremely long, slow lines of people waiting to get to a rental counter. Walked right past them, found our contact waiting for us, had a pleasant conversation and went on our way with his car. Just a great experience. A bit more expensive than traditional rentals, but well worth it IMO.
Click to expand...

ExFlyBoy5 said:
I have found the couple of times I used it, they were far cheaper than the traditional rental especially if you don't mind the older cars. I have booked a car for an upcoming trip to Alaska and I got it for 7 days for a little less than $500 all in...and that is with the price-doubling/highest level of insurance. I also like that you see reviews of the host (owner) of the car...there is no real decent reviews of a rental car company since they can be all over the place depending on the location/time of rental.

The convenience is outstanding too. Both times, the hosts met me us at the airport. One of them even at the baggage claim area.
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What's the insurance situation though?

My credit card will provide primary insurance if I refuse CDW.

But I don't know if they would include Turo so what do they do, charge a large deposit against your card in case of damage?
 
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