COVID
Has anyone contracted COVID while traveling in Germany, Austria, Northern Italy, or Switzerland? We have an upcoming trip to the Dolomites in June. We have been on a couple of Viking River Cruises, one in 2022 and one in 2024 and I tested positive for COVID when we returned from each of them. Has anyone had such an experience with Tauck? How was it handled? Thanks!
0
Comments
Tauck has a Covid policy, it’s on the website, but when I took some late Covid tours with them, they did not follow guidelines and there were people on one tour, quite a few who had Covid. Both tours, masks were supposed to be compulsory but Tauck did not enforced it. One thing for sure, if someone shows signs of Covid on tour, the TD has no powers to ask them to test or isolate them….they are not a doctor.
It really is up to you to protect yourself. We have never had Covid, but the few colds etc we get are on Tauck tours from fellow travelers.
Remember that Europeans are more likely to be vaccinated than Americans these days. We get our Covid shots here in the US every six months which is recommended and Medicare covers it. Last one was a few weeks ago. We were in Europe fairly recently and never knowingly came in contact with Covid. Austria, Bratislava and Hungary
My only experience with COVID on a tour was on the 2-week small group tour in Ireland in 2023. Several people came down with Covid, and we were all asked to test. It was a challenge to find tests, though I was able to find one in Ennis, and the test, thankfully, was negative. The people who had Covid had to leave the tour. I ran into one couple, who had fully recovered, at the Dublin airport on the way home from the tour. They had spent the quarantine time in a hotel. I really doubt that anyone today would ask anyone to test. If you are really concerned, you could ask your health care provider to prescribe Paxlovid for you. I just did that for a recent trip to South Africa, but when I got to the pharmacy, I learned that the cost (even with insurance) was over $700. I said, "No thank you" and had a very nice trip without it.
We were on the N. Spain tour in 2022. A couple had just disembarked from a Mediterranean cruise. By day 3 he had a wet cough you could hear a mile away. He did not mask. He missed several days staying in his room, too sick to participate, but attended meals and rode along on the bus. I asked the TD how she was going to handle it and basically she said she could do nothing-no testing, no masking, etc. This was opposite of what I read from Tauck before we left. Towards the end of the tour my wife and I both came down with COVID and half the tour members were coughing. We’ve traveled since and figured we can give up travel, or keep up on our vaccines and assume we will be exposed. Don’t expect Tauck (or any other tour agency) to be proactive.
You haven't lived until your Tauck TD comes down with what he thinks might be COVID, on this tour in fall 2022. Turns out it was the flu, but we were 17 Seniors and for most of us, our first post-COVID adventure, and exposed from the first days of the tour. Took days, but Tauck found a replacement TD. No one got sick on the trip...............luckily.
Don't assume that everyone who has a cough - wet or dry - has Covid. I had Covid in 2022 and ever since then, I am particularly sensitive to fragrances (perfume, incense in church and even daffodils). I also find that I will cough after talking a lot or eating something dry (even a cookie). I was on a Duoro River cruise where the bus driver used something to clean the carpets which set off my coughing. Fortunately, there were two buses for each excursion and I made sure to get on the other bus for day tours.
Drinking water or taking a cough drop turns the dry cough into a wet one. I have been thoroughly tested by specialists and while it's annoying I do not have an underlying condition that is transmitted by coughing.
Tauck apparently still has a health policy but no one seems to be paying attention to it anymore. Anything respiratory these days is passed off as a “cold” or maybe “bronchitis”, or the flu, and more or less swept under the rug. I doubt anyone is still testing, or if they are they are not speaking up. I’m sure this attitude is widespread among group travel companies. Cruises might be different.
Assume that fellow travelers will get sick. My experience is usually by the 5-day mark, someone comes down with something, and then it gets spread around.
As noted, not everyone with a cough is contagious, but how do you know? And people with chronic coughs can and do get sick.
Keeping up with your vaccines (as discussed with your physician), taking care of yourself, and keeping your hands clean is about all you can do, other than avoiding people who are obviously ill. Eat outdoors or in ventilated places whenever possible. I’ve heard of people using all kinds of remedies to prevent illness. I’m sure most of it is anecdotal. You can mask if you want—I still do in higher-risk crowded situations, public transit hubs, and in the company of obviously ill people, because I am flattened for several days with most respiratory viruses and am prone to sinus infections. I hate the discomfort and inconvenience of being sick while traveling (not to mention missing out on any of my $1000+ per person/per day trip).
Good luck out there. Remember to pack all of your favorite respiratory and GI remedies. (We didn't even discuss Norovirus and the dreaded buffet.....)