Top Tips on COVID-19 Travel

1. Know the COVID-19 Rate Where You Live

Even if you’re vaccinated, it’s still important to assess COVID-19 levels in your own community. If they’re high, you are at greater risk of developing COVID-19, although infections in vaccinated people are rare and usually mild.
If you’re traveling by plane, train, or bus from a place where a lot of people have COVID-19, the odds will be higher that a passenger near you or your group could have the disease, so make sure to follow the traveling guidelines.

2. Assess COVID-19 Rates at Your Destination

The infection rate at your destination is also a factor to consider. If you’re heading to a location that’s red-hot with COVID-19, your chances of becoming ill there do rise, even if you’ve been vaccinated.
Luckily, Croatia is considered a safe destination, so you’ll have little to worry about here, but something to keep in mind for the rest of your trip. You can find an area’s test positivity rate (a key measure of virus circulation levels) on the website of its local public health department.

3. Consider your and your service provider Vaccination Status and Health Situation

All of Lastavica/Swallow Cruising crew have been fully vaccinated or have met requirements to be considered immune to the COVID-19 virus. We conduct ourselves in a responsible manner, as our goal is to be on the sea again and provide our services to our dear guests.
Making sure you are fully vaccinated gives you the peace of mind considering the fact that you will be traveling with strangers.

4. Think about Testing Around Your Trip

If you or those you’re traveling with have not been vaccinated, you may want to take a COVID-19 test in the days before you leave. Getting a negative result will reduce the odds you’ll unknowingly bring the virus to your destination.
Also, other than a COVID-19 certificate, which states that you are vaccinated or have developed an immunity, you will need the test to cross the Croatian border.

5. Decide on Your Mode of Travel

For anyone who isn’t vaccinated, experts consider driving to be the safest form of transportation, especially if the destination can be reached within a day, because this substantially limits interactions with other people.

Flying can also be relatively safe. As of now, airlines continue to require all passengers to wear masks onboard. If you have not been vaccinated, be sure to remain in your seat as much as possible during the flight and keep your mask on nearly all the time, especially when other passengers nearby remove theirs to eat or drink.
Traveling by bus likely requires extra vigilance for unvaccinated people, as the ventilation systems (an important way that microbes are removed from the air) may not be as good as those on planes.
Vaccinated people should feel confident taking any mode of transportation. Even sitting next to an unvaccinated person is safe if you are immunized.

6. Eating in Restaurants Is Likely Fine

Last summer, experts were clear that it was not safe to eat inside a restaurant, so they suggested that vacationers dine outside or get takeout. That advice still holds for people who have not been immunized.

Those who have gotten their vaccine, however, should feel comfortable dining mask-less indoors, as it is responsible and will make vacationing both easier and more fun.

7. Be Smart About Your Activities

Rates of COVID-19 in the United States are expected to keep falling as more people become protected from the virus. This is not the case overseas, especially in countries like India where vaccination rates remain low and where new and potentially extra-contagious variants of the virus are constantly arising.

Especially on international trips, there may be activities you always love to do on vacation, but it may be wise to skip them now. Bars, karaoke cafes, theme parks with inside rides, and other crowded indoor activities may carry some COVID-19 risk.

Even in the United States, Glatt advises avoiding indoor places with large crowds of people whose vaccination status can’t be known. “Being vaccinated, your odds are much lower of getting serious illness and complications, but there is a small, small chance,” he says.

8. Have a Good Time! You Deserve It

For all of us, the stress of this pandemic year means we need a vacation more than ever. For most of us, it’s been ages since we’ve taken a trip.

While you’re away, it may take a while to fully relax, to feel comfortable going without a mask and touring sites with strangers. That’s okay.

But if you’ve been vaccinated, give yourself permission to enjoy your travels.