I've Bean Travelling

In the post I wrote a few months back outlining some destinations that I am hoping to revisit in the future, I mentioned that Mr. Chuckles and I were planning a trip to London, England this year. This would cap off a tour through Iceland and Scotland, sometime in early to mid-May. Obviously, the world has become a completely different place since I wrote that post, and we have of course cancelled that planned trip. Fortunately, we had not yet booked any flights, tours, or accommodations, so I have not had to deal with the hassle of submitting cancellation requests or coordinating with insurance companies.

It’s crazy to think that only a couple short months ago, we were arriving home from Vietnam and expecting that this whole COVID-19 situation would blow over soon and we could start anticipating our next trip abroad. Now, I have revised my work vacation requests and tentatively pushed my next extended break off to late August/early September. However, I am seriously rethinking our travel plans for the rest of 2020.

I am coming to grips with the fact that we are unlikely to be doing any more international travel this year. It is very disappointing, as we have established a fantastic tradition over the past few years of embarking on two major international trips annually, with a few other short local excursions in between. In 2018, we were in Italy for a week in the summer, and then South Korea and Japan in mid-autumn. In 2019, we went to Thailand and Laos in spring, followed by Peru in late summer. For 2020, we were meant to travel Cambodia and Vietnam early in the year (fortunately, done just in time!) and then Iceland and Scotland plus England later on.

With the way things are evolving with the pandemic and lockdown conditions worldwide, I would not expect international travel to return to ‘normal’ for quite some time, at least until a vaccine is developed. Borders may reopen but I think we can expect there to remain several restrictions and requirements, such as medical certificates of health and mandatory quarantines, which will make coordinating vacations on fixed schedules much more challenging.

So what to do? I would really like to keep my approved time off in September rather than pick up extra weeks of work, so perhaps we will consider making a domestic trip within Canada, assuming it is safe to do so by then. This gives me an idea for an upcoming post as well: a recap of my past travels through Canada! Off hand, I have visited 7 out of the 10 provinces in Canada but there is still lots to see in this massive country.

How are you modifying your travel plans for 2020?