Vacationing Abroad

I'm getting so close to calling the whole thing off.

DW and I have been desperate to travel since our vacation to Europe was cancelled. We had booked our flights and accommodation in Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands, where we were supposed to go at this time, last year, only to have the pandemic come along, causing us to put a pin in our trip.

Like so many people, we've been anticipating the so-called return to normal, when we can start travelling again. In the meantime, we've made lists of where we want to go when it's safe to board a plane and leave Canada.

DW and I absolutely loved our Mexican vacation, where we stayed in an all-inclusive resort on the Mayan Riviera and rented a car, which allowed us to explore the attractions, on our own. We still watch the video that we made, and long to return.

To that end, we booked a return trip for next February.

But DW wants to get away sooner, and so she searched for vacation deals in December, before Christmas. She's looked up Jamaica, Costa Rica, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic, and found a great deal in the D.R. The resort booked, we looked forward to another Caribbean getaway.

Having the trip booked, though, didn't keep DW from searching for better deals. She's sat me down and we've watched countless YouTube videos of various resorts and vacation destinations, to the extent that I've said, "Enough!"

It's information overload but it also becomes more of a chore, in doing the research, than a relaxing destination.

I've told DW to search all she wants but to keep me out of it. I don't care where we go, as long as there's a comfortable bed at the end of the day, good food, lots of drinks, and lots of exploring. Wherever she chooses to go will be fine by me.

She's still looking, and every so often she mentions what she's found.

"Book whatever," I say, "I'm good."

The latest thing that DW is researching is the vaccination rates of the locals and what the protocols for visitors are. This is a good thing to look into. We're doubly vaxxed but it's important to us that the people who interact with us are also vaccinated. We protect them: they protect us.

"Eighty percent of Cubans are vaccinated," DW told me the other day. "Fewer than half of the people in the D.R. have even their first dose."

"That's concerning," I said.

"Their protocol for travellers is pretty lax."

"I'm not liking that."

"Cuban resorts offer tests for visitors who are heading back home," she added. "They only charge $35 U.S. dollars for the test. I'm seeing as much as $200 per test in the D.R."

"Okay," I said, "cancel our D.R. trip. Let's go back to Cuba."

"I'll look into Cuban resorts," she said.

"But don't tell me about it," I said. "The more info I'm flooded with, the less I'm interested."

I can't believe it. I'm desperate to get away but the more I think about it, the more I have to contemplate the wheres and whatfors, the more I just want to call the whole thing off.

This is not how vacations are supposed to work. I blame it on the pandemic.