Risk vs Reward: Reflections on Pandemic Travel

 RISK VS REWARD: REFLECTIONS ON PANDEMIC TRAVEL

Risk: a situation involving exposure to danger

Reward: a satisfying return on an investment

Yes...we packed a half million masks for each trip to help mitigate the risks!

We were fortunate and blessed to have spent the past 5 months traveling (mostly in our state) during this pandemic time.  We spent 17 nights in hotels, visited in 12 cities, and were away from our home for 25 days.  We took 8 trips, and did not have to cancel any of them that we had previously booked.

It is a very very scary time in 2020.  As I type this blog the COVID numbers in the US, as well as all over the world are increasing at a rapid rate. Almost  49 million cases, over 1.2  million deaths around the globe.  Yesterday over 100,000 new cases in the United States. This is real.  It is not something to be cavalier about.  And we are not.

However, we chose to  travel in a very safe way. We were not reckless about how we vacationed.  We spent a lot of our travel time outdoors.  We knew that every single time we left the confines of our home we potentially could be putting our health in danger. We thought carefully about each trip.  We considered all potential issues that might crop up. We knew that even in a world pre COVID that there were dangerous things that could happen to us.  We are not young...stuff can happen. We do not have any older adults in our family that we see, and we live alone in our home.  Traveling can not work for everyone.  Circumstances are unique to each family. 

We could have stayed home. We chose to explore. Now that our travel has finished for the year...I am glad we did not stay home.  The risks were there...but the rewards were many.  We also felt good about supporting other communities in addition to our own that we continue to support.  We have been home from our final trip for over 2 weeks, and both of us remain healthy. Our immediate family remains healthy.  We are some of the lucky ones. 

Our travel planning remained constant thru the eight  trips.  1. Find a good hotel in the best location.  For most trips that was a Choice Hotel, as I was an employee. 2. Look for great places to hike easily or walk around outdoors. 3. Check out historical places, or something that we could learn that is in that area. 4. Look for wineries and breweries to check out. 5. Investigate places to eat...but wait until arrival to determine what locals say. 6. Verify days/hours at every single place we planned to go.  During a pandemic hours and days are very limited.  From there, we sketched out a daily plan...that we largely stuck with.  7.  Call the hotel to check out COVID precautions, and what we could expect would be available as far as amenities.  

Our trips were not without concerns.  Two places we went (out of the many we visited) were out of our comfort level.  The boat cruise on Lake George had too many people.  The later night at the rooftop bar at Curtiss Hotel was busier than we liked.  In both places...masks were worn, and people did social distance, but we were not comfortable and left as soon as we could. 

Our travel is over for now.  The numbers in our home community, as well as all over the world are getting higher.  It was predicted.  Life has moved inside which allows germs to travel about unchecked.  It is no longer a time that we feel comfortable leaving our home. 

But...as this long, cold winter season looms upon us...the memories of the places we explored remain in our hearts.  It warms us through all of the darkness in this country and in this world.  For 25 days we were successful in literally escaping reality.   We were fortunate.  We might not have been.  Every trip we returned I monitored our symptoms (none), and watched the calendar for 14 days.  Is that really a way to live????  Maybe not, but it was the way we chose to live the first part of this pandemic.  Things are different now...travel won't work safely for us, but hopefully  THIS TOO SHALL PASS. 🙏🙏🙏

In State Memories:

Albany

Buffalo

Cooperstown

Fishkill

Hyde Park

Lake George

Lake Placid

New Paltz

Niagara Falls

Poughkeepsie

Out of State Memories:

Lynchburg, VA

Shippensburg, PA

We will be so glad when  all of our lives are no longer dictated by Coronovirus!!!

We have booked trips for 2021.   All of the trips except one require airline travel.  At this juncture it does not seem that 2021 will be any kinder to us than 2020...but we remain hopeful.  Our booked trips are Turks and Caicos with friends in April, Boston in August, Australia and New Zealand in October, and a Rhine River Cruise with friends in Nov./Dec.  Those are all booked (and paid for...😞). ***Edited 8/27 to add that every single one of those trips except Boston were cancelled.  We added in some new ones, but so far have not flown yet. 

Risk vs Reward...we know booking future travel is very risky.  In most cases we rolled those over from 2020.  We are taking the chance that we can travel...and will move them to 2022 if we can't. Yes, the money is tied up, which is nerve wracking and risky. We are hoping that the companies don't go belly up in the meantime...(***Edit 12/8...Yup, our Australia trip tour operator sadly had to go out of business.  He told us to dispute our completely paid trip with the credit card companies.  We successfully recovered all money.  Note...use a credit card always when booking travel!!!) (Edit 3/2021..Cancelled Turks and Caicos.  We will not deal with testing to return to the US)

(Another edit 4/17...Cancelled our Rhine River Cruise and received complete refund.  It did not cancel, but the restrictions were more than we were willing to deal with...stay with our tour group and not go off on our own...)

Boston is still a go at this time, and we have added Geneva, Thousand Islands,  Schenectady, and Virginia.

Our state has new quarantine/testing mandates now in effect for travel outside of the state.  There are many hoops to jump through should we decide to leave our state.  Too many hoops for my comfort level of traveling without a ton of extra things to think about.  I remain super happy that we have completed our planned 2020 travel, and look forward to the next time that we can safely travel again.