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On a recent trip to Europe, we stopped off in Reykjavik Iceland for a planned weeks stay before heading to Paris. We had booked an AIRBNB for the week in Reykjavik Iceland. We came prepared for chilly cloudy weather in June but were not prepared for what occurred. We were there for 3 days and it rained non stop for every hour we were there. It was around 50 degrees, windy with low fog covering the city. It was incredibly bleak. We attempted to see most of the attractions through the rain, fog, cold and wind.
By the 4th day, the weather turned even worse with higher winds and even heavier rain. The weather forecast said it would be just terrible for the next five days. My wife and I wanted off the island and thought it would be logical to spend more time in France where the weather forecast was sunny and 75 degrees, Trouble was we would lose the value of our AIRBNB and have to pay a fee to change our flights. After much discussion, we decided to head to Paris four days early and get out of Iceland. It was a huge financial hit.
What would you do if the weather forecast was just terrible for the rest of your trip and sunny and 75 degrees was waiting for you at your next stop, but it would cost you lots of money to bail out early?
Last edited by usual points; 06-26-2019 at 07:44 AM..
Definitely a tough question. Part of the decision would be based on what there was to do indoors. I've been to Reykjavik twice and while they have some good museums and the Hallgrimskirkja, the highlights of my visits were mostly outdoors and would have been miserable in bad weather. OTOH, DH And I honeymooned in St. Petersburg in October, 203 and encountered mostly miserable, drizzly weather, but we expected it that time of year and a lot of what we wanted to see was in museums.
And yes, the costs of changing plans would be a factor.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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I frequently change plans due to weather, tho try to schedule destinations based on 'best season' without crowds...
I book places with free cancellations (the $20 / night guest homes I use don't care / charge fees for 'no-show') https://wikitravel.org/en/Hospitality_exchange (Air B&B is listed, but is NOT a hospitality stay, unless special terms).
I book air with fares that allow changes, or use a discounted fare with the understanding it may be forfeited.
If cheap enough, I will double book with an 'escape plan'.
Islands(such as Iceland) are a bit more 'sequestered'. (limited ways OFF the island...) lived on an island in BC Canada and got cabin fever real bad, even tho I had my own sailboat there.
Personally, unless it were a question of safety (like needing to evacuate or the possibility of being stranded), I probably wouldn't alter plans (especially if it involved high costs) and just try to make the most of the situation.
If we're talking dangerous weather (like an approaching hurricane), yes, I'd change plans. For more run-of-the-mill bad weather, it would depend on how much the weather is impacting what I want to do at the location in question, how much the change would cost, and what my alternatives were.
Personally, unless it were a question of safety (like needing to evacuate or the possibility of being stranded), I probably wouldn't alter plans (especially if it involved high costs) and just try to make the most of the situation.
Depends on just how much "lots of money" would be for the most part. But I'd be willing to revise my plans and find more things I could do indoors than I might have originally planned, and even if I had been anticipating a busy sightseeing type of experience, I would think about something like finding a day spa and taking some extra time for relaxing and getting to enjoy the time that way instead.
But if the amount I had to spend to make that time enjoyable was going to start approaching what I might spend to leave early for a different destination, then I would think a lot more seriously about leaving.
More than just a rhetorical question now, the forecast for Europe this summer is for a prolonged historic heat wave. I won't typically travel there in the summer just due to the maddening crowds of tourists & endless lines & peak prices, this is the icing on the cake. During the 2003 heat wave over 14,000 people in France died, most of the old buildings don't have AC.
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