Anyone planning on international travel this spring?

[mrsukyankee]

jamaicam, I hope you can make it and that we have good weather for you.

[keweenawlove]

Feb 3, 2022 9:07:26 GMT -5 majesty318 said:

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.

This will be for an adoption trip so it will most likely Bogota and a small resort town (La Mesa) outside of the city. On our last adoption trip bringing home my daughter, we also went to Villavicencio but it just depends on where the child is living.

We have been to Cartagena in the past and I want to explore more of the coast someday!

[themoneytree]

We are booked for England for 3 weeks in the summer.

Just went in December too but only for a week. Regulations were a pain but manageable. Being there was fine, but dealing with the testing was a pain. At least we’re going for longer in summer. More worth dealing with the hassle.

[Pibs]

There used to be this incredible Georgian restaurant in town that closed due to COVID. They used to do wine dinners and took a couple of small groups to Georgia. They're doing the trips again, so we're going over Memorial Day. I'm normally not a group travel person, but I'm excited about this trip since it'll be small. Also, I can't have nuts or mushrooms and both are a big part of Georgian cuisine -- I'm happy to have people who will be able to make sure I don't try to kill myself or end up super sick.

[mrsukyankee]

To all who are coming to London or England, please note that our government is removing ALL health restrictions, including the need to isolate if you get a positive test and are now going to be charging for tests. This means no one will test, very few will wear masks and Covid will not be tracked. This is happening this month, so the next few months could be scary for anyone who may not want to get Covid or bring back Covid to their families. I'm personally going to hide in my house for a month before I come to the States this summer, assuming we're allowed into the country.

jamaicam dancingirl21 - just thought I'd tag you. It may not change your plans, but at least you should be in the now.

[dancingirl21]

Feb 12, 2022 15:43:55 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

To all who are coming to London or England, please note that our government is removing ALL health restrictions, including the need to isolate if you get a positive test and are now going to be charging for tests. This means no one will test, very few will wear masks and Covid will not be tracked. This is happening this month, so the next few months could be scary for anyone who may not want to get Covid or bring back Covid to their families. I'm personally going to hide in my house for a month before I come to the States this summer, assuming we're allowed into the country.

jamaicam dancingirl21 - just thought I'd tag you. It may not change your plans, but at least you should be in the now.

Okay. Thanks for letting me know. It gives me pause but I honestly think the U.S. isn’t far behind. We live in Illinois (very blue state) and even our Governor is dropping the mask mandate in 2 weeks.

[wanderingback]

Feb 12, 2022 15:43:55 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

To all who are coming to London or England, please note that our government is removing ALL health restrictions, including the need to isolate if you get a positive test and are now going to be charging for tests. This means no one will test, very few will wear masks and Covid will not be tracked. This is happening this month, so the next few months could be scary for anyone who may not want to get Covid or bring back Covid to their families. I'm personally going to hide in my house for a month before I come to the States this summer, assuming we're allowed into the country.

jamaicam dancingirl21 - just thought I'd tag you. It may not change your plans, but at least you should be in the now.

I think most of the western world is headed that way, so not surprising at all. That’s pretty much what’s been happening in many parts of the US already, so definitely already there in many places anyway.

[wise_rita]

Feb 12, 2022 15:43:55 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

To all who are coming to London or England, please note that our government is removing ALL health restrictions, including the need to isolate if you get a positive test and are now going to be charging for tests.

Norway went to this over this past weekend (not the charging for tests part, though).

When the HELL is the USA going to get rid of their goddamn testing requirement for entry?!

[Deleted]

Feb 15, 2022 4:29:37 GMT -5 wise_rita said:

Feb 12, 2022 15:43:55 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

To all who are coming to London or England, please note that our government is removing ALL health restrictions, including the need to isolate if you get a positive test and are now going to be charging for tests.

Norway went to this over this past weekend (not the charging for tests part, though).

When the HELL is the USA going to get rid of their goddamn testing requirement for entry?!

Right?!?

Portugal also dropped their testing for fully vaccinated people to enter last week. I know the travel industry is heavily pressuring Biden to drop it so hopefully the US will soon. I would love to know the actual reasoning behind it. To keep covid out of the US? Uhhhh that ship sailed 2 years ago. To keep variants from getting into the US? Uhhh that ship has also repeatedly sailed. To keep people with covid from traveling? I don’t think it actually accomplished that otherwise the variants wouldn’t have ended up here…. To keep people from traveling? Yeah it seems like it accomplishes that.

[dancingirl21]

Feb 15, 2022 10:27:19 GMT -5 @mrsgreeko said:

Feb 15, 2022 4:29:37 GMT -5 wise_rita said:

Norway went to this over this past weekend (not the charging for tests part, though).

When the HELL is the USA going to get rid of their goddamn testing requirement for entry?!

Right?!?

Portugal also dropped their testing for fully vaccinated people to enter last week. I know the travel industry is heavily pressuring Biden to drop it so hopefully the US will soon. I would love to know the actual reasoning behind it. To keep covid out of the US? Uhhhh that ship sailed 2 years ago. To keep variants from getting into the US? Uhhh that ship has also repeatedly sailed. To keep people with covid from traveling? I don’t think it actually accomplished that otherwise the variants wouldn’t have ended up here…. To keep people from traveling? Yeah it seems like it accomplishes that.

Yes. I am all about masking and Covid control, but I think we have now seen that travel is still happening and that by the time people are traveling, Covid is traveling too. I'm not sure the reason for the pre-flight testing and hope it goes away soon.

[wise_rita]

Feb 15, 2022 10:27:19 GMT -5 @mrsgreeko said:

Feb 15, 2022 4:29:37 GMT -5 wise_rita said:

Norway went to this over this past weekend (not the charging for tests part, though).

When the HELL is the USA going to get rid of their goddamn testing requirement for entry?!

Right?!?

Portugal also dropped their testing for fully vaccinated people to enter last week. I know the travel industry is heavily pressuring Biden to drop it so hopefully the US will soon. I would love to know the actual reasoning behind it. To keep covid out of the US? Uhhhh that ship sailed 2 years ago. To keep variants from getting into the US? Uhhh that ship has also repeatedly sailed. To keep people with covid from traveling? I don’t think it actually accomplished that otherwise the variants wouldn’t have ended up here…. To keep people from traveling? Yeah it seems like it accomplishes that.

The ONLY reason I can see is because US companies are raking in big bucks off of this, or cash is somehow finding its way into American policymakers pockets because of this.

My kid turns 2 in July and I'm hoping they scratch it before then, when she magically will have to test even though she hasn't had to the previous 2 years of her life.  Spoiler alert: young kids/babies can have Covid!

[dreamcrisp1]

We’re going to Spain in April and Canada in July/august. Somewhere else in October but haven’t decided where as yet.

[majesty318]

Feb 16, 2022 1:12:07 GMT -5 dreamcrisp1 said:

We’re going to Spain in April and Canada in July/august. Somewhere else in October but haven’t decided where as yet.

Where in Spain?
I posted above that we were considering it but we are decided now! I am so excited - needed something to look forward to!

[mrsukyankee]

We've decided to book Tenerife in September. We are super excited for a beach/resort holiday and it's only a 4 hour flight. I've already researched everything.

[dreamcrisp1]

Feb 16, 2022 9:04:23 GMT -5 majesty318 said:

Feb 16, 2022 1:12:07 GMT -5 dreamcrisp1 said:

We’re going to Spain in April and Canada in July/august. Somewhere else in October but haven’t decided where as yet.

Where in Spain?
I posted above that we were considering it but we are decided now! I am so excited - needed something to look forward to!

We just booked! Marbella and Malaga. We will either try to go to Gibraltar or the Alhambra. We need a vacation and we need sun. I’m super excited! We considered a bunch of places but I wanted a direct flight at decent hours and Malaga won. I found an amazing Airbnb and the weather will be sunny and 21-24C which is perfect.

[jamaicam]

mrsukyankee, yeah we saw all of that. It is a shit show here too so I figure the UK wont be much worse.

[wise_rita]

Feb 16, 2022 10:01:54 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

We've decided to book Tenerife in September. We are super excited for a beach/resort holiday and it's only a 4 hour flight. I've already researched everything.

I have next week off work and my H suggested weeks ago we go there.  I was too overloaded to think about travel at the time so shot him down.

Now it's too late to make it happen, and I'm not overloaded anymore and I'm pissed that I missed that boat!  

[majesty318]

Feb 16, 2022 13:42:09 GMT -5 dreamcrisp1 said:

Feb 16, 2022 9:04:23 GMT -5 majesty318 said:

Where in Spain?
I posted above that we were considering it but we are decided now! I am so excited - needed something to look forward to!

We just booked! Marbella and Malaga. We will either try to go to Gibraltar or the Alhambra. We need a vacation and we need sun. I’m super excited! We considered a bunch of places but I wanted a direct flight at decent hours and Malaga won. I found an amazing Airbnb and the weather will be sunny and 21-24C which is perfect.

Book Alhambra early if you are going to go. It definitely sells out!

[dutchgirl678]

So excited for the summer! We booked our flights to the Netherlands and will have an 8-day trip to Crete with my parents in the middle of our trip. I found a great apartment in Chania for the 6 of us and we will rent a car. DH and I went to Crete on our HM so we already know where we want to go and what we want to see again and what we didn't get around to last time.

[erbear]

We are supposed to go to Portugal in 2.5 weeks. Unfortunately, we had a Covid exposure yesterday so hoping the vaxxes hold up. And yes to hoping the us dumps its requirement for testing. It’s a pain.

[Deleted]

Feb 28, 2022 20:43:37 GMT -5 erbear said:

We are supposed to go to Portugal in 2.5 weeks. Unfortunately, we had a Covid exposure yesterday so hoping the vaxxes hold up. And yes to hoping the us dumps its requirement for testing. It’s a pain.

We will be in Portugal around the same time. I’m super bummed that I misread the departure testing changes for Portugal as saying we didn’t need testing if fully vaccinated, but apparently they don’t accept US vaccine cards so still have to do pre departure testing to go to Portugal. And it’s not very easy to find testing in the right time frame because of when our flight leaves. I really need the Portugal to also change their pre departure testing!

ETA: also hope your vaccines hold.

[dancingirl21]

In our original plans, we were supposed to leave for London today. I'm glad we ended up pushing it to the end of April, and I'm also hopeful by then the US will stop testing to get back here.

erbear, I'm sorry! I hope your vaccines hold and you can still go.

[mrsukyankee]

Mar 1, 2022 12:45:33 GMT -5 dancingirl21 said:

In our original plans, we were supposed to leave for London today. I'm glad we ended up pushing it to the end of April, and I'm also hopeful by then the US will stop testing to get back here.

erbear , I'm sorry! I hope your vaccines hold and you can still go.

Agreed - right now numbers are going up in London (according to the testing app I trust more than my gov't). Hopefully, it'll level out or lower before the end of April for you.

[Deleted]

We did our trip to Portugal.

We had to get tested before leaving because Portugal only makes some fully vaccinated people from some countries test. The US is one of those countries. But we only had to test people 12 and up, so my 10 year old didn’t have to test. The illogical nature of all of this is really hard for me. Anyway, the only place I could find a rapid test was at an urgent care. Even though I told them it was for travel, they still did a whole exam with weight, blood pressure, etc. it was really annoying. Had I known that I probably would have said it was for exposure so insurance would cover it. Also, what an incredible waste of resources. I imagine it is going to cost over $200 for the 4 of us.

On our last day of vacation we got our tests to come home in Lisbon. That was easy enough. No exam required, didn’t have to wait for the results. It cost about $215 for the 5 of us.

But, then we landed in London late and missed our connection. They couldn’t rebook all 5 of us that day and wouldn’t split us up on two flights. So that meant we had to stay in London overnight. Which meant we had to get another covid test. Since we hadn’t had the foresight (lol) to make our appointments the day prior we had the luxury of paying extra for same day appointments. It was another $330 for the five of us. This was not something that I had even considered could happen.

Portugal was awesome, even if the weather was pretty crappy the majority of the time we were there and my kids had a good time. But, man the covid protocols and the illogical things involved really are frustrating

[erbear]

We also just got back from Portugal but had a much easier experience. We got PCR tests at cvs three days before we left (insurance covered them) and got rapid antigen tests at world of wine in Porto the day before our flight ($25 each). The trip was amazing and Covid felt like a non-issue — people masked well and we were outside a lot.

[Deleted]

Apr 4, 2022 21:18:06 GMT -5 erbear said:

We also just got back from Portugal but had a much easier experience. We got PCR tests at cvs three days before we left (insurance covered them) and got rapid antigen tests at world of wine in Porto the day before our flight ($25 each). The trip was amazing and Covid felt like a non-issue — people masked well and we were outside a lot.

I think 2 people vs. 5 people makes everything easier, but especially covid testing. The illogical nature of the Portugal entry requirements really hurts my engineers brain though. If we were vaccinated with the same exact vaccines in 30 other countries we wouldn’t have had to test, but because we were vaccinated in the US we do. I think that’s just punitive for the USs test rule. And to not have to test the 10 year old who, statistically speaking, is most likely to have an asymptomatic infection and who they say the vaccines are least effective for, just makes no sense. I can’t do the mental gymnastics to make any of the illogical policies logical.

The additional covid test in London was just an irritation that I hadn’t considered as a possibility. I assumed we’d get back to the US that day as expected.

Insurance might pay for the urgent care tests. We shall see, but I feel like the fact that they know it was for travel will make them not pay. I’ve requested the airline that got us to London late pay for our unexpected covid tests so hopefully they do. Otherwise I’ll try through my credit card travel insurance.

I hope they drop the test requirement soon. DH and I are going to the Bahamas next month with no kids and it would be nice not to have to deal with it for that. And then we are taking the kids to Belize in August and I really don’t want to deal with testing all 5 again. Especially my DS. He’s been tested plenty and mostly can tolerate it, but in Portugal I had to hold him down to get it done again and I’m just over it.

[dutchgirl678]

I just got back from my work trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. Most places still required masks indoors which was good. I taught at a small workshop at the university for 20 people. After the 2nd day, one of the attendants tested positive and we switched to virtual for the last two days. We got tests from someone at the university to make sure nobody else got it. Thank goodness it was negative and the next day I tested negative again so I was able to fly back to the US. In Scotland they used to have tests available at every pharmacy but they did away with that and you have to order them now. I didn't have enough time to do that so I was glad that the university professor had a large stock of tests for us. I tested at the airport the day before my flight. It was 35 GBP and I got results within an hour via email.