How to Travel During a Pandemic
If you’re reading this then you obviously love to travel. Travel is a way of discovering yourself through your interaction with the world around you. Interacting with different environments is how you learn to develop yourself much in the similar way a child does when it is growing. During childhood, everything is new and there is an explosion of learning going on. By taking yourself out of the familiar, you can stimulate that same learning you did when you were a child. But how can you travel during a pandemic? There are many factors at play here which you must be aware of before, during, and after travel.
Come Fly With Me
The first and most important thing to know about flying is that airlines will gladly take your money. Regardless of whether you are legally permitted wherever you are going, most travel websites will allow you to book online. It is important to see the local travel restrictions at your destination. Domestically, for example, Hawaii has had very stringent travel restrictions with the mainland US, going so far as tracking visitors staying at local area hotels and arresting those failing to abide by the rules.
Internationally, the rules are more confusing. Recently, I wanted to travel to the UK to spend some time with family in Wales. My sister advised me that I would have to quarantine upon arrival after signing a few documents with the British government. The UK is not officially set to leave the European Union until December 31st, 2020 and thus the current EU ban on Americans extends to the UK.
Aside from knowing your destination’s Covid restrictions, one should be well aware of the airline and airport’s restrictions. In my experience, flying during the pandemic has been amongst the best travel experiences I have ever had. Common sense and courtesy had returned. Every passenger and crew member behaved with the utmost care and respect. The airline I flew with shifted to loading to the plane from the back which massively expedited loading the plane. I sincerely hope this habit sticks in the post pandemic world as it makes the boarding experience much more efficient and pleasant. Unloading of passengers also exhibited common sense. Passengers remained seated until the row in front of them got up and left. This eliminated the pushing and shoving which was commonplace before Coronavirus.
The airline crew was the most professional and pleasant I’ve ever seen. They handed out masks to those who didn’t have compliant masks. Note that bandanas, neck gaiters, and masks with vents are not permitted on US flights. The crew also gave each passenger a small bottle of hand sanitizer as well as alcohol wipes. The plane was fairly spotless, including the bathrooms. During the flight, one of the stewardesses came over to thank frequent fliers for returning to fly with the airline. She seemed greatly appreciative as the crew had been furloughed for a few months.
Get Your Motor Runnin, Head Out on the Highway
Those of you who rank a little lower on the Covid Scale, may choose to remain firmly planted on the ground. A few of my friends chose to make decidedly long road trips exceeding a thousand miles of driving in order to avoid planes. This amount of travel allows you to see more, particularly what the ground looks like in fly-over country. As mentioned earlier, you do have to check with your destination state’s local guidelines. For example, a friend of mine was driving back to New York from Utah and when he drove over the Wyoming border, both he and his wife received text messages. Wyoming was conducting automatic contact tracing. The text message wanted to ascertain where they were coming from as Utah had a big surge this summer and Wyoming wanted to avoid the same fate.
While hiking and camping in Colorado, I decided to stay a couple nights in various hotels between my hikes. Your mileage may vary with how clean the hotels are. However, all staff observed social distancing and mask wearing. That’s one thing I can say about Colorado. That state was not messing around with mask wearing and appeared to be much more serious than even the New York metro area. Even in the extremely rural Colorado mountains, everyone adhered to the rules. I was impressed.
It appears that a good number of people have taken to the roads and taken up camping and hiking. For example, buying or renting a bear canister (a device to prevent bears from eating your food) was extremely difficult this summer, pretty much all over the country. Hiking and camping is by definition a socially distant activity. There is a high probability that skiing could take the place of hiking and we will see a massive surge of skiers this coming winter. After all, skiing is the ideal pandemic activity with people already wearing masks and goggles. Also, if you come within 6 feet of someone, congratulations, you’ve crashed!
Now You’re Ready to Go
Whatever your chosen activity, traveling during the pandemic is not impossible. It’s just different and we must all adapt. The key things to remember are to check the guidelines of the destination. You don’t want to get stuck with an airplane ticket or hotel which you won’t use. It doesn’t suffice to simply check the state’s guidelines but also the local city and county guidelines. While traveling abroad, do make sure to respect local laws and mandates. If a country states to quarantine, they do so for a reason. After all, travelers not respecting these guidelines are how this virus spread globally in the first place. No matter where you are, always observe social distancing and wear a mask. This shows not only respect but also protects others from getting sick.
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