Travel Tips: Trip Planning during COVID

If you are an American of average intelligence you have, no doubt, realized we’re in the middle of a global pandemic and America is doing a piss poor job of managing it. While we will continue to deal with the social, economic, and health ramifications of our defunct leadership, aspects of life for the rest of us do go on, albeit amended somewhat. Part of that humming of life in this household is travel. Sadly 3 international trips have been cancelled on me and I am not willing to risk planning another one yet. But I am also itching to plan something…anything.

Will and I decided that a road trip would be the most sensible way to go and so here I am in the midst of planning a winter break road trip (details to come!). However, this is definitely a new style of planning, with COVID precautions thrown in, so I thought it would be a good idea to put my planning efforts into a blog post.

Packing

I have never owned a face mask or hand sanitizer but now they are a staple of my life. Here are the things that I think are important, vital even, to pack during COVID:

plenty of masks
thermometer
lots of hand sanitizer
one-time use gloves

Read more: Travel Tips: Illness Abroad

Mode(s) of Travel

During COVID, if you can do a road trip – do it!!! There is no other easy way to stay safe. I personally am not a hypochondriac but you will not find me on a plane right now. Doing a road trip definitely shapes a lot of aspects for your trip: locations are closer to home, you want to design your trip so you are not just in the car for two weeks, build in extra time for fun stops that appear along the way.

Road trips are also a “fun” way to test out your ability to put up with people. lol Some relationships don’t survive the rubber-to-the-road test. Will & I’s first trip as a couple (less than a year of dating!) was a spring break road trip to visit my sister in Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. I went into the trip saying “Welp, we’re either going to walk out of this no longer dating or getting married.” It was the later in case you were curious.

Accommodations

I have talked endlessly about AirBnbs on this blog, so I won’t bore you with those details again but 100% this is the time to try an apartment or house instead of a hotel. I would prefer to not have to wonder what I am going to do at the breakfast buffet or while in the lobby.

A few AirBnb blog posts:

Where to Go

If possible don’t go to a place with a big outbreak; however, considering I live in Florida that leaves kind of the rest of the country open to me. 🙂 Generally though, we are looking to avoid big cities and crowded, enclosed attractions. This can be a difficult order in the middle of winter but hoping to balance out reservations at museums with outdoor socially-distant walks.

Eating Out

This is probably the hardest COVID accommodation for any trip and it will be impossible to eliminate the risk here but there are ways to mitigate it.

Limit the amount of times you go out. Pack a sandwich for lunch or eat breakfast in your room.
Eat outside, weather permitting.
Choose establishments that are being safe. I for one will not choose to eat at a location that is disregarding common COVID-sense
Tip well at those places that have COVID procedures. This pandemic has been devastating for local businesses. Tp them well! Especially if the establishment is limiting seating; they are forgining profit to keep you safe.

JMF