Being at an Airport again was honestly just so exciting. It didn’t even matter that the 24 hours prior was shear chaos as we had just moved house. But that aside, we had our passports and were ready to go. We said goodbye to our golden retriever who I think was really a bit excited to go off to the pet motel and have a break of his own. We weren’t quite sure what travelling would be like now and like most people, we had bunkered down during the height of covid so this was going to be all a new experience.

Not surprisingly the check-in process does take longer than usual so it’s really important that you allow extra time for this as you don’t want to miss your flight after all the planning and anticipation — there would be tears and I’m sure not just yours. Once checked in, comes the realization that we’re travelling again. It feels like a lifetime ago that we have travelled. Our passports were still valid (a good thing to check before you book anything as like us I’m sure yours were getting a little dusty in the bottom drawer). The feeling that you’re about to get on a plane and go overseas is surreal . It’s finally here. It’s that same feeling I had on Christmas Eve willing myself to try desperately to stay awake and catch a glimpse of Santa, maybe even say a quick hello.

It’s true, Covid has been so hard on everyone. All this waiting, worrying, missing family and lockdowns but I think we can finally seem a glimmer of hope again that things will get better. Personally we’ve done all the pre-testing, had vaccinations and packed the ultimate carry-on with spare masks, sanitizers, wipes etc. We were fully prepared and I didn’t even mind that this was a long haul flight with children (four in fact) and all in the comfort of economy. I was thrilled and felt really lucky to be able to be travelling again!

So what’s changed in terms of air travel due to Covid? Well, as you’d expect there’s a lot more requirements that need to be met prior to travelling and each country is different. So you need to make sure you are fully across what’s required for the country you are going to. Also, if you’re in transit check what happens at that location as well. Travelling now is a little different. That said, if you have someone to guide you through the new requirements and they know what to do, it’s as easy as 1..2..3. One of the main reasons we did this trip was to test it out and to be able experience first hand what’s actually required. We need this experience to guide our clients when it comes to their time to travel. A upside of travelling in this new era of physical distancing is that airports are super quiet, yes if you can believe it even LAX! And you get space to yourself on planes.

I’ve learnt so much from this most recent trip, we intentionally added stop-overs to our flights to the Maldives as a lot of our clients do this. We’ve learnt what was required by each country and how to best navigate this new world of travel. Everyone to be honest is at a different stage in terms of when and where they can travel. We’ve got clients travelling now, some planning for later this year and other really looking forward and planning for what 2022 will bring. Best piece of advice I can give to anyone travelling now is do your research on what’s required and get help from an expert who’s recently travelled. And make sure when you do find yourself travelling again allow plenty of time at airports and words to live by (even before covid) always pack a spare pair of swimmers in your carry-on (luggage can still get lost).