OT-Tourism and Travel
So...obviously there are more important things than vacation plans, and I’m sure I’m not alone in cancelling plans, but a question for the board:
Is it realistic at all to plan a family trip to the East Coast this summer? DC/NYC/Boston. Just would like opinions on if you think the US will open up for tourism/travel in the next 3-4 months.
April 20th, 2020 at 10:19 AM ^
NYC just announced, a few minutes ago, that all June events are cancelled for the entire city. So no, that probably won't work out for you.
New York will likely cancel public events for July at least. Football in the fall is seriously in the cross hairs. The travel and tourism industries worldwide will be a smoldering ruin when this is over. Especially for independent hotels and restaurants. How can these folks, forced to take a year off, survive economically?
This is no money v lives argument. We've done (well, most of us have) what is necessary to contain the virus. We have to stay the course on this. But one day we will face the economic consequences and they will be severe.
April 20th, 2020 at 10:32 AM ^
Rescheduled our spring break Hawaii trip to late June. I am hoping it will be 50/50 on whether or not we can go...
April 20th, 2020 at 12:12 PM ^
I gotta imagine Hawaii will be more conservative on reopening than the rest of the country. They have high rates of poverty and lower healthcare/hospital access, and having asymptomatic tourists bring the virus to locals would be catastrophic.
Hawaii is basically saying "don't come here" right now and that may not change for a while. Which is bad for them. because how huge tourism is to the economy. But, they can't risk the virus spreading like wildfire on the islands which obviously aren't very big. I've read there are some idiots still flying over there on the fewer flights that are left to take advantage of the low fares. I guess they don't care about the mandatory 2 week quarantine for anyone arriving from the mainland.
I’d put your odds at 5/95
April 20th, 2020 at 10:33 AM ^
Yeah. I don't really think it will be safe for you or anybody else until we have widespread testing. I wanted to do a DC trip with the kids, but I don't think it will happen for another 12-18 months....
April 20th, 2020 at 10:37 AM ^
Never go to DC in the summer. It makes Orlando feel like a pleasant place to be.
April 20th, 2020 at 10:44 AM ^
Slight counterpoint. If your kids are in Michigan with the later school start than most of the country, DC in the last week of August can be awesome. Yeah, it's hot, but the crowds are way down and hotels are a lot more reasonable. We had a great trip there in 2016 during that week.
April 20th, 2020 at 11:32 AM ^
Normally this is great advice to take a very late summer holiday....but this year there are strong rumors that the schools are going to get a waiver and start the new school year early....like by as much as 2 weeks. As luck would have it, Labor Day falls really late this year, so that contributes to this possible change. So a late August vacation might not work.
April 20th, 2020 at 12:14 PM ^
This seems odd to me. Why would schools consider starting early? If anything, I would think they might push back the start date. My superintendent told us not to make Christmas or Spring Break plans for the '20-'21 school year, and I am guessing this could be due to a later start.
April 20th, 2020 at 11:01 AM ^
You aren't kidding. I once happened to visit DC on the 4th of July. Girlfriend and I in from Chicago, maybe 2002 or 03. We had a Club Quarters room about a block and a half from the White House. Having not been there before, you really gotta stroll past the White House. I did so around 10 am. My goodness. I looked at her and just said "I gotta go back to the room". The heat was intense. Having never lived further south than the north side of Chicago, I couldn't really fathom such temperatures.
About 2 years later I made it to New Orleans in July. My god....
April 20th, 2020 at 11:07 AM ^
You seem adventurous! Come down to Houston in august :) Just for fun.
April 20th, 2020 at 11:28 AM ^
Try south Florida (for work, meaning wearing a suit) in mid-August.
April 20th, 2020 at 12:38 PM ^
I grew up in N Virginia just outside of DC. We used to refer to the days from June through August as 95-Squared (degrees temp and percent humidity). You just got used to feeling like you had just crawled out of a hot shower. Now, living out in the desert, I have truly learned the wisdom of the saying "its not the heat, its the humidity". We routinely get 100+ form may through September, and as long as you are not out in the direct sun it is very comfortable
Same here, I grew up here in the 80s, 90s, and moved back about 7 years ago. It is unbearable. Maybe when I was younger I just didn't care, but it is miserable for a couple months now. I spent a year and change in Oklahoma and I have experienced consistent weather over 100 degrees and it still wasn't as bad as here. It's like walking outside into a sauna.
I've officially lived longer in the South than I have in the North (18 years in Michigan growing up), and these summers in NoVA are killing me earlier each year. I used to compare the 6-week stretch of July through the middle of August, in Michigan, to the entire summer here. No more. That 6-week stretch of 'heat and humidity' that Michigan experiences (or did) is child's play compared to NoVA...
Yeah I lived in DC for 8 years and in those summer months you would shower in the morning and go to work and you wouldn't be dry until like 11 AM.
But with that being said the fall in DC is the best. September and early October is beautiful - you get a nice few weeks then as a reprieve for the sweltering months. And the Thanksgiving I spent in DC was the best in recent memory - the weather was gorgeous and Capitol Hill was almost entirely empty.
April 20th, 2020 at 12:38 PM ^
I'd definitely rather freeze than fry. I'm generally able to tolerate even crappy Upper Midwest winters (in the modern era, '12-'13 and '13-'14), but I've never been much into late July / early August high 80s with high humidity. I'd wilt in Louisiana.
Definitely do DC in May or October. Rest of the year is either too cold or too hot with too many tourists if you're walking a few miles a day.
April 20th, 2020 at 10:37 AM ^
We've rescheduled our wedding in Jamaica from May 23rd to Sept 5th. Feels like a 50/50 shot that we are able to keep that date...
April 20th, 2020 at 11:23 AM ^
A wedding in Jamaica during hurricane season? Good luck!
April 20th, 2020 at 11:55 AM ^
Great deals during hurricane season in Mexico and the Caribbean. Just buy some good travel insurance.
April 20th, 2020 at 12:06 PM ^
Good idea but that's why there are such great deals in the Caribbean (Jul-Nov).
There's been 10 hurricanes that have gone over Jamaica since 2000, with the last one being in 2012, and for the most part they don't ramp up until they pass. Father of the bride has vacation for the year locked in, so if we are getting married in 2020, it'll be that weekend. Original plans were cancelled by the pandemic, and we don't feel like completely cancelling the wedding plans and planning a new one from scratch within 5 months. We'll see what happens.
We had the same wedding date. Thought about moving to August or September, but ended up rescheduling for May 2021. Not ideal, but we've got some older guests who are essential so we wanted to err on the side of caution.
I just hit 30 years old last week, so we are a bit eager to start a family. Also want to get to the resort without a bun in the oven, or having left a newborn back home with family.
Definitely understand that, and I hope you can still move forward! If things get opened back up before next year, we plan to take a week vacation somewhere warm and tropical.
April 20th, 2020 at 10:38 AM ^
I've got a beach vacation in August that I plan on taking, but it's in a standalone house in a small/uncrowded city. Seems like it depends a lot on where you're going and what you're doing.
April 20th, 2020 at 12:52 PM ^
Yeah I feel renting a cottage or going to national park or something is definitely a safer option
Same here, beach vacation in early August to the Outer Banks. Keeping our fingers crossed we can still go. We drive there and stay in a stand-alone house, so maybe it will work out.
We're supposed to come up to Michigan for the week of July 4 to visit family, but I'm less optimistic about that trip. We drive this trip as well, and can make it in one day to avoid hotel stays. Then we just stay at my dad's house. But who knows at this point.
Family and I are also going to the Outer Banks in August, also to a standalone house on the beach. Unless they ramp up the lockdown to the point where the beaches are totally closed, I feel like we'll be okay. Grocery stores should still be open and while we're there we don't really leave the house other than to get in the water and buy food and booze. If we miss our annual round of mini-golf, so be it.
But damn, I hadn't even thought of beach closures as a possibility until just now. They got really crazy about keeping people off the beaches here in the UK, where I live, in the early days of the lockdown. Now you've got me worried.
April 20th, 2020 at 10:42 AM ^
I think the summer will be a wash. It's not likely that enough testing will be available, even though I do suspect most areas will open up. If not opening everything, then some form of opening, anyway. However, I do think that a second wave of infection will result. Maybe not as bad, but verifiable... I would hold off on vacay plans until later in the Fall, at the earliest. See how the inevitable 'reopening' works out...
April 20th, 2020 at 10:46 AM ^
Are you planning to rent a mobile home? I wouldn't feel comfortable flying or staying in a hotel this summer. But if you have a mobile home, you can control a lot of the variables. Bring a bunch of masks, gloves, sanitizer. How many tourist sites are going to be open though? Restaurants might not be open, but if you can get take out and eat in the mobile home, maybe that would work. It certainly would be a memorable trip.
April 20th, 2020 at 11:37 AM ^
You talking about a motor home, or a double wide?
Yes, motor home. Thanks for the correction.
That's more of a clarification than a correction. There is nothing incorrect about a mobile home, y'all.
To borrow from the great Reverend Brown in Coming to America, if mobile homes are wrong ... I don't wanna be right.
April 20th, 2020 at 10:50 AM ^
I'd be very surprised, given the current and anticipated situation in population centers on the East Coast, if a normal vacation could happen there this summer or anytime soon. If those were my vacation plans, I'd be probably moving them to 2022.
I'm hoping to enjoy a UP vacation late summer/early autumn, the planned highlight being a few days on Isle Royale. The Isle Royale trip is one I've wanted to do for many years, but it's totally dependant upon the ferry across Lake Superior being in operation.
April 20th, 2020 at 12:37 PM ^
Isle Royale transportation option #2: Await ice bridge formation in winter and ski across from the Minnesota side.
I’m sure you’ve already looked into it, but if the national park Houghton/Hancock ferry isn’t running, you could always leave from Copper Harbor or take a flight (though if you’re flying and planning on using a camping stove, make CERTAIN the store at Rock Harbor is open. You can’t fly with the stove fuel and you’ll be SOL if you can’t buy it).
April 20th, 2020 at 10:50 AM ^
I'd say that you have a shot after mid-July. June will be quiet on the EC. Check to see if the tourist sites (like Statue of Liberty) are even selling tickets anymore.
April 20th, 2020 at 10:57 AM ^
In a way, I'm not sure there are more important things than vacation plans. Hear me out:
Many of us are stuck at home and not allowed to work. Others have had their jobs ended. After you wallow in that for a while (oh man have I wallowed), you kind of come around, look at the economy crash around you, and start to see where you might fit in an economic recovery, and maybe are able to generate a little optimism.
From there, damn, you need to start to "dream" about the livelihood things that are essential to the bedrock of your quality of life. I would bet more of us are "work to live" than "live to work". The little things, like a vacation, become the dream again. For my family, we happened to get out to Disney the first week of February. I was already grateful for this trip, and now under the circumstances, I am ultra extra super grateful that we had that experience. I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Things like Michigan football in the fall, great golf courses, amazing food and drink experiences in a new city, etc - we need these things in our lives. Yes, they are privileges, but for the most part, we earned them. In addition to the day to day mainstays like family, they are part of the fabric that makes lives rich. Our lives just aren't the same without the things we hold dear, and we will be needing those back after all this.
My wife and I have been scheduled for a 5 day trip to New Orleans for a convention in November. The kinds of conventions I have to attend leave plenty of time to enjoy amazing cities like that. We are hearing that New Orleans will be shutting down their convention center for the year, and, as such, no convention would be taking place. We have the child care already set, and have to use those 5 days for what will really be much needed recreation.
We literally HAVE to spend time thinking about how to use 5 days that are still more than 6 months away. It's hard to explain the mental and emotional lift that comes from thinking through how to best use those days. It still may be New Orleans, just without the convention. I've been meaning to check out Key West. Maybe Montreal or Quebec City.
In this time of really foggy mental health, I would encourage every last one of you to "plan a trip". It is said that the trip actually begins when you buy the ticket. Folks, make some plans, buy some tickets. Let's see you all doing well on the other side of this.
April 20th, 2020 at 12:07 PM ^
Pass on that Key West thought. 5 days is too long to spend there. If you want to include the entire Keys then that would be okay. The Keys are good for fishing, diving, relaxing on small beaches, drinking and eating the freshest seafood. I have been there at least 150 times over the last 32 years as I'm a sales rep and that is part of my territory.
Depends if 5 days is including travel time or not. 3/4 actual days there would be fine, especially if it's their first time. But yeah, I totally agree that 5 actual days there is too long and you'll want to set up some different spots along the keys for that length of time.
Good input. Thanks.
I had to read that 150 number a couple times to make sure I had it right. Why don't you just move there?
April 20th, 2020 at 10:58 AM ^
It might be literally possible to go, but I'm guessing a lot of places to see will still be under restriction. I would postpone it to 2021.
April 20th, 2020 at 10:58 AM ^
No.
The east coast is getting absolutely hammered and will likely be one of the last places to re-open. Even if you still had the option to go, I would recommend cancelling, especially considering it's your entire family going.
April 20th, 2020 at 11:01 AM ^
Interesting! I am planning a trip to AA, meet up with friends (4 people) and his brother (3). Then drive up to UP and stay in a rented house or camp. Early August. Ideally will be driving up from Texas. I am hopeful it will happen. Keeping my fingers crossed.
April 20th, 2020 at 12:45 PM ^
Not directed at you personally ...
If I lived in a touristy area ("up north" in Michigan / Wisconsin or anywhere else like that) I'd be really nervous about the upcoming summer. Think of the number of silent carriers from SE Michigan who will be descending on (say) Mackinac Island in a couple of months.
Or, maybe if it appears to be a much mild disease as numerous serology reports seem to indicate, then maybe you shouldn't be really nervous.
But that would mean letting science dictate.