“If you’re fully vaccinated, you’re not taking as much of a risk if you travel now. You still need to take some precautions, but it’s different than it was in the past,” says Aaron E. Glatt, MD, chairman of the department of medicine and chief of infectious diseases at Mount Sinai South Nassau in Oceanside, New York. Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that people who are fully vaccinated (that is, who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine or the second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine at least two weeks prior) can travel safely within the United States. But if you’re not vaccinated or fully immunized, or are taking a trip with others who aren’t — such as children under age 5, who are currently ineligible for a COVID-19 vaccine— you need to take steps to minimize risk. The following 10 tips will help ensure that everyone in your traveling party remains healthy and no one brings home any unwelcome holiday presents.
1. Know the COVID-19 Rate Where You Live
Even if you’re vaccinated, it’s still important to assess COVID-19 levels in you community. If they’re high, you are at greater risk of developing COVID-19, though these so-called breakthrough infections are typically mild. “Vaccination is excellent in protecting people, but it is not perfect and we do see a small number of vaccinated persons developing a breakthrough infection. Thankfully, these infections tend to be less severe,” says Richard Martinello, MD, an infectious diseases specialist at Yale Medicine and associate professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. If you’re traveling by plane, train, or bus from a place where a lot of people have COVID-19, the odds will be higher that a passenger near you or your group could be infected, says Dr. Glatt, a spokesperson for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. (Federal orders do require that everyone on public transportation wear masks, but not everyone complies with the rule.) Of course, the risk of exposure to COVID-19 is more worrisome if you or others in your traveling party are not vaccinated. RELATED: Breakthrough COVID-19: What’s the Real Risk? For travel within the United States, you can find an area’s test positivity rate (a key measure of virus circulation levels) on the website of the local public health department or in the CDC’s community database (click “your community,” then “county view”). Or search for the color-coded risk level at the comprehensive website Global Epidemics from the Brown School of Public Health. For trips outside the United States, you must check the U.S. State Department website to determine what the virus rates are and what entry restrictions apply. These may vary by vaccination status. For instance, the Czech Republic, France, and some other European countries allow vaccinated visitors to skip otherwise mandatory testing.
3. Consider Your (and Your Host’s) Vaccination Status and Health Situation
A key question to ponder is how risky would traveling be for you. “Everything with COVID-19 needs to be individualized. You need to view everything through your personal perspective,” Glatt says. Are you unvaccinated and at high risk for severe COVID-19 consequences because of your age or underlying health conditions? And what about the people you’re traveling with or visiting? Perhaps they have a compromised immune system and remain vulnerable to COVID-19 even if they’ve been vaccinated. In these cases, gathering at a busy airport or going to a crowded resort with many other vacationers may be risky, Glatt says. But driving to an isolated vacation spot could be okay. RELATED: What You Need to Know About COVID-19 Vaccines In addition, the CDC recommends unvaccinated people test again three to five days after traveling, and also quarantine for seven days (or 10 days if skipping the post-trip test). Some international destinations require testing before you can visit, even if you’ve been vaccinated. For instance, Brazil allows U.S. citizens to enter only if they’ve tested negative for COVID-19 before arrival. And everyone over age 2 needs to show proof of a negative test when arriving back in the United States after traveling internationally, unless they have documentation proving they’ve recently recovered from COVID-19. Vaccinated people can get tested up to three days before departure, while unvaccinated people must get tested no more than one day before. RELATED: At-Home COVID-19 Tests: Essential Info
5. Decide on Your Mode of Travel
For anyone who isn’t vaccinated or is at high risk of severe COVID-19, experts consider driving to be the safest form of transportation, especially if the destination can be reached within a day, because this substantially limits interactions with other people. Flying can also be relatively safe. As of now, airlines continue to require all passengers to wear masks onboard. If you are unvaccinated be sure to remain in your seat as much as possible during the flight and keep your mask on nearly all the time, especially when other passengers nearby remove theirs to eat or drink. Traveling by bus likely requires extra vigilance if you are unvaccinated, as the ventilation systems (an important way that microbes are removed from the air) may not be as good as those on planes. Vaccinated people should feel confident taking any mode of transportation. Sitting next to an unvaccinated person is relatively safe if you are immunized.
6. Don’t Obsess With Cleaning
You can vacation pretty much as usual if you have been vaccinated, says Tara Kirk Sell, PhD, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore. This means you can stay in a regular hotel room if you prefer, rather than limiting yourself only to isolated rental homes as many did last winter. There’s no need to wipe down the hotel room’s light switches, doorknobs, or other high-touch objects, Dr. Sell says. Some people have always done that to protect against norovirus and other germs that can spread by touch, and can continue to do so for this reason. But you’re unlikely to contract COVID-19 that way, she says. You may also benefit from taking additional precautions, especially if you are unvaccinated, such as opening windows to improve the ventilation in your room, if weather permits.
7. Consider a Few Factors When Eating Out
Last winter, experts were clear that it was not safe to eat inside a restaurant, so they suggested that vacationers dine outside or get takeout. That advice still holds for people who have not been immunized or who have compromised immune systems as long as the amount of coronavirus circulating in the community is significant. For other people, eating indoors may pose an acceptable level of risk, particularly in areas like New York City and San Francisco, where regulations mandate that restaurants only allow vaccinated customers inside. Still, some experts advise caution, especially if the rate of COVID-19 where you’re traveling is high. “Personally, I am still avoiding indoor restaurant dining even though I am vaccinated, as COVID remains significantly circulating in my community. When the rate of COVID is consistently low to zero in my community for a few weeks, I will be comfortable returning to indoor restaurants,” Dr. Martinello says.
8. Avoid Indoor Spaces Crammed With People
Experts hope that rates of COVID-19 in the United States will fall as more people, including children 5 and older, become immunized. This is not the case in some countries overseas, where vaccination rates are low. Especially on international trips, there may be activities you always love to do on vacation that may be wise to skip for now. Bars, karaoke cafes, theme parks with inside rides, and other crowded indoor activities may carry some COVID-19 risk. Even in the United States, Glatt advises avoiding indoor places crammed with people whose vaccination status can’t be known. “Being vaccinated, your odds are much lower of getting serious illness and complications, but there still is a very small chance,” he says.
9. If You’re Not Fully Vaccinated, Stay Vigilant
While you’re on vacation it’s easy to feel like the limitations of your regular life don’t apply. But especially if you aren’t fully vaccinated there are no magical protections that keep the virus at bay just because you’re gambling in Las Vegas, frolicking at a theme park, or hanging with relatives you haven’t seen in ages. For those at risk, it’s important to follow general CDC guidance at all times, Grant stresses, including washing hands regularly, keeping six (or ideally more) feet of distance between yourself and others, avoiding poorly ventilated indoor spaces, and, crucially, wearing a mask in all indoor public settings.
10. Have a Good Time! You Deserve It
For all of us, the stress from this pandemic means we yearn to travel more than ever. For many of us, it’s been two years since we’ve taken a winter vacation or spent holidays with extended family. While you’re away, it may take a while to fully relax. That’s okay. But if you’ve been vaccinated, give yourself permission to enjoy your travels. “I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list,” Susan Sontag reportedly said. After many of us stayed home for so long, it’s time — still being smart and careful — to start satisfying that wanderlust again.
