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 12:49 PM ^
I think if you're planning a vacation this summer, going somewhere a little more rural is likely a better and safer idea. Maybe go to a national park you've never been before
I'd check ahead of time to make sure the parks you want to go to aren't already closed. Quite a few of them have already enforced partial or total restrictions on who gets in or out. I think Yosemite, for example, is completely closed altogether. But being only a few hours from San Francisco won't help that.
April 20th, 2020 at 12:54 PM ^
We are headed west Aug 29-Sep 7. A week or so in Glacier National Park and then a few days in Seattle including the Washington game if it happens. Right now, it's not looking good. Glacier NP is closed and the Washington game could easily be cancelled or played in an empty stadium.
If I had to take bets, I think there's a good chance the National Park opens up, but I am pretty sure I won't be attending a football game during the trip. Maybe we will hit up another national park instead (Mount Rainier? Olympic? North Cascades? Any recommendations would be appreciated--we will be flying home out of Seattle and will have about 3 days there).
This sounds like a great trip. I hope it works out for you. Glacier NP is on my bucket list. As are the Olympic Mountains.
I was in Seattle in late February for a conference (bad timing - the covid outbreak in this area was just surfacing). I took the light rail/subway from SeaTac to its northern terminus near the Univ. of Washington campus. Exiting the metro station at Husky Stadium was extremely cool. I immediately decided to attend the upcoming game based on my visceral reaction to Husky Stadium, but my plans are currently in limbo until the situation stabilizes. I *really* wanted to see a game at Husky Stadium - seems like a great venue.
Glacier is amazing, I did a NP road trip last summer and it was my favorite going away.
I would also bet the parks are open during the summer with guidelines on social distancing.
We're supposed to spend eight days at Sequoia & Kings Canyon NPs the first week of June. Probably won't decide until mid-May. Part of me hopes the NPs are still closed so I don't have to make the decision!
I have a trip to California planned for this summer. I expect the east coast will likely open up sooner than the west coast since they're so much farther along the curve. Widespread immunity in New York plus the summer heat/sunlight should drop the rate of spread substantially. I'd guess New York will be seeing less than 500 new cases per day by June 1st.
I hope for your and humanity's sake that you're able to enjoy your Cali trip, but to pump the brakes a bit... while I think us being further along the curve could and should allow for *some* phased-in reopenings by the summer, iirc it's not clear at all that summer heat is going to help contain COVID at all.
Heat and UV radiation have proven to be hostile to pretty much every other coronavirus known to mankind. The odds that the Wuhan Virus is different in that respect are slim to none.
There's already evidence that SARS-Cov2 survives less in higher temps, sunlight, humidity. That obviously is a surrogate outcome and what it means for human to human transmission is unknown. But most all respiratory viruses, including other coronaviruses, have seasonal contagiousness in the US. It's not entirely understood why, as ability to survive outside the human body is just a part of how contagious it is. I imagine we will see some seasonal decline, but how much is just an unknown at this point.
Disney World is currently closed through 6/30. Our reservation starts 7/1.
They are holding firm on change fees, so I have to hope and pray that Florida continues to Florida.
Is it really closed through 6/30? I heard they were just allowing no fee cancellations until June 30th. I also read they are still taking reservations for after June 1st, though that information could be old. But yeah, early July is still very much up in the air as to whether you'll be able to go.
As someone who lives near DC in MD, please stay where you are. Even if things are relaxed, just don't. You will be taking resources away from locals. No matter where you go or what you buy... that is less for those that have to live out here. There are shortages of everyday things that are really alarming when you see them in person. Good lord if you happen to need emergency services while traveling....woof. People go on vacations for fun and to relax. How relaxing is walking around a eerily empty museum with a mask and gloves on during the sweltering humidity of June/July?
I'm not planning on a trip to DC in the summer, but I lived there for about 5 years and I can confidently say that...yes, it would be worth walking around an empty museum with a mask and gloves in the sweltering heat. The Mall is awesome and the museums are awesome. Don't undersell how great they are. I went there all the time as a local.
My sister lives in MD. She told me she hasn’t been able to find flour for a month.
yeah it’s alarming to see empty sections in the stores. Was just out today seeing no packaged meat to speak of. Things like chicken and ground beef are hard to come by. At any rate. I’d rather be almost anywhere than the east coast and here I sit.
The empty part sounds pretty good to me, when it comes to DC museums.
Otherwise, yeah ... the DC area sucks when it comes to widespread catastrophes like this. I do not miss living there one bit.
All I have planned is, as soon as the quarantine is lifted, renting a house somewhere halfway between where my kids live and where I live and throwing a 4-5 day weekend keg party because I haven’t seen my kids in months (aside from facetime) and even though they’re adults I miss them.
Planned on taking the wife to Mexico early 2021 but who knows if that’ll happen so that’s on hold until the outlook is much more clear.
As a scientist, I’d advise strongly against fucking off to other parts of the country until this is much more under control but you know .... people literally think vaccines are bad and global warming isn’t a thing so it’s not like people listen to scientists and statistically significant data anyway.
April 21st, 2020 at 10:04 AM ^
No shit, dude.
Preprint that looks legit came out yesterday on COVID-19's functional evolution. They looked at a few different strains and found pathogenicity varies by as much as 270x between them.
But you'll read little to nothing in the media about how some places are getting hammered harder than others because of viral variation and evolution.
We still have A LOT to learn about this new bug. Frankly I keep wondering why we don't know more about the flu...seems wildly understudied itself.
Grain of salt: this guy works in the tourism industry, so his default setting is sooner rather than later. Note also the word "conditionally". But still I find this encouraging. If this is the thinking on the Vegas Strip, the (much) lower-density tourist places should be able to work out something similar.
Should be fine later in the summer. Enjoy shorter lines and less crowded sights while others cower in fear. I booked a cruise for January at a great rate. Planning for Italy next year with smaller crowds hopefully.
You can get a killer deal on a trip to Wuhan right now.
As a Traverse City resident I'm looking forward to a relatively quiet summer. And I have to admit watching a few people I know shit their pants who went all in on Airbnb properties is a little satisfying.
I have a co-worker who just had to scramble to come up with his over $10,000 in monthly mortgage payments on 4/1/20 for his seven properties. He took out over $6,000 from his retirement at a terrible time.
May 1 is coming and I don't know what he'll do. Take out another $10,000 I guess. I wonder what he'll do when his almost $50,000 in summer taxes come due? Good luck dude....
Maybe when he opens up his veins and bleeds out in response to the desperation, you can tea bag his corpse to complete your celebration in style.
Serves 'em right, eh?
Of course not. But I'm definitely going to keep my eyes open for buying opportunities.
These guys here (and I'm sure similar things have happened everywhere) basically bought up every new multi family residence for the past five years and turned them into short-term rentals. Same with a lot of single family homes, but to a lesser extent.
They've lied to taxing and zoning authorities, driven up the price of residential real estate, and turned certain developments into the adult equivalent of cedar village.
It was a nice little hustle, but the risk was always there. The immense carrying costs of residential real estate left them naked in a prolonged downturn. But a lot of these are owned by LLCs so it should be pretty easy to walk away.
I have a trip around the southern loop of Ireland planned and paid for during September, as well as a trip back to A2 the same month. No idea at this point, but if I had to guess, I'll have to cancel both. At least I didn't buy any game tickets yet. Airline tickets sound like I'll be able to reschedule.
Can't imagine filling a stadium with 100,000 people and thinking no one is infected in that crowd. Without testing, it sounds like another 'wave' waiting to happen.
I live in West Palm Beach. Don’t want to live in the Keys. Totally different vibe and no serious golf in the Keys. Grew up in Chgo, college in AA, followed with 13 more years in Chgo. Have been in South Florida now for 35 years. Play golf all year round including summer. You can have those midwestern winters. I never looked back. Only thing I miss is good Chinese food & deep dish pizza. Year round golf 3 days a week makes up for most anything.
Sorry.
Got carried away there.
its as simple as this: people are dying like fuck out there. Just don’t travel anywhere until it stops! Or comes VERY close to stopping. End of story.
I hear ya. It seems unrealistic. I mean maybe it will work out, but do you want to take your chances on bad odds? I am wondering if my wedding on Labor Day will happen. I live in ME and my fiancee's family are all in NV. My wedding party is in ILL, AZ, NY, NJ, & ME. So, lots of people have to fly here, and of course we need to be allowed to have 100 guests in one room.
April 20th, 2020 at 10:01 PM ^
I would say that is not realistic at all
April 20th, 2020 at 10:46 PM ^
Looks dicey
When the shit first hit the fan we rescheduled my daughters key west wedding from May 13th to the end of July. Now I think we’re still screwed and just gonna have to eat the cost with the wedding planner. Probably just gonna have to give my princess away in front of the courthouse.
In my opinion, the situation with coronavirus in this region, especially in New York is still a crying shame. I strongly doubt that you will be able to visit it soon. Try to search for other places. There are so many beautiful countries in the world. For example, hoi an in Vietnam definitely deserves your attention.
I think it's possible. I understand your sadness about the cancellation. I was also very upset recently that I had to reschedule High end yacht cruises in the Galapagos Islands because I had family issues that needed to be resolved in the urgent way. However, I'm still going on this trip. You can read more about it if you're interested.