Back in January I asked you guys for advise in planning a road trip down Highway 1. I haven’t booked any hotels or anything yet, which was probably a good thing with the whole COVID-19 thing. With that in mind, I’m thinking it would probably be a good idea to delay my trip a bit, and take it in say late August or early September. I know it’s impossible to predict the future, but do you think it’s safe to assume that things will be back to normal by then?
Part of me wishes I could just go now – hotels in Santa Cruz, a block from the Boardwalk, are dirt cheap right now. Of course that would go completely against the stay at home order, and with everything being closed that wouldn’t make for a fun vacation anyway.
BTW, I decided to just keep things simple, and rather than planning every detail I’ll just do 2 nights in Santa Cruz, 2 nights in Monterey, 2 nights in SLO or Morro Bay, and 2 nights in Santa Barbara, and I’ll just figure out what I want to do when I get there.
I have been wondering the same thing. Our annual family trip, this year to the Gulf Coast, was supposed to be the first week of June. Well no way that’s happening.
Now I’m wondering if trying to plan something closer to home for the week of July 25 would be a safe bet.
I have a trip planned for mid-late June. I’m waiting to hear what’ll be open and what’ll be closed for the period of time I’m gone before I make any big decisions. If stuff is open, I’m going.
I have plans to attend a needlework convention in Tucson in August. The organizers have admitted they don’t know if it will happen. A lot could happen between now and August, but I have doubts that things will be normalish by then.
Once the shelter in place order is lifted and things like National Parks are generally open for business I plan on hitting the road. Not only as a cure for my held-in-check wanderlust, but I know all of the businesses along the way need all the support they can get.
I think the answer to “is it safe” (taking “safe” to mean a reasonable confidence that you’ll actually be able to take the trip) is an unqualified no.
It’s plausible to me that things might have started to open up in that timeframe. But it’s equally plausible to me that we’ll still be in the thick of things and just as closed off as we are now. If that happens the economic consequences would be horrifying, but I don’t think it can be ruled out at this point.
I’m not even going to push back that much against Alessan’s tourism related industry existence question. That would be shocking, but we’re in pretty unchartered territory right now.
Most NP’s are open, but visitors centers generally closed and guided tours/events generally on hold. So yeah, when they fully open is also when we’d go.
Members of our extended family planned a June trip to Europe. We backed out back in February without putting any money down, others put down money. Last I heard some still planned to go, but no way would I do reservations that far in advance for any trip prior to COVID being largely defeated with a vaccine and/or highly effective treatments which is probably not likely within this year. If it’s just burned out or effectively largely kept out of a particular area it would be very much play it by ear on shorter notice.
When we road trip I plan it out in (notorious) detail, but don’t actually make the hotel reservations till a few days in advance; I don’t even make all the reservations for the trip before we leave home. That method will probably be well adapted to conditions on any trip this year, along with careful attention to news sources to avoid any areas that are hot spots as of say late technical summer after Labor Day, which I’m tentatively targeting.
I think saying we don’t know if hotels and airlines will exist in 4 months is perhaps getting a bit carried away, or alternatively we never know that 100% for sure (especially including the possibility of dropping dead in any given 4 months without COVID )
That’s the thing, I’m the type of person who likes to make reservations months in advance. I’d get stressed out not knowing if the place I want to stay will have rooms available when I want to go. I know, I could try for one of those last minute Priceline deals, but I like knowing exactly where I’ll be staying well in advance.
Some musician buddies and I have an annual roadtrip for a sort of camping and jamming retreat over Memorial Day Weekend. It’s rural and we don’t need hotels or airlines but I’m wondering if we’ll be safe just driving together and hanging out by then. Right now, it looks like it won’t.
We had a bicycle trip planned for the coast north of San Francisco in May. We don’t need much other than grocery stores and restaurants, which are probably still open now, and the State Park campgrounds, which are all presently closed. Of course, the Stay-at-Home order over-rides everything, and we would not want to risk infecting ourselves, or others along the way, until things are more clear, so the trip for now is on the bubble. Fortunately, we have not invested anything other than some time in planning.
That’s one of the problems with this whole situation - the uncertainty is exceedingly high, so it is very difficult to predict when anything will be in a place where anyone can commit to anything.
Won’t most hotels let you cancel anyway, unless you booked at a special “pay in advance, no cancellations” rate? If there’s no airfare involved, I don’t see how you have that much to lose.
I would probably be hesitant even if they open back up, because that’s too soon for vaccination to exist yet, and thus it’s likely there would be another outbreak. The best model I’ve seen recommends that we keep closed for a while, then reopen until there is a new outbreak, then close back up again, and repeat until we don’t have to do that anymore.
That said, I’m more cautious than most due to living with at least one if not two at risk people. I’m worried not only about the virus, but also whether she can get the treatment she needs.
We made plans back in November for a trip to Hawai’i this year in October. I’m not at all sure that we’re going to be able to make it. Both the cancel and change options at Hawaiian Airlines would want us to use any credit certificate against a future flight which must take place by November - one year after the original purchase date.
Then there’s the two-week quarantine for visitors to Hawai’i going on now and who knows for how long.
At this point, I’m fairly sure we’re not going, and that we’re going to have to eat the airfare.
This was going to be our last visit to Hawai’i, as a five hour flight is getting a bit arduous for us as we get older.
This is unfortunately true. There has only been a modest amount of discussion about this but without way more support than this “stimulus” package is providing many small businesses (which is all non-chain restaurants, B&Bs, and various sport and leisure businesses) just aren’t going to be able to pay their basic expenses much less keep people employed. I wouldn’t make any vacation plans at this point that don’t involve roughing it or improvising as you go along, and I wouldn’t lay down any big deposits that you’d miss if the business goes bankrupt. This is why we need a complete nationwide freeze on rent, mortgage, and other loan payments, basic income assurances (not a one time payment but enough income to at least survive on), and a metric fuckton of post-epidemic business investment that doesn’t go to Fortune 500 companies and investment banks.
That is really the nightmare scenario from an economic standpoint because it would undermine any effort at recovery. Hopefully we can get universal antibody testing so people know whether or not they are immunized and at least part of the economy can still function.
Look into buying or renting an RV. There should be good deals available as lot of people will be hurting for money. Give it a thorough cleaning. Then you don’t need to worry about catching COVID-19 in a motel or restaurants (cook and sleep in the RV).
People will tired of stay at home regulations in a month or so and COVID-19 will not be gone by then. It will then increase rapidly. I don’t see any improvement for at least 18 months when there is a possibility of a vaccine.
We’re in the UK, and have already (obviously) lost our easter trip to Thailand. Our July trip to Hungary is most likely going to be cancelled, we’re waiting for the airline to cancel and refund the flights. So far we’re looking at christmas in Honolulu now…
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