Despite the bad news that abounds, there are silver linings for travelers. While it might be true that nearly all commercial air travel is restricted indefinitely, many of us have been out of work and unable to save for our summer adventures, and international options are off of the table, we can look to certain bright spots on the travel scene.
For example, hotels will be super cheap anywhere you go, and you’ll likely have it all, or nearly all, to yourself when you do visit. The same thing is true for beaches – spots that might normally be packed during the summer holidays like Destin or the Jersey Shore will likely see significant drop-offs in crowd sizes.
Despite the unavailability of other transportation options like airplanes or cruises, the personal vehicle remains a way to get yourself and your family from point A to point B.
Tourists journeying via car can stay safe during their excursions by practicing a few basic precautions. First, make sure you’re traveling with the right equipment to comply with the new reality of social distancing and disinfection. In addition to your normal gear, you should consider packing extra gloves, masks, and sanitary products like wipes so that you are fully prepared to do your part to stop the pandemic as quickly as possible, or at least slow its spread.
Secondly, make a commitment to regularly clean the interior of your vehicle to kill any bugs that you or your travel mates might have picked up during stops at gas stations or coffee shops. This includes wiping down seats, seatbelts, the steering wheel, windows, door handles, and any other surfaces that come into contact with microbes normally.
You can mitigate the number of places that you have to stop, and therefore limit your exposure to the coronavirus by planning properly. You should take care of your entire shopping needs, for example, in one place before you hit the road. You can always stop in emergency situations, but having the provisions necessary to sustain you and your fellow travelers can significantly cut back on the number of stops that you have to make.
Finally, this is your opportunity to become the ultimate deal-hunter. With so much drop-off in regular tourist traffic, hotel rooms and other venues are going for unprecedentedly low prices.