When weather disrupts your travel plans

We can put our hearts and souls into planning the perfect vacation trip, from choosing the right destination to picking the accommodations that speak to us and our travel desires.

Yet how do we cope when weather — or other unexpected circumstances — cause us to cancel our trip?

I recently had a memorial trip planned for my grandmother. Many of my family members were supposed to travel along, and we were all eagerly anticipating some quality time together.

Yet two hurricanes blew through the region we were supposed to visit, and we felt compelled to cancel our trip, knowing the town that my mother grew up visiting with her mom was badly damaged and in no condition to welcome visitors.

Needless to say, we were all disappointed. So it raises the question: How do you cope with having your hopes about an upcoming trip come to nothing?

Well, if it’s a particularly meaningful trip, or one you’ve desired for a long time, it’s normal that you’ll go through something like the stages of grief. Disbelief, sadness, anger, bargaining — trying with all your might to figure out how to still go on your trip, or hastily plan another one — are all very common to feel as you begin to process the cancellation.

Later, you learn to accept the truth: that the trip you’d initially planned and hoped for will not happen, at least not anytime soon.

I’ve been in the stage of acceptance for a few days now, and have even found some humor in it. The funny thing? That this very same thing happened to us before, just a year or two ago. I have to wonder whether there is a reason why we’ve been unable to visit the destination in question — perhaps there is a lesson or a purpose in our delayed trip?

To tell you the truth, I’m no stranger to delayed or canceled vacations. When I was younger, it was my dream to go to Alaska. As an animal lover, I’d watched documentaries about the wildlife to be seen there. My mom had planned a family cruise to Alaska twice during my childhood — and each time, family health emergencies caused us to delay our trip.

Fast-forward to my college graduation — we’d planned another Alaska cruise, and this time, we expected nothing could get in our way.

Yet I was set to graduate in the middle of 2020.

And you know what came earlier? The pandemic.

All travel halted.

That was three strikes for Alaska.

It can be disappointing to lose a trip, to lose that opportunity to see the world that you’d hoped for so long to experience. Yet sometimes, I think we’re spared from these opportunities for a reason: maybe there’s something more pressing happening at home that you would’ve missed had you traveled? Or perhaps you will learn to appreciate the entire experience more fully by having had the delay?

I know I will — for both trips.

But for now, with climate change causing more severe weather from Florida to Spain and beyond, we must plan our trips with hope and caution. No vacation is guaranteed: it is a privilege, a gift, given to us seemingly against the odds.

And, if you’re like me and you’ve had trips canceled, don’t lose all hope. It likely isn’t the end of your journey, only a delay that will lead you to a more fulfilling experience.