I thought of posting something like this last night, and when I responded to the thread started by @conmama I figured this kind of goes with that, but I didn’t want to hijack her thread.
I’ll start -
We were scheduled to go to Italy this summer, but we won’t go there anytime soon.
We will likely stick to places in the U.S and Canada, and we will stick to places we can travel to by car until they figure out how to social distance better during airline travel.
In the near term my guess is we will travel to natural places where people can spread out, including some of the national parks we haven’t been to, as opposed to (other) tourist destinations where many people congregate close together.
We will also likely make a trip through NC, to check out multiple potential retirement places.
We might be willing to do a beach trip, but only during the off season, so it’s not so crowded.
ETA - it looks like people are providing similar info. on the similar thread. Mods, Feel free to delete this one if you think it’s appropriate.
There is a reasonable, but not certain, chance that this will happen sooner than a vaccine. If so, then it can help people make more informed decisions than they can now.
Right now, many people see it as a (negative) lottery of unknown odds. If the odds were well known due to better information, and lower for bad outcomes (not just death) due to better medical knowledge of observation and treatment, then more people will be willing to travel than now.
But there is no guarantee that this will happen or when it will happen, so people (and organizations like colleges and governments) are still waiting and considering various possible scenarios.
My job requires travel, often by air. Once things start up again, I will have no choice. I will wear a mask and take what precautions I can but I am not that worried. As someone earlier said, I “think” we all had it in my family but would love to take an antibody test to be sure.
I’m driving cross country in mid-September for the birth of my first grandchild. Then I’m staying a month. Luckily, I booked a house there which at the time was done for economy and comfort and now is great for keeping away from other people.
As for the trip cross country, I have thought about how to avoid the virus in hotels. Lots of Lysol spray and washing hands and avoiding the lobby and the breakfast room.
Meals will be take out and I may keep a cooler in the back of my van for lunches at picnic stops.
I am really looking forward to just driving the open road. I feel claustrophobic shut up in my neighborhood and seeing the same things day after day.
No travel for us until next spring at the earliest, unless a car trip to see children and grandchildren. At the moment all are close enough we could do the drive without a hotel stop.
We do a whole lot of business and pleasure travel. Fortunately for us, the business travel isn’t required. We spend the summer in Europe.
Last travel was by plane to help out with a grandchildcare emergency, returned mid Feb. I only made that trip because of the childcare issue, and at that point we decided against previously planned visits with friends and family, including a college graduation, during the spring and any overseas travel spring/summer. European friends cancelled their Easter trip to us before we all went SIP.
Who knows what will happen in the next twelve to eighteen months? There isn’t that much we can do to help out in this pandemic, but since we don’t have anywhere we really have to be, I think the best help we can give is staying home, avoiding international airports, and not taking a chance on spreading the virus around unnecessarily. I’m certainly willing to reevaluate if the situation changes significantly, but trying to be psychologically prepared for a really long home stay.
eta if a hotel stop were required to see children and grandchildren, we would do that. If they had an emergency that required a plane ride, we’d do that as well. We are just in a situation that shouldn’t be necessary.
My Dh was set to take over much of the European travel for his team this fall. Now all travel has been stopped indefinitely, and that’s how we’re approaching family travel as well. We were hoping to take a family trip to the beach this summer, but that’s off the table. DEFINITELY no cruises! There are alot of nice places we can get to by car from our hometown. We can get to the beach, or the mountains in just a few hours. So once things calm down (hopefully), I would be willing to at least entertain options. I would choose a private rental over a large resort however.
Our plan for getting S19 back up to school is to drive there. If we allow him a car, Dh will just rent a car to drive back. If we don’t leave the car w/ S, Dh will just drive back home. A night in a hotel will be required but that’s not as big a deal as flying.
S19 is planning on at least beginning the study abroad process this fall. He can start going to meetings and filling out paperwork, but we’ve already told him he can’t say yes to anything. We’re not allowing him to go unless there’s a reliable vax.
@1214mom which routes did you guys plan on doing with the Bike trip in northern Italy?
My daughter went on a bike trip with my Italian BFF family (whose daughter is also my D’s BFF). They biked 50 miles from the Italy to Austria, then took the train back. They also did a lot of biking in Tre Cime di Lavaredo. This is what we planned to do this summer with my friend’s family, after a few days in Rome. But now it’s like a dream.
All this travel talks make me long for the day when this crisis becomes a distant past.
I moved our annual St. John USVI trip from mid-May to late July. I’m comfortable with that. I had many business and personal trips that had to be canceled this spring. Right now we are planning to take a short, non-stop flight to Florida later in May and will stay in a VRBO condo. We will be able to walk on the beach and have a change of scenery. We’re fine with take out meals and won’t be hanging out in bars.
I doubt that my business travel will resume before late summer or fall.
My daughter has her wedding planned for November in New Orleans and we are all worried about whether that can happen.
Using a public restroom or public transport (air, road or water) would be the biggest deterrent for most. After reading so much about hygiene issues during last few weeks, putting foot in one would take courage.
We have put all leisure travel on hold at least for the rest of this year. We had planned to take a big family trip to Europe in the September/October time frame, but I had procrastinated buying tickets once I started hearing more about this virus, so I never made specific plans.
My big dilemma with travel involves settling my mother’s estate. She passed away last October in Tennessee and my sister and I both live in California. We had been flying there about once a month to work on the huge task of clearing out her house to get it ready to sell. We were last there at the beginning of March, before things started getting shut down everywhere. We had another trip planned for this month which we cancelled and right now we have one scheduled for later next month. I don’t know if we’ll be taking that one either, especially since the airlines keep changing or canceling flights. It makes me very uneasy since the house is sitting there vacant. Also, we would obviously rather get the estate settled sooner rather than later. We really don’t know what to do, but will probably end up traveling there and just trying to be as cautious as we can.
Not all buses or trains are crowded (or (worse) crush-loaded). I have been on plenty where the density of people was way less than in a taxi or rideshare.
I never use a taxi or rideshare either. I think public transportation will be the Typhoid Mary of getting around. You just can’t control how close you will be to other people.
We tend to travel quite a bit, especially internationally. H travels a lot for work - he’s usually gone three weeks in a month. I used to joke that Hilton hotels are his home. All of that is now on hold - who knows for how long!
We have to move D into her new city for residency in early June. Trying to figure out how that would work. It’s a long drive and we’ll likely stay there for a few days trying to get settled in before driving back. Do we rent a home? Or stay at a hilton someplace? This is making me very very nervous…
I’m not that worried about air travel. I will wear a mask, wipe down everything in sight, put down the lid of the airplane toilet before flushing, and change & bag clothes and shower once I get where I’m going. I’m more worried about staying in a hotel. Its not realistic (at least for me), to stay at that heightened level of awareness the entire time of my stay. My spouse read what Marriott is doing to disinfect and feels comfortable with that, me not so much.
I was just getting ready to start planning a trip from San Diego to SF on PCH end of Sept into October. Not going to go now. It’ll still be there next year.
My mom, who usually comes north for about 4 weeks every summer is staying out.
We also love to travel and had talked about a trip to Italy in October/November, but never got passed the planning stage. I think all of our trips for the next year will be by car. H and I adore road trips and there is so much to see here in California and all of the west to keep us busy. We may just start out with some camping trips before we stay at hotels.
We would really like to do another 2 1/2 week trip next February like the one we did before everything went crazy in the world to ski the west again. We would go back to ski in Colorado, Utah, Montana and Wyoming. We will wait and see what the ski resorts decide to do later in the year before booking anything.
DH and I were hoping for a fall trip to southern Italy/Sicily… we’ll keep an eye on the conditions/offers. Not counting on a vaccine anytime soon. DH – we believe – had Covid and we hope for an antibody test to make any decisions should international travel become an option next September/October.
We have an annual camping trip to Aspen, Colorado scheduled for July with 2 other couples. We’re cautiously optimistic we can make that happen.