i booked a Delta flight for early August, as my Peace Corps evacuated D and SIL are returning to jobs on the East Coast. The tentative plan is for me to drive with them and fly home on the single non stop flight into my town. It was dirt cheap and changeable. However now I am re routed and there are two flights and two airports. Not sure what I’ll do.
I have booked a trip to Club Med for Memorial Day. I cancelled the trip in March through my travel agent. It was taking them a long to refund and they were not going to refund my member fee(s). I called up Amex and they refunded me everything. Last week I got an email from Amex to let me know that the travel had refunded my trip (minus the membership fee), but AmEx told me I would get full refun.
I have a direct flight scheduled to Nashville next week on SW. Still deciding.
Our governor is chatting with the Governor of Alaska to figure out how they plan to safely reopen travel, so we may follow a similar course. Will report when they release details on how folks can avoid the 14 day quarantine. I believe it will involve having a negative test shortly before flying and also providing contact info during stay in our state.
A tourist from Oklahoma died in the ocean near Diamond Head, east of Honolulu, in an attempt to evade the Hawaii quarantine rule.
https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/Tourist-dies-in-ocean-in-while-defying-Hawaii-15357992.php
I just returned from a road trip to Yellowstone National Park. Visitation is less than half of usual, which was great. However by the end of the week, traffic in the park had definitely increased. I would say only half of the visitors were wearing masks. (All park and Xanterra employees were wearing masks ). The restrooms were kept very clean with full soap and hand sanitizer containers. Fortunately Yellowstone is huge and there were plenty of places where we were the only people enjoying the views and wildlife. Old Faithful was too crowded for me as were some of the popular geyser areas.
In Jackson, Wyoming all hotels and motels had vacancies (which is very unusual). Lodges in Yellowstone had vacancies, which is extremely unusual. Rooms are generally booked a year in advance.
The shops in Jackson all had face masks available and mandatory before entering.
All dining in the park was take out only. In-restaurant dining was available in Jackson, West Yellowstone and Gardiner. Tables were well spaced out and waitstaff were all masked. In two places we were the only diners.
People did seem to forget about COVID 19 at the ‘bear jams’. In the excitement to see a grizzly, people jumped out of their cars and crowded together to get a good look (which is really dumb on a couple of levels).
All in all though it was a much needed mental health break. We stayed distanced from all people. It was lovely to travel into a national park like in the days of my childhood without tour buses, without the need for year ahead reservations, with very little traffic and the chance to enjoy peace and quiet.
Yes, we drove. It’s safer than being crowded in a plane.
We just tacked on an additional week in Hawaii in February so even if we have to quarantine for 14 days we will still have 2 weeks to enjoy the island. It would be great though if they figure out a different way.
Hope you booked a very large hotel room (as far as I know, private party lodging bookings are still not allowed, and neighbors are watching and reporting).
https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/06/surviving-hawaiis-14-day-mandatory-quarantine/
@TatinG - Your trip sounds wonderful! We stayed in West Yellowstone in February and toured the park in a snow coach which was fantastic. We were also in Jackson in February as it was our last ski stop before we ended our 18 day ski road trip in the west. We returned home at the beginning of March just in time for everything to change. It sounds like this was a great time to visit Yellowstone in the summer.
The trip was great. I saw famous grizzly 399 and her 4 cubs from the safety of my vehicle. I planned the trip around wildlife with just a few geyser basin stops (I’ve been to the park several times before). Previous trips were marred by too many crowds so this trip was much better.
I did my homework. I checked the number of cases in the surrounding counties. I saw that 300 some park employees were tested with no positive cases. Teton County tested 1300 people recently with no positive cases. And then with the real ability to stay away from people most of the time, Yellowstone and Grand Teton seemed a good spot to visit.
Which island? We’re still mulling our Jan-Mar plans.
@“Youdon’tsay” Let me know how the SW trip goes if you keep it. Looks like we may need to travel in August. SW is our go-to and I’d like to hear how they are managing. Website says middle seats should be empty. That will be big for us. Are the middle seats guaranteed empty?
Southwest is promising middle seats are empty unless a family unit. I’ve already flown Southwest and it was fine. Extremely clean plane and I only saw one older person without a mask- everyone else wore masks for the whole flight.
Good to hear. Thanks.
Hope no one is planning a European trip anytime soon.
‘European Union may bar American travelers as it reopens borders, citing failures on coronavirus’
Same story, slightly different link:
Travel bans or not, I would not want to travel internationally until the global situation with the virus resolves.
I don’t want to travel domestically until the US situation with the virus resolves.
That would actually be good news for us since we might get refunds for our reservations in France and Spain next month.
If they ban US travelers coming to EU countries, then they will likely also ban EU citizens coming here and then returning to the EU.
I think Europe is now safer to travel in than the US… if you get through the flight uninfected, that is. No one in Western Europe is still debating face masks…