Traveling with Covid-19: Start with Dining Out

by Linda Lang | Mar 2, 2021 | Luxury Travel News

Outdoor dining in Chinatown

Okay. You’ve decided to venture beyond the mailbox.  You’re comfortable with contact-free restaurant pick-up, home delivery, and a favorite trusted drive-thru or two.  The news keeps updating us 24/7 on the progress of vaccination availability and statistics. We’re still in the early recovery stages and herd immunity is  months away.  Still, you’ve got to start getting out of the house, and it’s finally the time to start taking baby steps reasonably and safely.

Before making any desired or impulsive decisions, keep your anti-Covid mindset sharp and do your research before planning anything specific. Be aware of the latest anti-Covid requirements and don’t hesitate to ask questions when contacting each place of interest.

At the time of this writing, we do not any recommend inside dining.  Eating outside and socially-distanced from the next table minimizes the risks.  In addition to requiring patio, rooftop or other outside settings, be sure they offer the minimal six-foot spacing or plastic dividers separating tables, disinfection of tables and chairs after each seating, and a masked hospitality and wait staff.  Before giving an eatery a pass, also ask how often frequently-touched surfaces such as door plates or handles, light switches, railings, waiting area furnishings, and bathrooms are sanitized. This varies with the amount of traffic and should be done at least once for single shifts and minimal guests to more scheduled sanitations for longer hours and larger numbers of customers.

Here’s a basic checklist:

• Does the host or hostess greeting you wear a mask?
• Does he or she take your temperature and require masks before allowing you to enter?
• Do all employees have their temperature tested before every work shift?
• Do all employees wear masks?
• Does the restaurant provide paper menus? If not, are menus thoroughly sanitized after each use?
• Do they sanitize chair backs, arms and seat frames; table sides as well as tops; salt and pepper sets, mustard and ketchup bottles and any other tabletop items after each seating?
• How often are the restrooms, hand rails, door plates/knobs, and any other common area features disinfected? (This can range from daily to hourly, depending upon the size of the establishment, number of customers, etc.)

Many establishments have their anti-Covid policies online for your convenience.  Just be sure to ask the restaurant to confirm that they follow everything listed on their site.  Don’t hesitate to ask if something is not clear to you.

Always carry a bottle of hand sanitizer to use after reading menus, touching salt shakers, ketchup bottles or any other table items.  Do this regardless of what precautions the restaurant has taken. Watch where your hands go and always sanitize them before picking up a roll from the bread basket, touching the silverware, your drinking glass or cup, or anything else headed toward your mouth.  And when you return from a restroom break, always sanitize again AFTER you sit down and use your hands to pull your chair up to the table.

Restaurants should always require you to wear a mask to enter/leave the establishment and at your table when the waiter or service staff approach.  Regardless, always practice both whenever dining out.

Where Can We Go and When?

by Linda Lang | Sep 1, 2020 | Luxury Travel News

Travel, just leaving your yard, may not top your to-do list today, but travel is an integral part of our communities culturally as well as financially. Without it, something is off balance, missing – but then a lot of things are currently missing from our lives. It may be a while before we start thinking about airport crowds and sitting elbow-to-elbow in during eight-hour flights again.

It’s obvious that visiting one another with masks, social distancing, and other precautions will continue well into 2021 or longer. Pods of people will likely continue to grow but keeping them relatively small makes sense for now.  The larger they become, the more likely one infected person can threaten the safety of the all. And that person may never show any signs or even know that he or she is or is a carrier.

Yes, some of us currently carry the virus but show no symptoms.  Others believe they are invincible and that taking precautionary measures is not necessary.  Generally, you can assume these people don’t think beyond their own desires muchless give serious thought to the possibility of carrying the virus and gifting it to others.

Scientists still know relatively little about Covid-19 and its long-term effects upon the future of societies worldwide.  We listen to the pundits day after day.  All they can do is update us on the latest news, scientific studies, medical results, varying prognoses and speculate.  There is nothing in history to reference.

Still, we don’t have to put our lives entirely on hold. What we can do is examine the ways we think about and expand our activities as revelations and confirmed scientific results materialize. We humans are very innovative, especially in this country.  There is little, if nothing, we can’t do safely with our determination,  research and innovation.

So, let’s start with what we know about travel today and grow the options as more facts materialize and are validated.  More than ever, we must think beyond our individual selves. We don‘t want to become infected nor do we want to knowingly or unknowingly infect others.  Like it or not, “We’re all in this together….worldwide.”

So where do we begin?  Stay tuned….