Best Practices for Safe Travel

I am by no means an expert on medical protocols and safety, but I have been travelling some in the past year and have stayed safe and Covid-free, and I thought I’d share some of my strategies.

There are many new requirements for testing and quarantine, and they change all the time, so if you are interested in travelling please contact me as I will help you navigate them on any trip that I book. Travelling is certainly a little more complicated than it used to be, but it’s not impossible! There are many places domestically that can be visited easily, and with vaccinations coming there are even more possibilities, though testing and precautions will still be required.

Airplane Safety.  Flying is safer then you might think. Read the article below from MIT medical for information on how we really aren’t breathing re-circulated air throughout the plane. Airports are big, and I found it easy to keep social distance. I will say that the worst of it is getting on and getting off the plane. To decrease my exposure, these are my tips

• Board last, and pay extra to be in the front or even first class (it’s cheap these days). You’ll also be first off and first through customs if travelling internationally.
• Book a window seat, with no middle between you and the aisle. As people are passing I keep my face turned to the window. If the flight is full, the airlines are allowing you to change to a less crowded flight for free.
• Bring wipes and wipe everything down yourself, including seat belt, tray, fan and light.
• Plan to eat before the flight, then you won’t need to remove mask at all. If you do need to eat, bring food, as the airlines are not providing it, even for a fee.
• Book the first flight of the day, as those have been deep-cleaned during the night
• Check seats before you book, if it is a full, pick another flight. Try to fly off-peak (not Sunday, not the end of a holiday weekend)
• MIT article https://medical.mit.edu/covid-19-updates/2020/09/how-safe-air-travel

Hotels and Resorts- Every hotel I have been to has upped their safety protocols substantially. To keep things even safer, here are some additional tips

• Bring your own pillows if it’s a driving trip. If it’s not, then I purchased hypo-allergenic cases that zip around the pillows that I put on for extra protection.
• Decline daily housekeeping (that one’s hard for me!). Bring your own bags to your room.
• Bring wipes and wipe down the remote, phone, light switches, door handle, and other high touch areas yourself.
• Choose hotels with outdoor dining and outdoor corridors. My trips to Mexico all involved doorways open to the outside, restaurants with open air seating, and balconies.
• Avoid crowded areas. A lot of safe travelling is just common sense. If people are congregated at the pool bar, I don’t go. I find pool chairs separated from others. I walk outside instead of hallways.
•  Choose water aerobics or outdoor yoga over the gym. Choose a resort with outdoor activities and features.
• Check the occupancy levels of the resorts before booking. Most are only booking at 30-50%. At one resort I went to, there were only 8 guests!

Testing- This is just a fact in travel these days and probably will be for some time. There are testing or quarantine protocols for most destinations, except some domestice driving destinations. Hawaii requires a test done through one of their partners 72 hours in advance, as well as creating an account on their app to upload results, entering where you’ll be staying, and taking their health questionnaire. Mexico does not require a test to enter, but to return to the United States you will need a negative test taken within 72 hours. Most Mexican resorts now offer free testing on site, and free quarantine with meals in the unlikely case it is positive. Many countries are requiring testing to enter and the US requires any passenger entering the US to have a negative test before boarding their return flight. These testing protocols apply to vaccinated passengers as well. 

• Factor in the cost of testing when planning a trip. Most of the elective travel tests are not free like the medical ones
• It is best to schedule two tests if possible, in case one does not come back in time. 
• There are mail order options available now I have had success with, including through Costco
• Even when I have travelled someplace where testing or quarantine was not required, I tested on return and quarantined until I received results.