Scary statistics and overwhelming rules aside, my quarantine road trip taught me that traveling during COVID-19 can still be safe…and a lot of fun.
As someone who travels for a living, being quarantined in the house since March has been a special kind of torture. So when my hometown of Miami, Florida, was flagged as the new epicenter of the coronavirus, I jumped at the chance to escape for as long and as safely as possible. Over a three-week road trip, I spent time in four states—Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina—all handling (or in some cases, not handling) the pandemic very differently. I stayed in a mix of friends’ homes, Airbnbs, and hotels, and for the first time since the pandemic started, even went to a few breweries, restaurants, and local attractions. After five months of solid quarantining, it’s safe to say I was nervous to be on the road. But after following expert recommendations and guiding my trip by my 2020 mantra—“What would Fauci do?”—I came back safe, healthy, and testing negative for COVID-19. Through it all, here’s what I learned about road tripping in the COVID era. INSIDER TIPLooking for road-trip inspiration? Take a look at Fodor’s brand new section, The Best Road Trips in America.