Travel Health Hacks I’m Continuing Even After COVID-19

I took a couple trips in 2020. I know the safest thing I could have done was stay home. But for my mental health, I needed to get out of my house.

I took a long weekend road trip to Michigan. I took a week-long trip to Washington and Montana. And I took an 11-day trip to Utah. All three trips were exclusively outdoor activities like hiking, and takeout or cooking meals at our Airbnb.

I know not everyone will agree with our actions, but we isolated before and after each trip and distanced and wore masks during. We were lucky to have flights with as few as 15 people, but that isn’t a guarantee.

However, I also did a ton of research and planning to help make these trips as safe as we could. And honestly, I’ll probably continue doing many of these things even after COVID. How were we ever comfortable letting strangers breathe on us?!

How to stay healthy while flying during COVID:

Before you book any flight, research the safety protocols of the airline you’re considering (or just ask me since I’ve already done that research). Some aren’t selling middle seats; some are spray sanitizing; some are offering no-fee cancellations or changes. These safety policies are constantly evolving so be sure to check the dates as well. My personal recommendations are Delta and Southwest.

1. The air on a plane circulates top to bottom, not left and right or front to back. So as soon as you get on the plane, open the vent above your seat, then once you get situated make sure it’s pointed right at your nose so that’s the air you are breathing the whole flight. 

2. Most airlines are providing wipes as you board to wipe your area. This is mostly superficial since many airlines are also spray sanitizing and wiping everything before you get on, but it doesn’t hurt. I am sure to double wipe everything I plan on touching, including the seatbelt, the arm rests, the knob that opens the tray table, the tray table itself, and the window cover. If you get a second one or bring your own, I also wipe the seat itself and the headrest.

3. You may not wear a mask with a plastic filter on most airlines, but you should still consider one with a metal noseband and that fits very snugly around your nose and mouth. I even have a few that have fabric carbon filters.

4. Do not remove your mask for any reason. This includes indulging in the free snack and drink the flight attendant might bring you, especially right after they deliver the goodies as that’s when most people will remove their masks.

5. Bring your own snacks and fill your water bottle at the airport after security. Many airport restaurants are closed which crowds the ones that are still open. If you must eat and drink between home and your destination, I have felt most comfortable finding a secluded spot in the airport directly below a vent where I can take my mask off to quickly eat and chug water. Be sure to hydrate and eat prior to leaving your home and have a plan to replenish as soon as you get to your destination.

6. In addition to your mask, some sort of covering for your eyes may give you more peace of mind as well. I wore my simple blue light filter glasses, but some have worn lab goggles or the headband-style plastic shields like medical personnel wear. 

7. This one may seem overkill, but unless you prefer to sleep, sanitize your hands every hour. This may dry out your skin so remember lotion as well.

8. Because you’ll have the air conditioning vent on full blast the entire flight you’ll want long sleeves and long pants. This will also protect your skin from exposure as well. Be sure you change clothes when you arrive in your destination, and if you can, shower. Put on a fresh mask after your shower.

9. Ideally you should drive yourself to the airport and park. Unless you can walk everywhere, you should rent a car upon arrival so you can avoid ride shares and public transportation.

10. If you are the type to wipe down your groceries, you may also want to wipe down your luggage, handles, phone and other items you touched throughout your trip, even if no one else touched it.

How to stay safe while driving:

1. Drive only with your household members. If that is not possible, all people should wear masks and roll the windows down. I did take a Lyft on one of my trips and the driver had no issue with leaving the window down even in chilly weather.

2. Make as few gas, bathroom and food stops as possible and combine stops when you can.

3. Bring food and drinks from home.

4. Wipe down your vehicle before and after your trip. Even if it’s your personal vehicle; all our cars could use a clean anyway, I’m sure.

5. If you are renting a car, drive with the windows down for your first few minutes to make sure it is aired out a bit.

How to stay safe when you arrive at your destination:

1. While there is significant debate over whether a hotel is safer than an Airbnb, I personally feel better about an Airbnb simply for the reason that I can isolate from other people more easily. It’s difficult to keep distance when we’re riding in elevators and sharing hallways and lobbies. In the Airbnb, I can clean and sanitize the home when I arrive.

2. Before you leave home, schedule a grocery delivery to your destination. Another reason for Airbnbs: when you can get groceries delivered and cook for yourself in the kitchen you can interact with fewer people from restaurants.

3. I know take out food is never as good, but it’s safer than eating at restaurants unless it’s on a patio.

4. Choose outdoor activities like hiking, rafting, skiing, climbing, beaching, etc. There are plenty of options, but make sure to practice outdoor safety as well like sunscreen.

5. Wash your hands, bring sanitizer, swap out cloth masks every day (bring at least as many masks as you are underthings).

It feels like there are no hard and fast rules other than wearing a mask. Any of the above precautions could help mitigate your risk of catching or spreading COVID-19. 

If you’re nervous, I’m happy to share my own experiences and discuss the risks and precautions further. 

And if you’d rather avoid planes at all this year, I’m happy to brainstorm a road trip for you.

The Mighty Five: Utah’s National Parks

2020 may have prohibited us from our international travel plans, but it didn’t keep us from exploring. When considering how to travel this year, we knew we wanted to visit more rural locales, and our national parks were an obvious choice.

Only 29 states have national parks, and Utah has five: Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, and Zion. Only Alaska and California have more with eight and nine respectively.

We flew into Las Vegas and were lucky to have only 15 people on our flight and to get upgraded to first class because of that so it wasn’t hard to socially distance on the way. Upon arrival we got an Instacart delivery and rented a car to make the drive to Southern Utah.

Arches National Park

Arches is one of the most accessible parks we’ve visited with a few difficult trails, a few moderate and plenty of easy trails or driveable overlooks. Depending on your pace you could visit all the sights in one day, but I definitely recommend two if you’re going to do any major hiking.

Delicate Arch is the main attraction in the park. If you are physically fit, you should take the challenging three-mile roundtrip hike right up to it. It’s mostly walking up a 30 degree rock face. Once you get to the top, you’ll traverse a wide cliff that will round the corner to the arch. At the base of the arch, the terrain doesn’t flatten out so proper footwear is imperative. However, if that’s not for you, there is a distant overlook with an easy trail that is just the length of a football field.

Delicate is a must if you haven’t seen it in person yet, however it wasn’t our favorite hike in this park. We loved the Double O Arch trail that begins at Devil’s Garden. On your way to Double O you have the opportunity for more than a half a dozen spur trails that will take you up close and personal with other arches like Navajo, Partition, Wall, Tunnel, Pine Tree, Landscape and more. But this trail isn’t about the end view. Cheesy, yes, but it’s about the hike itself. You start on a gravel and sand path for about a mile before scrambling some major rock faces. There were many occasions where the massive boulders we were on dropped 30+ feet on either side. A few times where we got to the end of the rock cliff and were sure that we made a mistake following the trail only to discover that we needed to keep going up an eight-foot cliff, down a five foot face, or hug the rocks around a corner to get to our destination. The mental attention required to navigate this one was immense and it made for an absolute blast!

This trail can be a loop or an out-and-back, and that significantly impacts your mileage. We did an out-and-back to Double O with all of the spurs except Dark Angel and it ended up about 6.5 miles. If we had made it a loop, it would have been closer to 8. But that additional section of the loop is a very primitive trail which we weren’t up for at the time. If we come back, we’ll definitely add it. This is not a trail for those afraid of heights or out of shape, but a top hike for sure. At a minimum, you should trek in far enough to see Landscape and Navajo arches, which would be just about 2.5 miles with only minor scrambling.

Other highlights of the park outside of those two hikes are The Windows, Balanced Rock, Double Arch, Turret Arch, Fiery Furnace (permit required), Broken Arch, Sand Dune Arch, Skyline Arch, and more.

Bryce Canyon National Park

Many people advise that you only need a day in Bryce and I’d agree. But there are plenty of ways to go deeper than the driveable overlooks to make that quite a chunky day. One example is to start at Sunset Point and take the Navajo Trail (take Wall Street if it’s open) to Peekaboo Loop. Once you finish that half of the figure eight, take Queen’s Garden back to Sunrise Point and then follow the rim back to Sunset. It gives a complete experience of everything in Bryce, seeing it from the top and from the bottom of the hoodoo-filed canyon. This eight-miler is tough with a lot of elevation changes, but every turn means new rock formations to admire, tunnels, views and switchbacks galore. There are even arches and windows in this park as well. This was my husband’s favorite hike of our trip because of the constantly changing views. It also didn’t hurt that there was a mini challenge to take photos at three of the checkpoints. He’ll do anything for a sticker.

The elevation ranges from 7,000 to 9,000 feet so that adds to the challenge. Take it slow and bring much more water than you think. It took us about 4.5 hours so snacks or a light lunch are important as well.

Other highlights included Natural Bridge and Ponderosa Canyon which are an easy drive with no hiking required.

Canyonlands National Park

We only spent an afternoon here and felt it was all the time we needed without going deep. There is a lovely little walk to Mesa Arch which is a beautiful arch with an impressive view on the other side. We also enjoyed Grand View Point Overlook and plan to hike Upheaval Dome and explore the southern half when we come back.

Capitol Reef National Park

We planned to visit Capitol Reef, but it’s a bit out of the way and we were feeling tired so we bailed. Next time we visit, we’ll be sure to hit a few of these recommendations from locals: Hickman Natural Bridge, Lower Calf Creek Falls, and the scenic byway 12 for a section called Hell’s backbone. While you’re there, you should plan to check out Goblin Valley State Park as well.

Zion National Park

Zion (rhymes with lion) is one of the most popular National Parks in the country bringing in hoards of tourists. There are a couple major hikes including Angel’s Landing that attract most of the visitors. However, in order to summit Angel’s Landing, there are narrow cliffsides to navigate using chains bolted to the rock. While that in itself is treacherous in the wind or dicey weather, it’s even more unsafe when you consider the crowds of hikers touching the same chains without sanitization. We determined that we would come back for this hike another time.

But our second choice wasn’t a let down at all. As one of the world’s top ten hikes, The Narrows was incredible! The “trail” starts off with a one-mile paved path that follows the Virgin River. At the end of that walk you step into the river itself and wander the riverbed for two to four miles, sometimes in waist deep water, and others traversing boulder-filled banks between 1,700-foot black, pink and and white rock walls. There are caves, waterfalls, and even a mini Horseshoe Bend. It’s magical.

We booked a tour through Zion Guru which provided us with a private shuttle, a personal guide, and all the appropriate gear. Being a winter visit, I was certainly nervous about being cold and wet, but with the dry pants, neoprene socks and made-for-water-hiking boots, we were perfectly comfortable. Don’t get me wrong, our feet were wet, but not as cold as I expected with 48 degree waters flowing at 45 cubic feet per second. Also, do not try this hike without a sturdy stick. Trekking poles wouldn’t work as well.

We had most of the river to ourselves with two other pairs hiking 100 feet or so away. However, they did not have a guide who helped navigate the river and coach us on how to negotiate each crossing. They ended up purposefully keeping distance behind us and following where our guide took us.

The intersection of Wall Street and Orderville Canyon, only five feet wide in some places, was the perfect spot to stop for lunch before returning to the trailhead. This is a must-do hike if you visit Utah and I’d love to do it again.

Other popular hikes in the park include The Grotto and Emerald Pools.

One note about Zion, March through November (and between Christmas and New Years) no private vehicles are permitted on the main road through the park. They offer an almost-free shuttle that you must book in advance. However the shuttle tickets are almost impossible to acquire so you should consider a private shuttle which might run you $40 or so roundtrip. There are other hikes not on this main road including Canyon Overlook which is a fun little two-miler and Kolob Canyon. There is also a great expert level hike called The Subway which requires a lottery permit. Be sure to also drive through the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel near the south entrance of the park. Very cool.

If Zion Narrows was our crossfit-style workout, Bryce Peekaboo was a marathon and Arches Double O was an obstacle course. We assumed we would be sick of looking at rocks for almost two weeks, but were surprised how unique and different each park was. If you have to skip any parks, Capitol Reef and Canyonlands are the two, but Arches, Bryce and Zion are must-visits.

I’ve been to just under a third of the National Parks and have always been impressed with the care taken of these lands. A huge shout out to the rangers and National Parks Service team. Our America the Beautiful annual pass is well worth the $80 if you plan to visit more than two in 12 months. These landscapes are incredible.

It should also be noted that we visited in the winter so on almost all of our trips we had the place to ourselves, even on those mornings we got a late start. The weather was clear and between 35 and 55 degrees. I’ll take plenty of parking and warm layers over crowds and 115 degree heat the summer months usually bring.

Honorable Mentions

Our itinerary actually included some time in Arizona, specifically to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, adding a fifth national park to our 12-day trip. Bright Angel Point and Cape Royal were favorite mini hikes and viewpoints before heading up to Balanced Rock, Lees Ferry, and Lonely Dell Ranch, all of which we had completely to ourselves. We also stopped by Glen Canyon Dam which is the second largest dam in the country behind Hoover which was closed for coronavirus, and Horseshoe Bend, which is a popular tourist spot, but while we were able to stay distanced and masked, we didn’t stay long.

Antelope Canyon was closed for coronavirus because it’s on Navajo land, so I searched for an alternative and I’m so glad I found Peekaboo Canyon in Kanab. It’s a four-mile off road drive to get to the entrance of the canyon so I highly recommend a private tour guide with an appropriate vehicle (and deep sand driving skills). Unlike our experience would have been in Antelope, we had the entire two-mile slot canyon to ourselves. Everything had a gorgeous red glow and was such a fun and unique experience, learning about flash floods, fossils, layered rock formations and more.

There are also a few other experiences worth mentioning including Toadstool Hoodoos, Kanarraville Falls, and Dead Horse State Park.

While traveling at all during this time is risky, I don’t regret this trip because it was easy for us to stay distanced from others and adventure outdoors. If you’re interested in planning some time away, I’m happy to help you research safe experiences for you and your travel partners.

What I learned cancelling 26 days of vacation: Travel Planning Amid a Pandemic

I’ve gotten lots of questions about planning new trips for this fall and I have to be honest, I have no idea what you should do. However, I can share what I’m doing and why, and I hope that’s helpful to you.

All airlines are treating this situation differently. Delta is not selling middle seats. Frontier is taking the temperatures of all passengers. Most are sanitizing the planes between each flight more than ever before. Some are offering low-risk or no-cancellation-fee flights to encourage folks to start moving around the world again.

But I’ve also heard stories of friends arriving at a busy airport, not many people wearing masks, full flights, and few terminal dining options open forcing folks even closer.

For me, it’s still too risky. Or at least in the way I have traditionally traveled.

Rewinding a bit…

Being responsible adults that we are, we thought after taking a three-week trip to Spain and Portugal in the fall of 2017 and then a three-week trip to Ireland and the United Kingdom in the summer of 2018, we should take a break for meaty international extravaganzas. So we spent 2019 exploring our own country (with a few trips to Canada sprinkled in as well).

Instead of a three-week trip, we ended up taking 15 long weekend trips. I convinced friends from two other cities to join me in New Orleans for my birthday; we explored both Portland, Oregon and Portland, Maine, Seattle, Prince Edward Island, Vancouver, Colorado Springs, Boston, Newport, Rhode Island, New York many times, and much more. It was the perfect “down time” for me while I planned Japan, Iceland, Italy and maybe Hawaii for 2020.

But of course that didn’t happen with the pandemic that hit us earlier this year.

So far, I’ve cancelled a three-and-a-half-week trip to Japan, a road trip to Dayton, a horseback riding expedition around Iceland, a trip to Montreal, and attendance at two weddings. And while I didn’t book flights to Italy, my opportunity for free lodging is lost now. Needless to say, it has taken a lot of retail therapy to get my credit card back to zero after all of these credits. (Any by retail therapy, I mean buying a house and outfitting it with new furniture and decor. Oops!)

While I’ve seen many friends and coworkers take their trips as planned or a few months delayed, I still feel it’s too risky to do the kind of traveling I planned and normally do. As I hear from my friends in San Francisco, Chicago and New York, the urban cityscapes just aren’t as appealing as they were 12 months ago. And international travel isn’t exactly a reliable choice either.

Why I’m not booking flights yet

Travel is such an emotional thing for me. It makes me feel alive; and experiencing other cultures and the scariness of the unknown is an adrenaline rush I don’t get in my everyday life. So many hours go into planning these trips to make them affordable and unique that cancelling them leaves me utterly heartbroken.

The trips I mentioned above were cancelled because the airlines and tour companies cancelled them. It wasn’t my choice. I’m grateful that choice was made for me, otherwise I might have gone anyway… I’m also grateful I got full refunds on everything I had booked. But I know that rebooking those trips right now might not end in the same result if I need to cancel again later.

Many are asking me when they can rebook. And my answer isn’t what they want to hear. While I’m tentatively planning 2021 as a complete redo of my 2020, same place, same time, same travel partners, I’m not actually booking anything. Standard travel insurance doesn’t cover these circumstances and if I rebook and things are technically open, but I don’t feel safe, I can’t cancel and get my credits back.

The risk of losing my money, the energy spent planning and booking, and the emotional drag of cancelling a second time isn’t worth it for me right now.

Traveling and travel planning should be so fun. Right now, with everything uncertain, it’s just not and I don’t want to force it.

What I’m doing instead

I get it; we’re all going a little stir crazy. Humans aren’t meant to live like this. But it’s important we are doing everything we can to not only prevent the spread to protect ourselves, but to protect our friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers.

My company isn’t allowing us to roll over vacation days or paying us out for any unused time come December. So what I would normally consider a healthy number of PTO days for a year, I now have to use in the last 6 months of 2020. Plus, for working so hard during the stay home orders, my employer was kind enough to gift us an #ExtraDayOff. With the self-imposed restrictions or no international and no flights, I’m trying to brainstorm what’s next for me.

• I’ve investigated the month-long road trip but I just don’t love driving that much, especially what I imagine is long, flat, nothing of the middle of our country in the heat of the summer.

• I’ve investigated AmTrak, but the timing of the stops are usually middle of the night so I’d want to purchase a sleeper ticket and a hotel room for the nights that we’d be in transit which doubles my costs.

• I’ve investigated just checking into an all-inclusive resort and hiding there until I drain my bank account but that might only get me a measly seven nights.

So while I thought 2019 was an interesting challenge in traveling only domestically, the second half of 2020 is taking it up a notch. Where to visit within driving distance of Columbus, Ohio where I feel comfortable wearing a mask, socially distanced from others, but still interesting enough to make taking PTO without coverage worth the effort?

So far, I’m thinking the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the Poconos, Red River Gorge, Asheville, NC, and a white water rafting trip along the New or Gauley Rivers.

Any other favorites within a 500-mile radius of Ohio I should add to the list? I’ll share more as I finalize plans and begin to get excited about leaving my home again.

For now, you can find me still researching travel from my front porch. #StayHome still...

If you want help navigating this tricky situation, I’m happy to chat about your particular circumstances. It’s #FirstWorldProblems, I recognize, but it’s still sad and exhausting. I’m here with you.