Travel hopes for 2022

If they lift the USA-Schengen area travel ban you can come on a Delta/Al Italia Covid tested flight today with no qurantine and there is a 7 day Cruise running between Italy and Malta at the moment. All a bit surreal to be cruising into cities where the locals are confined to their houses....
 
Puravida1 said:
If they lift the USA-Schengen area travel ban you can come on a Delta/Al Italia Covid tested flight today with no qurantine and there is a 7 day Cruise running between Italy and Malta at the moment. All a bit surreal to be cruising into cities where the locals are confined to their houses....
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How does this work for the tourists? Do they wander through empty streets or do they allow some residents to work in restaurants/etc.?
 
Puravida1 said:
All a bit surreal to be cruising into cities where the locals are confined to their houses....
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That would deprive us of some of the great pleasures of travel - chatting with the natives, wandering through a relatively un-touristed part of town and having lunch where "We speak English" is not on the sign outside, and chatting with a barista about the weather while understanding maybe 30% of the conversation.
 
A year ago Europe the virus was burning through Europe and then by June, things had settled down a lot that they allowed travel within the EU and allowed a number of outside countries to send tourists.

They had low numbers throughout the summer while the US had big outbreaks from end of May through August or so. American tourists were barred.

So even without vaccines they got their numbers down, though there is some evidence that summer travel set up the big outbreaks in the fall and winter.

The same pattern may not repeat, with so much pandemic fatigue. BUt I remember articles that without the huge horde of American tourists, their summer high season was nowhere near profitable for the tourism industry as upit usually is.

Maybe if Americans can avoid big outbreaks leading up to June, the EU will reconsider.

However we’re at 50-60k a daY, which is close to the summer outbreaks last summer.
 
We are seeing numbers in Texas declining and I thought I heard that by April 1 most people over 55 will have at least one vaccination. We talk to friends in Europe and we hear about a third wave . Ireland is getting bad we hear. We have tickets for Amsterdam in August but don’t know . We watch the webcams and Amsterdam has a 9:00 pm curfew the streets look like a ghost town.
 
I believe that there is still a long,long way to go on this covid road.

We originally thought that we might be able to get to Greece and Cyprus this fall. We believe that this is very much in doubt. More optimistic about next winter in Thailand/Vietnam .
 
It is crazy if you go to Webcam Taxi you can choose your country and choose your city and there are webcams out there . Some cities look like the walking dead , nobody on the streets. We watch webcams in Key West and they are cookin.
 
explanade said:
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Yesterday there was a report that Biden administration may look to ease travel restrictions to Canada, the UK and the EU in mid May.

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I'd like the border to Canada to open, but I really doubt the Canadian gov't is going to do that until maybe summer if our numbers come down.

Our numbers here in IL are going up for infections. Even as we vaccinate.

If we can't go to Europe, going to old Quebec city is similar in many ways. :flowers:
 
Breedlove said:
It is crazy if you go to Webcam Taxi you can choose your country and choose your city and there are webcams out there . Some cities look like the walking dead , nobody on the streets. We watch webcams in Key West and they are cookin.
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Thanks for the tip, that site is a lot of fun. I pulled up the Piazza Navona cam in Rome and the square is lifeless on a Saturday afternoon. Just a few people taking walks, but all of the cafes appear to be closed. In contract, the cam for a busy intersection in Kyiv shows what appears to be a normal Saturday with lots of cars and pedestrians. I'm going to "burn" at least one more cup of coffee surfing webcamtaxi.com this morning!
 
Traveling out of Nova Scotia

We have some refundable hotel bookings for winter 2022 to Savanah and Naples , FL. My wife is a health care worker and has been vaccinated, I should get mine in the next month.

We feel like we have been 'monitoring for symptoms' for a decade now :dance::dance::dance:
 
France just went into a 3rd nationwide lockdown, for 1 month this time. People cannot be further than 6 miles from home, unless they have a valid reason. This measure is blamed on a surge in hospitalization.

I don't know when I can travel to Europe again. It's sad.
 
Breedlove said:
We are seeing numbers in Texas declining and I thought I heard that by April 1 most people over 55 will have at least one vaccination. We talk to friends in Europe and we hear about a third wave . Ireland is getting bad we hear. We have tickets for Amsterdam in August but don’t know . We watch the webcams and Amsterdam has a 9:00 pm curfew the streets look like a ghost town.
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Lots of elderly in the Netherlands haven’t even been vaccinated yet. We don’t expect to be able to visit until closer to the end of the year.

I don’t think your April 1 for most people over 55 being vaccinated in Texas was true. They just opened to below 65 on March 15. How could so many get vaccinated in 2 weeks? Vaccine supplies in most areas have been really tight and they opened 16+ on March 29.
 
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Signed up for a guided hiking trip next April and was extremely lucky to get the last available slot. Really looking forward to that.
 
NW-Bound said:
France just went into a 3rd nationwide lockdown, for 1 month this time. People cannot be further than 6 miles from home, unless they have a valid reason. This measure is blamed on a surge in hospitalization.

I don't know when I can travel to Europe again. It's sad.
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I’m scheduled to travel to France in July. Hopeful they’ll get their vaccine act together before then. Of course, releasing travel restrictions goes even slower. I’ll be in the less populated Mont Blanc area but I doubt that will matter when it comes to one size fits all government restrictions.
 
NW-Bound said:
France just went into a 3rd nationwide lockdown, for 1 month this time. People cannot be further than 6 miles from home, unless they have a valid reason. This measure is blamed on a surge in hospitalization.

I don't know when I can travel to Europe again. It's sad.
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For all the talk of how the Europeans were dealing with Covid better than us in the early days (and perhaps they were), the USA definitely did the vaccine rollout better than Europe. UK excepted, of course. Even our friends up North are struggling. Canada has 19% vaccinated at least one shot and about 3% fully vaccinated. Compare that to the USA at 19% fully vaccinated and 35% at least one shot.

Perhaps it might be best to visit our Native American nations. They are crushing the rest of the USA.

In Apache County, Ariz., where Ms. Begaye lives, about two-thirds of which is covered by the Navajo, Fort Apache and Zuni Indian reservations, 42% of the population is fully vaccinated, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. In Glacier County, Mont., home of the Blackfeet Nation, 46.7% of the population is vaccinated. In Blaine County, Mont., where one-third of the population lives on the Fort Belknap Reservation, it is 45.9%.
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One difference is that Europe had to deal with the B117 variant sooner than we did and clearly before their vaccine program really got started. We’ll see how well it works out here because we still have a huge number unvaccinated and B117 is now the dominant strain.
 
audreyh1 said:
One difference is that Europe had to deal with the B117 variant sooner than we did and clearly before their vaccine program really got started. We’ll see how well it works out here because we still have a huge number unvaccinated and B117 is now the dominant strain.
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Yeah if you are talking about the current surge and comparing numbers of cases.

But just look at the raw numbers of vaccinated. Variants should not matter in that calculation. This will continue to play out over the next months.

Israel is an example of a country that got hit with the variant surge while they were vaccinating, and their cases went up. But now that their vaccinated numbers are very high, their cases have dropped through the floor.

The next question for the USA will be if we can get to a high enough herd number to matter due to vaccine acceptance resistance.
 
JoeWras said:
Yeah if you are talking about the current surge and comparing numbers of cases.

But just look at the raw numbers of vaccinated. Variants should not matter in that calculation. This will continue to play out over the next months.

Israel is an example of a country that got hit with the variant surge while they were vaccinating, and their cases went up. But now that their vaccinated numbers are very high, their cases have dropped through the floor.

The next question for the USA will be if we can get to a high enough herd number to matter due to vaccine acceptance resistance.
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A huge difference between US and Israel, which cannot be ignored, is that Israel went into lockdown due to the B117 variant while they were vaccinating like crazy.

Whereas the US is mostly opened up. And many folks are not taking precautions because they don’t feel COVID is a threat to them, not understanding that this new now dominant variant is way more transmissible including children, and has worse disease in young folks including children.

I’m sure once we get enough people vaccinated it will be beaten back, but there will likely be a lot of extra suffering in the meantime just like we’re seeing in Michigan and Minnesota. And young folks and adolescents need to be vaccinated too. Vaccinating ages 12-15 hasn’t been approved yet - hopefully soon.
 
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We've booked a Galapagos cruise with a pre-excursion trip in Ecuador with Lindblad for March. Looked at others' recommendations and took the plunge. Thanks all!
 
fosterscik said:
We've booked a Galapagos cruise with a pre-excursion trip in Ecuador with Lindblad for March. Looked at others' recommendations and took the plunge. Thanks all!
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You'll remember it the rest of your life. One of the two best trips we have ever taken. Lindblad is well worth the cost.
 
Friends are taking an Alaska land and cruise trip next summer. They booked it a while ago and it kept getting pushed back due to COVID. It should finally happen next year and my wife and I are considering joining them. It will be soon after our 30th anniversary.
 
braumeister said:
You'll remember it the rest of your life. One of the two best trips we have ever taken. Lindblad is well worth the cost.
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Great to hear. We've paid lots of attention to others posts (yours included!) before we made our booking. Paid a little more for a better cabin and a lot more ;) for a 6-day precruise trip to the Mashpi eco lodge in Ecuador. Not even close to cheap but we're hoping for a great time that will stand as one of our best. We think we'll be very safe given the small passenger load on the boat and the small resort setting in the mountains. Let's hope Ecuador will let us in when the time comes!
 
Galapogos is mostly about wild life?
 
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