When you start to travel again, where will you visit first? It’s a popular question right now. A survey showed that most people would prefer to stay closer to home and the increase in RV rentals seems to be confirming that is going to be the case.
I’ve been thinking about this for our upcoming travels. Plans for any trip for the rest of 2020 are going to be made at the last minute, depending on how we’re feeling about visiting an area at that particular moment. I had this in mind while I was reading a post on One Mile at a Time. Ben was recapping his first post-COVID-19 trip to eat out at a restaurant. While that was interesting, something else in the article struck me as an astute observation.
I think that trying to replicate any travel experience in the COVID-19 era will only lead to disappointment. Whether that means returning to your favorite destination or favorite hotel, you’re likely to notice all of the things that aren’t the same as before.
Therefore if I do travel, in the next couple of years I plan to focus exclusively on new experiences. I want to visit places and stay at hotels where I haven’t been before, because that way I won’t constantly take note of all of the things that aren’t the same anymore.
If you go to places you know, you’re going to notice all that has changed. That’s a big problem that the theme parks in Orlando are facing. Even before they’ve re-opened, people are complaining about facemasks, fewer experiences, and mainly things just being different than they remember. This is the same issue people have about revisiting favorite places from your childhood. Things aren’t the same as you remember them.
I think Ben’s solution to the problem is an interesting one. If you don’t want to be disappointed by things being different from before, visit places you’ve never been to. You won’t know that a restaurant used to have a vibrant scene and is now quiet and lacking personality. Experiences that you liked before that are no longer available won’t be a problem if everything is new.
I don’t think we’ll exclusively stay away from places we know. I can see us going to New York City or the Texas Hill Country, once we think it’s safe, even if we know it won’t be the same as we remember them. We’ll just have to go in with the mindset that things are going to be different and we’ll deal with it if it means we can revisit places with no concerns about health or safety.
Maybe we can try things we never did before or ones that will not have changed that much. There’s a drive-in movie theater in Texas we’ve wanted to visit but never seemed to have the time. We could also pay a visit to many of the local wineries. New York is going to be tougher, as we’ll eventually want to see a Broadway show.
If you go in with the mindset of comparing things to how they were, you’re going to be disappointed. So if you can’t manage to separate how things were from how they are, visiting places you’ve never been before seems like a great alternative. Also, it’s a great thing to get away from the usual spots and experience different places.
#stayhealthy #staysafe #washyourhands
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
1 comment
You make some valid points.