Opening Doors To New Destinations
This week it will be a calendar month since we arrived home from Greece, and we seem to have spent a good deal of that time watching and waiting for the time when we can book our COVID booster jab. It seemed to us that the undeniably most sensible course of action was to wait until the booster jab was sorted before we looked at setting off on another lengthy adventure.
Our patience broke though, and we quickly put a pre-booster short city break in the diary for later in November. Then, at the weekend, our raspberry-and-yoghurt breakfast was interrupted by a whoop of joy as the booster rules changed – only ever so slightly but just enough for us to put breakfast bowls aside and grab the iPads instead. Just a few minutes later we had our booster date sorted for the last day of November, and before the yoghurt spoons were even dry we were adding reality to our outline plans.
And so things are on the move again, and it feels simply fantastic. We now have the 5-day city break up and coming in November, then, just a couple of weeks after the booster, in mid December, our next big exciting adventure will begin. There’s quite a bit of running around England seeing friends and family before then, too.
November will bring a capital city in a country we haven’t previously visited as we head to Vilnius, capital of Lithuania. We have previously visited the other two former Soviet Baltic nations, Latvia and Estonia, but Lithuania will be new to us.
Mid December through to January will see us heading much, much further away to a very different type of location as we head out to Costa Rica where we will tour what looks like a spectacular country for just over a month. We’re now in the midst of planning our route and piecing our journey together.
Lithuania and Costa Rica….two very different destinations.
Barriers to travel are falling; doors are opening; our interrupted dreams are returning. It feels fantastic.
28 Comments
Annie Berger
Hooray, hooray – so happy that you’ve now been able to plan your next two trips. I know you will also enjoy Lithuania and I look forward to your observations about Costa Rica which seems to have been an “it” country for Americans for the last couple of years.
Phil & Michaela
Thanks Annie, been poring over maps most of today!
Nemorino
My wife and I have both had our boosters (and our flu shots), but the news here in Germany is not at all conducive to travel planning.
Our daughter and daughter-in-law are both vaccinated but both tested positive and are in quarantine, one in Edinburgh and the other in Barcelona, fortunately both with only mild symptoms.
Phil & Michaela
Now that’s not so good.
100 Country Trek
That great you are back to travelling . We are booked to go to a new country Turks and Caicos ..
Phil & Michaela
Another exotic location! Enjoy….we will enjoy following you on your journey
100 Country Trek
We will be heading end of January..
Brian Tucker
Hi
I am excited to hear of you Costa Rica plans
I will look at our photos as we did go to a few great places especially around Arsenal
Have fun on your travels
Brian
Phil & Michaela
That area is figuring large in our plans of where to head, we’re pretty certain we’ll be spending some time in those parts.
Linda K
Costa Rica is a beautiful country! Went there a few years ago now so if you search my site you might find some information to help you out with your planning 🙂
Phil & Michaela
Excellent, will definitely take a look – thank you Linda
Gilda Baxter
Congratulations on booking your boosters, we have also managed to book ours. Exciting new travel plans, I have not visited either country, so I will be looking forward to travelling vicariously with you.
I am so glad travelling is again a possibility, like yourselves we have retired with the desire to travel a lot. Covid is likely to stay with us for many years to come, so we just have to get on with our lives. Having the vaccines and being careful is the new normal for us.
Phil & Michaela
Yes it is – in fact our choices of destination were to a degree based on how easy it is to get in.
Latitude Adjustment, A tale of two travelers!
You will love Costa Rica. So much to see and do and you are going at the right time of year. Do rent a car and hit as many of the National parks as you can. Think about Colombia for your future travels! Cheers!
Phil & Michaela
Thanks guys, we certainly intend to cover as much ground as we can in Costa Rica.
grandmisadventures
Excited to see the forthcoming posts about these two places! 🙂
pam@ichoosethis
It does feel great to travel again! 🙌🙌
Monkey's Tale
Love Costa Rica! We spent a month there just before the pandemic. Ask us if you have any questions or look at some of our posts. Maggie
Phil & Michaela
We will definitely be looking at your posts very closely. Thanks Maggie.
Toonsarah
How exciting! I’ll be curious to hear about Vilnius – like you I have been to Latvia and Estonia (well, mainly just to Riga and Tallinn, although I did get out of Riga for a day!) but not Lithuania. I’ve heard good things 🙂
But Costa Rica is even more exciting! It’s been on our radar for some years and even more so now that it looks one of the easier countries to visit. If we didn’t have Sri Lanka booked I think we’d be looking at it ourselves. As it is, it’s high on the list for next winter! I can’t wait to follow your adventures and hear all about your time there 😀
Phil & Michaela
Well we VERY close to booking Sri Lanka (or Thailand) for this trip – then had a sudden change of heart when we read about Costa Rica and all it has to offer. Plus, the draw of a new country is always a strong pull!
leightontravels
Two incredibly exciting locations! Huge congrats, you must be elated.
Phil & Michaela
We certainly are! You got your dates sorted for your UK trip yet?
leightontravels
Not yet no, depends on if we are doing our booster in Belgrade or in Stoke. If it’s Belgrade, we’ll arrive in The UK mid to late January. If not, probably just before or after New Year’s Eve.
Phil & Michaela
Ah good, it’s still on the cards then
WanderingCanadians
That’s exciting!! It’s always nice to have a trip to look forward to. We’ve been eying Costa Rica for awhile, so looking forward to reading about your adventures there for some inspiration and ideas.
Lookoom
Great news, I will be happy to see Vilnius again through you, it’s been a long time since I visited it. I didn’t have the chance to stay that long in Costa Rica but I visited several places, there are already some articles on my site. You will see a lot more, it is interesting.
You probably already know Walter Ferguson, the reference of the Calypso music genre.
Phil & Michaela
I don’t, actually….I better get Googling!