Coronavirus: To Travel Or Not

It’s been awhile since we’ve been able to do much travelling. We did get a quick trip in at the beginning of March, but we’re unsure about a couple of future travel plans. We’re hopeful we can make them work, but at the same time we want to be careful.

I know that many people are still unsure about travelling at the current time. Millions of people move through airports and airplanes, and it’s really easy for germs to spread in such circumstances. It’s understandable that people would not want to travel at the current time.

Our next big trip is planned for July, and we’d really like to take that trip. It’s here within the United States - not internationally, and it’s to a location that I wouldn’t expect a lot of people in with the current situation. However, we’re still two months away and it’s unclear what the situation will look like at that time.

Like many people I know, we’re unsure what is going to happen. We know there won’t be a vaccine at the time, but how widespread and active will the virus be? That’s the first big question we’re unsure on. The second question is about what type of quarantines will be in place at the time. If everything is closed, and there’s nothing to do, then it obviously doesn’t make sense for us to take the trip.

What you have to figure out and discuss with your family is what you feel about the virus and about getting sick. Our family doesn’t see anyone that is at high risk at all - we’re almost always home, and if we needed to quarantine afterwards for 14 days, we could do so without problem. 

Beyond that, at some point we’re likely to contract the virus. Vaccines are a ways away, and in the fall we’ll have a kid in school, a kid in daycare, a parent in university, and a parent at work every day. Obviously, those things could change as things progress, but that’s likely to be the case. We’re not going to have a vaccine by that point in time, so that will go into our assessment as well.

At the current time, we’re feeling more comfortable about our vacation in July than we are for another vacation we have later in the year. Our vacation for later in the year is to a place that is currently shut down, and that is a high traffic area. That vacation is a bit less clear to us at the moment as to whether or not it will happen. There’s still a lot of time until we have to decide on that, so we’ll see how it goes.

We’re big fans of travel here, but we’ve been remaining at home over the past couple of months. We’ll continue to follow the guidance of the health experts in the country as we make our decisions, even if it means that we’re not able to travel to the places we were hoping to. In the long run, the health and safety of our family and others around us is most important.

Happy home isolation and stay safe out there!