Just came back from a trip to Oahu. This is our annual birthday/Christmas gift to both of us. We stayed in Ko Olina ways away from Waikiki. I did not think the place was as busy as it was in 2019. There were no fireworks this year at the resort so maybe that’s why the locals went elsewhere that evening. The hotels hired performers from the local luau to entertain the guests instead of the annual fireworks show. The hula dancers were amazing. We lyfted to and from the airports to avoid parking fees and car rental issues and did not go anywhere other than walking around the resort. I heard that Waikiki was packed, and our Lyft driver complained that traffic was back to where it was in 2019, but we did not feel that HNL was as crazy as it used to be… OTOH, SEA felt like “Pandemic? Seriously, what pandemic?!”
My daughter flew to the BVI today!
My niece said the plane Thursday from DFW to SAN was full of people going to weddings. And unhappy babies.
We are driving from the coast of NC (where we live), to the mountains of NC in early August. This counts for adventurous for us. We are driving to Chicago for a wedding over Labor Day. I have no urge to get on an airplane. That is just us.
We aren’t planning on leaving our island until maybe May 2022. Even that’s a maybe.
We also don’t have any desire to go on a plane yet. We would like to go to Europe, but don’t want to wear a mask for 11 hours. We can wait another year or so to take this trip.
We will do a road trip this fall somewhere here in the west. Probably a National Park trip to Utah. If we can go to Canada next February we plan to do a road trip to ski in Lake Louise. We will also ski Idaho and Montana. We have a few other long weekend trips we will do here in California. We don’t like to travel in the summer anyway because of the crowds and we live near the beach so we just enjoy being home.
Mr. and I got our HI fix (visited Oahu 3x and the Big Island 1X since the pandemic began) and are now staying away from HI until further notice… to give the locals a little breather.
My flight back to the US from TA was full. It was annoying but do-able to wear a mask for 24 hours.
More cases of Covid in Israel, but still not a lot of serious illness so things are still opening up and the government is pushing to vax all who are not, mostly young people. Also looking to a booster for old people and the immunocompromised. There is much concern about people visiting hotspots and bringing disease back. We can argue over whether that is warranted or if the focus should be on internal spread, however, much scrutiny given to people with foreign passports now, especially from the former Soviet Union.
Hey, slightly different topic: Global Entry has gone to facial recognition since last I flew abroad. Works well, scary well.From my face the government knew all about where I had been.
Just returned today with wife and DS from Croatia and Rhodes. Wonderful trips over about two and one-half weeks. Flights were not too bad and wearing a mask was not as bad as I feared.
It does seem to me that flight attendants and airlines are using Covid to implement more rules and decreasing service but everyone is up for making rules and doing less when they have a chance…
Just arrived in Austin after flying from Maine. The plane and airports were packed. Almost everyone wire masks correctly. I saw one guy with no mask and then a few with their mask under the nose. It did feel odd to wear a mask again.
My son and his wife are going to Italy and France next week for honeymoon. With Covid situation been so fluid I hope they have safe trip. My son purchased Covid insurance for this travel.
Canada will reopen to cruise ships Nov. 1, 2021, original date was February 2022 (how many cruise ships ply Canadian waters during the winter???).
Justin Trudeau stated that Canada would not be open to unvaccinated tourists for a long time.
I am focusing on the word “unvaccinated”, which gives me hope that my Canadian Rockies trip in mid-Sept might run. We are vaxxed up to our ears!
Daughter is flying home in two weeks after a summer visit. Risk level has gone up both here and where she lives, already, and will be worse in two weeks. Nervous.
We’ve been watching America’s Got Talent and there have been several contestants from foreign countries—Japan, Philippines, France, to name a few. How were they able to fly here???
My guess is that despite how it is framed by the program, they must be already here on work visas, or something similar. They make it sound like they came ALL THE WAY TO AMERICA to “make their dream a reality”.
Good news for those who plan travel to Canada! Fingers crossed!
Fingers AND toes crossed!!!
We have a mid-September Canadian Rockies tour that was rescheduled from last September. Funny how at this time last year we were praying the trip would be cancelled. This year, our prayers have been for the trip to run----funny how a vaccine can change one’s outlook!
Also, last summer, the thought of wearing a mask indoors or on a bus was something I didn’t want to have to do. This year, it would be a minor inconvenience—we are surely being careful, but without the fear and dread.
RE: AGT from above – @MAdad - i like AGT too, and the full audience shots took me by surprise, and seemed so loud. I googled that, and it sounds like a few of the auditions were on sets made to look like AGT, and most of the audiences from april were superinposed. Wonder if the internationals were on the special sets at first?
Yay!!! Canadian border opens up in early August to fully vaccinated Americans. Unvaxxed, I believe, must quarantine. They are using a website/app called ArriveCAN to process vaccine cards/proof, etc.
Looks like my Sept. Canadian Rockies tour is on!!
August 9 is the date. 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/19/canada-us-border-open/
We increased our time in St Thomas to include the whole month of Feb similar to what we’ve done in other places, other years. It’s 100% refundable until mid Jan if something happens, but at this point, we’re looking forward to exploring the island while H “relocates” his office to make that winter month far more fun than PA is that time of year. As he tells clients, he’d far rather be on a balcony overlooking blue water than at his window at home staring at barren trees.
We’ll definitely keep an eye on the tropics over this summer/fall.
And now I’m looking forward to getting back to Canada in Sept and seeing what, if anything, changed among my favorite haunts. 2020 is the only year of my entire life that I never set foot on Canadian soil. I really don’t want to repeat that in the future.
Hmm, we didn’t go anywhere international in 2020. Our only trip that year was to FL in Feb camping. The rest was seeing relatives. What a year!