This is one hell of a time to be a travel addict. Aside from a weekend trip to our family’s property in East Tennessee, we haven’t been outside of Nashville since returning from St. Lucia on March 16th, 2020. That is over four months and counting.
The great irony in all this is that I really got carried away with travel planning at the beginning of the year. It’s normal for me to plan a trip or two in advance, but this year I was determined to make the most out of E’s “lap baby” status. She turns 2 at the beginning of 2021, and we’ll have to start paying for an extra seat.
The year started strong. We celebrated New Years in the Los Cabos region of Mexico, took a weekend trip to visit family in North Carolina in February, and then flew down to St. Lucia on March 11th, mere hours before the Coronavirus was upgraded to a pandemic. Then everything ground to a halt, and I’ve been canceling trips ever since.
Rolling Cancelations
Like many Americans, we were optimistic that the authorities would get this pandemic under control during the spring and that some form of responsible travel could resume by summer. That just hasn’t happened. It is now mid-summer and both the COVID count and our trip cancelations keep piling up.
April: Couple’s Get-Away to Kentucky
In April we were planning to go on our first couple’s weekend since E came along. Mom was lined up to watch the kiddo while Sarah and I popped up to Louisville for a one night get-away. We were planning to use a Hyatt free night award that we get through Sarah’s credit card. Of course, the lockdowns were in full swing at that point, so it was a clear no-go. Thankfully, Hyatt extended the expiration date on the free night award, and we didn’t lose the credit.
June: Cooler weather in the British Isles
The next cancelation was more disappointing. Our big summer trip this year was going to involve a week in the Scottish Highlands followed by four nights on the coast of Northern Ireland. We were set to escape the summer heat, take in the highland games, visit some friends and build up our scotch collection. All the logistics had been sorted by mid-February, and we were really hoping that the pandemic would be under control come mid-June so we could follow through on our plans.
In April, United canceled our flight to Edinburgh, but our flight home from Dublin was still on the books. Remember that most of the country was under stay-at-home orders in mid-April. The case counts were peaking. We thought that the lockdown had worked, and a slightly modified normal life was just around the corner. The trip was looking unlikely, but the UK hadn’t issued a travel ban. It seemed like we might be able to get to Edinburgh on Lufthansa, which is a code share partner with United.
Then, in mid-May, the UK government announced that they would impose a 14-day quarantine on anyone entering the country. That pretty much killed any hope we had of making it to the British Isles this year. To be honest, though, we were ready to throw in the towel by that point anyways due to safety and logistical concerns.
I called United and had them refund our taxes and miles. Most of our lodging was reserved through AirBnB. Sarah contacted AirBnB and was able to get a full refund on all of the lodging that we’d booked through them. Our rental car had a free cancelation policy. The whole process was actually a good deal less troublesome than I’d feared. I think it helped that we waited until a month before the trip so we weren’t caught up in that initial rush of people canceling vacations when the pandemic hit. In the end, the only money we are out is for a single night in an independent Scottish inn.
August: Even Canada is Out
The only other trip we’ve had to scrap so far is a long weekend we’d booked in Montreal for August. Neither Sarah nor I have visited the city, so we jumped at the opportunity when Air Canada announced a new direct flight with round trip fares for $200 each. Of course, Canada has closed its borders for American tourists, so this trip isn’t going to play out.
At the time of writing, Air Canada has pre-emptively canceled our flight to Montreal but not the return ticket. The airline is being extremely obtuse with their refund policy, and to make matters worse, we booked our tickets through the Chase Ultimate Rewards Portal instead of directly with the airline. I am not optimistic about getting a refund. Luckily they were cheap tickets.
Salvaging the Summer
I’ve always been more interested in international travel than domestic travel, but this pandemic has caused me to look closer to home. I began brainstorming domestic summer destinations once it became apparent that our Scottish adventure would be a dud.
First I researched potential trips to Montana and Oregon, but I backed off of those options as the conditions here in the US worsened. Neither state is serviced by a direct flight from Nashville. If it weren’t for little E, I would consider a flight with a layover, but she is at a stage in which she likes to put everything in her mouth. It seems best to limit her exposure to high traffic areas like airport terminals.
The layover restriction forced me to look even closer to home. The problem is that I HATE muggy weather, and you have to travel a long way from Nashville in the summer to reliably beat the heat. After some research, we decided on either the Rockies (accessed by a direct flight to Denver) or a road trip to Lake Michigan. We even went as far as booking a flight to Denver and reserving an AirBnB in Michigan. Then we hit pause on the idea largely because the AirBnB’s that were showing up seemed underwhelming and overpriced compared to what we’re used to on our international adventures. When traveling with the kiddo we end up spending a good deal of time at our lodging, so it matters a lot more than it used to. Did we really want to take on the hassle of packing the kid and the considerable expense (in money and PTO) for either destination? No, not really.
In the end, we’ve scaled our summer travel plans WAY back. Instead of trips to Scotland and Montreal, we will be driving three hours north to spend a long weekend in Kentucky. It won’t be too exotic, but at least we’ll get out of town for a bit.
Looking Ahead
It doesn’t look like I will have a busy fall at work due to this pandemic, so we might as well aim to have a bigger trip then, when the temperatures are cooler and fewer tourists are out and about.
Keeping it Domestic
Before the pandemic we’d planned to visit New Orleans and Boston this fall for social gatherings. While it may be possible to safely get to both locations, social gatherings aren’t looking too hot right now. Both trips are likely to be canceled.
Now I’m looking west to the Ozarks and east to the Carolina coast for potential fall trips. Both destinations seem feasible as road trips. I’m not opposed to a direct flight, though, if we can flatten this curve.
International Dreaming
We already have two international trips on the books for December. Both were planned before the pandemic kicked off. The first is for a get-together in Mexico with Sarah’s extended family. The second is a standard Caribbean vacation in Grenada. While both countries are currently or will soon allow American tourists in some capacity, I’m pretty pessimistic on the likelihood of either trip panning out. Extend family get-togethers are going to remain risky this winter, and Grenada is imposing a strict 14 day quarantine on tourists from high risk countries. America seems to be on track to remain the definition of a high risk country until a vaccine (hopefully) gets released.
While I’m in no rush to cancel our pre-existing flights, at this point it just doesn’t make sense for us to plan additional international travel or even proceed with booking accommodation in Grenada. Even if we put aside safety concerns, the situation is just too unpredictable, and there is no telling when it will stabilize. Case in point, the Bahamas reopened to tourists at the beginning of July, but then did an about-face when their cases began to climb. As of July 22nd, commercial flights from the UK, EU and Canada are still welcome but flights from the USA are once again banned.
In Conclusion
There you have it. For the time being I’m a junky without a real fix. With things changing so rapidly it doesn’t even make sense to plan more than a couple months out and any trips that we do take will involve packing the kid but not the passport.
In the grand scheme of things, though, we’ve weathered this pandemic pretty well so far. Both Sarah and I still have our jobs, and we’ve avoided getting sick. If getting grounded for a year is the worst thing to come out of this, then I’ll consider myself pretty darn lucky.