Is Socially Isolated Travel Possible?

*This post is about a trip taken between October and November 2020. As such, my experiences were dictated by the travel regulations at that time. It is important to stay current with regulations for both your destinations of departure and arrival when planning a trip *

About 10 months ago, the world’s tourism industry came to a virtual standstill. When the wave of lockdowns hit in March of 2020, many people traveling abroad were forced home. We had to join the rest of the world as we wait for international borders to reopen.

Is Socially Isolated Travel Possible?

While the advice of the health experts is to continue to halt all non-essential travel, the question that has challenged my mind is the concept of socially isolated travel. Currently, any travel runs the risk of making you a social pariah. However, I fail to understand the difference between socially isolating in my home and socially isolating while traveling. While backpacking is inherently social, traveling now must become more of a natural experience. Unfortunately, this means the cultural exposure of travel may become limited.

I put my theories of the new age of travel to the test with my recent Greece trip. This post will tell a few stories of traveling in the time of Covid and is going to be broken into two chapters, followed by my overall advice on traveling during Covid.

1. Abroad When the World Began to Stop

It was January of 2020, and I was a week away from my flight to Indonesia when I first heard of the Corona Virus working its way through China and surrounding regions. While at the time, my parents had suggested that maybe I should stay home or possibly change the destination of my trip, we had no idea the true effects it would later have on my itinerary.

The Trip Began Seemless Enough…

The first month of my trip saw me traveling Sulawesi, an island less touristed than its Indonesian sisters. As such, the general population was not too concerned about the virus reaching them in their isolated villages. In fact, the topic of the virus for the island was a popular joke. It almost seemed as if they were challenging it to reach them in their island sanctuaries.

While since then, the island has become one of Indonesia’s hotspots for the virus; their easy-going attitudes at the time had left me laughing at my parents, who seemed to be so paranoid. I didn’t understand how I didn’t see any concerns for the virus. Meanwhile, my hometown halfway around the world was stocking up on toilet paper.

My trip continued with no evidence of the virus. I partied my way through Bali, road-tripped around Lombok, and even worked my way through East Java. All without a hint of concern over the mounting pandemic.

The Storm Clouds Gathered…

It wasn’t until about six weeks into my trip that we began to see Indonesia’s efforts to lockdown. And from there, everything seemed to happen in overdrive.

It began when we arrived in Yogyakarta. We started to find several of the main sites and landmarks temporarily closed. However, we weren’t too concerned when heading to Borobudur, the main reason we stopped in the city. We reasoned that the entire site was located outside and so assumably would remain open. Well, we were wrong. While the grounds around the temple remained open, the temples themselves were closed due to Covid. This was the first disappointment that left me thinking that it may be best for me to head home.

Despite that, I pushed on.

While my time on Java saw several closures, I decided to continue to Sumatra. After all, it’s another less touristed island much like Sulawesi, and so I assumed they would have the same relaxed measures. Again I was wrong, and like Java, Sumatra had closed down much of the island, including the entire Orangutang forest.

Bad News From Home

I had only spent three days exploring around Lake Toba before I got a call from back home. It was my dad relaying the news that international borders were about to close. All flights would be grounded.

I immediately jumped on my phone to find flights costing 5-6 times the amount I had paid to fly there. After hours of stressfully looking, I finally found an affordable flight and immediately headed back to Java. There I would wait three days for my plane home. Those three days were spent stressfully waiting to see if the flight would be canceled. Luckily enough, I heard no news.

The day of my flight came, and I arrived at the airport several hours beforehand. We took off without a hitch. The next leg of the trip was landing in Tokyo and transferring myself from Haneda airport to Narita.

This transfer was pretty cool. It offered me a chance to see the streets of Tokyo with literally nobody in the city. Tokyo felt like an apocalyptic ghost town.

Arriving at Narita airport, I was informed of how lucky I was. The flight I was taking was set to be the last one back to Montreal. From there I could reach my final flight back home to Toronto to be met by my parents.

2. Experimenting With Socially Isolated Travel in Europe

After months of staying at home and only leaving to work, I decided it was time to try another trip. I figured why the hell not? I was already working a job in retail and another in a grade school. When I considered the number of people I was interacting with during any given day, I realized I could easily be more isolated on the road, albeit with slight alterations to the way I travel. So I bought a ticket to Greece with the plan to go wait out the rest of Covid there. These are the details of what it will be like to travel internationally for the foreseeable future.

Picture of my empty flight from Montreal to Athens- No challenge to maintain socially isolated travel

Flights

The first change in travel procedures begins at the airport. Gone are the days of online check-ins. Now you must go through a check with your airline to ensure you can enter your destination country. With the number of people that have to go through this process, getting checked in can take quite a bit of time, making it even more important to arrive at the airport well ahead of time. While airlines have since updated their aircraft to help reduce Covid transmissions during their flights, my time on planes during my trip was the most high-risk scenario I was in.

Upon arrival to most locations, you are presented with two options. Either you are required to present a Covid test taken within a designated number of days, or take a test on arrival. I opted to take the test on arrival, and was forced to quarantine until I got the results. By doing so, I did my duty as a traveler during Covid to ensure I wasn’t transmitting the virus. Had the test come back for the worst, I would have been transported to a local Covid hotel where the local government would house me for the following two weeks.

Transportation

For budget backpackers, public transportation is the go-to. However, along with the cheap fare comes the tightly packed buses and trains ill-suited for the new era of Covid travel. Instead, to keep your trip Covid friendly, we are now going to have to open up our wallets a little bit for more private means of transportation.

My personal suggestion is to rent a car. While your social interactions are going to be limited, at least by having a personal car at your disposal, you will be able to explore the hidden corners of the countryside to their fullest. Having now the experience of traveling in my own vehicle, I’m not sure I will ever be able to go back to traveling a country via public transportation again, even after all of this Covid craziness is over. Having this tool at my disposal, I found myself able to be extremely flexible in my travels. As such, I was able to find some amazingly secluded areas free from any sight of tourism.

Accommodations

Another hallmark of backpacking that has no place in the new Covid-Friendly method is those cheap night stays in a youth hostel. While by far the cheapest way to travel, hostels have the potential to become a hotbed for spreading the virus. Instead, we will have to open up our wallets a little wider and spring for private rooms. For those like myself that typically rely on hostels for meeting other travelers, you are going to have to get used to spending nights alone in your room with a bottle of wine.

The Pros and Cons of Travelling During Covid

While many people are dreaming of getting away from Covid craziness, the current methods of travel are not quite suitable for everyone. By socially isolating while traveling, it is a lot of time spent alone. This can be a bit of a struggle when you don’t have the luxuries of meeting people. During the entire two months I was traveling, I had five conversations, and even they were very brief.

However, while many people would see this lack of social interaction as a nightmare, it also offers the perfect opportunity for an introverted journey of discovery. Traveling during this time offered a further advantage with a massive reduction in crowds. My attempts at socially isolating while seeing the breadth of the country were aided in the fact that I was able to visit locations that would normally be swarming with tourists and yet have the site completely to myself(see image to the left. Trans Studio Bandung, a theme park where the Covid Scare cleared out the lines, and we were left as one of the few remaining patrons.)

Constantly Changing Travel Restrictions

The most difficult part of traveling during the global crisis is that international borders constantly open and close. You have to time things perfectly to avoid getting stuck in a country. About a month into my trip, Greece began to shut down, with everything reverting to roadside pickup and rumors that the airports were to close down. Having been staying in a small studio apartment in Athens, I decided that it was time to leave the country.

However, there was one more thing I wanted to test out about traveling during Covid, and that was to jump between countries. Let me say that I don’t recommend doing this, as some airports are handling the virus poorly.

Stranded in Milan

My first struggle came when I arrived at Milan airport for a layover before heading over to Lisbon, and onward to Madeira, Portugal. I didn’t even come close to reaching the flight. With only one security check open in the airport, I had no chance at reaching my layover.

After only a brief panic, I found an alternative flight route to my destination. The only problem was that I had to find my way across the city to Milan’s second airport. Being in the middle of the night, and not knowing the city, I ended up walking 56-km to get there. While this did offer me a chance to see the beautiful Italian city, it was all very hectic.

The other issue about transferring countries is that you have to follow the bylaws of both the destination country and those where you have to enter the country for a layover, which often includes a Covid test and temporary quarantine. It can be a pretty huge hassle.

All in all, I don’t think these current methods of travel are well suited for most people. However, if you don’t mind spending vast amounts of time alone, or the judgments of your peers back home, I can confidently say that it is possible to travel while socially isolating to reduce spreading the virus.

Tips For Socially Isolated Travel

Stick to outdoors friendly destinations

Now is probably not the time to visit those cold winter destinations, where the weather will force us indoors and risk becoming susceptible to the virus. Instead, let’s stick to the warm countries, where we can escape from crowds through hiking and spending time at the beach.

Embrace slow travel

The time of country hopping is currently on pause. Between the Covid tests on arrival, and the enforced quarantines of many of these destinations, traveling between multiple countries is no longer an efficient way to explore the world. Instead, it is time to pick those destinations where you wouldn’t mind being stuck if international borders were to close down again.

Splurge for private rooms

While Hostels are a great place to meet fellow travelers, doing so can no longer be a goal if you are going to partake in self-isolated travel. The overly crowded nature of hostels has the potential to be a hotbed for spreading the virus to travelers, who in turn may spread it across borders.

Avoid public transport

This one is pretty self-explanatory. Public transport can be disgusting, even in the pre-Covid world. Now there is a whole new level of risk, and even if you are not concerned about catching the virus, our goal as travelers is to avoid the current stigmas against travel and keep ourselves from spreading it.

Get comfortable spending time alone

So this is the big one. If you aren’t comfortable spending time alone, or within the sole company of those whom you are traveling with, then travel may not be for you at the moment. I managed to get by for my two months alone by spending my days getting lost in the history of the Ancient Greek ruins, and my nights by playing games on my phone, watching Netflix, and drinking a small town’s worth of wine.