When the Pandemic is Over, Consider the One-Way Ticket Vacation
By Richard Levy
When you buy a round-trip ticket for your vacation, every day you’re away the date you must return home is constantly lurking in back of your mind. It never goes away.
But if you purchase a one-way ticket for your vacation on your last day away, you can make the joyful decision to stay one, two or three days longer. To keep basking in the sun, exploring that great city you’re visiting or to return to your favorite museum or have one more outrageous meal in the restaurant you loved so much.
Most boutique hotels are delighted to allow you to stay a few more days at a discounted rate. Then when you’re absolutely ready to head home, just purchase your best deal return ticket. It’s that easy. A beautiful concept to insure your most memorable vacation ever with no regrets.
After all, you deserve a few more days, especially after this life-altering plague and lockdown you will survive. Two one-way tickets cost a bit more, but it’s worth it for the few extra days of unbridled pleasure.
On our next trip, my girlfriend and I are buying one-way tickets for the first time. I’m looking forward to experiencing my first vacation with no return date to haunt me throughout the trip.
For the best one-way fares, download the Hopper app, my favorite. They send you lower fares as they materialize, so when a super-low fare pops up you can grab it. When ready to come home it will find you the most affordable fare. Some one-stop flights even allow you to get off in their “one-stop city” for free a few days and get back on another flight to your original destination.
If you’re retired, the one-way ticket concept is a great idea. For the first time you won’t have that haunting return ticket causing vacation anxiety every day you’re trying to lose yourself.
This is the perfect time to start planning your spring or summer 2021 vacation. Airlines and hotels have the lowest prices and best deals ever and desperate to secure advance bookings. This life-altering pandemic will be gone – hopefully – by next year. Don’t wait, make plans now for the most decadent, adventurous and fun-filled splurge vacation you’ve ever taken.
Perhaps reach into your bucket list and take that once-in-a-lifetime vacation you’ve been saving or always dreamed about taking. Just do it!
My three most OMG vacations were the river cruise down the Mekong River from Cambodia to Vietnam on AmaWaterways (most adventurous); Bellagio, Lake Como at the five-star Grand Villa Serbelloni, voted the best luxury hotel in Italy (most romantic); and the Amalfi Coast in the hilltop town of Ravello, staying in the beautiful La Dolce Vita villa overlooking the coast (most breathtaking).
Importantly, for international travel, be sure your passport does not expire six months before your departing flight or six months after your returning flight or you’ll be turned away at the airport. Always have travel insurance, because as we know, stuff happens.
So consider buying a one-way ticket for your next vacation. For the first time you’ll have the option of staying just a few more days. After all, life is short and you’re worth it.
Note: If you can manage it, my advice is don’t take the kids; couples desperately need a romantic getaway once in a while to keep their sanity. Bon voyage!
Hastings-on-Hudson resident Richard Levy is a former advertising “Mad Man” creative director and now a travel writer. He’s also an inventor of new products and is writing and illustrating a new children’s book. You can contact him at RichardLevyTravelWriter@gmail.com.
