NOT Including Disney, Where Have You Vacationed This Summer?

[ronandannette]

Looks like our long-ago (pre-Covid) wished for trip to London in autumn 2021 is officially kaput.

Maybe in fall 2022.

Sorry. We had an epic trip to London with a British Isles cruise booked for our 25th Anniversary in 2020. Years of dreaming, saving and planning all for naught. I don’t have the heart to even think if trying to put it back together any time soon. The trips we’ve done here in Canada last year and this year have been funded with the travel credits from that cancellation and we’ve still got some to use.

Just curious what made you cancel? Are the borders not open to Americans yet?

 

[ronandannette]

1 week in Cape Cod, no mask requirement at that time

Aruba - covid test before and after plus mandatory covid insurance - added an extra $1k to trip for 5 of us.

Did you stay at an AI resort? What was your experience with accommodations and activities? Certainly the cost and complexity of testing both ways is a bit daunting.

 

[Moliphino]

Nothing yet, but we leave for Spain in 11 days.
We have to fill out a form and get a QR code to get into Spain. We're both fully vaccinated, so we don't need to get tested before we go, just give proof of vaccination. We do need to be tested before returning to the US. We plan to wear masks pretty much everywhere, though I don't think they're required outside anymore.

 

[ronandannette]

Nothing yet, but we leave for Spain in 11 days.
We have to fill out a form and get a QR code to get into Spain. We're both fully vaccinated, so we don't need to get tested before we go, just give proof of vaccination. We do need to be tested before returning to the US. We plan to wear masks pretty much everywhere, though I don't think they're required outside anymore.

Where are you planning to stay and do you know what the state of the tourism industry is there right now? Just googling quickly it seems like Spain hit an almost-all time high of cases in July of 2021 but they’ve come back down again substantially over the past month.

 

[design_mom]

I'm not sure we went anywhere you'd be interested in.

We went to Myrtle Beach, SC. Everything that was still in business was open, but there were a noticeable number of things that apparently didn't survive the COVID shutdown/bad season from last year.

We also went to Chicago. Everything was open. We hadn't been there in many years, so I'm not sure if anything was "missing."

 

[RedAngie]

Sorry. We had an epic trip to London with a British Isles cruise booked for our 25th Anniversary in 2020. Years of dreaming, saving and planning all for naught. I don’t have the heart to even think if trying to put it back together any time soon. The trips we’ve done here in Canada last year and this year have been funded with the travel credits from that cancellation and we’ve still got some to use.

Just curious what made you cancel? Are the borders not open to Americans yet?

I’m not sure if the borders are open. Our own comfort level was the factor in postponing.

We never booked anything, air, hotel, etc. The trip was an idea from very early 2020. We figured by summer 2021 everything would be fine and we could start booking.

I mean, of course we could book last minute in mid October, but we’ve decided to wait until next year.

We had airline tickets to/from Ft.Myers for early April 2020. That trip was canceled and the two airlines (Southwest and American) gave us a year to use them. Hotels were easy to cancel without penalty. We didn’t want to go by April 2021, so I think we lost the value of the airline tickets.

Maybe I should check to see if they’re still valid. If not, they were cheap enough so no great loss.

 

[ronandannette]

I'm not sure we went anywhere you'd be interested in.

We went to Myrtle Beach, SC. Everything that was still in business was open, but there were a noticeable number of things that apparently didn't survive the COVID shutdown/bad season from last year.

We also went to Chicago. Everything was open. We hadn't been there in many years, so I'm not sure if anything was "missing."

Yes, it’s unlikely we’re headed for either of those places but I do find it interesting to hear how many people have taken those kinds of trips domestically over the past year since the world closed. We did a few here in Canada that we normally wouldn’t have - Toronto/Niagara Falls and Vancouver.

 

[ronandannette]

I’m not sure if the borders are open. Our own comfort level was the factor in postponing.

We never booked anything, air, hotel, etc. The trip was an idea from very early 2020. We figured by summer 2021 everything would be fine and we could start booking.

I mean, of course we could book last minute in mid October, but we’ve decided to wait until next year.

We had airline tickets to/from Ft.Myers for early April 2020. That trip was canceled and the two airlines (Southwest and American) gave us a year to use them. Hotels were easy to cancel without penalty. We didn’t want to go by April 2021, so I think we lost the value of the airline tickets.

Maybe I should check to see if they’re still valid. If not, they were cheap enough so no great loss.

Luckily we got the cruise fare refunded, which was the largest portion of the expense. Flight were spendy but the full value went back as a future credit with WestJet and we continue to chip away at it. The only real losses were in some pre-paid services/excursions with small companies that didn’t do refunds - just issued credits we’ll likely never use. Let me know if you need a town car ride from Gatwick to the Marble Arch area.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

We went to Pawleys Island, which is south of myrtle beach, at the end of August. It was packed and no one was wearing a mask anywhere and everything was open. Like normal times. Luckily none of us got sick and it was a great trip

 

[Moliphino]

Where are you planning to stay and do you know what the state of the tourism industry is there right now? Just googling quickly it seems like Spain hit an almost-all time high of cases in July of 2021 but they’ve come back down again substantially over the past month.

We're going to be all over Andalucia (Granada, Malaga, Cordoba, Seville). All of the big tourist attractions have reopened and don't seem to be super crowded (I can see there are still tickets available for the Alhambra today and tomorrow, for example).

 

[RedAngie]

Luckily we got the cruise fare refunded, which was the largest portion of the expense. Flight were spendy but the full value went back as a future credit with WestJet and we continue to chip away at it. The only real losses were in some pre-paid services/excursions with small companies that didn’t do refunds - just issued credits we’ll likely never use. Let me know if you need a town car ride from Gatway to the Marble Arch area.

Gatway? Do you mean Gatwick airport?

Please. We only do Heathrow. .

Or London City airport when we take the Lear jet.

My first trip to London, for my honeymoon with exH, we flew into Gatwick. There is or was a train right there at the airport that took you to almost central London, Victoria Station, I think. Then we took a taxi to our hotel near the Marble Arch. The Marble Arch underground station was practically in the hotel’s basement.

 

[AndreaDM]

Was being only an English speaker ever a problem? Aka - are menus in English, museum info in English, etc? I know it's a 2nd language, but kinda an "everyone learns it" one, but I don't know what that means in practice...

No problem whatsoever, everyone spoke English, menus were in English. We went to the Perlan museum and it had placards in multiple languages, English included.

 

[aprilchem]

Nowhere so far - we cancelled our vacation for the summer due to Delta.

We currently have a couple of trips planned, though. We were supposed to go to Hawaii in December (I had a conference there) but suspect that one will be cancelled bc Hawaii has asked visitors not to come. We have a hotel booked in Toronto for Thanksgiving, but not sure about that one either - currently the borders with Canada are open, but I wonder if they'll close them again bc of the disparity in US vs. Canada vaccination rates.

We also have a trip to Anchorage booked for February (maybe it's happening? I'm hoping it'll be safe) and an extended family river cruise in Europe booked for April. That one I am guessing will not happen, but we didn't pay for it and my FIL bought really good trip insurance so it won't be a big financial loss.

 

[soccerdad72]

Just a quick trip to Hilton Head this summer.

 

[TLSnell1981]

Other than two visits to WDW....The Bahamas and Boston. All included mostly outdoor activities.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

Universal and St. Augustine

 

[THE BARRON]

Grand Canyon, Gatlinburg, Gulf Shores

 

[Kitty 34]

Mackinaw City, MI for our annual 3 day "family" trip.

Indianapolis to visit our granddaughter......back in May.

 

[FlyingBelle]

Door County, WI. We love Fish Creek and Sister Bay. Lots of little shops, art galleries, can rent bikes across the street from the Peninsula State Park for miles of beautiful trails. Boating, kayaking, wineries, and traditional fish boil! It’s a beautiful little piece of the midwest, feels like coastal towns. For the kiddos - The Farm is so cute - can feed baby goats milk bottles for 25cents. You won’t find any chain restaurants or hotels up the Peninsula. Our fav place to stay is Liberty Lodge in Sister Bay. We’ve been a couple times since Covid, much to do outdoors, people pretty good about wearing masks indoors.

 

[KristaZ]

We went to Greece - largely it seemed things were normal compared to what we've experienced on other international trips pre-covid. We had to wear masks indoors, but not anywhere outside except when walking up to ticket/entry booths (and honestly, we didn't see masks being enforced anywhere). We got stuck having to wait for an entry time to one museum in Santorini because they were limiting capacity (they quoted us an hour and a half wait - we just walked around and did some other things before returning). They have a vaccination requirement for indoor dining, but honestly pretty much everywhere offered outdoor dining, so we never encountered whether this was enforced or not. Entry was fairly easy. We had to fill out a passenger locator form beforehand indicating if we were vaccinated or using a negative test for entry. That gave us a QR code that was scanned when we arrived. We needed to show proof of vaccination or a negative test at the check in counter prior to getting on our flight as well. When we arrived, anyone without a vaccination was required to take a rapid test. Returning to the US everyone needed to have a negative test within 3 days - we brought self-test kits with us and had no issue with these, though our negative test results were checked at 3 or 4 checkpoints before we could board our flight.

Overall, outside of the airports and wearing masks inside, it felt like a mostly normal trip.