“My goal is to run out of pages in my passport as they say.” Today’s woman dreamer Eshani Shah, an avid traveler, recaps on an exciting trip to Greece and Turkey. As the world begins to open up, many of us have been bit by the travel bug, but are also feeling weary, and have many questions in the air. Eshani shares everything you need to know for planning a vacation during the pandemic, from booking tours, Covid testing, air travel, hotel and dining safety precautions to take, and navigating popular tourist hubs! (and of course, she also shares some of the meaningful moments from her trip). Plan your trip with Desire, Determination, Discipline, and Destination in mind!

Planning Your Dream Vacation During the Pandemic: A Journey of Desire, Determination, Discipline and Destination

In 2019 I travelled to 3 International Destinations – Japan, Spain and Portugal with my friends along with a dream to cover some more in 2020. But off course 2020 changed our lives. Forget travel we were afraid to step out of our houses.

The bucket list got longer with no answers for when and how. As they say Life is meant for Good Friends and Great Adventures. In May 2021 some of us diehard travelers started to get restless and decided to take a leap of faith and began exploring possible destinations. Off course Greece was on top of my list. Before nailing one the things to be researched are quarantine rules. Each country has their own list of ban… Anyway Greece was a perfect choice as it welcomed the US Travelers with no restrictions. Although a week before our travel EU recommended restrictions for US travelers with our growing cases that made us nervous, however all these countries whose economy depends on tourism decided to allow them for now. Turkey got added as an afterthought considering we were getting on the plane anyway.

Here is Your Must-Read Checklist if Considering Travel This Year

Air Travel:

· Get early to airport and be prepared to encounter unexpected, like filling out Self attestation forms.etc.

· Keep handy maximum of 3 days old Covid PCR negative test report and vaccination certificate yet be prepared to do a random PCR testing at your own cost.

· They will give you a travel safety kit upon embarking. Has wipes, masks etc. Santize your seating area with the wipes especially the seat belts, dining table and TV.

On land and Hotel:

· Replace the disposable mask every 24 hours.

· Avoid using elevator with many unknown people.

· Avoid unnecessary touching anything. Use frequently antiseptic liquid to keep your hands germ free.

· Make sure the guides and or driver you are interacting with are fully vaccinated. Avoid crowds as much as possible so explore the tiem of the day when an attraction would be less populated.

Private Tours

More specific to our travel - To avoid crowds we booked private tours and booked the best hotels that advertised their sanitation plans etc. Both these countries require you to fill out a Passenger Locator Form (PLF) for contact tracing. Once you submit online it gives you a QR code and then is used for your PCR tests. Even needed for internal travel by plane or ferries. I wish USA would put something similar in place and open their doors to travelers.

Tourist Destinations & Mask Requirements

Both these countries require you to wear masks indoors in Mosques. Restaurants. Museums etc. Another thing common on all airports is the circle for social distancing at 6 ft. and in the sitting area every alternate chairs are blocked, glass partitions at counters and hand sanitizer stands. You even find all these at all tourist locations. It is amazing to see the impact of these pandemic in every big or small destinations. I wonder if all this will be a permanent feature reminding us of this Pandemic in years to come.

Actually when we arrived there we were surprised to see a lot of travelers except according to guides there the tourism is still at 60 to 70 percent compare to previous years. You still can’t get a lot of things on the menus due to lack of supply. Taking a test there is not difficult or expensive as it would seem. In Istanbul they came to our hotel room to test. These days’ Rapid tests are accepted and can be easily done. Another issue we ran into is canceled flights. Due to lack of people the local flights there were consolidating so we had to be ready for last minute cancelations and amending our plans. But we mostly made it thru and did not have much of a setback. I love posting my travelogues and pictures during my travels and I was so excited to do it after a long time. My posts come back as memories.

All in all if you have the Desire to travel and are determined. If you follow the discipline of SD, Masks Testing and sanitization. Get vaccinated you can start conquering the world again. Your dream Destinations are waiting with open arms. Don’t let the variants mar your spirit. My goal is to run out of pages in my passport as they say. My next 2 dream vacations are Morrocco and Iceland. A journey is best measured in friends than in miles so get a few friends together and start living your dreams.