How to “Travel” During Self-isolation

Due to the Covid-19 crisis, we’ve rescheduled or cancelled vacations and trips to see family and friends.  It’s so disappointing to not be able to see the people and places that we’ve looked forward to for weeks and months.  Being in isolation has made me rethink our approach to travel.  If we can’t be there physically, what are the alternatives? 

In the last few weeks, our extended family has experienced several milestones.  We’ve welcomed two new babies to the family, celebrated many birthdays, and just visited through social media and by trying out several different video chat apps.  Here’s what we’ve tried:

Facetime:  This worked for up to six people with Apple devices.  We found that the resolution on some of the iPad users wasn’t very clear and kept freezing.  The frozen image of Grandma’s face, mouth wide open and distorted was a bit frightening and regrettably I didn’t think to capture an image of that for future use.  Also, I wasn’t sure how Facetime would work when we added more people who were predominantly Android device users so we decided to try something else.

Google Duo:  This was already available on my phone so why not give it a try.  Perhaps Grandma will come in more clearly on her phone.  I asked everyone, regardless of operating system, to download the Google Duo app to their device and we agreed on the date/time of the get together via text message.  During the Google Duo session, there was less image freezing, but the images were still distorted if people were moving around a lot.  The tiles kept jumping around based on who was talking.  We all agreed the frequent tile movement was visually distracting during the meeting.  Instead of looking into the functionality of Google Duo any further, I recommended we try Zoom which I’ve used at work. 

Zoom:  I signed up for the free account and downloaded all the necessary apps to my devices.  I sent out the first meeting notice to my family members with instructions on how to connect to Zoom.  Everyone was able to join fairly easily.  The image and audio quality were much better.  The tiles stayed in place and overall everyone had more enjoyable experience.  After a few more “meetings” we decided to stay with Zoom and pay the upgrade fee so we weren’t limited to 40 minutes included in the free plan.  While it’s not the same as a hug from Grandma, as least we can see and hear her clearly, so for now it’s the next best thing. 

Visiting with family and friends on Zoom is a great, short term alternative to seeing them in person.  But it doesn’t really fit as a vacation alternative.  My definition of vacation travel is going to a new place and experiencing as much as possible.  I’m not really a sit on the beach all day kind of vacationer.  I once visited over 20 lighthouses on a four day drive around Lake Michigan, visited 11 chateaux in France in 3 days, and on a more recent vacation we visited 9 countries in 3 weeks.  You get the idea. 

So how am I scratching the itch of my wanderlust during isolation?  First, I’m revisiting my past travels by going through photos, videos, reminiscing with my travel companions, and preparing future blog posts about those experiences.  And I’m also watching YouTube videos from other people’s travels.  Here are a few that we’ve watched recently:

  • Dennis Callan:  He has an extensive list of videos from all over the world.  I like that he talks about the places he’s visiting and provides travelers with his advice. 
  • Prowalk Tours:  I’ve revisited Pompeii and Paris watching these videos.  There wasn’t any voice over this allowed us to reminisce about our own experiences while we watched.  
  • Mind Boggler:  We watched the 12 Most Terrifying Bridges You Don’t Want to Cross and added a few to our future travel plans. 

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