Travel hopes for 2022

[Ronstar]

Thanks for the info. My undergraduate degree was in geography and my first couple jobs were with computer mapping companies. I have a Mac on order for February delivery. I will try to get that software. I guess I could manually do the same using my picture editing software, but you way looks great and sounds more fun.

Another option - not as pretty as Ortelius, but more robust is Qgis. I take kml's out of my maps into QGIS to maintain a file of all of our road trips as separate layers. I just can't get it to make a pretty map.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Another option - not as pretty as Ortelius, but more robust is Qgis. I take kml's out of my maps into QGIS to maintain a file of all of our road trips as separate layers. I just can't get it to make a pretty map.

I like this as well. I take a lot of road trips and would love to track them like this. SOLD!

 

[rodi]

In lieu of international travel at the moment, I am taking Amtrak from Chicago to San Francisco, then flying back next month. Just something I've always wanted to do... And yes, getting a bedroom!

Good idea on the bedroom. My son travelled from San diego - Los Angeles - San Jose. The train was crowded, even in business class from LA to SJC. He wore a mask the whole time, but probably that's where he picked up covid. But - you should be able to mitigate the risks with the sleeper!

Have a great trip!

 

[JRon]

We’re taking a Mississippi River cruise in May - New Orleans to Memphis which is a 7 day trip. I think we sail during the night and dock most of the day.

 

[Happyras]

Well, wish us luck, we are flying down to Puerto Vallarta (Bucerias/Flamingos area) end of Jan. So far all is a go. My cousin, I found out, is living across the street on Hole 11 of the golf course, so it should be fun to have locals who know the area. My last 2 Biomax Now Covid tests expire for good on Jan 15, so we will have to rely on hotel antigen test the day prior to flight home. Not so bad if they have them on site for $30. Has anyone stayed at the Las Villas Estancia? We went without "all you care to eat and drink" inclusive, as we will likely go up into Bucerias often for dinner and we booked a full kitchen one bedroom ocean suite, so Costco will be our first stocking stop. I hate to be locked into bad dining, but now I am told it is fairly nice there. However for $200/day saved we can buy a lot of booze and dine anywhere. Anyone else have experience there?

BTW, the current Covid spread there is 20% of where we live here in WA, looks like a nice warm safe get away.

 

[GoBears]

It looks like we will take a road trip to visit friends in Santa Fe in late April or early May. Will probably nail down the dates in the next week or two and then plan on what to see along the way.

 

[explanade]

I used Google my maps to make the base map with the route. Made a print screen of that. Then opened it for a base layer in Mapdiva Ortelius. Ortelius is a Mac based mapping software that is no longer in business, but their website has a link to the program.

I used Ortelius to add symbols and text

Table is a Mac numbers spreadsheet screenshot brought into Ortelius as a layer.

I've been going crazy making maps lately. I was a surveyor in my working days and somewhat of a cartographer back in the 70's.

I've used Google My Maps a lot over the years. Even when the Google Maps app on iOS would not open Google My Maps.

There were some third party apps which did and I used those for awhile.

I used to save routes, even custom dragging routes to plam stopovers or other points of interests. Back before smart phones, you could actually send those routes to Garmin GPS devices via a Garmin plugin for Google Maps on the browser.

I've started to just favorite places of interest on Google Maps and then when I open Google Maps app, I can access those favorites and use tap directions.

You can use different types of icons, such as the yellow star, green flags, etc.

Used to printout screen shots of maps with the places and directions I'd researched but decided to go as paperless as possible a few years ago.

My detailed itinerary would often be a couple of dozen pages with the details and the map printouts. They were adding bulk and weight and I was already taking an iPad so I could just open Google Maps and other mapping apps on the iPad.

 

[Souschef]

With the way things are going with Omicron, maybe we should start a thread for travel hopes for 2023.

Exactly! My sister cancelled her January cruise, and the cruise line cancelled ours, I have a cruise booked for 2023, but they have not extended my cruise credit until 2023, If they do not, I will cancel

 

[RobbieB]

Avidly shopping for a trawler so's we can travel a thousand miles of Delta waterways -

 

[JoeWras]

In lieu of international travel at the moment, I am taking Amtrak from Chicago to San Francisco, then flying back next month. Just something I've always wanted to do... And yes, getting a bedroom!

One of my favorite childhood memories was taking the train from Chicago to L.A. and back. It was late sixties.

I still remember the smell of the oil as we approached those huge steel wheels at the station. So exciting! Then the trip was just nothing but fun. Grand views. Cool bathrooms (foot pedals!). Walking from car to car, exciting and scary. I remember the parents basically "gave" us a car and let us kids be kids. They all most have gone to the lounge to smoke and drink.

What a great memory. Enjoy your trip!

 

[athena53]

I just moved my South American trip, scheduled for May of this year, to May, 2023. This was to be the rest of a trip I started in March, 2020 that ended after only a week in Bolivia. I got a generous credit. No penalty for re-scheduling.

BF and I have had some good road trips but I attempted another major trip in August of last year, an Alaska cruise, and THAT got cut short- 2 cases of COVID even though we'd all been vaccinated and tested beforehand. I just don't want another truncated trip and all the anxiety that goes with it.

If things look better around March I may look at someplace in Europe, but with everything cancellable and the possibility of staying in one country. My concern with my next major scheduled trip, E. Europe in October, is that every country has its own rules, standards, etc., and they keep changing. Part of that has been necessary, of course, but when your itinerary includes passing through London in both directions and visiting Croatia, Albania, Serbia, Montenegro and Slovenia that's just too many borders where something can go wrong.

 

[Sojourner]

I don't think I've seen anyone post about canceling (or postponing) any planned ski trips due to the omicron surge, so I'll be the first.

A few days after New Year's, DW and I decided to push our Colorado ski trip from early January to early February. We've already rebooked flights and accommodations, hoping that the omicron surge will be waning substantially 3-4 weeks from now. Even though we are both fully vax'ed and boosted, we couldn't imagine traveling on crowded planes and shuttle buses at this moment, when it seems like COVID is literally everywhere. Not to mention, the idea of tromping into an on-mountain lodge/restaurant—not to eat, necessarily, just to use the restroom!—multiple times per day, with so many folks huffing and puffing and sweating and mixing and mingling and jostling for position in their bulky ski garb. I honestly don't see how that isn't virtually a guaranteed recipe for COVID/omicron transmission. Better to wait it out, we figured, since we have that luxury.

 

[Ronstar]

In the process of booking accommodations for a Glacier NP road trip, originally planned for august 2020 but cancelled due to Covid.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I don't think I've seen anyone post about canceling (or postponing) any planned ski trips due to the omicron surge, so I'll be the first.

A few days after New Year's, DW and I decided to push our Colorado ski trip from early January to early February. We've already rebooked flights and accommodations, hoping that the omicron surge will be waning substantially 3-4 weeks from now. Even though we are both fully vax'ed and boosted, we couldn't imagine traveling on crowded planes and shuttle buses at this moment, when it seems like COVID is literally everywhere. Not to mention, the idea of tromping into an on-mountain lodge/restaurant—not to eat, necessarily, just to use the restroom!—multiple times per day, with so many folks huffing and puffing and sweating and mixing and mingling and jostling for position in their bulky ski garb. I honestly don't see how that isn't virtually a guaranteed recipe for COVID/omicron transmission. Better to wait it out, we figured, since we have that luxury.

Sorry to hear of the delay, but as you said...nice to have that luxury. I do hope omicron moves on quickly since cases in MX have ticked up (and they have gone back to "yellow" status). We will wait to the end of the month to decide if we postpone our March trip.

 

[Bamaman]

If things look better around March I may look at someplace in Europe, but with everything cancellable and the possibility of staying in one country. My concern with my next major scheduled trip, E. Europe in October, is that every country has its own rules, standards, etc., and they keep changing. Part of that has been necessary, of course, but when your itinerary includes passing through London in both directions and visiting Croatia, Albania, Serbia, Montenegro and Slovenia that's just too many borders where something can go wrong.

You are absolutely right on the money. We visited just Germany 2 mos. ago to minimize any customs issues. And after taking Covid tests, no one at the airline or in U.S. Customs even checked our paperwork.

We too are wanting to go to the eastern side of the Adriatic. But we're traveling with my wife riding an electric scooter, and we're sticking to a Baltic cruise this year. I just hope that politics regarding the Ukraine doesn't get in our way of returning to St. Petersburg. An alternative would be the Greek Islands.

 

[2017ish]

...I do hope omicron moves on quickly since cases in MX have ticked up (and they have gone back to "yellow" status). We will wait to the end of the month to decide if we postpone our March trip.

Yellow status? To what scale/system are you referring? (Currently nearing end of 13 days in Mexico, i.e., Cozumel; then back in USA for a week.)

 

[Sunset]

That's what I thought.

Nothing on their website indicates it is cancelled. But the email references my name and booking number. The message is less than informative

It then goes on to say money already paid will be a future credit that must be used to book by June 2022 (only 2 months later than this cancelled cruise)

I'd be tempted to request a cash refund as they cancelled it. If they refuse, I'd then dispute the CC charges.

 

[Freedom56]

We just flew from LAX to FLL yesterday. May people were sick on the plane and coughing throughout the flight. At the airport in FLL, many people were not even wearing masks. One guy was walking around coughing profusely without a mask around the baggage claim area. We both wore 3M aura N95 masks. My wife wore two surgical masks on top of the 3M N95 mask.

 

[Pellice]

My trip to Colombia is ON next week! I'm fairly confident the plane trip will be ok (direct flight, United swears its air filtration is good). Once there, my birding tour will be a small, fully vaccinated group of participants and staff, and we'll be outdoors the great majority of the time. The airports do concern me. Also, unusually for one of these trips, the lodges are more like hotels, and instead of dining on picnic tables under a thatched room, it looks like more regular restaurants. Hopefully there'll be open air dining areas though!

Got a very inclusive travel insurance policy, and, well, I'm looking forward to it big-time!

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Yellow status? To what scale/system are you referring? (Currently nearing end of 13 days in Mexico, i.e., Cozumel; then back in USA for a week.)

It's the stop light system they have been using for a while now. Most of Quintana Roo is now in yellow which means a 60% max occupancy for most activities. Most of the municipalities do their own thing so what you see in Cozumel may not mirror what they are doing in PDC, Akumal or Cancun. When we were there (a few months ago), Cozumel (and the ferry to PDC) was the most restrictive and threated jail/fine for those that didn't mask.

https://embamex.sre.gob.mx/eua/inde...rism/1760-mexico-s-covid-19-monitoring-system

Specific to Q.R. https://reactivemosq.roo.gob.mx/actividades-economicas/

 

[NW-Bound]

We just flew from LAX to FLL yesterday. May people were sick on the plane and coughing throughout the flight. At the airport in FLL, many people were not even wearing masks. One guy was walking around coughing profusely without a mask around the baggage claim area. We both wore 3M aura N95 masks. My wife wore two surgical masks on top of the 3M N95 mask.

Good grief! We will not be taking any flight in the foreseeable future.

I used to take lisinopril to control high blood pressure. One of the common effects was dry cough. That would be the same as wearing a scarlet letter. I am on losartan now.

 

[fosterscik]

We just flew from LAX to FLL yesterday. May people were sick on the plane and coughing throughout the flight. At the airport in FLL, many people were not even wearing masks. One guy was walking around coughing profusely without a mask around the baggage claim area. We both wore 3M aura N95 masks. My wife wore two surgical masks on top of the 3M N95 mask.

DW and I have decided to become SCUBA certified. We've booked a trip to Key Largo in early February and have open water certification courses booked! Hopefully our flight from Atlanta to Miami will be a lot more pleasant than this, but with Covid continually mutating and father time not standing still it's worth the risk .

 

[Chuckanut]

. My concern with my next major scheduled trip, E. Europe in October, is that every country has its own rules, standards, etc., and they keep changing. Part of that has been necessary, of course, but when your itinerary includes passing through London in both directions and visiting Croatia, Albania, Serbia, Montenegro and Slovenia that's just too many borders where something can go wrong.

+1

I have dipped my fully refundable toe into a 2022 vacation overseas. But, I am aiming at one country in particular precisely to avoid the hodge podge of different Covid rules and regs.

 

[jcfradio]

My trip to Colombia is ON next week! I'm fairly confident the plane trip will be ok (direct flight, United swears its air filtration is good). Once there, my birding tour will be a small, fully vaccinated group of participants and staff, and we'll be outdoors the great majority of the time. The airports do concern me. Also, unusually for one of these trips, the lodges are more like hotels, and instead of dining on picnic tables under a thatched room, it looks like more regular restaurants. Hopefully there'll be open air dining areas though!

Got a very inclusive travel insurance policy, and, well, I'm looking forward to it big-time!

Sounds like fun. Where in Colombia are you going? (Colombia was my last pre-Covid trip in late Feb 2020. Just got home in the nick of time).

 

[Freedom56]

Good grief! We will not be taking any flight in the foreseeable future.

I used to take lisinopril to control high blood pressure. One of the common effects was dry cough. That would be the same as wearing a scarlet letter. I am on losartan now.

The problem is that we still have nine more letters in the Greek alphabet plus the two the WHO skipped over (Nu and Xi). A return to normal is a long way off. We have property on both coasts and family in Europe. We have no choice but to fly. Flying first/business class helps with the COVID era flying experience.