We just got back from a two-and-a-half-week trip to Europe in September/October 2021, and I have had a lot of people asking me how it was with all of the COVID restrictions. Despite my apprehensions going into it with all of the unknowns and changing restrictions, I can honestly say that I think now might be the best time to travel.
Lack of Tourists
Hands down, this was the most incredible part of traveling right now. I had been to both Paris and most major parts of Italy before, and coming during COVID and seeing how empty it was in comparison was insane. We were able to go to some of the most popular tourist attractions in the world (such as the Vatican, the Louvre, the Colosseum) without having to wait in a single line. Places where you would normally have to wait in line for an hour or more had no line and you could walk right up. At times we would be completely alone with some of the most famous art in the world. I don’t think we will ever be able to replicate that experience again.
Easy Reservations
We didn’t plan this trip too far in advance because things were changing so frequently with COVID restrictions. Because of this, we didn’t make reservations for any meals like you would normally need to in Europe. Despite this, we were able to either make same-day reservations or just walk up to some of the most popular restaurants in Paris, Rome, Venice, etc. with little issue. We consider ourselves very lucky!
Less scammers!
Whenever you travel to a major tourist hub, you’ll find yourself surrounded by all sorts of scams – pick pocketers, people selling fake tickets, people trying to force items on you. When we were on our trip we noticed there were far less of these around. While you’d still see them from time to time, it wasn’t nearly as overwhelming as it normally is.
Amazing deals
And of course, my favourite reason to travel – good deals! We found great deals on hotels that would have normally cost us 3-4x as much, and international flights are at an all-time low. If you’re thinking about booking a trip, do it! Make sure to book refundable accommodations, and if you’re not sure if you will be able to travel to the destination at all, try to book with an airline you’d be comfortable with having a credit on for future flights if you need to cancel or change your flight. Another bonus is that our airplane each way was less than 1/3 full due to low travel volumes right now, so we got to enjoy a row to ourselves!
While there are still lots of restrictions in place for travel, a lot of the restrictions are lighter for fully vaccinated travelers. Because we are fully vaccinated and both feel relatively healthy, we felt comfortable with the risk of traveling. With COVID, it’s always a risk traveling, so we also purchased travel insurance that had COVID-19 coverage to ensure we would have medical coverage if we were to contract COVID while abroad. In case you were wondering, it was also very easy to find COVID tests while we were in Europe.
