Traveling During the Pandemic

Just when I started to love traveling and was conquering my fear of flying, the whole world shut down. Travel wasn’t to be had. Our trip to Europe for our second river cruise was put on hold. Safety is the number one concern among all of us during this fragile time in our world. The virus has been relentless. We have a second home about 3 1/2 hours from our primary residence where we are fortunate to be able to seek refuge at during this time. It’s in a beautiful part of Texas among the pine trees and filled with nature. We enjoy going there for long weekends about once every month or two. All safety protocols are adhered to at the facilities there.

Our first “real” trip during the pandemic was a trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. We would be staying in a private home and were confident that we could stay pretty isolated as a family. We traveled on American Airlines and felt completely safe the entire time. Everyone wore masks from the moment of stepping into the airport in Dallas until stepping into our rental property in Cabo. Everywhere we looked, the utmost of safety precautions were being followed. We thought that it was actually adhered to even more in Mexico that it was at home. For instance, they have you wash the bottoms of your shoes when going into stores. They take your temperature upon entrance. Social distancing was observed everywhere, including at the few restaurants that we went into.

The beautiful sunset in Cabo.

My husband and I took our next big trip to Hawaii in December, 2020 for our 30th wedding anniversary. In order to travel to Hawaii, everyone must take a Covid-19 test within 72 hours of travel. This made us feel very safe to be on the plane for almost 9 hours (with masks) and knowing that everyone else traveling had tested negative too. We went to the island of Maui for our trip. We did a lot of outdoor hikes and visits to places that kept us in the fresh air most of the time. A lot of our favorite restaurants were closed due to the pandemic and limited tourism was happening. We were still able to have a wonderful vacation and felt perfectly safe the entire time.

There’s always so much outdoor activity in Hawaii.

We’ve taken two more trips to Cabo during the pandemic (New Year’s week and actually right now). It’s actually been quite nice because everything is less crowded, and if you’ve ever been to Cabo then you know it can get really busy here. We’re currently on a vacation now and feel as safe as possible. Every safety measure is taken at every establishment that we go to. If you’ve never been here you may want to consider it if you’re wanting to travel again soon. The flight is only about 2 1/2 hours from Dallas, so it makes perfect sense to us (especially traveling with a tot).

A newly added precaution has been implemented with travel back into the United States from Mexico and many other countries. You must take a Covid test within 72 hours of travel back home and test negative. They do offer testing sites and testing at some of the hotels in order to keep business going and make it convenient for their tourists. My husband and son even had to take a test in order to play golf at one of the private golf courses here.

With everything being said here in my post about my personal experience with traveling during the pandemic, I must add that we all need to do what is right for us and what we feel most comfortable with. They’re finally getting larger numbers of vaccines produced and more people vaccinated every day. We still wear our masks everywhere we go and will continue to do so, no matter what our governor recommends in the great state of Texas.