Travel hopes 2021

[PaunchyPirate]

You pay a service and someone on a video chat observes you taking the swab out of the test kit and collecting the sample.

The service is bundled with the Binax Now rapid tests, either 2 for $75 or 6 for $150 at eMed.

A lot of people are also using these proctored test to meet the pre-test requirements for getting on a cruise ship. It’s a great tool to use if you need it.

 

[explanade]

I haven't tried it myself but in FT, there are a couple of caveats, like during peak periods, it took hours to get a someone on the video chat.

Also, a lot of these tests expired in the fall, though they extended the expiration by 3 months.

Apparently Abbot stopped making the tests for awhile.

Now people are reporting that on some recent purchases, the expiration date goes out to November 2022.


I just used Google Maps to find pharmacies near where I'd be staying and some of them had emails so I could email them to ask if they did the rapid tests and how much it cost. This worked for France and Italy.

Also you can ask the tourism office in the town where you'd be staying and they can point you to testing resources.

Good idea to have a backup in case you get a faulty test kit or you have trouble getting someone on the video chat.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

All over the news today: Covid infections have apparently hit many airline crews hard and many flights were cancelled. Not fun to be far from home, spending Christmas in an airport. Hope everyone gets where they are going.

 

[brett]

One thing that covid has done is make us review our respective bucket lists and move one or two up to the very top as travel becomes safer and easier.

Covid has also convinced us to spend more on travel since we can afford it.

Life is short. We want to make the best of the time we may have left while we are healthy enough to enjoy travel and while we have the desire to travel.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

It is very nice to not have to travel by air, especially during the holidays. Any family we would want to visit is within 100 mile radius, so that certainly helps.

 

[Koolau]

It is very nice to not have to travel by air, especially during the holidays. Any family we would want to visit is within 100 mile radius, so that certainly helps.

You are very fortunate. Just to get to the mainland, we have a 5 hour flight. Of course, on our Island, 100 miles will get us all the way around it. YMMV

 

[gayl]

You are very fortunate. Just to get to the mainland, we have a 5 hour flight. Of course, on our Island, 100 miles will get us all the way around it. YMMV

You also live on a beautiful island people want to get to

 

[Koolau]

You also live on a beautiful island people want to get to

Yep! Ya got me there.

Those flights I use wouldn't exist if it weren't for all those folks wanting to come TO paradise. YMMV