And so we finally decided to cancel our upcoming Croatia trip – Boo! After 10 years of everything goes as planned holidays, we finally come to the day where we had to cancel one. Reason? There is this virus going around. Its common symptoms include fever, panic buying of toilet paper and causing common people to think that they are medical experts. Of course it is the Coronavirus aka COVID-19 (which for us sounds like a name for a bad 90s boy band)
Before cancelling our Croatia trip, we have been reading and researching a lot (daily) on this coronavirus madness. Cases of COVID-19 have now spread across six continents. High traffic areas such as airports and train stations pose higher risks. With the expected outbreak pattern ever changing, likely travel quarantines, border closures and the obvious health risks, all this makes our Croatia holiday very difficult to plan. So 4 weeks prior to our Croatia trip we decided to cancel EVERYTHING.
Luckily our airline, Qatar Airways is offering free rebooking or travel voucher credit which can be used within 12 months. As at today we have lodged our refund request but still waiting to hear back from them. At the same time all but one of our hotels (booked through Booking.com) still offers free cancellation. Update! Ljubljana Center Apartments has also been very kind in giving us free cancellation. We have received numerous messages of understanding from hotels and drivers we planned on using. We will rebook all of them again without hesitation.
The coronavirus have made many people wondering whether they should cancel or delay travel plans.
Despite coronavirus these are the reasons why previously we were still keen on going
– Coronavirus (COVID-19) spreads in a similar way to flu. To date around 80% of infected people with COVID-19 experience relatively mild symptoms and recover. However people over 40 with pre-existing medical conditions (such as diabetes or heart disease) experience more serious illness and may require hospital care.
– Very few kids get infected (even in the original epicentre of Wuhan). In cases where they do, symptoms are generally mild.
– We have even consulted our GP doctor. Her words confirm what we find above. In trying to be neutral she said “The virus doesn’t really concern your age group and your children. There is no right or wrong decision.”
– Precautions to prevent COVID-19 are surprisingly simple
- Regularly wash your hands while singing Happy Birthday twice (20 seconds)
- Sanitize your hands after touching yucky surfaces
- If you do sneeze, sneeze to your elbow and tell anyone staring… “Don’t worry I haven’t been to China, Italy, Iran, South Korea, Japan etc etc in the past 14 days” to stop them giving you dirty looks.
– As at the time of writing (10/03/20), there has been no confirmed case of in flight transmission of COVID-19 anywhere in the world.
– Modern aircrafts are fitted with High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters, which perform similarly to those used to keep the air clean in hospital operating rooms. This means the air quality on the aircraft is essentially sterile and particle-free.
– In the past few weeks, travel restrictions have helped limit (but doesn’t completely stop) import/export of COVID-19. For example we were going to fly Qatar Airways via Doha. They have imposed travels restrictions on people of Iran, Italy, China, South Korea plus other affected countries.
– We have been closely following developments in places we were planning to visit. For example as of yesterday Croatia had 19 cases. We knew which cities the infections were and we read in detail circumstance of each case. There were only 3 cases in Zagreb, the rest were in different cities we were not planning to visit.
– We also researched on what each country are doing in trying to limit the spread. For example we were going to visit Lake Bled in Slovenia. After their first confirmed case, Slovenia immediately impose restrictions on any public gathering over 500 people and soon schools will be closed. Measures like these gave us encouragement.
– For this trip we planned to travel mostly with a private driver. So chances of us catching the virus from public transport were limited.
– We were also not planning to attend any large public gatherings. Because of this, again our risk would have been limited.
– Finally we felt that things at home are likely to get worse before it gets better. Winter is coming in Australia. Just like the annual flu season as people stay indoors longer, more people will likely to get sick (not necessarily from COVID-19). Apparently our body’s immune system work better in warmer temperatures.
– We also wanted to take a break from all the panic buying we keep seeing at our local supermarkets.
And these are the reasons why we finally decided to cancel our holiday
– Coronavirus epicentre seems to have moved from Wuhan, China to Europe. More specifically northern Italy.
– It won’t be an enjoyable holiday if we need to check on the coronavirus developments every day. No doubt we will also keep receiving non-stop Whatsapp messages from worried family members back home.
– In the past few weeks, there has been many new flight restrictions imposed by different countries. We suspect Australia will also increase restrictions on overseas travel soon. In case they do, we don’t want to be stranded in Croatia for longer than our planned 2 weeks holiday (though we’re sure it is a beautiful place).
– Even as we are writing this post, that guy from The Apprentice turn US president, announced that the US is stopping all flights from Europe for 30 days! (for us the announcement brought memories of Will Ferrell’s SNL George W Bush impressions).
– Day by day more and more European countries are imposing restrictions on border crossing. Movements for tourists might be limited. Although Croatia is our main destination, we planned to see neighbouring countries of Slovenia, Montenegro and Bosnia. If we can’t cross borders, almost half of our planned itinerary would be gone!
– Many airlines are cancelling flights and changing their schedules. Croatia will be almost a 20 hours journey for us. With our two young boys, we don’t want any last minute schedule changes.
– If we do get sick during the trip, who will be looking after our little ones?
– We proudly live in the most remote city in the world! Though not convenient when it comes to family travel, in case of global pandemic virus – like this one – it is probably one of the safest places to be.
– To date COVID-19 cases in Perth, Australia are mainly imported from overseas. For us we can always take precautions, we can self-isolate for 14 days after returning from Croatia, but then we can’t bare the potential guilt if we do happen to pass on the virus to our family, friends or the community.
Even though we are absolutely devastated having to cancel our Croatia trip, we know that we have made the right decision. On this occasion there are too many things we can’t control. First time travelling with two boys is challenging enough. We don’t want to add “global pandemic virus” to the list of challenges.
During this time, it seems selfish for us to travel for the sake of travelling, especially if the decision can potentially spread health problems to so many others. This time we feel we have the responsibility to take care of not only our own family, but also consider the health of other fellow travel lovers and the global community. Sacrificing one holiday during this time, will allow us to go on many more family travel adventures in the future.
On another note, this is the first time in 10 years that we have no upcoming trips planned! But we know once this virus madness is over, the first thing we will do is re-book this trip and panic buy many more!
We wish any of our readers affected by COVID-19 a speedy recovery.
Phew, that is our story. So have you cancelled an upcoming family travel? We would love to hear your story.
For places we have visited, Checkout our website’s travel Destinations section. We buy our travel essentials online via Ebay
