Vacances Océan division of Skyway Tours
4355 Boul. Notre Dame H7W 1T3 Montreal, QC, Canada

Faraglioni di Sant'Andrea, Puglia, Italy #Italy #travel via @pinkines/Instagram

Amalfi Coast #Italy #travel via @idressitalian/Instagram

Anyone thinking of traveling this winter? Here’s the info I received ...not sounding very ideal *Edit: there are now two known insurance companies covering fo...r Covid-19 health care. Medipac and Blue Cross.* Our government has issued a level 3 travel advisory against any non-essential travel. So this means so many things: a) if they shut borders down again suddenly, you are on your own and there won't be repatriation flights home as you decided to take non-essential travel against the government advisory. While it sounds like probably this wouldn't happen, it just happened in Uraguay. No notice. Borders shut and people have to find somewhere to stay and gather food and water until borders open up again at some future date. At their own expense. b) if you decide to travel at this time, there is no insurance company covering you for anything covid related. So this means if you arrive in a country, like Dominican or Mexico, who may require you to take a test upon arrival and it comes back positive or while you are there you become ill, you are responsible for all flight change fees and the 14 day mandatory quarantine at your own expense. Also, if you become ill with covid and require any medical attention, it is all out of your own pocket as well. This can be upwards of $500,000 easily depending on level of treatment required. c) you are required by law to quarantine for 14 days upon return to Canada. That is law and they are checking on everyone. So you have to have that extra 14 days of holidays available, or you have to take time off without pay. And you have to have somewhere away from family to quarantine. d) if you book something right now and it's canceled, you do not get money back. You get future travel credit with only that supplier, so you have to rebook with the same supplier, not just travel in general. So I hate giving anyone's credit card at this time. You cannot buy insurance for a known issue. e) DR just last week changed their entry rules with 24 hours notice and you have to be prepared that things like this can and will continue to happen. Bahamas also did big changes with 48 hours notice. This could mean that either you have to take a test upon arrival at your own expense, fill out random online forms that they suddenly create and you are denied entry if you miss them, and possibly have to provide a negative covid test taken within 1-5 days (depending on the country's requirement) here in Canada. As of right now this is not possible in our region really. Last week we were still at 72 hours to get results and can take a day to get the appt for the test. If they know it's for travel against an advisory, I'm unsure that they'd hurry that along. hahahaha So there are a lot of reasons that travel right now are not a good idea. My gut feeling is that our travel advisory will be lifted sometime after March 2021. I could be wrong, but as we are preparing for the 2nd wave that they are assuring us will be coming, we are fairly certain our government won't allow travel until there is a vaccine/cure. I desperately want to book people. But I've been doing this for 25 yrs I have to look out for my clients.