Welcome back to rsts11travel. Four years ago we split this blog off of rsts11.com, to keep a travel and rewards focus and host trip reports as well as loyalty program news that affects our readers. 

An aside regarding travel in general

During the pandemic, it’s become rather in vogue to attack people on online forums if they dream of travel or, even worse, actually plan to travel. We believe this is counterproductive and doesn’t change anyone’s mind. 

If you are able to travel, can analyze and accept the risks, and still want to go somewhere, that’s your choice. Be careful, take precautions, be aware of local laws and ordinances at home and at your destination(s), and make the most of it. 

If you are not able to travel, not willing to accept the risks, or otherwise not ready to get away, don’t. 

We’ve minimized our travel since the second week of March. The convertible has been out, sometimes even with the top down, but social distancing and conscientious mask-wearing has been the way of the world whether in cars or just doing daily work. 

Looking ahead into 2021

As you’re aware, the last year has not been great for travel, and we feel lucky to have made it out of our region twice before the pandemic virtually eliminated travel. But in late December, we were able to make it out for another adventure, and trip reports will be coming soon. 

In the coming months we’ll track the return of leisure travel (if and as it happens), adjustments for loyalty programs and travel credit cards we’re familiar with, and hopefully get some more trip reports on the books as we escape the confines of our zip code more. There may also be a backlog of travel gadget reviews that we’re hoping to start flushing out this month as well.

Toss us a coffee? (not literally)

If rsts11travel has helped you out over the years, we’d welcome your support. The support link at the top of the page has a lot of options, many of which don’t cost you anything extra, and we’ll be updating it in January. 

Our Amazon links are great for this. Looking for a travel router for your next trip? We like the gl.inet slate router and the RAVPower WD009 router. Looking for something else? This link will help us fund our travel gadget acquisitions without affecting your price at all.

You can also send “cash” tips to us through Ko-Fi or Venmo. These usually go toward our Nespresso station expenses, freeing up money to go to travel and research. 

If there are any topics you’d like to see addressed, feel free to leave a comment below. We probably won’t ever have a black tie awards ceremony, but we hope to provide useful and accessible travel advice to our readers without pushing credit cards or asking our readers to write our content for us (although if we know you and you’d like to write a guest post, get in touch). 

 Here’s hoping all our readers made it through 2020 relatively unscathed, and that we’ll all be on the road safely and sanely very soon.