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Two teenage boys with masks on in business class of a United airplane during coronavirus

Our First-Hand Accounts of What It’s Like to Travel Now

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Like many of you, I am certifiably stir-crazy right about now. I live in New York City, and I haven’t ventured farther than six miles from my apartment in four and a half months—and that’s just on long walks. So last Thursday, I found myself in the same boat as all the other grounded travelers who showed up for our latest Zoom chat: eager to hear aboutthe essential trips that Brook, Wendy, and Wendy’s husband, Tim, recently took. Not only because I am starving for some vicarious travel, but also because I want to hear reliable first-hand accounts from people I trust—experienced travelers who pay attention to the kinds of details and questions I’ll have when I’m ready to travel again myself. That’s the whole point of our Zoom chat series—to cut through the noise and share the travel intel that’s most relevant to you…and, we hope, soothe some of that restlessness and stoke future dreams of safe adventures.

If you didn’t make it to our “What It’s Really Like to Travel in the U.S. Now” Zoom chat, we’ve collected some of the highlights and tips below. Don’t miss our next get-togethers. On July 16, we’ll talk about smart family travel (including some of our favorite past trips and what those might look like going forward); and on July 23, air travel experts will forecast the near-future of flying. Sign up using our RSVP form, where you can also let us know what other chats you’d like to see and how we can help keep your travel brain inspired until you’re ready to hit the road again. In the meantime, stay safe! —Billie

What it’s like: In the car

Sunrise in Spartanburg, S.C. Road Trip, Wendy Perrin Covid-19

Sunrise in Spartanburg, South Carolina, June 23, 2020

Wendy: “It used to be that on a road trip, the place you stopped to get gas was the same place you got snacks and used the restroom. Now those three things need to be done in three different places. The convenience stores attached to the gas stations had ‘mask required’ signs but no one complied. So instead we used the bathrooms at state welcome centers—they were clean, spacious, and often touchless. To get food, we went to drive-throughs or found out what restaurants were ahead of us on the highway, then we’d call ahead and do curbside pick-up.”

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What it’s like: At the airport

Two teenage boys walking through empty TSA airport security during coronavirus

The normally packed security lanes at Newark airport were empty when Tim flew. Note the social-distancing markers on the floor.

Brook: “I had to hand over my boarding pass and ID, I was not able to scan those myself. There were big jugs of sanitizer before and after, and all staff was wearing masks. It was easy to social distance at the airport. It didn’t have that empty apocalyptic feeling but it was noticeably empty, so it was easy to stay away from each other. I told my son to keep his hands in his pockets to keep him from touching anything.”

Tim: “At Newark airport we wore gloves because we knew we’d be going through security and handing papers to people. Once we got through, we took our gloves off because they’d gotten all sweaty. The airport reminded me of a casino at ten in the morning: Yeah, there are a few people there, but it’s pretty empty and not the same scene.”

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What it’s like: On the plane

Two teenage boys with masks on in business class of a United airplane during coronavirus

Because of the layout of this 787’s business-class cabin, Tim felt the last row was the safest.

Brook: “My parents bought us business class. That’s not normally how I travel, but we all felt the financial investment was worth it. My son and I flew United on a 757 with the upgraded Polaris class, so the seats were separate private pods. I originally chose the last row of the cabin to be farthest from the flight attendant and closest to the door. But when I got to the airport, I spoke to the gate agent (through Plexiglas) and had him move us to a row that was otherwise empty.”

Tim: “We also splurged on business class—in a United 787—and took the back row so we could be the last on the plane and the first off. We never walked past anyone; we just got on and got in our seats. We did not use the lavatory. We wore masks and also tried goggles. They didn’t work very well; they fogged up. So on the return flight we wore Face Shields in addition to the masks. Leaving the plane, everyone got up and wanted to leave at once. So even though the plane was only a third full, that final moment was problematic and made us uncomfortable.”

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What it’s like: Getting to/from the airport

empty Avis car rental lot at SFO airport San Francisco California during coronavirus

SFO’s normally full Avis rental-car lot had very few cars available.

Tim: “In California, we had reserved a rental car at SFO. There were five people in front of us at Avis, and two people behind the counter, and it took us an hour and a half to get our car. First they said they had no cars available. (Apparently they’re selling off some of their fleet.) Then they said it was taking longer to clean the few cars they do have. So factor in a lot of time when picking up a rental car. Also, leave more time for air trains; they may be running on a slower schedule.”

Billie: “I’ve taken five rideshare trips over the past few months in NYC. Four out of five times, the driver had installed a protective barrier between the front and back seats (usually a custom-fit Plexiglas wall, but one time it was a taped up shower curtain), and in every case, the drivers opened the windows and were patient while I wiped everything down before I got in. Lyft and Uber both require that passengers and drivers wear masks. If you’re not wearing one, the driver can refuse to let you in and cancel your ride; likewise you can cancel the trip for health safety reasons if you are not comfortable.”

What it’s like: At hotels

Flamingo Resort hotel clean and dirty jars for pens during coronavirus

The poolside bar at the Flamingo Resort separated used pens (for signing bar bills) from unused ones.

Tim: “For our nights in Santa Rosa, we picked an older hotel I’ve known for years (The Flamingo Resort) because it had an upstairs balcony with a sliding glass door, and we knew we could keep that open at night, to keep the room ventilated. I gave Charlie a pack of wet wipes, and he wiped everything down (the rental car too). The TV remote was already in a plastic bag, but we wiped it down too. We left the windows open, and did not have the staff come in while we were there. Having the balcony worked out well. We put the Do Not Disturb sign on the door the entire time we were there, and I would go find Housekeeping and trade in towels. Everyone inside the hotel wore masks, but around the pool everyone took them off and stayed socially distant. There were also about a dozen dogs around the pool, which was interesting.

Then we spent a week camping in the Mendocino National Forest. I was pleasantly surprised how militant they were—even at the little general store deep in the woods—about masks and social distancing.”

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Sunrise in Spartanburg, S.C. Road Trip, Wendy Perrin Covid-19

What a Road Trip During Coronavirus Is Really Like

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A lot of Americans still don’t understand this virus. Especially the Americans you find in roadside convenience stores. Almost every convenience store attached to a gas station has a sign that says “Mask required,” yet almost nobody inside is wearing one.

That was my family’s main takeaway from our first road trip during coronavirus. On June 18, nine days after New Jersey’s stay-at-home order was lifted and 105 days after we had begun quarantining in March, Tim and the kids and I had to make a road trip to Atlanta (an essential trip for urgent family reasons).  We planned to stay in a bubble except for the time on the highway when we would need to leave the car. We did the full 14-hour drive in one day, leaving at 4 a.m. to avoid rush-hour traffic in as many cities as possible en route. We took I-78 to I-81 to I-77 to I-85 (a relatively rural and low-traffic route that we’ve driven many times). We did the same thing heading back north on June 23, again leaving at 4 a.m.

The farther south we went, the more traffic was on the roads, and the fewer people wore masks. Indeed, the main danger on our road trip, we discovered, was other people. Not only are a lot of people in roadside convenience stores not wearing masks, but they are not staying six feet apart. They brush past you in doorways, in the aisles, at the cash register. And the store managers don’t seem to care. We never saw any mask-wearing requirement enforced. In fact, some store workers didn’t wear masks either, and almost none wore gloves. Coming from New Jersey, where we live in a responsible community (a New York City suburb) that succeeded in flattening the curve and drastically lowering our infection rate (note the NJ graph here), the rules to follow to avoid spreading the virus have become second nature to us.  Tim was in Manhattan for doctor visits two days before our trip, and everybody he saw wore a mask.  We’ve grown accustomed to conducting all transactions in a touchless manner. So imagine my surprise when ungloved convenience-store employees took my credit card with their fingers. (I used a lot of disinfectant wipes on my card during this trip.)

In every state, gas was amazingly cheap—usually $1.75 a gallon. In a past life, we would fill up at gas stations and, while there, use the bathroom and buy food. Those days are gone. On road trips today, the acts of getting gas, using a bathroom, and buying food need to happen at three different places.

car, dog, Charlie, road trip, family Covid-19

My older son and our dog, Macy, had the second row of our mini-van all to themselves. Behind that gray hanging blanket blocking out daylight was my younger son, asleep in the third row.

Based on our experience, here are my five biggest pieces of advice if you’re headed out on a road trip soon:

1. Use the restrooms in state welcome centers.

They’re relatively empty, spacious, and clean, and a relatively touchless experience from start to finish, with few, if any, door handles. Do not use the restrooms in the stores attached to gas stations: It will mean navigating door handles or knobs and people who may brush against you in narrow corridors and stand next to you because there aren’t enough sinks to space yourselves out.

2. Choose hotels where rooms have private entrances and windows that open to let in fresh air.

You can look for motels where each room has a separate entrance onto the parking lot, but such rooms may not have windows that open. Your best bet may be older hotels that have either freestanding cottages or rooms with balconies where you can leave the balcony door open, letting in fresh air throughout the night. Look in areas where you might find historic inns or sprawling old-fashioned resorts with individual bungalows. Because we were driving with our dog, and the only pet-friendly rooms I could find along our route with the aforementioned criteria required a half-hour detour from the highway, we decided to forego hotels and just cram our drive into one day each way. In Atlanta, we stayed with family who, like us, had stayed safely at home for months.

3. For meals, use drive-throughs or pick up curbside.

If you have prep time, of course you can pack picnics and stop in picturesque areas to enjoy them. We didn’t have that kind of time. We packed a ton of snacks, but my two teenaged boys can get ravenous, so for hot meals, we either used fast-food drive-throughs or called ahead and picked up curbside from restaurants near the highway, using Apple Maps or Google Maps to find our best options a few miles ahead of us on the road.

4. Reconfirm curbside-pickup orders.

We ordered takeout 12 times in five days, and not once did we receive a correct order. Sometimes we ordered by phone, sometimes online, but every time, mistakes were made. It’s awkward to attempt to double-check an order that you’re picking up curbside—it isn’t feasible to look through bags and containers to determine if something is amiss—but at least you can, before driving away, look at the receipt to make sure that the order is yours and that the number of items in the bag matches the number of items you ordered. When my 18-year-old, Charlie, realized that a Longhorn Steakhouse in Atlanta had given him bags meant for a different customer, we had by that time encountered so many mistakes that he didn’t even bother returning to Longhorn to see if they could fix the problem. Instead, he called the phone number on the receipt, reached the customer who had been given our bags, and did a direct swap with the other customer.

5. Pack—and have available in the car at your seat—a supply of masks, gloves, disinfectant wipes, hand sanitizer, and tissues.

The tissues are for when you need to touch your face and you’re not sure your hands are clean enough (you can scratch your nose with a Kleenex), or in case there’s no toilet paper wherever you’ve stopped. And remember to put on gloves when you pump gas, especially since you won’t be washing your hands at the gas station!

 

Be a safer, smarter traveler: Sign up for Wendy’s weekly newsletter to stay in the know. And read real travelers’ reviews of Wendy’s WOW List and use it to plan your next trip.

amalfi coast hill town Italy

If You’re Renting a Car in Italy, You Need to Know This

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Italy is a perennial favorite destination among our travelers, who generally prefer to get around by road (instead of train), so they can explore the charming villages in between the big cities. They then find themselves weighing the pros and cons of renting a car vs. hiring a driver. The rules and logistics of driving in Italy can be unfamiliar, even to the most seasoned traveler. So, if you’re planning to rent a car and set out on the autostrada, make sure to heed this advice,

Tolls

Italy has a system called Telepass, which allows drivers to pay tolls electronically via a transponder placed on their windshield (similar to the E-ZPass and FasTrak systems used in parts of the U.S.). Until recently, you had to have an Italian bank account to sign up for Telepass, but Europcar is now offering the option of renting a transponder along with your vehicle. This saves you from waiting in long lines at the tollbooths, and the tolls are automatically charged to your credit card; the rental fee is 35 euros, or about U.S. $40.

Traffic

Traffic has gotten extremely heavy in many parts of Italy—particularly the Amalfi Coast, where there is only one road and it may take two hours to accomplish what should be a 25- to 30-minute drive. You can avoid the headaches on the road by taking a ferry (check here for schedules), though even then it’s wise to book online in advance. When you must drive, try to do so at lunchtime, when the traffic might be lighter.

City Rules

Many Italian cities now limit the vehicles allowed into their historic centers; these areas are known as the ZTL, or zona a traffico limitato. Only those with resident permits or official licenses are allowed inside; all others risk being fined. The signs are small, inconspicuous and in Italian of course. Sometimes there is also a traffic light near the sign. If it’s red, the ZTL is in effect; green means you’re free to drive into the city center. If you are stopped by the carabinieri, politely explain the situation (perhaps you’re trying to get to your hotel) and they might let you pass—or they might send you back to park outside the ZTL. If your rental car is caught on camera illegally inside the ZTL, the fine can show up on your credit card bill even 12 to 18 months after the fact.

Parking

Italy’s beautiful hill towns weren’t designed with automobile parking in mind. Most of these towns—and certainly the ones that do any kind of tourist trade—have a parking area outside their walls. Be prepared to walk a moderate distance (usually uphill) from this lot to the town itself. Don’t expect to drive right up and park in front of the clock tower in Montepulciano. These lots, and most parking spots in urban areas, are not free. Find the kiosk or ticket booth where you can insert coins or bills—rarely credit cards—and purchase your time, then leave the receipt on your dashboard.

 

Be a smarter traveler: Read real travelers’ reviews of Wendy’s WOW List and use it to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook, Twitter @wendyperrin, and Instagram @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.