Travel

Tools for safer travels despite Covid

Where in the World to Go

How to Travel Safely

Travel

HOW TO TRAVEL SAFELY?

Additionally, how do you avoid harming people in the places you visit?

Once you are vaccinated, COVID is so much less of a threat to you than last year. But...

  • If you're not careful, you could be the person who spreads a new variant from your home to your travel destination, or brings home a new variant to your community. 
  • Or get someone working at your hotel sick, in a country that hasn't vaccinated everyone who wants it.
  • Or get caught in a mess of a failing health care system, or
  • Have troubles getting home potentially carrying a new and worse variant.

And yet, a lot of us are hoping to avoid these, and get back to life. Economies and families depending on tourist dollars and at the same time threatened by COVID are in a tough bind: let's make a best effort to get back to life safely.

A Better Effort: The Short List

There is a lot of advice out there and a lot of requirements. You likely already know those recommendations or will be told as you travel, so here are three things we think are key if you want to be a bit safer than you are forced to be:

  1. Get a well-fitted N95 or similar. There is a big difference between even medical masks and KN95s. Try different brands. Feel for leaks; compare a few brands. Put on glasses and see if they fog up: that is from a leak, adjust the nose bridge till the glasses fog up a bit less.
  2. Buy some rapid tests. Test right before you get on a plane, even if you aren't required to — I know I don't want to start sneezing mid-flight. Bring tests with you. You are very likely to have an upset stomach or encounter someone sneezing sometime during your travels: be ready to test, it will make your life much easier. (NB! Some countries like Belize have banned the import of home tests - so check this out ahead of time to avoid fines.)
  3. Try to have a backup plan for if you become ill while traveling. Check with hotels: what do they do if you get Covid? Avoid places that are so full of tourists that you'll be pushed out of your room if you are sick. For example, in January in Nosara, Costa Rica, if you had Covid and suddenly needed to isolate, the hotels wouldn't know where to put you, every room is reserved. That is a good way to be unhappy and get your taxi driver's family sick too.

We hope that readers of our site will be the people who create social pressure rather than bend to it: be the first person on your bus to mask up!

Explore and Learn More

New Variants of Coronavirus: What You Should Know: this is what we were worried about, and is now a few months out of date. Variants unfortunately are already pretty well spread in the US.  You can see the US proportions here, up to date, here at the CDC Variant Proportions.  And compare to the Global Variants Report. 

The good news is that up until Omicron, the vaccines were doing pretty well against the variants. However, with Omicron, you have a greater risk of a breakthrough infection, even with a booster.    Traveling safely now requires quite a lot of caution in addition to being boosted.  Don't go anywhere without your N95 mask.  Unfortunately, we've given Covid-19 plenty of chances to evolve. And it has. And what has evolved now spreads faster.If you remember how Wuhan or New York City saw their health care systems edging on collapse: the unvaccinated world now faces a virus that multiples much faster than what brought New York City to its knees, and may do so once again.

Different countries are having very different experiences right now. Some nations that had been doing well — for example, the United States — are suffering. Some parts of Asia like Thailand that did well for the first year still have COVID-19 rates far below what the US faced, but are taking it very seriously, and if you travel there you might feel safe but be stuck in your hotel. Europe is trying to get it together, and is a possible destination, as are a few places in Central and South America — among many hot spots. Unfortunately, until the Omicron wave subsides a bit, your options may be limited.

WHERE IN THE WORLD?

Want to get out, but not sure how Covid might influence your choices on where to go? Here's our brief look at the world. Check out these fantastic interactive maps by the fine folks at OurWorldInData.  Use the selector at the upper right to view a region. You can see more at their website directly.  The selected map shows reproduction rate - or how quickly it's spreading.  (Hint - you might want to consider carefully about travel to regions where there's a high reproduction rate.)  Down below, we have our recent posts regarding travel news or experiences.

Caribbean Best Efforts

While Belize seems like a clear choice for Central America, the Caribbean needs our team to do more research. Blogs like this one Travel Restrictions: Safest Destinations To Visit in the Caribbean don't integrate safety with ease of visits. What's affordable, doesn't make you quarantine, but is safe enough?

Temple in Chiang Mai, sunrise, bird in flight.
Thailand
Thailand is right on the border as a travel destination. They've handled Covid-19 pretty well: people were wearing masks in January 2020, and for getting started early they never really had to shut down. There is an interesting experiment ahead to make Phuket a "sandbox," vaccinated more aggressively than other areas and ready for vaccinated tourists to visit.
Reuters Graphic: Belize is at 3% of Peak and Rising
Central America
in Central America the two countries I might consider traveling to are Belize and Costa Rica — Belize doing surprisingly well at the moment, and things are bad in Costa Rica but getting better. Everything, of course, is a gamble, and changing fast. Getting more vaccines to the region is vital, for vastly more important reasons than our vacations, but maybe we can leverage travel to get whole populations vaccinated.
First opensource image I found that looks like a travel destination in Europe
Traveling to Europe

January 2022 is not a good time to go to Europe. Omicron's spike is hitting fast. In mid-January, the UK is reaching a plateau: if you make plans for even a few weeks from now, there are very good odds that rates will be falling. Much of Europe was hit later, and so will see their peaks later. Still, Omicron is fast: you might cross your fingers and make plans for March. 

 

A few points worth emphasizing:

Travel News

Aldea Food Court, Samara

admin —2022-02-02

I've spent quite a while at the Aldea food court in Samara — amazing healthy food here, plus a bar. There's no actual covid safety precautions being taken pretty much anywhere in Samara, but this is all outdoors, the staff in small structures and one food truck, and the tables are spaced pretty well.

Covid Safety Done Wrong in Samara

admin —2022-02-01
There is, as far as I can tell, exactly one hotel that is making demands of travelers, insisting they wear masks. In Samara, lots of places have signs for mask wearing, and everyone ignores the signs. Often this includes staff. To be a little pushy about our opinion: we find it unethical to impose greater risks on staff than they impose on you; if locals wear masks then not just safety but respect means honoring local decisions. We found one hotel that demands guests wear masks on the property. Frustratingly, it just advertises mask-wearing the same as everyone else.

Samara and Nosara, Costa Rica in January 2022: "Tools Era" of Covid

Stephen Cataldo —2022-01-31

I'm traveling Costa Rica during the peak of Omicron back home. Costa Rica held off just a little longer: which means rates are quite high. Most tourists, not surprisingly, are doing their best to pretend Covid isn't happening. There is a big positive: very little of life on the beach happens indoors. I would have to go out of my way to eat indoors.

 

Caribbean/Bermuda Update - January 7

Tim Niiler —2022-01-07
A few days back I posted an update to the Caribbean area including Bermuda (a little to the north east), and parts of Central America. Remember how I said that we needed to watch the data closely due to Omicron? Well what a difference a few days make! The short story is that this area is getting more risky every day and that in places where the COVID numbers are low right now, the data may be sketchy, or there may be other travel advisories. Read below for more details.

Traveling while vaccinated during omicron: summary

admin —2021-12-16

Expect omicron to hit hard and fast; much faster than delta which was much faster than early in the pandemic.

If you are vaccinated and boosted, omicron will be hard to avoid but hopefully not terrible for you as an individual: the vaccines should, with a bit of luck, mean this is more like a flu than something you go to the hospital for. With a bit more luck, you won't get long-haul. I am still considering traveling.