Should we cancel our summer holiday? Have you cancelled your summer plans yet?
The stupid coronavirus has put paid to many our travel plans for this year, as I’m sure it has for millions of families like ours.
It goes without saying that OF COURSE the most important thing is to be safe and healthy. There are things far worse than missing a summer holiday that people are dealing with right now. A holiday is not a terrible thing to lose, all things considered.
But I’m not one of those people that buys into the idea that just because you could have been set on fire by an angry mob, you can’t complain that your sprained ankle hurts.
It definitely was a shame that we missed our Easter trip to Barcelona. And will probably need to wait a loooooong time before Ryanair decides to give us a refund. It’s a shame we’ve had to cancel our May trip to Italy. Along with a weekend trip to London to see a musical I’d been wanting to see for ages (Dear Evan Hansen).
Should we cancel our summer holiday – Pros and Cons
But what I can’t decide is should we cancel our summer holiday. Should we cancel now, or wait and see what happens? At the moment we have a holiday booked to California for four weeks in July/August.
The plan is to fly out to Los Angeles. We will spend a few weeks travelling along the coast, to Carmel, Lake Tahoe, and then Orange County and the surf beaches of Southern California.
Our accommodation has been arranged via HomeExchange.com, which means we’ve barely paid a penny. People will be staying in our home for two of the weeks we’re away. The points we earn from that have covered bookings in America. The balance on our British Airways booking will be due in June. I just can’t decide what to do.
Should we cancel our summer holiday and try to rearrange for later in the year? Or should we sit tight and hope that the world is back on its right axis by July?
If we cancel now, we’ll lose around £1,000 that we’ve already paid towards the booking. There’s no guarantee BA will let us just move the booking to later in the year, without additional fees we may not be able to afford right now.
If we go on holiday in October, we’ll only be able to go for two weeks, not four. And who doesn’t want something to look forward to right now? There’s great advice at the moment from Martin Lewis on this.
In some ways it makes some sense to sit tight and go in July.
But if we sit tight and wait, BA might cancel for us. In that case we should get a refund, and we could book something else for later in the year with the money we get back.
By October, hopefully the world is calmer, and we are financially more stable. My income has dropped by around 90 to 95% during lockdown, and I’m not eligible for any financial support unless I take out a loan.
So it makes sense to plan a trip later in the year, or perhaps even next year?
I would honestly love to know what you guys are doing about this – are you still planning to go away this summer? Have you thought about cancelling or rescheduling your plans?
In the meantime, I’ve been indulging myself by using our free time to finally edit some of the travel videos I had locked away in iCloud. So at least if I have to cancel our summer holiday, I can relive some of our favourite holiday memories from the last couple of years.
How about you: are you thinking of cancelling summer holidays, or waiting to see what happens?
We have the exact same holiday as you planned for July/August! I have already fully paid for the flights, but have held off on booking accommodation. I feel like my only option is to wait and see what is happening then as I can’t afford to lose all that money for flights
It’s so hard, isn’t it? For me, it will be a stretch to find the money to pay off the holiday in June, but if I do and then it’s cancelled, I won’t have the funds to book anything else right away. So hard to know what the right thing to do is! But I hope you have a wonderful time when you get there.
You too! Your posts have been really helpful as it is our first trip to LA with our daughter (well, hopefully, at some point )
I think you’re spot on in that yes, the most important thing is to stay safe. But it is a big shame when big plans that you’ve looked forward to for ages get changed. We have a big trip to NYC planned for September. I’m really hoping at least the UK will be back to normal by then, but I fear NYC being at the heart of the pandemic in the US will put a stop to the trip. We’ve booked via a travel agent, and the balance needs to be paid in July, so we’re waiting to see if the travel ban is still in place then. If it is, our hope is the travel agent will refund, even if that refund is credits so we can re-book at another time! I hope you have a great time when you get there! 🙂
It’s a tough one. We have a long haul holiday in Asia booked for mid August which we’ve paid half of via Travel Republic and the rest is due at the end of July. I think we just watch and wait and see. I really don’t want to get there after 20 hours of flying) and then have to go into quarantine!
We also missed our holiday to Poland at Easter and are still waiting for the Travel Republic refund for that.
Just ugh all round really.
I’ve asked for a voucher from Easyjet to make up for our cancelled flights in April. I just hope they survive.
Hi, German politicians have been pretty clear, that international travel will not happen for Germans this summer (apart from maybe Austria and the Netherlands as close neighbours….). Since the UK has technically left the EU, that might not be relevant for you, but an indication what you might be heading for?
I would wait until/if BA has to cancel and thus not be concerned with fees. Make a plan B with camping somewhere in the UK? Small farm owned camp sites/ Bothies? Looks we are heading for another hot and dry summer thanks to Climate Change…so it might be lovely surfing in Cornwall?