Trip Planning in Covid Times – Time to Look Forward.

The trip starts the moment you book it.

I love the planning and anticipation of looking forward to a trip. Counting down the days, researching a new place, getting excited together over all the good things to come. It makes the dull, everyday stuff a bit more exciting and gives us all a happy hook to hang on to.

Back in June, I started writing this blog when I was just a few weeks away from my annual leave. It’s a time of the year I always look forward to, but a time that can also leave me feeling restless. Inside, I have this urge to do something with the time, not to let it slip by, not to waste it, and to cram in as much adventure as possible, before I’m back to the grind again. Having time together and not being able to do anything with it, is the biggest anti-climax that I just find hard to bear.

A few years ago, we found the perfect solution – booking a family trip! Summer travels have brought us so much fulfilment over the years and the anticipation of the trip also injects a bit of magic into those rainy Sunday afternoons. It’s sort of become written into our routine and a real common goal for us all.

We have never ever looked back on a trip and wished we hadn’t gone.

But this year, there was one giant problem. In a Covid world, the trip doesn’t start the moment you book it.

In a Covid world, the trip can’t start until it starts.

All the uncertainty of every part of life had left me not really able to look forward. I found myself holding back from the usual thrilling levels of excitement. I wasn’t able to fully immerse myself in the planning, the build up. There were parts of our trip that I couldn’t even bring myself to book. I just couldn’t get my head in gear.

I didn’t want to get my hopes up, in case they came crashing down upon me, yet again. It was like the shine of booking a trip had worn off. And a part of me didn’t even believe we would actually make it.

Until we got in that van and started driving.

As soon as that trip had started, twenty months of pent up excitement burst out of each of us, in our smiles and our road trip singalong and chatter.

A million non-Covid related things could have gone wrong along the 2,000 mile round trip, but I wasn’t the slightest bit worried about any of those. In fact, this trip ran as smoothly as every Pre-Covid trip we’ve ever taken.

And then I realised something. The real thing holding me back from looking forward, wasn’t Covid at all.

It was me.

I’d put up a barrier in my head and in my heart, just to stop myself from having to feel let down. To go through that bitter disappointment, time after time. In reality, so many things out there can go wrong or suddenly upend a trip. And we’ve had our fair share of travel disasters. None of them, including cancelled trips, had anything to do with Covid. But I never before let those things get in the way of looking forward.

Covid was just another one of these things. Like earthquakes and delayed or cancelled flights, bombs outside hotels, and fires on the plane. (you should probably read this to understand the backstory here!)

And this realisation was the turning point.

I was not going to hold back any more.

I was not going to allow the worry of what may or may never happen, stop me from looking forward. I need the anticipation of the trip, almost as much as the trip itself.

And I need to stop worrying about the things I cannot change.

So finally, we’ve booked another trip abroad. And we are going all out with this countdown – YouTube, the local radio station and packing lists galore! Insurance has us covered if the worst happens, and in fact, there is more flexibility now than there ever has been when it comes to flight changes and paying for accommodation on arrival.

Perhaps this is the silver lining.

And if Covid once again pulls up the drawbridge, well then we’ll just make new plans

and start looking forward all over again.