Are Your Travel Plans for 2023 Conflicted?

We travel with a family, and we sure are conflicted this year

As I considered the Globetrotters January monthly challenge, I felt conflicted.

Yes, we have a travel wish list — it just gets bigger every year.

But this year, our vacation decisions feel especially complicated.

In 2022, we didn’t need to make a choice — had to use the airline vouchers we ended up with because of the pandemic. Initially, we were going to Portugal with TAP. To make the most of it, we decided to visit the Azores which turned out amazing.

In 2023, for the first time in more than three years, we can plan a trip without restrictions. Or is that so?

The more I thought about it, the more I was troubled by having to make a choice. It seems we have new limitations, more than ever.

As a family with children in school, we were always in the restricted group, having to plan our travel around the high season of school vacations. During the pandemic, our kids advanced to high school, and missing classes to take advantage of low season is a difficult proposition.

I didn’t set out to sound negative, but here it is...

I was afraid to book a winter trip this year.

What if someone from our family gets sick? Gets COVID? The larger the family, the more chances. With three kids in school and after-school activities, and both parents going to the office, it’s quite possible.

What do we do then? Cancel for everyone? How much is the cancellation insurance? And all that inspired planning would be for nothing?

In the end, we didn’t make any plans. We stayed home and made the best of the Canadian winter.

The big winter storm hit the Eastern Seaboard, and many trips were disrupted.

Many Canadian airlines seem to be on the brink, and our international airports are on the naughty list.

Air travel feels more vulnerable than ever.

Will this make it even harder to make plans the next year? I don’t know.

I won’t want to succumb to the post-pandemic overall anxiety, but maybe I already did.

I’m not sure we are ready for another slow travel trip yet.

Our Azores experiment was lucky and relatively successful, but we don’t have the luxury of an extra-long vacation every year, and organizing it required a lot of effort.

As other globetrotters often say, it was travel, not necessarily a vacation. Maybe it was for the kids, but for me, it was also work — even if it was the work I enjoyed doing.

We want to go across Canada, but it is daunting.

It’s been slowly burning on our bucket list, but we never quite dared accomplish it.

Driving 5,000 km each way — from Toronto to Vancouver? Every year our minivan gets older. Ands it will take at least four weeks.

Flying one way and then driving back in a rental? The expense will be steep for a big family that needs a big vehicle.

Camping all the way? We tried partial camping when crossing Atlantic Canada. It was fine on good weather nights, but it did rain, and the extra work slows you down.

You can save money at the expense of time if camping, but if you have five thousand kilometers to cross (oops, three thousand miles) — time will claim priority. We don’t want to just drive without time to explore the country.

Plus, what about all the packing and unpacking every day if you keep moving — even if you travel light?

And what about finding a place to eat two-three times a day, or managing groceries on the go? I feel ready to chicken out again.

Some famous places are already burdened by over-tourism.

Take Venice. We want to see it, but then so does everybody else.

The city is now planning to introduce entry fees to visit the city, raising prices for the most popular times. Venice does not want more tourists — should we be conscious of that and stay away?

Or should we go and see it — just in case there will be no more chances? What if Venice, or another place vulnerable to climate and other risks, were to disappear?

Summers are getting hotter.

With children in high school, most of our travel was so far confined to July and August. Sometimes parents worry about their kids not caring about school too much. But if your kids freak out about missing school, you know what I mean.

Many places that are on our bucket list are already so hot in summer.

Last July, we spent five days in Lisbon in July. The heat was almost unbearable. Like it or not, it limits your sightseeing energy and the time you can spend exploring outside.

Should we refocus on places that are cooler during summer? Or go to the other hemisphere?

Perhaps there is a name for a traveler's “Blue Monday”?

Nevertheless, we are dreaming and thinking of these beautiful places.

Elora coast, Albania.

Or a bigger Adriatic Road trip through Albania, Montenegro, Croatia and Slovenia. A colleague once told me about the beauty of Elora, the well-kept secret of the Adriatic coast. The pictures look amazing, and the idea of visiting a less-known place appeals to me.

Switzerland

I always wanted to go in winter and ski Matterhorn. While we are saving for that, a summer trip can offer a very different experience of mountains, crystal clear streams, castles, and cool trains running on time.

I followed Swiss travel reports from @Mulan and they piqued my interest even more.

South Korea and Japan

We’ve never been to East Asia.

We may have embraced and learned to cook some East Asian food, watched movies and travel videos, and followed our kids’ interested in K-pop. But in reality, we know so little about these countries! We truly have no idea.

Travelling somewhere with a very different culture reminds us that we are far from perfect.

Other cultures may have much better ideas about how to manage life and be happy.

I just want to feel it one day, and I’m prepared to feel provincial.

I happened to see this story by Linda Ng and it reminded me that there are so many things to see in other countries that I would never suspect existed.

Utah, Arizona and Nevada canyon road trip

This would not be a summer trip — too hot, perhaps some time when we can spend 2–3 weeks traveling in the fall or spring.

I just can’t stop looking at the pictures.

Nature makes the best monuments. I want to see this before I die.

Norway

I saw this photo of the Atlantic Ocean Road in Norway and will not rest until I see it with my own eyes.

Until then, Tim Ward published lots of stories about Norway — check these out if you want to imagine travelling there.

What we will end up doing this summer?

Perhaps something less ambitious.

I will report back.