Travel Musings

As you may have noticed, we keep hitting the road, the waves, or the tarmac. I’ll often describe where we were, what we liked, what we ate and drank. Other times I just end up with some thoughts about travel that don’t fit in any particular location, but might be interesting nonetheless. This is one of the latter cases:

• Airlines still haven’t recovered from the pandemic. Their passenger totals have, but their staffing and service lag. Wait times for simple things like checking in are up. Customer service numbers and chats are major sources of complaints, not ways to resolve them. Lost luggage numbers are up. Most of the large airlines say they’re getting better, but I don’t see much in the way of improvement. It is nice we can travel again. It’s still not nice to travel.
• We had a terrible experience with Volaris and Viva Aerobus trying to get from Tijuana to Guadalajara, a simple three hour flight, on the day after Christmas. It took us the better part of two days, with two cancellations and two big delays. That was prompted by some fog in Mexico, just as the severe cold snap brought Southwest airlines to its knees in the States. The airlines have little slack in the system, and any disturbance (weather or labor, for example) can cause a passenger nightmare.
• (Most of) Mexico is abandoning daylight saving time effective now. So especially for my fellow expats here in Mexico, if you’re making connections in the US in the summer, you need to check your reservations/flight schedules. As the US “springs forward” it will be an hour later there, so connections you might have made before may not be available now, or your Mexican departure may move up (earlier) an hour.
• American pop culture continues its assault on good taste. My daughters tell me I gave them a real phobia as they were growing up about “looking like a tourist” when traveling. Nowadays, I see young locals all over Europe wearing athletic gear as casual attire, with off-kilter baseball caps to boot. Even older locals have taken to casual wear like athletic shoes or leggings. I guess it’s easier to fit in now. The funny aspect of this is the prevalence of rap music (in the local language of course). Can’t really walk around in most big European cities without hearing someone blasting a local rap; I hope the lyrics are better!
• Speaking of manners, they’re either changing or declining. I was warned about eating with my hands in France (sorry, but everyone was). The curse of cell phone zombies, people unaware of other life forms because they are face down in a cell screen, is a real global pandemic. I especially dislike the Airpod-ders out there who think we’re all extras in their selfie music video; if they could only hear what we’re saying about them!
• If you were lucky enough to get out and travel without the crowds during the pandemic, good for you. The crowds are back, so places like Venice and Santorini and the Amalfi coast are cheek-and-jowl experiences (at least in season). Many tourist haunts are adding visiting taxes which they hope will dissuade some visitors. That’s an experiment still playing out.
• Partially, this is China’s fault. Just before the pandemic hit, the number of Chinese international tourists surpassed the number of American international tourists worldwide. Since Mexico is the number one tourist destination for Americans (not so much Chinese), this means Europe was especially overrun by large numbers of big Chinese tour groups. And Europe didn’t like it much. The pandemic was a chance to reset, and European hot spots are trying to change the dynamic. Now China is ditching its “zero covid” (failed) policy, which kept Chinese travelers from leaving the country since it could strand them overseas. Other countries are enacting testing/vaccine policies aimed at China, but this will not deter Chinese travelers, who faced daily testing and vaccine checks just to go outside.
• Speaking of illness and travel, our involuntary stays in Tijuana and Monterey left us exposed at airports crammed with people, and guess what? We got very sick. Spent the last half of the week of 2022 through today self-quarantined with a series of symptoms better left unsaid. But therein lies a lesson for 2023. Due to all the pandemic precautions, the world had fewer flu and severe cold outbreaks for two years. Which means you, the traveler, were less exposed to such things for two years, while those nasty flu and cold bugs kept mutating. So you’re more susceptible to such illnesses in the new year. There’s a cheery thought!

Finally, with all that pent-up travel demand (Chinese and otherwise) coming to the fore, and airlines and tourist sites still recovering, prices have climbed and availability is dropping. You’ll see that some locations/routes are simply full all the way through 2023 already. So if you plan to travel this year, it’s probably best to get reservations now, and if you need it, get some travel insurance. Oh, and some patience. Lord knows, I’m praying for it!