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Hello dead corner of our dead forum. 2020 was some poo poo, huh. My wife and I didn't leave town much this past year. We just got vaccinated but everything everywhere is still extremely weird ofc. I feel like it's the start of Fallout and we are looking out the door of the shelter. We haven't used much vacation, should we travel for a couple of weeks? I feel like that was a thing we liked to do, in the before-times. We live in the US and really enjoyed backpacking to: Mexico, Japan, lots of places in Europe. I don't think there was any country that wasn't a fantastic time. Anyone want to recommend a country or two to go visit for 2 weeks, 6 weeks from now? If that is hard to enjoy these days, we could just hike in Yellowstone or something I guess. Been hiking a lot lately, idk what the rest of the world is doing.
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May 1, 2021 04:31
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teardrop posted:Hello dead corner of our dead forum. 2020 was some poo poo, huh. My wife and I didn't leave town much this past year. We just got vaccinated but everything everywhere is still extremely weird ofc. I feel like it's the start of Fallout and we are looking out the door of the shelter. We haven't used much vacation, should we travel for a couple of weeks? I feel like that was a thing we liked to do, in the before-times. There are a lot of countries that are still not open to foreign travellers with a vaccine, or that require mandatory quarantines of several days regardless of vaccine and test status. Most of the EU / Schengen Europe would be in that category for instance with a few exceptions that I know of: Croatia, Iceland, Cyprus, and supposedly from 14 May, Greece. I think all other EU/Schengen countries are closed. Some other non-EU Mediterranean countries are open (e.g. Egypt), some are very restricted (e.g. Tunisia), and some are a weird mix of both open and closed (e.g. Turkey). The US embassy keeps track of all the useful info, just look up US Embassy + COVID + [your country name], like "croatia COVID us embassy" and you'll find https://hr.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information-2/ Depending on how accessible Iceland is for you, that might be a nice idea: https://is.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information/? It's all outdoors, basically no contact with other people even in a normal year, mid June is a reasonably good time of year, and it'll probably be cheaper than normal and easier to get lodging than on a typical year. You would 10000% want to rent a car and not take buses or hitchhike. Some roads will still be closed in mid June, e.g. the road to Landmannalaugar will likely be closed, and the roads through the center of the country will 100% still be closed. You could still certainly have a lovely two week roadtrip in mid-to-late June; I went there at that time five or so years ago. PS: this is the official road map of Iceland for closures: http://www.road.is/travel-info/road-conditions-and-weather/entire-iceland-road-conditions-map/ At some point I remember finding a website that listed when each road opened in previous years, maybe it's somewhere on road.is if you dig enough. Saladman fucked around with this message at 20:40 on May 2, 2021 |
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May 2, 2021 20:26
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teardrop posted:Been hiking a lot lately, idk what the rest of the world is doing. stay in the US, go somewhere new. You don't wanna end up like an Australian in India right now. The world is far from safe.
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May 3, 2021 02:30
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I don't really see the US fully banning its citizens from re-entering like Australia, nor having a mandatory and crazy expensive hotel stay on return like the UK and Ireland. The worst that seems theoretically possible to happen at this point in the pandemic is a mandatory home quarantine on return, but even that seems pretty unlikely if coming from somewhere like Iceland or Cyprus. Worrying about the US imprisoning people for returning from vacation like Australia, or banning them from returning like Algeria, is pretty outlandish imho, since even Trump didn't do that for Americans returning from Wuhan. I wouldn't book a trip to like, Brazil though, even if some theoretical 14 day quarantine on return is not an issue.
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May 3, 2021 10:54
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I'm of the opinion that it's the "six weeks from now" thing that is the issue. A story came out this morning that the EU is looking to open up to vaccinated Americans in June with no quarantine required. This stuff will happen, but it's going to take some time.
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May 3, 2021 16:08
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We decided not to do it. It would feel weird to go sightseeing anywhere the local people are mostly shut down. Like we are cutting in line for a return to normalcy. Iceland might be a possibility. We haven’t so much as stayed in a hotel for a year. Rather than go around the world to see what tourism is like in the COVID vaccine era, we will get our feet wet by spending the weekend in a nearby city. We are eager to see what the world looks like now, but probably should relearn what we enjoy about traveling from the ground up.
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May 3, 2021 21:57
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teardrop posted:We decided not to do it. It would feel weird to go sightseeing anywhere the local people are mostly shut down. Like we are cutting in line for a return to normalcy. Iceland might be a possibility. A sound plan. It is absolutely possible to visit somewhere else in the US and do the right things to ensure your safety and those around you who may not have been vaccinated yet. As ever, if you don't do stupid poo poo, you run far less risks of having problems. Depending on where you go, especially if it's not inside a major city, expect masks to be a lot less common than they should be.
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May 3, 2021 23:09
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teardrop posted:We decided not to do it. It would feel weird to go sightseeing anywhere the local people are mostly shut down. Like we are cutting in line for a return to normalcy. Europe should mostly be open for anyone to get a vaccine by the time you were planning to come. I'm getting mine on Thursday and I'm in the last priority group, for instance, and I think everyone over 18 who wants a vaccine is supposed to be able to get at least the first shot by mid to late June in most EU countries. The US is about 6-8 weeks ahead of the EU.
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May 4, 2021 09:31
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This is a whole new opportunity for Americans to look bad, so I look forward to how poorly we handle it.
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May 4, 2021 15:04
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Shammypants posted:This is a whole new opportunity for Americans to look bad, so I look forward to how poorly we handle it. We were already the worst and this is absolutely going to be terrible because we don't know how to behave ourselves. No, Karen, Europe isn't going to be like it is in Indianapolis or whatever. 
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May 4, 2021 15:46
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Saladman posted:Europe should mostly be open for anyone to get a vaccine by the time you were planning to come. I'm getting mine on Thursday and I'm in the last priority group, for instance, and I think everyone over 18 who wants a vaccine is supposed to be able to get at least the first shot by mid to late June in most EU countries. The US is about 6-8 weeks ahead of the EU. That’s not too bad then. I see Greece is eager for tourists, but they might be lagging on vaccinations.
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May 5, 2021 21:57
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teardrop posted:That’s not too bad then. I see Greece is eager for tourists, but they might be lagging on vaccinations. I think it's worth considering how much you want to be in Greece with the sort of American tourists that are going to be flooding in there in the first wave.
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May 5, 2021 23:37
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teardrop posted:That’s not too bad then. I see Greece is eager for tourists, but they might be lagging on vaccinations. The EU+ is all receiving vaccines at more or less the same rate – EU+ countries are getting vaccines based on population and not based on GDP, so stragglers like Bulgaria are because of their own administrative failings. A handful of countries also separately ordered vaccines (e.g. Hungary) but for the most part they're all in the same boat. The big differences are going to start to show when they start reaching different plateaus due to population differences, e.g. Serbia (not an EU+ member) reached a plateau at ~30% of the population vaccinated because they are hardcore anti-vaccine and/or because they ordered the Russian vaccine which doesn't exactly instill confidence, while countries like Norway and Iceland will probably cap out at 80-90% of adults like New Hampshire and Vermont did. No clue for Greece, but so far they're vaccinating at a similar rate as far-richer Norway and Switzerland, and as far richer and far smaller Luxembourg and Iceland. I think Malta and Hungary are the only EU+ states that are really ahead of the curve, and Bulgaria the only state that is way behind. Anyway don't buy your tickets now, but most EU countries are at about 25% partial-vax and 10% full-vax now and running at about 0.5-0.8%/day, so most should hit the natural plateau of 40-60% of population vaccinated within the next 6 weeks, unless/until kids can get vaccinated, which I guess would boost overall vaccination numbers by ~10-15%.
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May 6, 2021 10:15
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I did some nature focused road tripping that was really excellent in the US. Prior I was very into "I have to go to abroad to travel" but it was very nice exploring the southwest. National parks are a good thing since they're outdoors
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May 9, 2021 17:42
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Huh, CDC and the White House say Covid is over, trust the vaccine and (aside from masks on airplanes) drop all precautions. Maybe Europe will declare Covid over soon also.
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May 14, 2021 14:24
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teardrop posted:Huh, CDC and the White House say Covid is over, trust the vaccine and (aside from masks on airplanes) drop all precautions. Maybe Europe will declare Covid over soon also. Get yer shot(s), folks.
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May 14, 2021 17:41
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Any news if the EU's digital vaccination tracker is going to be ready for June? At least that was the original deadline...
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May 25, 2021 00:37
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Crosby B. Alfred posted:Any news if the EU's digital vaccination tracker is going to be ready for June? At least that was the original deadline... That's what I'm hearing, but the implementation is still going to be on a country by country basis so I'd hold a couple tons of salt in the interim.
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May 25, 2021 01:41
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I keep hearing random musing how Spain, Portugal, Greece and Italy want to open back for tourist season but honestly risk doesn't seem worth it.
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May 25, 2021 01:51
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Crosby B. Alfred posted:Any news if the EU's digital vaccination tracker is going to be ready for June? At least that was the original deadline... Coincidentally I just posted this in the Europe thread before seeing your post, but it should be ready for July 1 but it looks like confirmation will only come around June 10. https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/eu-citizens-can-start-travelling-with-covid-19-certificates-from-july-1-the-council-says/ Unclear how it works for Switzerland/Norway/UK let alone very-foreign countries like Bosnia or the US.
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May 25, 2021 09:47
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Crosby B. Alfred posted:I keep hearing random musing how Spain, Portugal, Greece and Italy want to open back for tourist season but honestly risk doesn't seem worth it. If you're vaccinated the risk of exposure to the virus is low enough to not worry about in my opinion. The risk of dealing with super lovely American tourists that flood into these places on the other hand...
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May 25, 2021 15:12
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Hopefully the digital vaccine passport will keep sick idiots at home? Looking at the current NY Times COVID-19 Case Map,  The Netherlands is at 23 cases per 100k, France 18 per 100k, Germany 9 out of 100k and Italy 7 out of 100k. I'm no actual epidemiologist but looking at how cases fell in the United States we've got another month or two of falling cases before they get down to acceptable levels - which is less than a 3-4 per 100k and still includes some social distancing. For reference, Los Angeles County right now is at about 2 cases per 100k. And this is all provided vaccinations continue without interruption.
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May 25, 2021 19:30
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So I want to go to Bolivia and Brazil, but obviously they are some of the biggest suffering countries from the pandemic. I was wondering if things would return to normal by late January (eight months from now), so I can book a flight for then?
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May 27, 2021 22:32
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Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but Brazil is acting like it is actively trying to kill everyone. I wouldn’t count on anything there, they are evolving new strains faster than they are building immunity
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May 28, 2021 04:20
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You should never book a plane flight 8 months in advance even in normal circumstances, unless it's like a crazy absurd flash sale.
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May 28, 2021 10:59
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I wouldn't expect travel to be back to normal for several years from now.
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Jun 3, 2021 11:02
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That's a grim outlook, especially considering 2 billion vaccines have already been injected in 6 months and so far there are not any variants that have substantially evaded vaccine protection or that can reinfect people who already recovered from COVID. (People were initially afraid of "P1", but its ability to reinfect turned out to be more likely "caused" by terrible data collection in Manaus.) Most of the vaccines seem to be pretty effective too, with the exception of SinoVac which has worked like garbage in Chile. Europe is reopening now for European residents or passport holders -- much of Germany yesterday, France reopens next Wednesday, and so forth. I have a handful of friends flying out from the US to here in the next week or two, most with multiple passports but one without (but a proven relationship with a French girl). The beta of the EU covid passport is already out ( https://www.euronews.com/travel/2021/06/02/eu-covid-19-digital-pass-seven-countries-begin-using-new-travel-system ) and it should be everywhere by 1 July. I wouldn't be surprised if regular American tourists could easily visit most of Europe by mid-July, with the exception of the locked-down Nordics and UK/Ireland. Even Algeria reopened its airport borders earlier this week, for the first time since March 2020. I wouldn't book anything non-refundable but I've definitely got plans for July and August and looking forward to international out-of-EU travel in Nov/Dec.
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Jun 3, 2021 12:07
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Yeah, business travel specifically will look different for a while but it isn't going to be years. The number of people who are still freaked out even though they're vaccinated is larger than I would've thought but not so large as to impact global business.
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Jun 3, 2021 16:23
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Oh, I'm sure travel will be more readily doable before long... I just don't think that the experience will be back to pre-pandemic norms for some time. I think things will be very different along the journey and at the destination. The security theatre will probably be augmented with health screening theatre for several years to come, airlines will probably offer reduced services (in terms of frequency of flights, destinations, and at the airport and on board), and plenty of destinations will be very different places post-covid. In my mind there is a bit more to it than just vaccine coverage - there have been some fundamental social and economic changes on both the supply and demand sides of tourism and travel.
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Jun 4, 2021 02:32
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Crosby B. Alfred posted:Hopefully the digital vaccine passport will keep sick idiots at home? This map is hugely misleading, and so much of the media is responsible for this. Putting countries like Mexico as having lower case counts, and thus less COVID risk, is stupid. Like all of Africa. It takes a ridiculous amount of technology and biotech infrastructure, as well as the skilled technicians to test for COVID. So countries like Mexico, which don't have the same testing capacity, are always going to have low case counts. No testing = no cases. But Mexico sure as heck is a hotspot. You see this same thing with variants as well -- testing for variants is insanely hard. We're talking about protein spike mutations. So if a country can barely keep up with testing for COVID, how can you assume that variants aren't already running hog wild there? Let's also not forget that governments are also incentivized to NOT publish cases and hide their numbers.
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Jun 6, 2021 07:15
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 Anyhow, any ideas when Europe will  fully reopen? Looks like most of Europe will shortly pass the 50% threshold for full vaccination.
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Jul 6, 2021 22:09
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Well most countries in EU are already "open" but with the new Delta variant who knows how it'll work out... UK won't close down again despite soaring cases, but Spain or Greece closed nightclubs already, 2 weeks after reopening them. Maybe they'll only allow vaccinated people to travel or go out, but nobody knows at this point. UK is kind of beta testing for us at this point
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Jul 7, 2021 09:05
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Yeah depends what you mean by "fully". Like an indoor arena concert with 50,000 people? Probably not before next summer, at the earliest, outside of one-off gimmick concerts. I went to an outdoor music festival a couple weeks ago but the maximum attendance was reduced from something like 8,000 to more like 800. But if you don't care about nightclubs and large events, then most everything else is open already, you just often have to wear a mask, and who knows if it might shut down again once cases are sky-high across all of Europe again in late July/early August. The UK data are promising (i.e. you can have near-record numbers of cases with minimal hospitalizations and deaths) but who knows how that will translate into public policy, especially since UK residents are still locked out of international travel. In Switzerland now, the only three countries that people have to quarantine on arrival from are those from the UK, India, and Nepal.
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Jul 7, 2021 09:48
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Gotcha, looks like even if things are open getting around is going to be a pain. Looks like we will all have to set aside our globe trotting dream for another year 
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Jul 8, 2021 03:39
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Crosby B. Alfred posted:Gotcha, looks like even if things are open getting around is going to be a pain. Looks like we will all have to set aside our globe trotting dream for another year Oh, yeah for like a long-term travel period? I wouldn't bet on that either. Europe miiiight not shut down again but I wouldn't quit my job to travel the world (or even Europe) this year, that's for sure. A two week vacation booked 2-4 weeks in advance, sure, that I have been doing again the last 4 months.
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Jul 8, 2021 08:19
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