What to expect when traveling during a pandemic?

Travel feeds my soul. Its a way for me to learn, to de-stress, to meditate… to fly away. So when travel bans started because of the pandemic, I was feeling like my favorite activity in the world changed from a soulful therapy to a viral threat.

But my heart was yearning to escape this painful reality and by the end of the summer, I decided it was time to pack my bags and leave somewhere to see the sun before the colder months settled in. I traveled to Paris in March, right before the quarantine in US started, but this time everything felt more uncertain, more scary. Either way I escaped, I told no one (not even my family) that I was traveling and promised myself to self quarantine and do the necessary checks after my trip, as all the health guidelines suggested.

No lines, no food and empty seats at the airport… just like a ghost town but with masks and hand sanitizers.

We left early in the morning from the DCA airport. Everything was empty, every other seat at the airport was marked and thankfully everyone was wearing masks, all the time. We couldn’t find an open booth to buy snacks or water at the airport, but our airline received us with a goodie bag that had a small bottle of water, alcohol wipes and pretzels.

After 8 hours of wearing masks and only removing it for a few seconds to drink water and swallow some pretzels, we arrived into paradise: Baja California Sur, mostly known as Los Cabos.

Tips for this ‘New Way of Travel’

• Choose non-stop flights or destinations that are a short flight away.
  • Trust me I want to go really far away, but for now, short flights are the most comfortable and reasonable for me.
• Do some research on your destination
  • Check the CDC Travel Recommendations by Destination section: I’ve used this tool way before COVID-19, you never know if you need a certain document or vaccine prior arrival.
  • Visit your destination’s local government website: Check what’s the status of the area and if there’s any restriction for foreign travelers. Some countries like Puerto Rico, request a negative COVID-19 result (within 72 hours) or to fill out an online form for a mandatory self-quarantine.
  • Weather matters, especially if you want to spend your vacation in open spaces where you can easy social distance from other travelers. We were initially traveling to Tulum, Mexico because every place there is open to nature. Unfortunately, we had to change our flights because of 2 hurricanes. This is unusual in the Yucatan area, but thankfully we checked the weather prior departure.
• Be prepared to wear a mask at all times
  • Have different masks handy in case one gets lost, itchy or uncomfortable to breathe in.
  • You will be required to have a cloth or disposable mask that covers your nose and mouth. Most airlines won’t let you travel with masks that have valves or plugged respirators (air purifiers).
  • Removing your mask during flights or layovers is only allowed when eating or drinking.
  • The airline can ban you from traveling with them in the future if you decide not to wear a mask during the flight.
• Bring your hand sanitizer gel and wipes
  • Most of the airlines are sanitizing their planes after every flight, row by row. But it never hurts to wipe down your seat/tray table and sanitize your hands afterwards.
  • Some airlines are providing one to two sanitizing wipes when boarding the plane.
• Buy your snacks prior arriving to the airport
  • Did I mentioned I only ate tiny pretzels for 8 hours? Food stalls are limiting their services, so expect either closed stores or a super long wait for buying a coffee.
• Most of the airlines aren’t leaving an empty seat in between each passenger
  • On my recent trips I experienced everything, from flights with empty seats in between or empty rows, to fully booked planes.

What to expect upon arrival

Every destination is different, some will check your temperature multiple times upon arrival, others will make you get a rapid test. In Mexico, we had to fill out several forms after getting off from the plane. They didn’t made us get tested, because of the answers in our forms, but they did have several temperature check-ins from the minute we landed, all the way till when we picked up our bags and left for the car rental.

The airport experience was very different than in the US, which in a way made me feel very secure. Same thing happened in every store, restaurant or place we visited in Los Cabos. There was always someone checking your temperature, providing hand sanitizers and making sure you disinfect your shoes before entering. All the restaurants had an outside space with socially distanced tables and nothing was ever crowded. I felt so safe, a little more free and comfortable than going to any closed place in DC (wish I really miss dining in local restaurants as I used to) .

Expect a lot of attractions to be closed (or restricted capacity): I get it, travel is very different right now and maybe you won’t be able to experience all the attractions you wanted to see on your dreamy destination. Maybe you are asking yourself why am I travelling when there are so many restrictions going on? Well let me tell you that it’s all up to you and the place you decide to travel, nothing is guaranteed. But since this quarantine showed us to not take anything for granted, even a change of scenery and to be closer to nature make it all worth for me.

I always try to avoid touristy and crowded places on my vacations; but if you are dying to see specific attractions, you must check if they are open prior to arriving at your destination. At least in Mexico and Puerto Rico, we were able to visit small galleries, artisan markets, restaurants, boutiques and different beaches. But it all changes depending of the number of COVID-19 cases. For example, right now there’s a restriction at the beaches and places that serve alcohol in Puerto Rico, plus a 9pm curfew.