Holiday Travel Is Upon Us

It's not too early I promise...

It's a little crazy to even write a headline with "holidays" in it as my mind is still in March—quite literally I wrote March 20th at the header of a document recently...

As the reality of the time spent in quarantine catches up to me, I realize it's time to plan holiday travel; something that may prove even more taxing than usual this year with state and country restrictions, booking PCH tests and ensuring my elder loved ones stay healthy. 

So here I am reminding you to start thinking about holiday travel as we're less than a month away from Thanksgiving and just about two months until Christmas. As travel starts to become 'normalized' again, what's going through your minds? Are you seeing family this holiday season? What precautions are you taking? What are your thoughts on traveling? What are your concerns? 

The news was a frenzy this week as TSA announced its traveler throughput reached over a million passengers for the first time since March on Sunday. William O'Connor, travel editor at The Daily Beast, wrote a fun piece on the trending news: Flying Is Back To Just Being Annoying Again.

The news couldn't be more timely as I sat chatting to a friend trying to organize our dates at home to overlap. I quickly searched flights and while the limited routes definitely proved higher fares, I was overtly less concerned about price as I was about getting a PCH test to align with my departure dates as I recognized the uptick in prices, meant increased demand and it's still only October! Yikes, am I that late to the game this year??

The CDC published some helpful guidelines around holiday travel, but even so, there doesn't seem to be an "easy" way to get tested before a flight in many cities across the U.S. And granted every state has different regulations, my advice to those who will need a PCH test either to travel or to comfort family members, would be to check with your local doctor to see if they can pre-order a test for you for that week and book an appointment for it.

Alternatively, if you have the flexibility to fly the week before the holidays, you'll likely have more luck either booking an appointment or showing up at a walk-in testing center without having to wait in line for multiple hours. 

If you aren't planning on visiting family but are looking for a getaway, just five days ago, CNN released yet another deep dive into countries that American citizens can travel to, including Aruba, Bermuda, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Mexico to name a few.

Along with this positive news, I wanted to share a few more comforting articles as we anticipate holiday travel looking a little different this year: 

For my cruisers

For my train-seekers

Hawaii reopens & rebounds 

Hope for London-NYC travel in the near future

Agents report 2021 travel bookings on the rise

Once again, I'd love to hear what you're thinking when it comes to travel this holiday season. Is it the first time you're traveling since the pandemic? Are you staying put? What destinations are on your radar? Drop me a line, we're all in this together <3
 

Xo,
J