My biggest worry about any travel is how quickly things change. We are supposed to go to NJ mid September. Right now, that’s an OK place for us to go to from our state. BUT it’s tourist season and by September that might not be the case.
@mom2and , we live in MA and do not understand why Maine allows NY and NJ residents to visit w/o quarantine, but still requires it for us. Makes no sense.
@MADad, probably has to do with the animosity a lot of Mainers feel towards people from Massachusetts, no joking. Not saying it’s right, but I really think it’s the case.
Is Maine following any kind of metric for which states are on their quarantine list? I know NY/NJ/CT adds/removes states from their list based on certain data.
@flyawayx2, I haven’t heard of any metric.
We should be arriving at a seaside resort south of Barcelona at this moment. 
We have gotten refunds or credits for everything except our return flight from Paris. We have contested that charge so I think we will get it back eventually. At least our trip won’t cost very much when we can go!
@TS0104 I was confused initially while reading about your trip thinking LA meant Louisiana - like, huh? How is Utah on the way from Ohio to Louisiana? 
Are you flying back from LA or driving the rental van back? I may be making the reverse trek next summer when my daughter graduates, if she doesn’t stay in CA afterward.
As for national parks, BIL bought a camper/trailer and drove from CA to east coast (my SIL’s mom on east coast was recently diagnosed with cancer and this was the safest way for them to be able to see her). They left in early June and back then, the shuttle wasn’t running at all. They managed to be one of the last cars to get parking and were able to hike a few trails. They had been there before so fortunately it wasn’t disappointing. He did share a video from one of their hikes at another NP in Utah, can’t remember which one, but the path was very narrow and though it wasn’t crowded, there were definitely points where they had to pass right next to others coming the opposite way and no one in the video is wearing a mask (including my in-laws from what I could tell)! Now I realize this was before the huge surging in the south and masks weren’t being mandated in most of the US at the time, but BIL and his family should have known better coming from CA where they have been wearing masks since April! In fact, much of their behavior on the cross country trip surprised me considering they were going to visit someone being treated for cancer. They leave next week to return home and are taking the northern route on the way back. It will be interesting to see how crowded the places are that they visit, and whether visitors at these places are now wearing masks.
Spain is experiencing a resurgence of the virus since loosening the stay at home restrictions. It’s inevitable. And as here it’s linked to partying at nightclubs and private homes and to groups of migrant fruit pickers.
The article is in the Washington Post.
After seeing these articles, I won’t be planning any trips that involve flying for a good, long time.
https://news.yahoo.com/faa-warns-engines-could-fail-141500435.html
https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2020/07/24/faa-emergency-inspections-boeing-737-corrosion-engine-failures-coronavirus-storage/5501391002/
My niece just returned from Madrid, where she has been since before their initial quarantine. I didn’t realize she was coming back, but I saw something on FB welcoming her back to the US yesterday … so I just she’s here. Maybe she decided to come back when things began to heat up again. The last quarantine was really hard on her, because she got very lonely. They REALLY enforced the quarantine. I will have to ask my brother. I have been avoiding talking to him, because his wife is a piece of work & has been posting crazy stuff on FB … I honestly do not want to know if my own brother actually agrees with her.
I was wondering about all those planes that have been sitting without any use for months (not the MAXes)… and here we go.
Just saw an article that says it will take up to 5-10 years for business travel to recover to pre-Covid levels. Depressing somewhat… Many posters here will be retired by then.
I don’t think business travel will be the same ever again. So much of it is something that can be handled in online meetings, businesses that found this distasteful before, will now embrace it. This is one way that the travel world is changed forever.
@4kids4us , I am flying home (on Southwest, who is not selling middle seats). It will be the riskiest part of the trip in terms of virus, and I’m not looking forward to it! But I don’t think I could handle the drive again so soon, and it would involve at least 3 hotel stays which have their own risks.
We did have to pass by (or be passed by) plenty of people on the trails with no masks. Stand as far away as you can, turn head away kind of thing. People were considerate enough to stop talking as they went by and leave as much space as possible. It felt about the same contact level as grocery shopping pre-mask mandate, but outdoors, and grocery stores are more crowded.
A week from today we will need to drive from northern VA to the Minneapolis area. I had heard that hotels were being super careful and leaving rooms vacant between guests, etc, but that’s not the case. Now we are torn between hotel stays and sleeping in our car/moving truck. We have moved so many times and this is by far the most stressful move yet. Our tentative plan is to stop in Canfield OH and Rockford IL, but who knows if it’ll change as we go.
I would love to live near both of our kids…but…they live 2500 miles apart. The one who lives closer could very well relocate in three years. The one who lives far away lives in a place I don’t want to go to.
I am wondering how Covid is going to affect snowbirds. We have friends with a house in snowbird country. Their plan had been for one spouse to go down in December and stay until March. The other spouse was going to fly down for long weekends twice monthly (that spouse is still working but long weekends twice monthly very doable). With the travel quarantine issues now, however, that long weekend would turn into a long weekend plus 14 day quarantine upon return. Not possible.
Of course snowbird families who live in snowbird land for the winter can quarantine for two weeks at the start of their trip (although the two states I’m talking about don’t require this). You have to wonder what will happen…and especially for higher risk folks who drive from place to place.
Yesterday I drove 4 hours in each direction to pick up my 88 y/o mom for my son’s rescheduled wedding in two weeks. My sister drove her the 2.5 hours to our meeting place. We had to make pitstops at 3 NYS Thruway rest areas where we found everyone wearing masks indoors, sinks blocked off in the restrooms to keep people 6 ft. apart and floor stickers indicating where people should stand at the food counters. Also, most tables and chairs were removed from the outside seating areas. There were hand sanitizer dispensers in at least three locations in each building. We only used the restrooms (brought sandwiches and ate at picnic tables at text stop areas) so felt pretty safe. I did notice that people were removing masks as they exited the building and not waiting until they reached their cars which caused me to give them a wide berth as we walked towards the entrances.
The traffic was not usual Friday afternoon leaving (or returning to) NYC in the summer, but it was exponentially greater than what I experienced driving her to the same point on March 30 after the wedding was originally postponed. This was the furthest from home I have ventured since that date and I miss it. Seriously considering renting something upstate for a couple of weeks just for a change of scenery.
Reading through this thread while there are things that make you shake your head and say “this is why I’m not traveling!!” there are also so many incidences of places really making the effort to make things as safe as possible.
As much improvement as still could be made, it still floors me when I think how a country (or world) that was gobsmacked with this virus has stepped up to the plate and literally, a segment of the population from state to state, region to region has jumped on a bandwagon and “tried” to follow the safety rules.
Who would have ever thought 6 months ago that there would be a world issue that would literally have millions being educated and taking steps to combat largely together.
Since we are shut out from our cottage in Canada we in desperation got wildly lucky and rented an AirBNB near Lake Michigan (in Michigan) for mid August. I think COVID has also given new perspective to the way I view potential properties to rent.
Too much clutter? Carpet? No outside space? No way. I mean I’m pretty picky anyway - I don’t want to rent a place that makes me feel like I’m staying in someone else’s house.
The owner lists the cleaning protocol between guests. We will still clean first before bringing any items in the place. Just one state over so hopefully we have no trouble with any new regulations that may go in place.
I still have flights and a rental for a Europe trip to England and Spain late November. I am clinging to this trip but have given myself until mid September to make the final decision. We may decide to change the destination if need be. Surprisingly my 4 girlfriends are still gung ho for the trip.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/german-cruise-ship-mein-schiff-163052288.html
With 1,200 on broad, setting sail. Wow.