Anyone planning on international travel this spring?

[dancingirl21]

DH and I have London booked for the first week of March. We're probably pushing that to the end of April in hopes that cases come down more. Anyone else planning international travel yet for this spring? 

[Deleted]

I lurk round these parts, but we are going to Portugal late March. It was supposed to be Italy, but their covid restrictions and Germany’s to just go through the airport we’re too much so we changed to Portugal. I’m just hoping the US removes the test requirement to come home before that. It is sounding like there’s a good chance Portugal will remove the test requirement to fly there before we go.

We are going to spend time in Sintra, Lisbon, and the Algarve region. I’m very excited. More excited than going back to Venice and Rome where I’ve already been but no one else in my house has.

And we have a trip to Japan planned for end of May. That one has been rescheduled for the third year running. I have my doubts they ever plan to reopen their borders though. I’m waiting until the end of February when their hard border closure is supposed to lift and see what they do. If they stay closed we will probably go to Ecuador/Galapagos or Colombia depending on miles tickets availability.

[dancingirl21]

Jan 29, 2022 19:34:39 GMT -5 @mrsgreeko said:

I lurk round these parts, but we are going to Portugal late March. It was supposed to be Italy, but their covid restrictions and Germany’s to just go through the airport we’re too much so we changed to Portugal. I’m just hoping the US removes the test requirement to come home before that. It is sounding like there’s a good chance Portugal will remove the test requirement to fly there before we go.

We are going to spend time in Sintra, Lisbon, and the Algarve region. I’m very excited. More excited than going back to Venice and Rome where I’ve already been but no one else in my house has.

And we have a trip to Japan planned for end of May. That one has been rescheduled for the third year running. I have my doubts they ever plan to reopen their borders though. I’m waiting until the end of February when their hard border closure is supposed to lift and see what they do. If they stay closed we will probably go to Ecuador/Galapagos or Colombia depending on miles tickets availability.

I’m also hoping the U.S. removes the test to come back. I looked into it and know what we need to do if not. The U.K. announced no more arrival testing starting February 11. I’m really hoping we can go. I am so looking forward to this trip!

[mich1]

We have a river cruise planned for the end of April from Amsterdam to Budapest with a few days in Prague at the end.

We just got back from a 2 month cruise, Athens to Santiago Chile last month. There were hassles, but it was pretty easy to deal. For instance, we had to find a covid test in Santiago in order to get onto our flight back to the US. It was fairly easy….in fact, it is much easier to get tested in other countries than it is in the US. We had to get tested again in Athens too before we boarded the ship.

[mrsukyankee]

I think you are smart to push it back. London is a bit of a mess, especially as all mask requirements have been rescinded. I expect we're going to see cases go up again due to this. Hopefully, by April, it'll get a lot better. But who knows with our gov't and their idiocy. (I too hope that the US stops the requirements for testing as we're heading there this summer to visit my family for the first time in 3 years).

If you do still need to do a test to get into the US, let me know and I'll give you a suggestion of a place that isn't super expensive and is actually real (there are some bogus testing sites that keep popping up). Or you can do what my parents did, which is book them through the airline.

[dancingirl21]

Jan 30, 2022 3:44:52 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

I think you are smart to push it back. London is a bit of a mess, especially as all mask requirements have been rescinded. I expect we're going to see cases go up again due to this. Hopefully, by April, it'll get a lot better. But who knows with our gov't and their idiocy. (I too hope that the US stops the requirements for testing as we're heading there this summer to visit my family for the first time in 3 years).

If you do still need to do a test to get into the US, let me know and I'll give you a suggestion of a place that isn't super expensive and is actually real (there are some bogus testing sites that keep popping up). Or you can do what my parents did, which is book them through the airline.

Thank you! We are flying United and they have info on their website that I think we will go with. It’s actually an Abbott self-test, but you have to do it virtually with a healthcare professional. It’s all part of the package you buy. Doing it from our hotel room seems as good as it can get!

[Deleted]

Jan 30, 2022 9:11:36 GMT -5 dancingirl21 said:

Jan 30, 2022 3:44:52 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

I think you are smart to push it back. London is a bit of a mess, especially as all mask requirements have been rescinded. I expect we're going to see cases go up again due to this. Hopefully, by April, it'll get a lot better. But who knows with our gov't and their idiocy. (I too hope that the US stops the requirements for testing as we're heading there this summer to visit my family for the first time in 3 years).

If you do still need to do a test to get into the US, let me know and I'll give you a suggestion of a place that isn't super expensive and is actually real (there are some bogus testing sites that keep popping up). Or you can do what my parents did, which is book them through the airline.

Thank you! We are flying United and they have info on their website that I think we will go with. It’s actually an Abbott self-test, but you have to do it virtually with a healthcare professional. It’s all part of the package you buy. Doing it from our hotel room seems as good as it can get!

You can buy the proctored tests from emed.com. That’s probably what we will do. I’ve heard that in a lot of countries the testing to return to the US is basically a farce. Specifically friends who have went to Mexico and some Caribbean islands have said that they barely swab and just mark everyone down as negative. They don’t want people to stay either. Hopefully it goes away soon.

[ny96]

We were planning to go to Switzerland, but couldn’t figure out the logistics, so yesterday we booked what we hope will be a much easier trip to Costa Rica.

[Deleted]

Jan 30, 2022 12:04:47 GMT -5 ny96 said:

We were planning to go to Switzerland, but couldn’t figure out the logistics, so yesterday we booked what we hope will be a much easier trip to Costa Rica.

Where in Costa Rica? We’ve been a few times to different areas. They were all awesome!

[expatjen]

We have a trip planned to the UK in July (for the Adele concert). I’m hoping things will be relatively ok by then. But who knows!

We haven’t purchased our airline tickets yet, but will do that with the caveat that we can cancel for any reason and not have to pay an arm and a leg.

[mrsukyankee]

expatjen, I'm hoping England will be in better shape by July too! Ugh, if it's not...

[ny96]

Jan 30, 2022 12:39:17 GMT -5 @mrsgreeko said:

Jan 30, 2022 12:04:47 GMT -5 ny96 said:

We were planning to go to Switzerland, but couldn’t figure out the logistics, so yesterday we booked what we hope will be a much easier trip to Costa Rica.

Where in Costa Rica? We’ve been a few times to different areas. They were all awesome!

Reserva Conchal and Monteverde.

[Deleted]

Jan 30, 2022 13:54:54 GMT -5 ny96 said:

Jan 30, 2022 12:39:17 GMT -5 @mrsgreeko said:

Where in Costa Rica? We’ve been a few times to different areas. They were all awesome!

Reserva Conchal and Monteverde.

We did Monteverde in conjunction with Arenal and Ostional
A few years ago. Have fun! Monteverde was a lot of fun. The Bat Jungle was pretty interesting. And the zip lining was fun.

[wildrice]

We are planning on Croatia starting Memorial day weekend, so technically not summer yet but also not really spring. I am hopeful it will be fine. All I've actually booked so far are plane tickets, and they can be rescheduled without penalty. I need to start booking everything else, though. Unless things are completely crazy with COVID, I think we'll go.

[Deleted]

Jan 30, 2022 21:03:25 GMT -5 wildrice said:

We are planning on Croatia starting Memorial day weekend, so technically not summer yet but also not really spring. I am hopeful it will be fine. All I've actually booked so far are plane tickets, and they can be rescheduled without penalty. I need to start booking everything else, though. Unless things are completely crazy with COVID, I think we'll go.

Oh we did Croatia for spring break a few years ago: Zagreb, plitvice, Krka, and Split and had an amazing time. It was definitely off season so things were stupid cheap, but it was such a cool country. I cannot believe how nice people were.

[mrsd2006]

Going to Italy the first two weeks of May. Rescheduled from 2020.

[wildrice]

Jan 30, 2022 22:21:37 GMT -5 @mrsgreeko said:

Jan 30, 2022 21:03:25 GMT -5 wildrice said:

We are planning on Croatia starting Memorial day weekend, so technically not summer yet but also not really spring. I am hopeful it will be fine. All I've actually booked so far are plane tickets, and they can be rescheduled without penalty. I need to start booking everything else, though. Unless things are completely crazy with COVID, I think we'll go.

Oh we did Croatia for spring break a few years ago: Zagreb, plitvice, Krka, and Split and had an amazing time. It was definitely off season so things were stupid cheap, but it was such a cool country. I cannot believe how nice people were.

I'm glad you enjoyed it! I am super excited. We are planning on Zagreb, Plitvice, Split, Dubrovnik, and at least 1 night on some island (not 100% on which one yet). I just need to figure out the timing on going between places and then start booking places to stay. 

[Deleted]

Jan 31, 2022 11:03:17 GMT -5 wildrice said:

Jan 30, 2022 22:21:37 GMT -5 @mrsgreeko said:

Oh we did Croatia for spring break a few years ago: Zagreb, plitvice, Krka, and Split and had an amazing time. It was definitely off season so things were stupid cheap, but it was such a cool country. I cannot believe how nice people were.

I'm glad you enjoyed it! I am super excited. We are planning on Zagreb, Plitvice, Split, Dubrovnik, and at least 1 night on some island (not 100% on which one yet). I just need to figure out the timing on going between places and then start booking places to stay. 

We did 2 nights in Zagreb, 1 night in plitvice, saw Krka on the way to Split (loved Krka by the way, highly recommend, easy to stop at between Plitvice and Split), and then spent 4 nights in Split. The weather didn’t work out for us to do the Blue Cave and such, but the tour company we were going to use, Splitlicious, was easy to work with and refunded everything no problem. We took a ferry to Brac one day and had the most amazing dining experience ever there at a restaurant called Ziza. It was basically some lady’s house, but wow. We couldn’t go to Dubrovnik because DHs job at the time meant he couldn’t make the small border crossing into Bosnia to get between split and Dubrovnik driving and flying seemed too expensive with 5 people and with a week it would have been too tight to get there, but I hope to go back one day.

[majesty318]

We are thinking of Spain at the end of March. I am being indecisive over the idea of traveling with a toddler more than COVID. I have been to Spain a million times so if we go it should be pretty calm (know my way around/ not trying to rush to see stuff). WWYD?

[wildrice]

Jan 31, 2022 11:23:31 GMT -5 @mrsgreeko said:

Jan 31, 2022 11:03:17 GMT -5 wildrice said:

I'm glad you enjoyed it! I am super excited. We are planning on Zagreb, Plitvice, Split, Dubrovnik, and at least 1 night on some island (not 100% on which one yet). I just need to figure out the timing on going between places and then start booking places to stay. 

We did 2 nights in Zagreb, 1 night in plitvice, saw Krka on the way to Split (loved Krka by the way, highly recommend, easy to stop at between Plitvice and Split), and then spent 4 nights in Split. The weather didn’t work out for us to do the Blue Cave and such, but the tour company we were going to use, Splitlicious, was easy to work with and refunded everything no problem. We took a ferry to Brac one day and had the most amazing dining experience ever there at a restaurant called Ziza. It was basically some lady’s house, but wow. We couldn’t go to Dubrovnik because DHs job at the time meant he couldn’t make the small border crossing into Bosnia to get between split and Dubrovnik driving and flying seemed too expensive with 5 people and with a week it would have been too tight to get there, but I hope to go back one day.

Interesting about Bosnia! I am thinking we may ferry from Dubrovnik to an island and then from the island to Split, but I'm not sure. Otherwise I figured we'd drive (or some version of ground transportation) but didn't want to hassle with border crossings. I would actually love to stop in the city right there (Mostar?) but for times sake I figured we wouldn't. I'm going to have to pay more attention to this when planning.

I think we're going to fly from Zagreb (where we start/end the trip) to Dubrovnik and then work our way back up through the country. 

I'll have to look at that tour company and Krka, thanks!

[dutchgirl678]

I have to travel for work to Edinburgh in April. I am very excited about it!

In the summer we will go to the Netherlands to visit family and friends and we are planning a week to Crete from there for a vacation within a vacation.

[fernweh]

We are hoping to go to Croatia in May but we are going to wait a few more weeks to book anything.

[buckeyegirl]

We are doing a week in the Maldives, 5 days in Dubai, and in Cairo at the end of July.  I'm hoping we'll be good by then. 

[keweenawlove]

Jan 31, 2022 16:33:32 GMT -5 wildrice said:

Jan 31, 2022 11:23:31 GMT -5 @mrsgreeko said:

We did 2 nights in Zagreb, 1 night in plitvice, saw Krka on the way to Split (loved Krka by the way, highly recommend, easy to stop at between Plitvice and Split), and then spent 4 nights in Split. The weather didn’t work out for us to do the Blue Cave and such, but the tour company we were going to use, Splitlicious, was easy to work with and refunded everything no problem. We took a ferry to Brac one day and had the most amazing dining experience ever there at a restaurant called Ziza. It was basically some lady’s house, but wow. We couldn’t go to Dubrovnik because DHs job at the time meant he couldn’t make the small border crossing into Bosnia to get between split and Dubrovnik driving and flying seemed too expensive with 5 people and with a week it would have been too tight to get there, but I hope to go back one day.

Interesting about Bosnia! I am thinking we may ferry from Dubrovnik to an island and then from the island to Split, but I'm not sure. Otherwise I figured we'd drive (or some version of ground transportation) but didn't want to hassle with border crossings. I would actually love to stop in the city right there (Mostar?) but for times sake I figured we wouldn't. I'm going to have to pay more attention to this when planning.

We did this side trip back in 2009 and at the time, the boarder crossing was no big deal. I don't even think they checked our passports. The city itself was really cool and the bridge in town has a cool history. We took a ferry from Rijeka to Dubrovnik and then drove back north to Zagreb. 

[Deleted]

Feb 1, 2022 11:47:04 GMT -5 keweenawlove said:

Jan 31, 2022 16:33:32 GMT -5 wildrice said:

Interesting about Bosnia! I am thinking we may ferry from Dubrovnik to an island and then from the island to Split, but I'm not sure. Otherwise I figured we'd drive (or some version of ground transportation) but didn't want to hassle with border crossings. I would actually love to stop in the city right there (Mostar?) but for times sake I figured we wouldn't. I'm going to have to pay more attention to this when planning.

We did this side trip back in 2009 and at the time, the boarder crossing was no big deal. I don't even think they checked our passports. The city itself was really cool and the bridge in town has a cool history. We took a ferry from Rijeka to Dubrovnik and then drove back north to Zagreb. 

I don’t think the border crossing is a big deal for most people. For DHs job he was not allowed to be in Bosnia without permission so we (rather he) couldn’t do it. He has retired from the job and has a new one so now we can go into all the countries we want without worry!

[cattledogkisses]

Jan 31, 2022 16:33:32 GMT -5 wildrice said:

Jan 31, 2022 11:23:31 GMT -5 @mrsgreeko said:

We did 2 nights in Zagreb, 1 night in plitvice, saw Krka on the way to Split (loved Krka by the way, highly recommend, easy to stop at between Plitvice and Split), and then spent 4 nights in Split. The weather didn’t work out for us to do the Blue Cave and such, but the tour company we were going to use, Splitlicious, was easy to work with and refunded everything no problem. We took a ferry to Brac one day and had the most amazing dining experience ever there at a restaurant called Ziza. It was basically some lady’s house, but wow. We couldn’t go to Dubrovnik because DHs job at the time meant he couldn’t make the small border crossing into Bosnia to get between split and Dubrovnik driving and flying seemed too expensive with 5 people and with a week it would have been too tight to get there, but I hope to go back one day.

Interesting about Bosnia! I am thinking we may ferry from Dubrovnik to an island and then from the island to Split, but I'm not sure. Otherwise I figured we'd drive (or some version of ground transportation) but didn't want to hassle with border crossings. I would actually love to stop in the city right there (Mostar?) but for times sake I figured we wouldn't. I'm going to have to pay more attention to this when planning.

I think we're going to fly from Zagreb (where we start/end the trip) to Dubrovnik and then work our way back up through the country. 

I'll have to look at that tour company and Krka, thanks!

The city you transit through in Bosnia is Neum!  Mostar is about an hour and a half inland, but is a really cool place to visit if you want to take a detour. 

The border crossing is usually pretty easy.  The lines can be long during the tourist season (June/July/August), but in May you should still be ok.

[jamaicam]

The plan is 6 weeks in July/August, primarily in the UK but including 10 days in Spain.

It has been over 3 years since I have left the island and I am desperate to leave! Its also 4 years since I have seen my grandmother and my neice and nephew, and UK best friend. This trip is way over due.

[keweenawlove]

At some point (hopefully this year) we're going to Colombia.

[majesty318]

Feb 2, 2022 16:57:35 GMT -5 keweenawlove said:

At some point (hopefully this year) we're going to Colombia.

What part? My husband is from Cartagena.

[cattledogkisses]

H has a work trip in September back to where we lived overseas (general area where wildrice is going), and I told him there’s no way he’s going without me. We planned to go back in 2020, then in 2021, so I’m so excited to finally get to go back and visit friends and places that we’ve missed.