Europe travel: Is a honeymoon this summer possible?

Traveling has always come with complications, but the coronavirus pandemic has made it more challenging than ever. Our By The Way Concierge column will take your travel dilemmas to the experts to help you navigate the new normal. Want to see your question answered? Submit it here.

Last winter my wife (57) and I (51) booked a June trip to Prague and Germany for our belated honeymoon. Of course, we all know what happened. Luckily, we were able to cancel without any penalties. We would like to try again for a 10-day trip this summer, but we just don’t know if it will be possible or practical yet. We had planned to fly into Prague to visit with a friend of ours, and see the sights before leaving for Germany. We hadn’t nailed down that part of the trip yet, but we had a few general ideas of things we wanted to do and see, using a combination of Airbnb and hotels. What do you think? — Rob, Bellevue, Neb.

A few key things have changed since we wrote this optimistic story on the return of travel to Europe just a few weeks ago. While those European tourism insiders were feeling hopeful that trips like yours could happen this summer, they couldn’t predict the continent’s complications with the vaccine rollout or new variants that could bring surges around the world.

I took your question to a few different experts: travel advisers whose job it is to plan honeymoons like yours during this uncertain time, and public health experts who could weigh in more generally on the trajectory of the pandemic.

Let’s start with the scientists.

Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist and senior fellow with the Federation of American Scientists, says the current European Union vaccine drama makes it impossible to predict the outlook for summer travel.

“There is so much uncertainty right now with the vaccine delivery time schedule,” he says. “We don’t know how many vaccines are going to be delivered and administered; all of the timetables that we previously had were counting on the AstraZeneca [vaccine roll out].”

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Virologist Benhur Lee, who is a microbiology professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, says it’s also difficult to give you a blanket answer as each country in Europe will be on different reopening timelines. Because some governments will do better than others, Lee suggests you pay attention to the news coming out of Prague and Germany specifically.

And even if you’re fully vaccinated by this summer, there is no guarantee that Germany and Prague would have fully relaxed their coronavirus restrictions, according to Lee. They could reopen, but who knows if they’ll need to keep partial lockdowns, mask requirements, etc.

On a positive note, Lee says there’s a general sense that as additional vaccines get approved, manufacturing capacity ramps up and a larger percentage of people are vaccinated, we could see some semblance of normalcy by late summer. With that in mind, August or September may be a more viable timeline for your honeymoon.

It’s not in a travel adviser’s best interest to book you on a vacation you can’t take, so I spoke with Shelby Donley, the vice president of luxury services for travel management company Direct Travel, to see how she’d handle your trip planning.

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At this time, Donley says many of her clients are taking a wait-and-see approach to their 2021 travel plans, vs. booking now and hoping for the best. Should summer be rapidly approaching and Prague and Germany seem impossible, Donley would figure out another suitable and viable honeymoon destination based on your interests.

If you do decide to go ahead with your honeymoon later this year, Estee Gubbay, a travel adviser at Protravel International, recommends carefully reviewing the deposit and cancellation policies when booking any travel, and purchasing comprehensive, pandemic-specific travel insurance.

And as you make your decision, it doesn’t hurt to get your travel documents in order just in case. The pandemic has caused delays in getting passports processed, so if you and your wife are due for a renewal, now’s a good time to get those sorted.

Have a travel dilemma for By The Way Concierge? Submit it here.

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