TAKING THE KIDS AGAIN
CAN FAMILY GETAWAYS STILL HAPPEN DURING PANDEMIC? KIND OF, SAYS TRAVEL WRITER EILEEN OGINTZ
Ah, summer — a time when families look forward to packing up the car, hitting the road and spending some time together in a new locale.
This year, families are probably especially eager to get away, given that most of them have been locked in their homes for months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But, even with some states — including Connecticut — starting to reopen some businesses and attractions, is family travel advised, or even possible?
Yes, says travel writer Eileen Ogintz. Ogintz has written about pandemic-era travel in her blog “Taking the Kids,” and says, though families can travel, the days of throwing a dart at a map and hopping in a car are indefinitely on hold.
“It’s going to be kind of a different experience,” says Ogintz, who lived and wrote in Westport for more than 20 years before moving to her current home in Denver. “I think, on the one hand, families are just desperate to get out of Dodge.”
On the other hand, she says, any vacation plans this summer need to be carefully thought out. Many states — including popular vacation destinations such as Maine — are requiring that all visitors self-quarantine for at least 14 days. Many tourist attractions are either closed or accepting fewer visitors due to social distancing guidelines.
“If you are going to get in a car and go somewhere you can’t be that spontaneous, partly because of reduced capacity everywhere,” Ogintz says. “You’ve really got to have a reservation.”
But, she says, families can still have fun, as long as they are careful and flexible. For instance, if your family has ever been interested in planning a hike, perhaps now is the time. Yet, as with all potential getaways in the summer of COVID, forthought is required.
“You need to do research ahead of time to find trails that are less crowded,” Ogintz says. “You don’t want to get to a trail head and it’s packed with cars.”
She suggests an internet search of “less visited hikes.” Or pick an area of the state, or elsewhere in New England, and reach out to locals to see if they know of any beautiful, but minimally-trodden, trails.
Families might also want to look into camping. However, Ogintz says, one concern with roughing it in the great outdoors is communal restrooms. One way to subvert that is with a recreational vehicle, she says. For those who can’t splurge on purchasing one, Ogintz suggests Outdoorsy.com, which helps consumer find reasonable rental rates for RVs. Some vehicles can be rented for as low as around $100 a night.
If the great outdoors is not appealing at all, Ogintz suggests a hotel stay. Though she knows hotels might be a concern because they’re loaded with such frequently touched surfaces as door handle and nightstands, many hotels have upped their cleaning protocols in the wake of the pandemic, or are providing such precautions as contactless check-in and checkout.
As for where to do this camping or hotel staying, Ogintz says she’s not entirely sure, but it’s probably best to stay close to home. “For Connecticut people, maybe think about some place in Massachusetts or Pennsylvania,” she says. Though she predicts that people won’t care as much about where they’re going as they did in the past.
“It almost doesn’t matter where you go — it’s just going somewhere different and doing it safely,” she says.
“IF YOU ARE GOING TO GET IN A CAR AND GO SOMEWHERE YOU CAN’T BE THAT SPONTANEOUS, PARTLY BECAUSE OF REDUCED CAPACITY EVERYWHERE.”