the810

I'm not sure everyone (or even majority) agrees. Some studies suggest that (interestingly mostly the ones paid for by aviation industry) but many other disagree with the narrative of supposedly safe planes.

It's the plane where you have close contact with others, not the airport.

snic

Personally I'm far more concerned about how many bars and other gathering places we have in this country where people behave like that, than I am about anyone traveling to the US from outside. If we were controlling our own behavior, then it would make sense to slam the door shut on louche people who refuse to exercise common sense. Alas, we are those louche people (or some of us are), so I absolutely agree that it seems totally crazy to restrict foreign travel if we aren't going to do what it takes domestically. Limiting travel by people who are willing to take precautions while traveling seems especially absurd given that we can't seem to limit the kinds of superspreader events you described. But think of it this way: if the borders are shut, at least some of those louche people won't go elsewhere and spread the virus. They'll be at least a little contained.

msears101

I went to Mexico. Life at resorts are largely normal, only difference is that there are 60% capacity, but multiple weddings per day. Lots of people there are there for the same reason we were. We were there to escape people panicking and looking at you like you have the Zombie plague.

miko2a

I went on a few multi night backpacking trips for the first time. I wouldn’t have wasted vacation time on this sort of activity in the past. But, my goodness I loved it. Went to some more rural areas and had amazing scenery to ourselves. I can’t wait to hit the mountains again this summer. Of course I’m hoping to get on an actual plane this year but this is a nice consolation if I don’t.

DeepUnderground

I used to live in Summit County, CO and my brother still does, so it would have been a nice trip. I haven't seem for a while. We have booked in at Whiteface/Lake Placid for March when the kids have some days off for teacher professional development.

DeepUnderground

I've had this as well. Travelling around multiple parts of CT and even to RI to ensure cross border requirements with testing result timelines. Exhausting.

Jon Maiman

We had planned a beach vacation in the Carolinas (Myrtle Beach, Outer Banks, or Hilton Head) over the summer. Didn't like the Covid numbers nor the probable quarantine requirements when we got back to Pennsylvania, so we did a hiking vacation in the Adirondacks (Lake George and Lake Placid) instead. Something we never would have done otherwise and we did enjoy it. We will probably go back there again sometime. At the time NY and PA had reciprocal travel arrangements without quarantine requirements even for leisure travel. PA now requires quarantine upon return from all out of state trips for all leisure travel (e.g. non essential travel).

I also did a couple of backpacking trips in The Fall and stayed in PA and went to Oil Creek State Park which was quite nice. If it wasn't for Covid, I would have gone to The Monongahela National Forest for at least one of the backpacks. Family car camping trip over the summer, we went to The PA Grand Canyon rather than our usual trip to Shenandoah National Park.

Currently, while the trail system at my normal cross country skiing area, Wilderness Lodge, is open, the food and overnight lodging portion is closed. Normally I would do multiple overnight trips there each season. Instead I have been doing day trips and then skiing closer to home on Sundays. I have gotten to rediscover a a few of my local cross country ski areas and it has been great. The good local snow conditions this season has also been a factor in making this possible. The previous few years there had been almost no snow locally and I had to go north to Wilderness Lodge to be able to ski at all.

I also have family in NY and Florida. We haven't visited them in an over a year. While we still connect via Zoom, it just isn't the same experience. I am looking forward to when we can safely travel to see them again.

--Jon

CMK10

My fiancé and I and her daughter took a really nice weekend trip to Asheville last year to get engaged. We had planned to get engaged in Paris on March 24, 2020 but that obviously fell through. Then it took months to get the ring. I had a case in Asheville on a Monday so we decided to drive out Saturday morning and spend the weekend. We got a great hotel, proposed over a bottle of champagne and had a fantastic time.

Dublin_rfk

With a year of this under my belt. The only real change other than camping in hotel rooms has been more solo travel. With fewer trips home as my +1 involved in a self isolated group of families and unable to travel herself. I was able to expand range of vacation / decompression locations and take advantage of low airfares.

Super Mario

Did a few tours around South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

Been wanting to do the Reach or Waldorf on the beach in Key West for a while, but the $400 a night average price never put it towards the top of my list. Being able to get a stay for less than half of that made a great opportunity for us to jump on in wake of our cancelled cruise.

bitterproffit

Last summer, instead of an island in the Aegean, I went to an island in Lake Erie. It wasn't quite the same, but I had a great time riding bikes and drinking beer and dining outside, etc with great friends. Sometimes you take what you can get and make the best of it.

In October, instead of an overseas trip, it was a few days on Carolina Beach and visiting friends in Greenville SC.

New Year's was a staycation with friends and lots of take out. Something fun and different every night (BBQ, Charcuterie Plates, Burgers). Lots of fun cocktails and football on the TV.

I didn't leave the country and haven't been on a plane in over a year, but I still had some memorable trips. It was good to reconnect with friends who I might not have traveled to see otherwise because I felt I had to go somewhere out of the country.

Global Adventurer

One thing Covid should have taught the entire world, is not to be a procrastinator because I know many many folks can kick themselves for not taking that vacation they had planned for 2020 earlier, or not visiting a family member overseas, and now they can't. Even though most of Mexico is in yellow and green covid levels, unfortunately where I'm at in CDMX is still in orange and I can't wait to leave in 2 weeks. I mentioned the procrastination because I put off going to several places here and now I can't until we turn yellow. So off to the Riviera Maya!

worldwidedreamer

My wife and I have struggled to be parents, and we connected with a known egg donor in the Washington DC area in late 2019. Originally we intended to have her join us for retrieval etc in California during summer 2020...which ended up with us doing an IG slow road trip across the United States and back in July/ August to perform the procedure in Maryland. We spent a few weeks hiking in Lake Tahoe in August. As it became more clear that the flight risks were manageable, we decided to make a test flight to Spokane in the late summer. Our experience on Southwest OAK-GEG was fine, but they crew did not enforce mask rules on the flight back. In November we took a week to stay at a friends house in Las Vegas, also largely to WFH and hike. In January we flew to DC on United in F to make IVF try one; it did not work so we are returning this month. (Fortunately we're now fully vaccinated.)

I'd say the ability to work remote and virtually allowed us to take long road trips without rushing. Visiting Idaho was a true delight, as was Yellowstone and Death Valley. During our travels we took extreme measures (avoided restaurants + public bathrooms, wore goggles and frequently changed PPE, etc.) and fortunately got lucky and remained well.My first work trip was a lap to Phoenix last week, and our first "fun" trip since March 2020 will be a week in Hawaii later this month; hopefully our vaccinated status means we won't have to be tested. This summer we aspire to visit Hawaii a second time, along with Switzerland + Croatia/Serbia, Maine and Wisconsin....so not a super untypical travel schedule. The big question is whether we will be allowed to return to our home at Black Rock City, Nevada over Labor Day.

DeepUnderground

This trip turned out to be Great. Skiing at Lake Placid smashed so many preconceptions of what east coast skiing is like that I got growing up skiing out west. Nice town as well. We had a great time and I am thankful for being 'forced' on this vacation. It is definitely a location I will return to this summer.

Expat_flyer1

I was sent to go work in Shanghai because China is the only place where our company can have a stable supply chain during COVID.
Surprisingly, life in China is basically identical to pre-covid times, it's been a blast with few international travelers and all hotels doing full service at around half their "normal" cost.
I've racked up over 100 nights at a few Park Hyatts and some WA's so far, I don't think I'll ever be able to live like this again ..