Okay – recently we did a brief (depressing) recap of (not) traveling in 2020. Now let’s turn our thoughts forward and look at possible travel options for 2021. I mean 2021 has to be better than 2020, right? As an aside, I find all of the talk about how 2020 is horrible and how we have to be done with it a bit amusing. I get that there is optimism and hope, but some of these signs and memes and such seem like people were expecting January 1, 2021, to be amazingly better than December 31, 2020. I got some news for you – it was always going to be exactly the same as the day before. The corona doesn’t care about how far around the sun we are 🙂
Anyways….. 🙂 Let’s start talking about travel plans for 2021!
Travel plans already booked in 2021
<crickets>
My thoughts on travel in 2021
Yes that empty space above is NOT a typo. I actually haven’t made any concrete travel plans for 2021. I mean I have seen several of the deals that have been out there, but we have been taking more of a wait and see approach to actually booking any travel. I went to Google Flights the other day and I thought “Wow – when was the last time I was HERE??!!?”
(SEE ALSO: 6 reasons Google flights is the BEST flight search engine)
I still have a ton of miles and points, and I’m even in the slightly awkward position where I have TOO MUCH vacation saved up from my “real” job. That’s not a position that I’m used to be in. Usually I am hanging right on the edge of vacation time because I’m always traveling somewhere. But I barely used any days in 2020 so I have a ton ready to go for when traveling becomes a thing.
Possible 2021 travel plans
So, with all that being said, here are a few of the places that are and are not on the possible list for our family’s travel in 2021.
Possible / Likely 2021 trips
Here are a few trips I think are possible / likely for 2021 for our family
- Yosemite – We had planned an extended family reunion at near Yosemite for this fall, but had to cancel it due to COVID. I’m hopeful that we can make it happen in 2021.
- Southern county trip – My son and I had planned a county trip down near Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama for this fall, but those states got on Ohio’s “bad list” and we didn’t want to deal with a quarantine.
- Mall of America – My other son wants to go on his trip with my wife up to the Mall of America in Minneapolis. They were planning on going this past summer but I think we will plan on that for Summer of 2021.
- The beach – We are planning another beach trip sometime this summer, to a destination TBD.
- FinCon 2021 (Austin) – I had a great time at FinCon 2019 in Washington DC. In 2020, it was virtual but it’s currently tentatively scheduled for September in Austin. I’m planning on attending if it’s in-person and conditions are such that in-person travel is a thing by then.
- Somewhere international?
2021 is going to be tricky – of course it’s hard to tell what exactly the travel landscape will be like. How will a vaccine impact travel? We have already seen situations where differing vaccination, quarantine or other restrictions are making international travel much trickier.
Pushed out to 2022 or beyond
And here are a few trips that I think probably won’t happen this year for various reasons.
- Europe with my dad and sister – we haven’t talked much about this trip since we had to cancel it this past spring, but I think that it’s unlikely that this will happen in 2021. I think international travel will still be up in the air, and trying to coordinate things for people in 3 different households sounds like it’s going to be tricky. I’m hopeful this can happen in Summer 2022.
- Hawaii – this was the trip that started it all – the one we had to cancel 4 days before we were scheduled to leave back in mid-March. Because my older son is out in Portland on a 2 year church mission, I think that we will probably wait to go out to Hawaii until he is done. Maybe fall 2022? Hopefully the Turkish Miles&Smiles sweet spot is still around then 🙂
- Portland – Speaking of that son, I could see a trip in fall 2022 out to Oregon to pick him up and have him show us some of the sites and places that he’s been over the past 2 years.
Of course, if 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that we’ll have to be pretty flexible with the travel plans. Here’s to 2021 being better than 2020!
What about you? What are your 2021 travel plans?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Glad to see someone else willing to put Mall of America on their vacation list. Yep I’m a girly girl. But can’t wait to go back there again and stay at the Radisson right on property.
Dear Dan Miller, I liked your travel plan to Yosemite and Texas. Both of them were wonderful place to visit. But due to Covid-19 I am not travelling to other countries. I am planning to visit my own country i.e. Nepal. I am planning to do a Everest Base Camp in October 2021. Mt Everest is the world’s highest mountain to visit, from here we can have a wonderful sunrise view and we can also get a chance to understand the Himalayan lifestyle. I hope one day you will visit the Mt. Everest and I think it will be your one of the bucket list. Thank you!!
Regards,
Pravakar