Wait, How Do I Travel Again?

Like most people, 2020 did not take me much farther than my city block. My husband was deployed, and I was busy working. It was nearly impossible to take a vacation. One of our absolute favorite things to do together is travel. We’ve taken a trip to Europe every year since we’ve been together—until 2020. My husband came home at the end of the year, and we dreamed of being able to travel again, but it still seemed so far fetched.

Fast forward to three weeks before a family wedding in Italy, when they had just began allowing Americans into the country. We knew it was going to be a challenge to make it to the wedding, but missing an opportunity to see where my family came from and meet the family I still have there was not an option.

So, there we were, only a few weeks prior to our trip, researching how to actually get ourselves safely into (and out of) Italy. I probably spent more than 12 hours on the phone with the airlines to make sure we had all the information we needed. And even with that, we still arrived eight hours early to the airport—just in case. We had nothing planned except a hotel the night of the wedding. No hotels, no cars, no reservations. We had the bags on our backs and one suitcase to carry my husband’s suit. We speak very little Italian.

And there we went, off to Italy.

Normally, I’m a planner. I have every minute planned on vacation and every reservation set before we go. But after going through a deployment, I felt as if I developed an important life skill—to adapt and go with the flow. I embraced traveling with no plans and ever-changing COVID rules because, to me, after handling the past year there was nothing we couldn’t do.

Aside from the nerve-wracking 15 minutes waiting for our COVID tests to come back to fly home, the traveling was pretty smooth. As I reflect on our trip, I have a few tips for anyone that has to or wants to travel in this ever-changing crazy world.

1. Bring your own COVID tests.

The U.S. requires you to have a negative COVID test to return, regardless of vaccination status. It has to be done within a certain timeframe of your arrival. There are places abroad where you can get tested, however, with a language barrier and so many different types of tests out there, it was easier to have our own. We purchased them through a partnership with the airline. We packed them in our carry-ons and had them with us the entire time. When it came to be the day before our flight home, we tested ourselves in the hotel room. We also brought a laptop with us, because you need a camera and good internet connection to be able to connect with a virtual provider who watches you self test. The test kits come in packs of 2 or 6. We each purchased a pack of 2 and are saving the other ones for our next international adventure. It was easy.

2. Call the airline.

That bears repeating… Call the airline. Call the airline. Call the airline. This is probably the second most important tip for anyone traveling right now. Airlines have entire customer support networks dedicated to keeping up to date on COVID restrictions right now. They’re a great resource for information regarding specific entry and exit requirements for different countries as well as making sure you have the necessary forms filled out for contact tracing. I found the internet difficult to navigate, and calling the airline was a much more productive way to find out exactly what we needed to do. And even with that being said, we still arrived to the airport extremely early in case we were missing something.

3. Book the big stuff, don’t sweat the small stuff.

We made sure to book tickets to the big attractions in Rome, especially things like the Vatican that are indoors and probably have capacity limits due to the pandemic. But other than that, we found ourselves able to do things I never had the opportunity to do during other trips to Italy. We ate dinner with a front-row seat to the Panethon multiple nights in a row without reservation. We walked up to the coast in Sorrento and rented an umbrella mid-day.

4. Know your comfort limits.

We discussed before we left things that we would be uncomfortable doing in today’s world. We rented a car to drive to my family’s town rather than take a 6- to 8-hour bus ride. We walked more than 10 miles around Rome to avoid buses and ubers. We ate outside. We didn’t choose any shared lodging space. Every night, we figured out where we were going the next day, and having these limitations made decision making much easier.

 

Going on a trip like this is uncharacteristic of me. But after having my husband deployed for 11 months and having to adjust my mindset to handle the ever-changing world of the military, traveling with no concrete plan seemed like nothing. In fact, we plan to do the same thing for our next trip.

To anyone that has to travel or feels comfortable enough but doesn’t no where to start right now, it’s easier than you think!

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Sarah Darnall

Sarah Darnall

Sarah Darnall is a born and raised South Jersey girl from a big family. She moved to upstate New York after finishing her graduate degree to pursue her dream job as a surgical Physician Assistant. It wasn’t long after her move that she met her better half, Manny, who proudly serves in the Army National Guard. Together they have a lab/Australian shepherd mix named Buck. Sarah still works as a surgical PA, and in her spare time she loves exercising and traveling. But above all else, Manny and Sarah love spending time with family and hope one day to have a big family of their own.

One thought on “Wait, How Do I Travel Again?

  • Sharita Knobloch
    September 7, 2021 at 12:43 pm
    Permalink

    Those are really solid trips, Sarah– many of which I didn’t even consider. I am sure that our followers with international travel plans will greatly benefit from your experience. Thank you!

    Reply

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