Travel Freebies and Discounts for Healthcare Workers

Beach couple holding hands at sunset (Photo: @TatianaMara via Twenty20
Beach couple holding hands at sunset (Photo: @TatianaMara via Twenty20

Is there a healthcare worker in your family? Do they need a family vacation? A spate of travel providers ranging from city tour companies to hotels (and even a river cruise line) are offering discounted or free travel to healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses, and paramedics.

The good news is that most of these offers extend well out into 2021—by which time the global community will (fingers crossed) have widespread access to vaccines. A few of these discounted travel offers are being extended to all essential workers, including firefighters, food workers, and mass transit employees. 

Here are the standout travel discounts for healthcare workers available now for travel in 2020 and 2021. 

AmaWaterways Cruise Certificate 

River cruise line AmaWaterways is offering frontline medical workers Future Cruise Certificates that can be used for a buy-one-get-one-free deal when booked with a full-fare paying guest in the same stateroom. The offer is good for any AmaWaterways river cruise in Europe or Asia through December 31, 2021. Note that you can sign up for the certificate now but wait to book until up to 90 days before your sailing date. 

Free City Tour in Venice or Treviso, Italy

As Italy enters its Phase 3 reopening, the cities most dependent on tourism are starting to consider ways to reintroduce themselves to the world. Venice-expert tour company TourLeaderVenice is offering 48 healthcare workers (you must be able to show a hospital badge from the U.S. or Canada) and their travel companions a customizable one-hour English-language free tour of Venice or nearby Treviso.

VENICE TIP: To Discover Venice’s Hidden Treasures, Learn to Travel Like a Local 

All-Inclusive Stay Sweepstakes

The Karisma Hotels and Resorts group—which includes hotels in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Colombia, Montenegro, and Croatia—is running a Holidays for Heroes sweepstakes for essential workers, including healthcare workers, service workers, and food-industry workers. To enter, nominate yourself or an essential worker by June 30, 2020, for travel when it’s safe to go again. A random drawing will determine 150 winners, who will receive a four-night, five-day all-inclusive stay at a select Karisma resort (full terms and conditions here). 

Friends and Family Rates from Hyatt

Through June 30, 2021, Hyatt is extending its discounted Friends and Family rate to healthcare workers. To qualify for the rate, book with code THANKYOU and be prepared to show your healthcare worker credentials. 

Choice Cares Discounts from Choice Hotels

Essential workers, including healthcare workers, firefighters, food and agricultural workers, mass transit employees, and other workers included in current CISA guidelines, are entitled to Choice Hotels’ Choice Cares rate on up to nine rooms at participating hotels. The end-date of this promotion is not specified, but a quick check yielded discounted rates well into 2021. 

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Christine Sarkis is a traveling parent and longtime travel writer and editor. The former executive editor for TripAdvisor travel magazine SmarterTravel.com, Sarkis has spent nearly two decades finding and sharing the best places to go with an audience of enthusiastic travelers. Her stories have appeared on USA Today, Conde Nast Traveler, Huffington Post, and Business Insider. Her expert advice has been quoted in dozens of print and online publications including The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, and People magazine. She has also shared travel tips on television and radio shows including Good Morning America, Marketplace, and Here & Now. Her stories have been published in the anthologies Spain from a Backpack and The Best Women's Travel Writing 2008, and she is working on a travel memoir.

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