So you are a medical migrant? :) Shame!

Our government is murdering us with its Great Barrington Declaration inspired infection policy. 40000 dead in a population of 17M. Positive rate over 20%, testing capacity at its maximum.

I am fortunately (?) unfortunately (?) aware of disparities like this throughout Europe, but I wonder how many of our prospective visitors know anything about such things.

Your good fortune that you don't have to live in NL. One thing to take note of though is that our medical care system is collapsing/has collapsed, so if visitors do need emergency care, end of December, beginning of January, I wish them the best of luck.

There are a few areas in France where the health system is totally saturated, too -- notably Colmar and Mulhouse. You can forget about most emergency care there.

Pulled the plug
 

I just pulled the plug on our late December trip to Portugal and Spain with my husband, myself, and two young adult kids. We struggled with the decision, especially as we have been saving money and vacation time to make this trip happen, but ultimately the risks became too great. Putting aside shuttered museums, event cancellations, and limited hospitality hours and capacity (restaurants, taverns), we might be required to test negative multiple times during our trip, incurring additional expense on top of an already tight budget.

The potential worse case scenario would be if one of us gets infected (we’re all vaccinated and boostered), requiring all of us to quarantine….adding considerable expense (food and lodging), unpaid time off, missed college classes, and general insanity from being confined to a small apartment or hotel room. (Try to imaging being 21 and cooped up with your parents, or vice versa, for 10-14 days) And what if return flights get cancelled, jacking up the price of return tickets, or we’re prevented from leaving the country? It would clearly be a fantasy come true for me -- to be stuck in Lisbon, oh no!, eating seafood and pastries! — if I was retired and wealthy, without kids in tow, but this is not the case for us.

So yeah. Travel is a luxury. This too shall pass.

I agree, this too shall pass. I find preparing for a big trip always stressful and with the added covid restrictions and uncertainties, just not worth it right now. Hopefully by next spring and summer we will all be in a better place.

MKECityMom - Sorry you had to cancel your trip, but I completely understand why. Gives you more time to plan the next big adventure.

RE our trip......spoke with my wife over the weekend and we decided to wait until the holidays are over and check and see what things are like in Feb. We conceded that we may have to abandon the idea of London and Amsterdam and spend our entire trip in France. Fingers crossed that things improve. Thanks again for the help and thoughts.

Happy Holidays to you all!

MKECityMom, that must have been a hard decision to make, though probably a wise one. CDC now has Portugal on its list of level 4 high risk countries. Can’t understand why, as Portugal has vaccinated almost 100% of its eligible population. Not to worry, the trip will definitely happen, even if not as originally planned.

My sister will be on sabbatical from her university next semester and we were planning 10-12 weeks in Europe, starting around Easter in Portugal and ending in Croatia in June. Now we’ll just stay in either France and/or Italy, probably Sicily. We want to rework our itinerary over the next few weeks and see how best to salvage the situation…

If I could afford to go, I certainly would/ You never know what
is around the corner/ Make sure everyone has proof of their shots when you leave.