Armchair holidays while we dream for the future

We’ve been a little bit quiet lately, enjoying armchair holidays instead of real ones.

Like everyone, we’ve also been watching the coronavirus situation unfold across the globe in shock. Back in early February (doesn’t that seem like a lifetime ago?), we’d just hit book now on two plane tickets to Europe for our big honeymoon adventure when everything changed, and as we all well know, it changed fast.

We all now find ourselves living in a world of social distancing – waiting on designated markers in stores, being asked to stay away from our loved ones, and asked to stay inside. As the global media keeps reminding us, these are strange and unprecedented times.

What does it mean for us?

We’re incredibly lucky and grateful for our current circumstances. We’re both able to work from home with our day jobs, we live in a house with a beautiful view of our city, Hobart and our friends and family are safe and well. We even managed to just squeeze in our wedding in early January where all our loved ones could laugh, embrace and dance together.

Sure, we had just booked our European holiday adventure but in the scheme of things that isn’t important. People are losing their jobs, closing the doors of their businesses, cancelling their weddings, battling with their mental health, losing loved ones. It’s not the time to take a holiday for now. When you put everything into perspective it’s a small sacrifice.

So what now for Holiday Duo?

We’ve both been wondering where do we take this travel blog now. What value does it have to people in a world where borders have been sealed shut indefinitely? What does it mean when there are so many devastating things happening across the world that a holiday seems like the nicest of the nice-to-haves?

We’ve been reading all the articles forecasting when the travel industry will be open for business again and there’s no definite answer. The glass-half-full’s suggest sometime this year, and the glass-half-empty’s say well into 2021, even 2022. Everyone says domestic travel will kick off well before international travel but the truth is no one can know an exact timeline.

Taking in all the above, we had to re-think our plans for our own holidays and the travel blog.

Armchair holidays for now

So it’s armchair holidays for now. We’ve decided to share more about the beautiful place that we proudly call home in Hobart, Tasmania. We’ll also post beautiful images and videos sharing stories of the destinations we’ve been, and the amazing people we’ve met along the way. We can provide escapism for ourselves, and for fellow holiday lovers who want to dream for the day we have collectively conquered this virus and can move freely again. And we’d love for you to share your travel memories with us too.

Over the past month we’ve been using our time at home over weekends, and evenings chilling on the couch, to sort through thousands upon thousands of our travel photos & videos and it’s been exciting. It’s a reminder of what a beautiful place the world is, and will continue to be. There’s so much that we haven’t shared, and we’ll be starting with dedicating the month of May to posting once a day about our recent holiday to Italy. We can’t help but feel more grateful for these wonderful holiday experiences we’ve had together.

So please join us as we travel around the world from the comfort of our armchairs, and re-live some of our most amazing travel experiences.

Follow us at holidayduo.com as well as on Instagram and Facebook.

Rosie & Aaron