Traveling after a Year of COVID-19
One year ago, COVID-19 was officially declared a pandemic. Not long after that, everything was really turned on its head as travel, both domestic and international, came grinding to a sudden halt.
Restrictions have slowly started to be reeled back, but there are still many in place and likely will continue to be for the foreseeable future.
Even still, travel appears to be picking back up slowly but surely.
I’ve touched on it a little bit, but I have spent the last year and a half or so working as a rental agent with Coldwell Banker Resort Realty in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware (in a few weeks, though, I’ll be transitioning to a new position with CBRR though!!).
During our annual awards event earlier this week, this year held over Zoom, we learned that all the rentals listed with us only dropped by about 6% in 2020. From what I have seen so far for the 2021 booking season, there is still some concern about COVID, but it does not even begin to rival the sentiments from last year.
Now, I don’t travel much. It’s something that I’d like to do, but have’t really been able to afford.
In a few weeks, I will be heading to Florida for a few days to getaway and reset. It’s something I am looking forward to, but not just because I need to unwind. While I’m on the way down, I can’t wait to see what travelling is actually like these days.
As I was booking my flights, I saw that masks are required at all times when in the airport and on the plane - totally understandable. On the flights, they are also limiting the in-flight beverage and snack service to those that have extended flight times to minimize person-to-person contact.
Another surprise I found while booking my flights was that there were many seats still showing as available, but there were far fewer seats actually showing as availalble on the flight. This prompted me to do some research into whether or not the airline was enforcing social distance on the flights. The answers I saw seemed to indicate they were not, but I still got the vibe they were going to limit how many people were in each row during the flights.
It will be really interesting to see what it is actually like. I’m really looking forward to getting away, and I’ll be taking plenty of photos while I am in Florida.
Surely travelling now will feel different than the last time I went anywhere, but after a year of COVID-19, that would be expected.
Have you travelled at all during the pandemic? What was your experience like and where did you go? Let’s talk about it down in the comments! I’d love to know what you thought.