We haven't taken a vacation since January of 2019 which was a quick trip to Puerto Rico for my husband's 50th BD. We had a trip booked for fall of 2020 to Italy, but needed to cancel because my father was very ill and it looked like he might not make it. He's still here....but it was touch and go at that time. We decided to just wait until May of 2020 when we had a *big* (meaning expensive for us) trip to South Africa...two week trip, more than we'd spend on two years of travel...but it would have been epic. Then covid hit. We did get our airfare back by disputing the charges (that was $13,000 alone), and just this week after almost 14 months, got 88% of our money back from the land portion of our trip. So we weren't made completely whole...but we were very happy because we weren't sure we'd ever see that money again.
We wanted to wait until we were both fully vaccinated to travel and now that we both are, we're itching to get moving again. We can't get away until the fall due to work schedules, so we have been kicking around different ideas. Portugal and San Jose del Cabo were high on our list. Europe seems to be opening, but it's still iffy, and if they have issues with variants due to lower vaccination rates, I have no doubt that they'll shut down travel again. And you still need to take a COVID test to enter and return from those countries, and that seemed like an okay idea....since we're vaccinated. And then, just last week, very good friends of ours got COVID tests at their resort in Mexico. Very nice place on the Mexican riviera...and they both tested positive. They're fully vaccinated. They are *still* there. They were supposed to return last Saturday. This threw a huge wrench into their lives with childcare, work...etc. After their experience, we took Cabo off our list for now too, since you still need to produce a positive test when returning from Mexico. I know plenty of people are coming and going from those places....we just really want as much of a stress free experience as possible.
Sooo...we decided we needed to choose to travel in the states, or a territory where our vaccine status is enough. We came full circle and decided on Puerto Rico again. We stayed at the Condado Vanderbilt in San Juan last time, mostly due to the proximity to the city, and also the theater where we had tix to see Hamilton. We enjoyed our stay there, but definitely felt more like a four star than a five. We checked out the other nicer hotels and saw the Ritz Carlton Dorado and the St. Regis Bahia. Both five stars, but the Dorado was insanely expensive....like $2,200 a night, and that's not in our budget. So checked out the St. Regis Bahia...beautiful resort, also five star and saw they had availability for a Garden view king room (lowest price room) for $679 a night...much more in line with what we spend. I saw a box that said "special rates". And I figured it would be one of those rip-off things like..."honeymoon special", or "spa weekend", where they basically just upsell you spa amenities and breakfast with champagne. But no...I saw AAA/CAA, Military and Senior. I'm not any of those things....but knew I could join AAA if it was worth it. Figured it wouldn't be much. But....it was an amazing deal. $515 a night.....a 24% discount. I quickly joined AAA for $47.50 (lowest membership)....got my number which I needed to book this. And sure enough...it worked. Even including taxes and fees....we saved almost $1,400.
I feel like this is a good omen or something....between the refund for the South Africa trip and this awesome discount....maybe our travel luck is beginning to turn
.
We wanted to wait until we were both fully vaccinated to travel and now that we both are, we're itching to get moving again. We can't get away until the fall due to work schedules, so we have been kicking around different ideas. Portugal and San Jose del Cabo were high on our list. Europe seems to be opening, but it's still iffy, and if they have issues with variants due to lower vaccination rates, I have no doubt that they'll shut down travel again. And you still need to take a COVID test to enter and return from those countries, and that seemed like an okay idea....since we're vaccinated. And then, just last week, very good friends of ours got COVID tests at their resort in Mexico. Very nice place on the Mexican riviera...and they both tested positive. They're fully vaccinated. They are *still* there. They were supposed to return last Saturday. This threw a huge wrench into their lives with childcare, work...etc. After their experience, we took Cabo off our list for now too, since you still need to produce a positive test when returning from Mexico. I know plenty of people are coming and going from those places....we just really want as much of a stress free experience as possible.
Sooo...we decided we needed to choose to travel in the states, or a territory where our vaccine status is enough. We came full circle and decided on Puerto Rico again. We stayed at the Condado Vanderbilt in San Juan last time, mostly due to the proximity to the city, and also the theater where we had tix to see Hamilton. We enjoyed our stay there, but definitely felt more like a four star than a five. We checked out the other nicer hotels and saw the Ritz Carlton Dorado and the St. Regis Bahia. Both five stars, but the Dorado was insanely expensive....like $2,200 a night, and that's not in our budget. So checked out the St. Regis Bahia...beautiful resort, also five star and saw they had availability for a Garden view king room (lowest price room) for $679 a night...much more in line with what we spend. I saw a box that said "special rates". And I figured it would be one of those rip-off things like..."honeymoon special", or "spa weekend", where they basically just upsell you spa amenities and breakfast with champagne. But no...I saw AAA/CAA, Military and Senior. I'm not any of those things....but knew I could join AAA if it was worth it. Figured it wouldn't be much. But....it was an amazing deal. $515 a night.....a 24% discount. I quickly joined AAA for $47.50 (lowest membership)....got my number which I needed to book this. And sure enough...it worked. Even including taxes and fees....we saved almost $1,400.
I feel like this is a good omen or something....between the refund for the South Africa trip and this awesome discount....maybe our travel luck is beginning to turn
.
