It’s the beginning of August, and summer in Ontario Cottage Country is half over. The weather has been hot and the beer has been cold, but the coronavirus surrounds us, and nobody really knows how all this will unfold in the coming months. That’s where we stand.

At the same time, positive news from vaccine development teams around the world appears daily in the media. In fact, it seems there is a global race underway to get to market first between Asian, American and European companies. That’s encouraging.

Having said that, even when vaccines become available, they will need to be produced, packaged, distributed and administered to billions of people. Presumably, that will take a few months.

So, where does that leave TravelMaven and our upcoming tours?

At this point, if it is safe to do so, we plan to resume tour operations in December, with a final decision for German Christmas Markets to be made in early September. We are also keeping our four departures to South Africa in February and March on the agenda, with a final decision regarding those to be made later in the fall.

As for the rest of 2021, some destinations remain tentative. That’s because we haven’t been able to visit places to finalize hotel choices and schedules. For example, in recent months we had to cancel research trips to Istanbul, Azerbaijan, Israel and Germany (for the Car Museum tour).

The best news for those with TravelMaven bookings is that you incur no financial risk until 45 days before departure. As such, there’s no reason to cancel future reservations at this time, as existing bookings continue to hold your spot and guarantee your price.

In recognition that travel planning has become more uncertain for everyone, TravelMaven recently implemented new and more client-friendly policies regarding booking, payments and cancellation. Going forward, deposits will be fully refundable, final payment will not be due until 45 days prior to departure, and cancellation terms will be more flexible.

As such, if you book a TravelMaven tour, but are subsequently unable to travel for any reason, we will cheerfully refund your money if you notify us 45 days or more before departure.  As a result, you can make (or keep) vacation plans months in advance and guarantee yourself one of our 12 spots while incurring zero financial risk until 45 days prior to departure. How can you beat that?

Barry Devolin (August 4, 2020)