Travel When are you likely to travel?

Junkenpo

Maui Strong...♥️
O.G.
Jan 23, 2007
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I can't imagine wanting to get on a plane or stay in a crowded place right now. It surprises me how many people are comfortable with the idea of and even eager to vacation during a pandemic. How long will it take you to be comfortable traveling?



I live in Hawaii and our incidents of active cases & deaths have been low, relative to our population size. A lot of this is due to the travel restrictions and closing of hotels, short-term vacation rentals, rental cars, etc. The absence of mass tourism has been super obvious on the road & ocean & air. Our state government is slowly opening up businesses and implementing masking & distance requirements.

Unlike other states that are going through armed protests, Hawaii has held more to a "we are cooperating to take care of each other" attitude. Nearly 1 in 5 residents are aged 65 or older, multi-generational homes are common. A really touchy subject now is what we are going to do about tourism. Currently, visitors and returning residents are being required to quarantine for 14 days; they must have groceries/food delivered. No leaving unless for a medical emergency. Visitors without a verifiable place to stay are sent back on the next flight. If you break quarantine, you can be arrested & fined.
 
I can't imagine wanting to get on a plane or stay in a crowded place right now. It surprises me how many people are comfortable with the idea of and even eager to vacation during a pandemic. How long will it take you to be comfortable traveling?



I live in Hawaii and our incidents of active cases & deaths have been low, relative to our population size. A lot of this is due to the travel restrictions and closing of hotels, short-term vacation rentals, rental cars, etc. The absence of mass tourism has been super obvious on the road & ocean & air. Our state government is slowly opening up businesses and implementing masking & distance requirements.

Unlike other states that are going through armed protests, Hawaii has held more to a "we are cooperating to take care of each other" attitude. Nearly 1 in 5 residents are aged 65 or older, multi-generational homes are common. A really touchy subject now is what we are going to do about tourism. Currently, visitors and returning residents are being required to quarantine for 14 days; they must have groceries/food delivered. No leaving unless for a medical emergency. Visitors without a verifiable place to stay are sent back on the next flight. If you break quarantine, you can be arrested & fined.

"Stay in a crowded place"? Bzzzt, that's a no. :lol:

Our area of our state is still considered a hot zone, so we still have many businesses closed. When we go to "yellow phase", many will reopen but with significant distancing rules, and still no sitting inside restaurants, etc. (We are doing our part for the restaurants we like, which are fortunately doing curbside pickup, and we will of course continue with that.) As to *after* we've reached yellow phase, I will be willing to go into a store (eg. grocery, retail, etc), if needed, but I will be well masked up, and if people come near me that aren't, I will feel no awkwardness in going the other way. (Perhaps even holding up a cross ala a vampire movie. lol ... I jest ... partially.)

But "staying in crowded places"? Er, no. Not with a virus that is so easily emitted with laughter, shouting, even talking. Nope, nada, nyet, bu shi.

The irony is that we just received this question less than 24 hours ago. There are two local universities we do yearly subscriptions to for their arts centers. One is hubby and my grad school alma mater. Last night they sent out a survey to subscribers and donors, asking when we'd feel comfortable coming back. The choices were: 1 months, 3 months, 6 months, when a vaccine is available. Now, I, personally, don't see the point in breaking the times up by months. I mean, we have no idea what '1 month' will look like, '3 months', '6 months', etc. If a second wave hits, how would I take a guess at the timing? Would it be triggered by openings? Would it be triggered by winter? How to guess an actual number of months right now? Of course that's pretty irrelevant though, since hubby immediately clicked "when vaccine available".

For the record, we won't abandon them ---- we've been subscribers and donors to both schools for years. And if they go through with offering subscriptions, I'm sure we'll get them, hope for the best as time goes on, and simply not use the tickets if there's any question at all. And we'll have a very high bar for that decision. But yeah, we literally just answered this very question just last night.
 
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I will be driving a few hundred miles to visit my Aunt in a couple weeks. Planned as a day trip, but if I stay overnight it will be in her house. So technically traveling - but in my car, not on a plane, and really only contact with my Aunt and maybe cousins.

As for vacation travel, maybe late fall drive somewhere and stay in a hotel. Not sure when it will be worth all the hassle, and risk, to fly.
 
My state has had close to the least number of cases in the USA. We are opening back up. If we were an island, I would feel safe. As it is, I expect the second wave to start mid July. Mass tourism over the 4th is going to be the trigger. It's going to hit in the counties with National Parks first. I work in public health and several of my coworkers have this same opinion.

I like to travel. I'm a member of several travel groups. It's disheartening to see the number of people that think their vacation is important in the middle of a pandemic. Even worse are the people reminding everyone that they can't enforce quarentine.

To answer the question, I will not leave my state this year. I had planned on going to Thialand in July and whale watching in Canada in May/June. Both are cancelled. I am going camping over Memorial day. Probably plan other in state camping trips this summer. I will avoid the national parks.
 
I usually travel 4-5x a year. It looks like that's not going to happen this year. I'm glad we were able to go one one trip back in early February before everything shut down.

Every year during the weekend before Memorial day, a group of friends/family and I travel up north to Lutsen and Grand Marais in MN. This year, we planned on going to Door County but with the way things are currently, we decided to postpone the trip. I'm really bummed about it, but I can wait.

I'm not comfortable with the thought of flying anywhere in the near future. I'm thinking maybe the spring or summer of 2021.
 
All my work-related travels have been postponed until next year, with the possibility of even more extension. We love to travel overseas for holidays but this is now on indefinite hold. Just the thought of being sick and stuck thousands of kilometres away from home.... of describing symptoms in another language.... no support system while you languish, not to mention dealing with the travel insurance company... it’s all too much headache and hassle even to think about.
 
I had three small trips and one bigger trip lined up for March, April, May, and September. March has been postponed to September, April to December, May is to be determined, and September will likely be September 2021. But the truth is, I know that I won't be going anywhere for the rest of this year -- maybe not even next year.
 
Vlad and I were just talking about this. We have no plans to go anywhere anytime soon. We might consider renting a house in the Keys (in Florida) if things are very very calm in a few more months to have a little getaway with the kids. But that being said, we are being so cautious so I am not even sure that will happen. A plan is a no go for us right now. And a long car trip would require too many stops with small kids, so it's also a no.
 
I'm planning trips as a mental escape, but have zero intention of implementing them any time soon. Dreaming, I can control it all and focus on the places I'd like to go and things I'd like to see instead of dealing with the realities of people not practicing social distancing, public bathrooms, renting a car or taking an Uber, disinfecting every time I came back to the hotel room, etc. that would be out of my hands and increase the odds of me getting infected or infecting someone else drastically.