Planning 2022 Travel in a Pandemic

There is good news and bad news. The good news is that in September and October we successfully and safely ran three rowing tours in Austria, France and Turkey. All guests were fully vaccinated. Participants who had Covid tests before returning home all received negative results. We navigated vaccination passes, entry forms to cross borders and wore our masks as needed. It was challenging and concerning at times, but we did it and had an amazing time. Wonderful to be back rowing in beautiful destinations with old and new friends. It has encouraged us to proceed with planning 2022 travel with a full program.

All of you will know the bad news – this pandemic is not over. The emergence of the Omicron variant, rising cases in Europe in November and continued low vaccination rates in some countries or pockets of countries are all concerning. While we are learning to live with the pandemic, including travelling, much uncertainty remains about the disease and implications for tourism.

As always, our top priority is the safety and health of our guests and our in-country partners. We very much look forward to “returning to normal” whatever that really means. We know that all of you would love to travel and row again, and some of you are feeling ready to do so in 2022. We are proceeding cautiously and carefully in our planning. We have a long-term commitment to you, our guests and partners, and to this business.

Considering Travel in 2022?

We will be requiring proof of vaccination for all guests and guides. You will be asked to submit at the time of the final payment and when you provide your Pre-Trip form. Please review our Terms & Conditions as you register. Health insurance has always been a requirement to travel with us, and now more than ever, we encourage you to consider cancellation insurance and special insurance linked to covid, for example should you need to quarantine.

The pandemic has added additional complications to travel. Travel advisories and restrictions can be imposed at short notice, varying with your country of origin and as well as your destination. You may be required to quarantine upon return. Please be sure that you are as knowledgeable as possible when making a decision to travel or not. Avail yourself with the best available information. Government websites are the ultimate source of information, airline websites often provide excellent information and travel agents have current information too. We are fond of the Rome2Rio website for travelling planning generally, and we see that they have added advice based on both your origin and destination.

Once you have registered for a trip, please continue to stay up to date. Each participant is responsible for knowing and meeting all vaccination, testing or other requirements for the destination, both for arrival and while in country. Each tour will be run in accordance with local and national regulations or requirements regarding mask wearing, social distancing and cleaning.

In any normal year, we expect our guests to demonstrate flexibility and adaptability to changing or unexpected circumstances. This year this is even more necessary. Showing respect, empathy and kindness to each other is even more important.

What are We Planning?

Keep an eye on our Summary of 2022 Trips as well as the individual webpages for each tour. Some of the trips are still replacement tours on consistent dates to the ones cancelled in 2020. All of you holding deposits have your seats guaranteed and you will pay the 2020 price. There are many variables and unknowns for 2022, just as there were in 2020. Some things have changed, however. For example, in 2020 many of you had flights booked. Likely few of you will have airline tickets for 2022 and we recognize that you will want some certainty and advance notice before making the commitment to travel with related expenses. On the positive side, our rowing club partners and the accommodations, restaurants and other services that we use during a tour have developed robust protocols and have months of experience in cleaning, distancing practices and other safety measures.

It is too early to know which trips will actually run. We will not run a trip to the Caribbean this winter, although maybe we can schedule it for early next winter. Some trips, such as the Vogalonga, are dependent on the decisions of others. Our new styles of Independent Rowing Experiences and Hybrid Explorers are being revamped and expanded, offering greater flexibility in booking and decision-making timing and more readily align with potential restrictions on group sizes and composition. We will facilitate private groups and custom bookings. We are also looking at other trips that rowers can enjoy within their own country.

We will continue to follow public health orders, travel advisories and the advice of government agencies and appropriate rowing organizations. All decisions will be made in conjunction with our local partners. In the new year we will begin focusing on decisions for each trip, beginning with those scheduled for May. We will be in touch with each of you who are registered with updates. Should we not be able to run the trip on the planned date, we will look for opportunities later in the year if practical or will set a replacement date for the future. It might be a long time to wait for our rowing travel dreams to come true, but health and safety are paramount. We want to continue to offer quality trips, in which you can have confidence.