I'm starting to feel like I could use a real vacation sometime soon - but it looks like it's going to be a long time before the pandemic is gone. So in the meantime, what sort of vacation options are there that have a pretty low chance of bringing back a virus? While it appears checking into a hotel or cabin itself isn't particularly risky, the selection of things to actually do once arriving at a destination is rather limited. Beaches seem rather crowded, and indoor activities seem right out. The main things I can think of are hiking or maybe renting a canoe somewhere. Any interesting ideas that may be a bit less obvious?
I've seen a few friends post about hotels not cleaning rooms - leaving it to the guests to do the cleaning. Some hotels have made guests aware, others have not.
One of my coworkers just spent a week in a rented house on Lake Jackson in central GA. It's a smaller (but not small) lake than the Oconee, Sinclair, and Lanier where the big crowds flock. He said the lake was busy with boats on the weekends but during the week he saw maybe 20 boats total/5 days.
If you like to fish or kayak or have a boat, a smaller lake rental might be a thing.
I'd lean toward renting a house or cabin. That way you can cook in and minimize contact if you prefer, plus you typically have some private outside space to relax.
Hiking, Canoe trip, fishing trip, private Airbnb somewhere with a private beach/lakefront/pool, camping, staycation...
We are not doing hotel rooms for our summer vacations. We are not flying in USA or outside of USA.
We wanted to do some long time camping. However, use of bathroom is an issue with kids.
Thus we have rented RV. We will be renting it twice for a total of 3 weeks. Price is about $110-$250 a night, depending on size.
Plan is get RV in driveway. Wipe it ALL down. Then have no outside interaction (outside from getting gas), during the vacation times.
That is our plan. Who knows what is in store for us. Sometimes best laid plans go awry
Good luck and be safe.
nocones
UltraDork
5/29/20 1:40 p.m.
We are either doing a big 2 week out west driving trip in our RV, or gettting a campground for a week in UP of michigan.
Currently we have reservations in Capitol Reef, Yosemite, Olympic, Glacier, and many smaller state parks for the in between times. These are for the week after July 4th. We had spent 6 months slowly amassing the reservations based on when the NPS opens up the reservations. AS of right now all but 1 park (A colorado state park) are closed for camping. Yosemite is opening up 2 campgrounds whenever California goes Phase 3 but our reservation (Upper Pines) is for a campground that isn't on the list to open. Additionally a few states say that if we travel from out of state (Montana for sure) we have to quarantine for 14 days upon entry to the state. So it's looking unlikely that we will be able to execute the trip. And now EVERYONE is trying to get reservations to campgrounds that are open so it's unlikely we will be able to change the plan for those weeks to adjust to the National Parks being closed. That's why we are looking to do something more local (1 day drive away) a bit later in the season (more like 1st week of August).
In other news I have an RV available to rent for most of the summer.. ..
NOHOME
MegaDork
5/29/20 1:46 p.m.
I was thinking it would be a good time to execute on a dream drive to Newfoundland. Till I saw the article below. Plus I would have to drive through Quebec, kinda the Canadian epicenter for all things Covid.
https://www.vicnews.com/news/go-home-alberta-registered-vehicles-vandalized-in-b-c-border-town-amid-covid-19/
‘Go home’: Alberta-registered vehicles vandalized in B.C. border town amid COVID-19
What is this "vacation" thing of which you speak? (Sorry, had to do it).
In all seriousness, what do you like to do on vacation? My wife is the type that would like to go to a beach, lay around, read books and relax. I can do that anywhere (well, maybe not the beach part), so I want to do stuff on vacations. See things I might not have seen before. Explore historical stuff, etc.
If I was able to take one, I'd be looking at someplace historic-ish. I'd love to do a week at the Smithsonian, for example. Kinda late for ski/snowboard season.
-Rob
There should be great deals of Motorhomes that are aimed at the european tourists ,
since the border is shut they will not be coming this year ,
pretty sure all of these have toilets and showers.....
mr2s2000elise said:
We are not doing hotel rooms for our summer vacations. We are not flying in USA or outside of USA.
We wanted to do some long time camping. However, use of bathroom is an issue with kids.
Thus we have rented RV. We will be renting it twice for a total of 3 weeks. Price is about $110-$250 a night, depending on size.
Plan is get RV in driveway. Wipe it ALL down. Then have no outside interaction (outside from getting gas), during the vacation times.
That is our plan. Who knows what is in store for us. Sometimes best laid plans go awry
Good luck and be safe.
I need to do this with the better half. Although I suspect we would still have to board the dogs since we have 3.
In reply to MadScientistMatt :
If you want beaches come down here to Biloxi. Other than holiday weekends they're pretty empty, especially if you avoid the more touristy sections. I'd avoid the last weekend of June too, as that's Scrapin' the Coast.
rob_lewis said:
What is this "vacation" thing of which you speak? (Sorry, had to do it).
In all seriousness, what do you like to do on vacation? My wife is the type that would like to go to a beach, lay around, read books and relax. I can do that anywhere (well, maybe not the beach part), so I want to do stuff on vacations. See things I might not have seen before. Explore historical stuff, etc.
If I was able to take one, I'd be looking at someplace historic-ish. I'd love to do a week at the Smithsonian, for example. Kinda late for ski/snowboard season.
-Rob
There's beaches down here & the old coast forts usually allow for plenty of social-distancing.
z31maniac said:
mr2s2000elise said:
We are not doing hotel rooms for our summer vacations. We are not flying in USA or outside of USA.
We wanted to do some long time camping. However, use of bathroom is an issue with kids.
Thus we have rented RV. We will be renting it twice for a total of 3 weeks. Price is about $110-$250 a night, depending on size.
Plan is get RV in driveway. Wipe it ALL down. Then have no outside interaction (outside from getting gas), during the vacation times.
That is our plan. Who knows what is in store for us. Sometimes best laid plans go awry
Good luck and be safe.
I need to do this with the better half. Although I suspect we would still have to board the dogs since we have 3.
No pets here. But can't get away from the kids 
In reply to mr2s2000elise :
This is why my ex-wife and I never had dogs. They put a serious damper on being able to travel. We've found an exceptionally nice couple that run a dog boarding business out of their home. Their backyard is divided up into 3 different "playgrounds" for small/medium/large dogs. They are incredibly sweet and the dogs love going there.
But say we want to go somewhere for a week. That means boarding the dogs the day before and picking them up the day after. So 9-10 days depending on how the dates work out. Which means an extra $1000 to board them just to take a trip.
Yup all my dog freinds can't go anywhere. They have to go home to let them out or feed them or whatever. They won't pay for expensive boarding around here.
I grew up with dogs all my life. Never again. Had enough. 12 more years, kick the kids out, and freedom. Sell all my non 2 seaters. Will only have Elise, Mr2, Atom, and a Morgan 3 wheeler around.
We've rented a house for a week on a small lake in Michigan. Headed there toward the end of June. Just gonna cook in, hang out in/near the lake, and play with the kids. Hopefully we can have some adult conversation too. I've been missing that a lot.
A staycation is the last thing I need right now.
BWCA.. It's open.. Very easy to socailly distance in a wilderness area.
Thanks to all who responded! I hadn't posted very much about preferences since this is kind of a "If it's somewhat fun and gets me out of the house, I'll take it!" situation. We have two small-ish children (9 and 5 years old) and we will need to bring them along for the trip. The only boat we have is a small inflatable raft, which I bought after this all started. I've been taking the raft out with the kids on local lakes just about every weekend since it arrived, but it would take up a lot of space on a road trip.
Biloxi sounds like an interesting possibility, particularly since I don't really have much interest in gambling but have found casinos are often a good place for a reasonably priced hotel room.
Peabody
UltimaDork
5/30/20 1:08 p.m.
In reply to NOHOME :
And they don't want you in Quebec anyway. They'll boot your ass out if they catch you there, I think N.B.is the same, and Newfoundland is even more strict.
I missed out on a really good deal on a car because of it.
MadScientistMatt said:
Thanks to all who responded! I hadn't posted very much about preferences since this is kind of a "If it's somewhat fun and gets me out of the house, I'll take it!" situation. We have two small-ish children (9 and 5 years old) and we will need to bring them along for the trip. The only boat we have is a small inflatable raft, which I bought after this all started. I've been taking the raft out with the kids on local lakes just about every weekend since it arrived, but it would take up a lot of space on a road trip.
Biloxi sounds like an interesting possibility, particularly since I don't really have much interest in gambling but have found casinos are often a good place for a reasonably priced hotel room.
Look into boat rentals, canoe rentals, wahtever rentals wherever you go.
In reply to MadScientistMatt :
Send me a message if you want more details, either through here, or straight to my email: first+last yahoo.
We have been spending a couple of weeks in Maine every summer for the past four years.
I spent all of my vacation days and vacation money sequestering at home. No trip this year.
Cotton
PowerDork
5/30/20 8:56 p.m.
We have a couple of trips planned, but probably not the type the op is looking for. We are headed to Orlando in September for Halloween Horror Nights, then Vegas in October or November. We will be flying to both.
We have dogs and cats. Two get boarded at one of the nice pet resorts due to medical needs and the rest are handled by a house sitter. We travel quite a bit and this works well for us.
