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Comment by ThisIsTheWay | Hacker News Reader

Fully agreed, this is a big concern of mine as well. We've got a 2 week trip planned to Italy in May, but that is likely to get cancelled this week based on the growing concerns throughout the country. I am fully expecting to reschedule our same trip later in the year, but until the virus starts to slow down significantly, I'm not comfortable rebooking.

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Had one end of March. Booked well before COVID-19 was a thing, paid for before it was in Europe. Already cancelled, now we're fighting with the travel agency to waive the cancellation fee.

Mid-April. But booked well before it got crazy. Looks like I'll be SoL unless the US places full travel restrictions.

have a trip scheduled first 2 weeks in june, also unsure of what to do

My gut feeling from Italy: May, difficult. June, maybe.

But expect that this disease expands to almost everywhere so what's going to be the status of your country by then, regardless where you are from? I'm not expecting to be able to travel much this summer, not because I'm from Italy but because every country is going to have its own share of problems.

> May, difficult

I have an interest in this (I booked a business trip to Italy end of May / beginning of June), but my gut feeling is that the country will not stand for two months of complete lockdown. Two weeks, sure; a month, probably; two months is a very long time to keep so many things on hold. Italy is not China.

I expect some measures will stay in place (particularly about large gatherings), but not all.

I have been thinking about this for a week while monitoring travel alerts. I have two business trips scheduled—-one in May and the other in June. My employer just canceled my May trip today and I feel that the same is going to happen for June. While I can always reschedule, I fear that my colleagues and friends in Italy, whose families depend on visitors during the months of May and June, will not recover from this.

Thoughts on the UK? I'm supposed to go on a vacation to England for a week starting April 1st

I live in the UK and have no idea. It's quite likely that we delay quarantine until too late, but when that actually is or how bad is anyone's guess.

Even if the flight isn't canceled, that's going to be a pretty unpleasant vacation. Make contingency plans and expect that there will be a change fee waiver for you to rebook your trip to later.

You might as well roll some dice at this point - going to be as reliable for advice.

I'm supposed to start a short contract there end of March, and I'm considering cancelling. UK seems to be <del>4-6 weeks</del>(EDIT: 2-3 weeks) behind Italy now, and I don't want to get stuck in a different country than the rest of my family, without even an insurance number (apparently, it takes more than a month to acquire one; end of April, I'm betting the country will be in total lockdown).

The UK is only two weeks behind Italy. Look at the numbers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_outbreak_in_I...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_outbreak_in_t...

You're right; mental brain fart on my end (I was thinking of doublings, but I wrote weeks).

The plane flight/airport will be the biggest risk.

Living in Milan.

Given the nature of this outbreak the real issue is not 'when' it is gonna happen anywhere else, but 'when'.

Italy has been hit first and I must say the reaction of the regions has been uneven, but in the future if the virus doesn't stop with the warmer weather, maybe your country is gonna keep people from flying abroad, so I think it's very difficult to make proper plans right now and, as far as tourism is concerned, 2020 is gone.

We had a cutoff-date approaching for refundability of one of our bookings, otherwise we would have waited to see what happens over the next few weeks.

If you can afford to wait, I'd ride it out a bit longer.

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