In a regular year, the holiday season means dealing with traffic jams, crowded airports and sky-high hotel rates. This is obviously no regular year.
With a patchwork of ever-changing state quarantine regulations, plus worries about surging coronavirus rates (as well as the concurrent flu season), you are likely thinking about alternatives to traveling to see your family.
“The movement of travelers is highly restricted this year,” says Roxy Dukes, senior travel specialist at SteppesTravel. “But it’s changed so much in just the past three months. And it’s continually changing with advancements in rapid testing and easing restrictions.”
Here’s what to know as you create your holiday itinerary this year.
Do Some Research
Start your planning by checking the rate of COVID-19 cases in your hometown and in the community, suggests the Centers for Disease Control. (Use its local Health Department Directory to find an area’s coronavirus caseload.) Obviously, higher levels of COVID-19 cases in your community increase the risk of spread and infection. If you community is experiencing a spike, staying home will likely be the smartest choice to keep your family safe and cut the spread of COVID-19.
Check in with your relatives to see how they are doing with social distancing—and don’t push anyone to get together who isn’t comfortable. Encourage everyone to be honest and transparent about how they really feel. Determine who in your family may be at increased risk for severe COVID-19, such as older adults and those with certain medical conditions like cancer, heart disease, diabetes or a weakened immune system. The CDC advises anyone in these categories to skip group activities during the pandemic.
Go All-Digital
Staying home and celebrating with the people you live with is your safest bet for avoiding the transmission of COVID-19, says the CDC. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t see the smiling faces of your extended family over video screens this year. Schedule Zoom or FaceTime calls for a specific time to connect with a large or small group all at once. You can just chat, or you can sit down and eat a meal—virtually—with family members who live far away.
You can also reach out and connect to family members and friends in creative ways. Consider sharing recipes over email. Make time for a special phone call to a distant relative who you only see once a year at the holidays. Play video games online with younger relatives who you won’t see this year. If you usually do a gift swap with friends, consider taking that process online with White Elephant Online, a virtual version of the classic gift exchange. There are so many digital options for connecting these days, almost anything you would do in person has a virtual equivalent.
There is a silver lining to staying home, of course, and that is a smaller budget for the holidays. If you have money set aside for holiday travel or gifts that you won’t be purchasing this year, be smart about those funds. Turn them into an emergency fund or save it for a rainy day.
If You Are Visiting In-Person, Agree on Protocols
If you decide to have a small in-person gathering close to home, the CDC recommends limiting both the number of people and the duration of any event. Remember that outdoors is generally safer than indoors. Masks are essential, as is keeping at least six feet of physical distance when possible and washing your hands frequently.
Ahead of time, have frank discussions about where everyone stands on mask wearing, quarantining before your gathering, testing and social distancing. One idea is to form small “pods,” or bubbles, to make socializing safer. Dukes has noticed an uptick in holiday planning among families and friends who have created these bubbles, opting to travel together and stay at the same rental home or hotel.
The CDC recommends that hosts should consider asking each guest to bring their own food, and to definitely avoid any potluck-style dinners. They also recommend that anyone who is cooking for others should wear a mask while they are preparing or handling food, and single-use paper plates and plastic utensils are better than your usual plates and silverware.
Stay Close to Home and Avoid Crowds
While a review of studies in the Journal of Travel Medicine suggests that the odds of coronavirus transmission on an airplane are low, the CDC warns that social distancing is hard to do on crowded flights. Long lines at security checkpoints and airport gates can also bring you in close contact with other people and frequently touched surfaces.
So if your family’s holiday tradition usually involves jetting off to a far-flung international destination, unfortunately your only option this year may be to stay close to home. Dukes has noticed a 20%-25% increase in road-trip planning for this holiday season. “It’s such a safe way to travel,” she says. “Travelers are slowing down a bit and focusing on a smaller area in the U.S. People don’t necessarily feel comfortable hopping in and out of airplanes to connect.”
Stay Up to Date
The CDC publishes a daily COVID-19 newsletter (you can subscribe here), as well as a dedicated travel page, where you can find the most up-to-date intel and guidance.
Maridel Reyes is a journalist based in New York. Her work has appeared in Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, the New York Post, USA Today and The Boston Globe.
Illustration by João Fazenda
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