What are your thoughts about travel in the time of Covid?

The Easterly, Pangea, 3 Palms, Whiskey Business. Most within a few miles from RC Club.

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Well, since the island itself is only 32 square miles in size, yep, only a few miles from - anywhere! :wink:

We’re in the Northeast of the island, but we have a rental car.

You’ll probably need to head back past the airport. We were the exact opposite direction.

I’ve been looking them up. They’re in or near Red Hook, which is on the eastern end. They aren’t far from us. We’re near Coral World.

Sunset Grille, Agave, Caribbean Fish Market- we generally eat one great meal each day- we are light breakfast/ lunch eaters.

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We went to St. John’s several times with my parents for extended Thanksgiving vacations. It might be worth taking the ferry over.

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I would definitely recommend going over to St. John at least once and maybe even St. Croix since you are there for so long. Each island has its own personality. There is a place on St. Thomas that has made custom sandals for decades- Zora’s. The original craftswoman might be retired or deceased, but the business is still ongoing and wonderful.

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I am currently in Mexico as my best friend winters here, and other plans got rearranged. The locals mask, carefully temp check and give hand gel on entrance to indoor spaces and markets. Sidewalks are narrow and I appreciate outside masking which is not needed in my home city, where we distance in sidewalks and in stores.

Gringos are less compliant and a bigger concern.

My friend got Covid before I arrived, from another foreigner. She is fine now. We masked and stayed outside for the first few days after I arrived. Open air restaurants make life easier.

I am crossing fingers for a negative test prior to departure next week. But I found it relatively easy to get insurance to cover a hotel stay if quarantine is needed.

Personally I am happy with masking and fewer colds, much less Covid. I have immunocompromised friends as well as friends caring for the elderly so am settled into masking being my lifestyle for at least the short term and probably longer.

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@Twoin18, very helpful article. Thanks. I purchased a bunch of KN95 masks that were designed by a Stanford prof using nanotechnology so it is much easier to breath. I have been wearing one whenever I encounter folks indoors (stores etc.) and even an outdoor farmers market where folks don’t understand social distancing. I had heard the 5 minutes for Omicron transmission, but this article suggests things are a little better than that.

@dietz199, what my friends in the airline industry have been saying is that generally the plane is quite safe because of the filtration except if one or more of the people sitting adjacent to you are infected because, I assume, you will likely be getting their droplets before they get sucked into the filtration system. The airports are another story. People walking around with chin-coverings or no masks at all in domestic airports. I think staying away from people is the best solution, when that is possible. As I have written earlier, some airline lounges are even worse than the airport – lots of folks crammed into the space all drinking and hence no masks at all with no special filtration.

After a period of significant isolation starting with Omicron, I will be heading into a several days of negotiation to close a deal – probably in Amsterdam. I am guessing the protocol will be lateral flow test every morning. Later on, I will be heading to London and will be working with a client and meeting former clients and clients whom I haven’t seen for a couple of years and everyone is eager to take me out for lunch/dinner/coffee, so I assume everyone is comfortable being unmasked there. Interesting.

That article is based on work in March 2021, well before Omicron, and in any case is only a relative length of time analysis. As I understand it, the researchers (who work on occupational masking in industrial settings) simply took the original CDC guidance of “close contact” (within 6 feet for 15 mins) and measured what proportion of particles are filtered out. So if 50% are eliminated then you get 30 mins instead of 15.

On the other hand, if Omicron is three times more transmissible (and you make the perhaps overly simplifying assumption that the close contact definition is 5 minutes instead of 15), the 2.5 hours of “safety” from N95 (which isn’t really the case since time to infection is a statistical distribution) comes down to 50 minutes.

@bgbg4us and @toledo, we did the roughly 1500 mile drive from Boston to Florida in 2 days. 12 or thirteen hours the first day and then 9 the second day as we were meeting friends for dinner on Long Boat Key.

We brought two days of lunches in the car. We stopped at Starbucks roughly every three-four hours for a) caffeine (I’m addicted); and b) clean bathrooms and generally good mask utilization. We packed dinner in a cooler for the first night and stayed at one of the suite hotels where the rooms have a kitchen. We did the same last year. I have a Starbucks app and just looked for spots on or near the highway in our time frame for stopping.

One big learning. My car has “sport seats” that came with a sports package, I believe. They are incredibly comfortable for long drives compared to my wife’s luxury SUV seats.

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This island is growing on me. Spent the morning half walking on one side of where we are and setting up a scuba trip for Sunday. Did an online funeral service in the middle. Waited out some tropical showers, then spent the afternoon snorkeling off a small (not famous) beach. The coral here took a big hit during the hurricanes, but it was nice seeing some returning. Capping off our time in the water - right before we went back to shore - saw a nice big Eagle Ray. There were several usual fishes too - Parrot Fish, Tangs, Squirrelfish, Hogfish, Bluehead Wrasse (my personal favorite I think), and more.

Hoping all who want to get away this winter - tropical or skiing or wherever - gets to. Traveling is such a recharge for me and my family.

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Bluehead Wrasse are one of my favs. Hogfish too, except I prefer them grilled :grinning:

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thanks

There were plenty grilling size that we saw off this beach. My lunch today was a very tasty Mahi Mahi sandwich. Someone else caught it though.

After not flying anywhere for more than 2 years, I am once again reminded why I hate air travel.

We are traveling to KW in April. At the time of booking, I paid for a more expensive fare in order to get a direct flight. My D20 is flying from BOS (with a connection in PHL) and I made sure to book us to be on that flight out of PHL so we could arrive together (normally we would fly out of EWR).

I just got notification from AA that we have been rebooked on a later flight that connects in MIA, and my D is on a completely different set of flights now. We now have a connection, which I abhor, arrive 4 hours later than planned and arrive 2 hours before my D. The good news is AA was happy to inform me that “there is no additional charge associated with this change” :roll_eyes:

Is it even worth calling AA and trying to rearrange things to at least get on D’s flight?

I think it’s worth calling, but be prepared for it to take a long time to reach someone. I usually take the option to have them call you back so you can get on with your life in the meanwhile. Of course then I’m tethered to my phone all day but it’s worked for me.

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I think it’s worth calling. I had an original flight canceled and then changed several times (I booked it a year in advance). There were certain alternate flights that I could rebook myself on for no charge via the website, but not the one at the (popular) time I wanted. I called and was pleasant to the agent (explained that the original flight had been changed several times) and she was able to rebook me to the flight I wanted. I did have to pay but it was only $40 (worth it not to have to sit in the airport for 12 hours).

I agree with letting them call you back. Play up the fact that your D is traveling alone, and you want to try and arrive together.

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Thank you. On @Corinthian advice I did just that. I looked on expedia and the flight my D is on is now priced at $2500, so I’m not holding out much hope, but I guess they can’t say yes if I don’t at least ask, right?

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I think you have a better chance of getting it done if you explain how hard you worked to make the arrangements you had, and that the airline caused the issue with changes, not you.
I hope it works. Sometimes I’ve been successful with this kind of thing, and sometimes not.

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