For years I have been planning to write a review of my travel year with all its highlights and lowlights, but I have never managed to do it. Until now. 🙂
2021 was another difficult travel year. Unfortunately. Honestly, after 2020, I was optimistic that each following year would be easier. I assumed that traveling like 2019 was still years away, but looking back at 2021, it was actually even more difficult than 2020. Anyway, here is the year 2021 in numbers:
Visited countries: 21 (2 were transits only where I spent a night near the airport)
Visited new countries: 16 (3 more than in 2020, 1 less than in 2019)
Visited continents: 5
Longest time spent in one country: 18 days (Argentina)
Shortest time spent in one country: 8 hours (Uruguay)
Nights spent abroad: 82
The beginning was fortunately still easy. In January I visited El Salvador and Costa Rica, my 2nd and 3rd countries in Central America (Panama was the 1st in 2018). It was a very enjoyable solo trip as both countries were fun and worth traveling to. Visiting Costa Rica during the pandemic had the added bonus of seeing the country with almost no other tourists. Especially with the national parks otherwise quite crowded, this was a blessing.
From February on, things became more difficult again. My home country Switzerland imposed new entry rules that also affected Swiss citizens. Unvaccinated people were only allowed to enter the country with a negative PCR test. Since at that time almost no one in our country had been vaccinated, this affected me as well. I honestly have no problem getting tested at home before traveling. However, I am always afraid of being tested positive at some point abroad and being stuck there for two weeks. Or in the worst case, even longer.
Anyway, even this obstacle didn’t stop me and I visited Sudan in early March, my country 113/197. The desert country has some sensational sights, however, I felt the tour I had there was underwhelming. But just because I had a subpar tour guide doesn’t change the fact that Sudan is a cool country. Whether I will return is another question. Probably not anytime soon.
In the same month I continued with Uzbekistan, country number 114, and my third country in Central Asia after Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan. Uzbekistan is without a doubt a country that will leave you in awe. The buildings there are more than imposing and probably among the best sights the world has to offer. It was a good and easy trip. Uzbekistan is certainly the easiest country to visit in Central Asia.
From an easy trip to a difficult one in April. Strictly speaking, South Sudan was my most difficult country this year. The country, which until recently was still in civil war, is not accustomed to tourists and the few tourists who do come are often victims of police corruption. This was the case for me as well. However, South Sudan is one of the best countries to visit tribes. And not in a commercialized way like in the Masai Mara or the Omo Valley, where any authenticity is lost.
South Sudan was an adventure. Not the kind of adventure people think they are having during a Bali-trip. A real one. The country is definitely not a beginner’s country, but who can live with setbacks, will be neatly rewarded here. For me, it was the best short trip of the year 2021.
A 10-day trip to Namibia followed in May. For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, Kati, who was not comfortable traveling in these times, was with me again. However, Namibia is probably the safest country during the pandemic, because in the second least densely populated country in the world you don’t have to worry about social distancing.
Namibia was a fantastic country, one of the five best I have been to. The country is just gorgeous and offers many amazing attractions for visitors. For me personally it was the best trip in 2021. Besides, after this trip I have visited more than half of all African countries.
Summer usually belongs to Europe and this year was no exception. In June, I traveled with my mother for four nights to Albania, my third-last country in Europe. We saw several cities and most of all many castles in the country. When I think back on that trip, however, the first thing I associate it with is the brutal heat we had. It was late June and the temperatures were between 36-39°C, which noticeably affected the quality of the trip.
Albania was supposed to be the turning point as far as testing abroad was concerned. It was the last trip where I needed a PCR test for the return journey. A trip is not relaxing if you then have to take another test two days before you go home, which decides whether you can leave the country or have to spend another two weeks there. After Albania, however, I was considered fully vaccinated and was glad that this requirement finally got dropped for me.
This was followed by three weekend trips to Europe in July and August. The first was Lviv, my second trip to Ukraine, which is increasingly becoming one of my favorite countries in Europe. The second weekend trip took us to Venice. I really wanted to see this city during the pandemic before the hordes of tourists returned. Supposedly, tourist numbers were about 60% in August 2021 compared to before the pandemic. I still found it extremely busy. Too busy. Nonetheless, cool that I finally got to see this beautiful city.
The last of the three Europe weekend trips was then Berlin, for me the fourth trip to this city. In general, I have never traveled so little in Europe in recent years as I did this year. But that was also logical, because on the one hand, practically all of Europe was in lockdown until May, and on the other hand, I was not willing to pay CHF 110-150 for a PCR test, just to spend a weekend in a country where I had already been. I’ll do PCR tests only for new countries was my motto.
I spent September in Africa again, visiting all the remaining countries of Southern Africa. These were Zimbabwe, Zambia and Botswana. My time at Victoria Falls was epic. Somehow, I wasn’t that motivated to travel to this region again after having already been to Namibia just a few hundred kilometers away in May. However, purely from the time of year and airfare, this trip was the best option I had. In the end, this trip exceeded all my expectations.
It was also another trip where I had to get tested three times abroad. In eight days, to be precise. And the sad thing was that I needed a PCR test even for the return trip to Switzerland, although Switzerland did not require one. The reason for this was that the pandemic has become a business model in many African countries. Passengers who want to leave the country must first spend $100 for a test.
It was the same in Comoros, the last country I visited on this trip. It was probably also the least interesting of all the countries I visited this year. While I saw world class beaches, the island didn’t really excite me and my guide wasn’t the best either. Anyway, this Africa trip was great and I saw countries 118 to 121.
Country 122 should have followed in October. Should have. Because the Jordan trip did not take place. I got a flu three days before departure and was sick in bed for several days. The Covid test was negative. About 40 PCR tests in the last 1.5 years always showed a negative result. Also this time. But that was only a small consolation for the first trip in my life that I had to cancel due to flu or whatever.
Instead, the biggest trip of the year took place in November. The original plan was to visit the remaining four countries in Central America. But when it was announced that Argentina would reopen its borders to tourists after 18 months, I didn’t hesitate for a second and booked the flights to South America.
Kati and I visited Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay in three weeks. We spent most of our time in Argentina, and only 0.5-1.5 days each in the other three countries. Brazil, however, was a second visit for me. And after this trip, which was also one of the best in recent years, I have seen 7 out of 12 countries in South America.
In November I was actually quite optimistic that slowly but surely all still closed countries will open their borders. Especially in Southeast Asia and Oceania, almost all countries are still closed, although the first ones had already announced the reopening. My prediction was that most of the countries in the world would be open in the course of 2022…
…and then came Omicron.
At the end of November, I had the feeling that we were back in March 2020. After the new Omicron variant was discovered, numerous flight connections were cancelled, entry restrictions were imposed on certain nationalities, borders were closed…. yes, actually all that we had already experienced 20 months ago. A major setback for both the travel industry and humanity as a whole.
In December, I still had the last trip to go. Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, my countries no. 125 and 126. Until the day of my departure, I was unsure whether this trip would take place at all. I checked daily if one of the countries would close its borders again. Also, it could have been that one country would close the border during my stay and ban all flights into the country. Just like Morocco did.
Although this trip was thus quite risky, I went for it and in the end everything worked out well. Bahrain, which I expected to be a boring second Kuwait, surprised me in a positive way. And Saudi Arabia was a very interesting trip as the country is like no other and probably generated the best travel stories this year. Well, maybe after South Sudan.
The conclusion of 2021 turns out to be positive. 16 new countries is a good achievement and brings me a good deal closer to my goal of visiting all the countries in the world. I would name Namibia as the best new country, just ahead of Argentina. My best short trip was South Sudan, although it was undoubtedly also the most stressful trip. The country that excited me the least was Comoros.
What will 2022 be like?
January is for the first time in a long time a month in which I stay at home and do not travel. I’d rather use the time to meet friends I haven’t seen in a long time. Especially at the end of 2021, I have limited myself quite a bit with my social contacts and have hardly met anyone especially before traveling to reduce the chance of a positive PCR test.
In February the next big trip is coming up, where I will visit countries 127 to 129. Country 130 will follow in March. Spoiler: it will be the country I should have already visited in October 2021: Jordan. I expect to be at about 140-145 countries by the end of 2022, depending on which trips I choose. Then I will be close to the last quarter of my journey.
What’s my general take on 2022 for travel? If you had asked me in November, I would have bet that by mid-2022 most countries would have their borders open, but that PCR tests would still be the norm for travel and probably will be for the next three to four years. And the vaccination anyway. It is 100% certain to me that most countries will have the vaccination as a strict entry requirement in the next few years.
However, everything could also change for the better, depending on what we learn about the Omicron variant. As of today, it looks like Omicron is highly contagious, but hardly more dangerous than a cold or mild flu. If this proves to be true, it could mean that after the initial panic over this new variant, we will be back to normal life sooner than we thought possible.
But that will take time, and no country will completely let its guard down until we have total certainty about the risks of this new variant. Therefore, I am convinced that 2022 will not be a year in which we could travel as we did in 2019. The year will continue to be cumbersome with PCR testing, perhaps even short-term border closures, and vaccination will be a condition for most countries to enter.
On the other hand, I also expect that many countries in Southeast Asia, which announced in October that they would open their borders at the beginning of 2022 and then postponed this again because of Omikron, will still do so in the first half of 2022. I do not expect the East Asian countries, especially China and Japan, to open their borders as early as next year. I am also skeptical about the countries in Oceania. Although Australia and New Zealand already announced at the end of 2021 that they would open their borders in the spring of 2022, I won’t believe it until it actually happens.
Anyway, I still have enough countries I haven’t been to that are open, so I could easily fill the next two years with those. Nevertheless, I certainly hope very much that 2022 will be the last year in which we have to travel with these restrictions. The coming months will show whether this hope will be fulfilled or not.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who reads this blog and gives me feedback on my articles. You are the motivation for me to write after work on these texts, format images so that I can upload them and so on. Without you, this blog would no longer exist today. Thank you and have a great 2022!
