Houston newlyweds change honeymoon plans due to quarantine rules

Now that more people are getting vaccinated, more people are planning to travel, but remember there are still some restrictions in place because of the pandemic.      
One good way to ruin a vacation is to find out after you get there, you can’t leave your hotel because you have to quarantine the whole time you’re there. Some Houston newlyweds had to quickly change honeymoon plans to keep that from happening. 

The Butler's were all smiles at their wedding over the weekend but that may not have been the case at their honeymoon, if they’d kept their plans to travel to Barbados where due to pandemic travel restrictions quarantine rules are in place.

"We were told once you arrive to quarantine in your room for like five days. So that meant you could not leave the property. You couldn’t even go to the pool or the restaurants or enjoy any amenities of the property and we were like wait a minute this is our honeymoon," explains Shuron Green-Butler. 

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So the Butlers are headed to Jamaica instead.

"Mexico has been so popular during this time. We’ve had quite a few people travel to Mexico because Mexico you don’t have to test to get in country. You do have to test to come back to the United States," explains Sr. Travel Advisor with Woodlake Travel Sandra Ortiz. 

One way to not be unpleasantly surprised by COVID travel restrictions is to book through a travel agent, like Ortiz, who’s been in the business 27 years and knows all the rules. 

"You’ve got countries like Costa Rica that are open. As long as you go fill out the health information form prior to you going, you don’t have to have testing there. Also Dominican Republic. There are countries that are saying if you are vaccinated, you’re free to come to the country and bypass having provide the test. Iceland is one of those countries. Seychelles is another one," says Ortiz, which pushed Green-Butler to get her vaccination before her honeymoon.

"We wanted to make sure we were being as safe as possible. At first I was very apprehensive, because it was so new. I felt like the clinical trials, were they expansive enough, were they detailed enough, but now I have both doses of the Moderna vaccine?" Butler smiles.  

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Everybody’s wanting to take a vacci-cation. Everybody calls, and they’re like I’ve got my vaccine, I'm ready to go so that’s the new buzz word "Vacci-cation".

Ortiz says some hotels are including COVID testing in their room rate and will provide it right at the resort. She also says cruise ships out of international ports are planning to require vaccinations while most airlines are not.

"The only airline that has said, to my current knowledge, that it's going to possibly require the vaccine is Quantas Airlines, an Australian Airline." 

Remember if you travel out of the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requires a negative covid test before you can return home.