NOTE:  Travel is a often  personal choice sometimes it is required business choice. This is written by opinion and experience of a seasoned traveler (business and personal travel) who traveled globally during the initial early Coronavirus outbreak.  The day prior to flying out, the first coronavirus case was announced in Iceland and in the Seattle area total coronavirus cases around ten, but no reported deaths yet. There were no warnings not to fly at the time and this article was not by a medical professional (although there is a medical professional in the family).   Please consider this as a point of reference from our experience and what we did to protect ourselves from Coronavirus COVID-19 during a recent trip between Seattle and Iceland.    For the most up to date resources on Coronavirus COVID-19, please always consult the Center for Disease Control (CDC) the  World Health Organization, and the US Dept of State travel advisory site in addition to any other reliable resources you may trust.

We sincerely wish safe travels everyone and speedy containment globally to COVID-19.   Please note that this trip took place at the very early onset of Coronavirus, leaving on leap day February 29, 2020. If faced with this same choice even a week after return, we would not have gone.  My Mom is elderly and in the at risk population, and it was my goal to protect her on this trip.  For any active travelers out there… wishing you well.

 

A Bucket List Travel Story in Early Days of Coronavirus COVID-19

I am 51 years old and I have bucket lists. I value experiences over things and exploring parts of this world because they energize me to my core and expand my soul in a way that only other traveler/explorer types are likely to understand. But this story is not about how personal travel experiences have shaped my life over the course of 30 years and led me to explore 42 different countries so far.  This more about the bucket list of more elderly woman called Amazing Alice, who feels in her bones that her active time to explore is becoming limited.

This is the story of how 51-year-old woman and her 76-year-old Mom travel to Iceland during the initial stage of Coronavirus outbreak. This is not a bucket list epic mother-daughter story to share the beauty and iconic Iceland travel experiences, perhaps that will come later.  Instead, this is a story of preparations and tips for smart travel during Coronavirus times.

Note: At the time of this writing, both mother and daughter are safely back home in Seattle area (ironically the forefront of Coronavirus in the US). While each have returned with symptoms of travel cold/flu, both are doing well, resting and staying home.

 

Making the Decision to Travel During Coronavirus COV19

 

February 28, 2020   – The night before I left for Iceland, I arrived home from work late and flustered.  In typical preparations for vacation mode, I had worked overtime the entire weekend prior and late evenings most of the week.  I was burnt toast on work.  I was less than half-packed to leave for Iceland the next day (but I had the list and piles of things to take sitting by my suitcase).

Over dinner my husband casually said, “My Mom called today. She was upset and borderline crying because she says there is Coronavirus in Iceland and doesn’t think you should go.”

“Really? I hadn’t heard that yet.” I made a mental note to Google the words, ‘Coronavirus Iceland’ after dinner.

I didn’t take this upset call seriously because my mother-in-law does this all the time.  Every week there is something upsetting that she worries and cries about, often calling my husband. You see, my mother-in-law is in early stages of dementia. The next time I talk with her, she likely won’t recall the last time I talked with her and 80% of the time she is complaining, upset, and spun up about something new to often the point of tears.

For my mother-in-law with dementia to be upset about my trip to Iceland and Coronavirus, I just shrugged it off. You see, over the past months she has been similarly agitated over things like; a mark on her kitchen floor that she doesn’t know why it’s there, an item she lost, wanting an air fryer, not trusting the Roomba vacuum, missing the car she sold a month ago, and those little pads you put on the bottom of furniture to avoid floor scuffs.  Because of these experiences, when my mother-in-law was in near tears about me leaving the country it did not phase me one single bit.

“I’ll Google it, but what do you think?’ I asked my husband of twenty-six years.

Without missing a beat, he looked me straight in the eyes and said, “It’s totally up to you hon. I’d still go if I was in your shoes.”    Yes! Validation and partner support!

So, after dinner I Googled ‘Coronavirus Iceland’ for the facts and then called Amazing Alice (aka, Alice, or Laura’s Mom).  At 76 years young, Amazing Alice has a bucket list of active experiences around the world she’d like to have before she declines to the point of no longer being actively able to accomplish them.  She’s always been interested in travel, but in the five years since Dad died it has become even more important to her personally.

Amazing Alice often travels in the US by RV alone or with friends, but has limited travel buddies who will travel internationally outside of the US… an exception being me. I typically leave the US at least once per year to explore a new part of the world I have not yet experienced in person.  For trips that are not too physically strenuous, we invite Amazing Alice to join us.  The past two years my adventures have been more strenuous with active adventures in Peru and Morroco plus multi-day Eastern Europe Roadtrip so Alice did not join us on those.  Our last international trip that Amazing Alice joined was to Scotland three years ago, which included a 30 hr stopover in Iceland.

This year to honor the bucket list wishes of a woman I’ve adored since birth, I decided to organize a dedicated “Mom’s Bucket List Northern Lights Trip to Iceland”.  It might be important to note that I was not really close with my Mom while growing up.  Amazing Alice was a full time working Mom with six kids so growing up my intent was pretty much to stay off of her radar so that I could do things as I pleased.   I did admire and respect her, but we were not personally close and had a somewhat distanced polite relationship for many years.  Travelling together has become a way to shift that relationship bond and now that I am older and (wiser? more grateful?) so is she, it just works that we can hang out as friends.

Thankfully, Iceland Air has terrific prices for affordable airfare and easy vacation packages that enable millions of people like me to discover and explore the unique landscapes and experiences that only Iceland can offer.   So, I booked a 6 day Iceland Air vacation package for me and Mom, then invited all of my brothers and sisters (5 total) to join us.  In the end, it turned out to be just me and Amazing Alice, a mother-daughter exploration of Iceland.

 

But back to the night before we left when I broke the news to Mom about Coronavirus in Iceland and the decision to stay or go.

 

I began my pitch in a very newsy instructional manner, “Mom, the first case of Coronavirus was discovered in Iceland today.  It’s in the news.  It is a man in his 50’s who just returned from a trip to Italy. He is in quarantine and so is his family and others in their neighborhood to contain the spread… “

A combination of sigh and the worlds “oh, my” leaked out of Alice’s vocal chords which led me to pause.

Then I continued, “So, do you still want to go?  At your age, you are in a high-risk group…”

Before I could finish that thought, Alice interrupted.

Sounding a mix of determination and mild surprise, Amazing Alice blurted, “What?!  I am still going.  I’ve looked forward to this for a long time and am not going to miss it.”  It was a fact, Alice was going to Iceland. Period.

But then a 3 second pause before it dawned on her, “Why? Do you want to stay home?”

“Nope.  I do not want to cancel, but I am more worried about you than about me in this case.” My reply was fast and deeply honest.

“Well, if I get sick then I get sick.” That was the end of it, tomorrow we would be getting on a plane to Iceland.  In retrospect thinking about her resolve,  I cannot help but now include the fact that Alice believes in president Trump. Putting all of my judgement on the sidelines right now, she does believe in him.  And on the night I spoke with Alice,  her resolve to go was also the time frame Trump was declaring Coronavirus to be a hoax of the democrats… if the president doesn’t take this seriously, maybe she didn’t think she should?

No politics will continue beyond this point.  I was settled that Alice was going to Iceland so the conversation switched to the details of the morning pickup to get to the airport and any final packing collaboration.  Turns out both of us prepared our own individual antiseptic cleaning arsenal to prepare for Coronavirus. Here are the items we ended up taking between the two of us for 6 days in Iceland:

6 Products We Packed to Help Defend Against Coronavirus While Traveling

1. Disinfectant spray stating kills 99.9% bacteria & viruses. (Note: brand is Seventh Generation which is a more of an organic brand in the US that uses typically less chemicals)

2. Ziplock bags with of disinfectant wipes (this way we left the large canisters at home)

3. Travel-size Wet Wipes antibacterial wipes (kills 99%…)

4. Travel size hand sanitizer gel

5. Travel size Lysol disinfectant spray

6. Travel packs of Kleenex tissue

 

In the end, we diligently used each one of the sanitation items brought along and brought back home what we had not used. About how we traveled, here are some of the precautions we took.

 

Flying International During Coronavirus, How We Prepared to Protect Ourselves.

The good thing about airplane travel is you can control your own space.  If you disinfect everything in your space, then be careful about what you touch and do next, you are off to a good start.   Here is how we prepared and what we did during our flight to reduce our exposure to germs and potential bacteria or viruses.   We did a combination of:

1. Antibacterial Wet Wipes: Sanitized our entire seating area, tray tables, entertainment screens, seat arm rests, recline button, seatbelt. Also used during flight again near the end.

2. Hand Sanitizer Gel: used before meals, and after returning to our seat from anywhere else on the plane.

3. Clothing / Long Sleeve Shirt: Long sleeve shirts, sleeves could be pulled down over hands to open doors, grab things, etc.

4. Clothing / Travel Scarf: Travel scarf. The darling of women travelers worldwide now has a new benefit.  Your substitute face mask around others who cough or sneeze, and a place to cough or sneeze yourself that is not your own hand or skin area.

In reading information AFTER traveling, I picked up a new piece of advice.  Apparently in most planes, that air vent over your head has incredibly filtered air, so it’s likely not germ ridden.  General airplane air is supposed to be worse.  I read somewhere that if you open your air vent to shoot down directly in front of your face (not on you), then the air streaming in front of your face creates a little protective zone of purified air to protect from general cabin air. No clue how accurate this is, but passing along in case you might want to test this out.

 

Bus Transportation in Iceland:  List of Precautions We Took to Protect against Coronavirus

During our stay we rode at least 5 on public buses in Reykjavik, 2 minibus tour buses (capacity 16+), 2 Super Jeeps, and 2 big buses (capacity 40+).  In general, we often wore light gloves (made sense because of the chilly weather) and always had a travel scarf.  We brought our travel wipes, sanitizing gel and small disinfectant spray with us.

Tour Buses: Like an airplane, you generally have your own dedicated seat for the entire trip.  We treated these like the airplane and wiped down/sanitized our seating areas using Wet Wipes combined with hand sanitizer at intervals.

Public Buses:  We actively tried to not really touch many things. By and large I think we succeeded.  However I know I touched the ‘stop’ button with my finger and also grabbed overhead ring and poles to stabilize myself when I had to stand on the buses.

 

 

How We Sanitized our Hotel Room to Protect from COV19 While Travelling. 

OR   

Our  List of 15+ Places Travelers Should Disinfect in Your Hotel Room for Protection from Coronavirus while Travelling. 

Oh, your hotel- of course! Is anyone sick there that could make you sick?  I don’t know, maybe.  When it came to our hotel room, we went all out.  Nailed that one and we sanitized our hotel room to almost ridiculous level. If we thought we might touch it, we sprayed it with disinfectant spray (kills 99.99% if bacteria bad viruses!).

Here is a 15+ point checklist for where to disinfect your hotel room to help protect against germs, viruses, bacteria.

1. Door handles in/out

2. Door locks

3. Light switches

4. Closet doors

5. Drawer handle pulls

6. Desktop

7. Mini fridge

8. Bathroom door

9. All faucets at sink

10. Shower doors & shower temp knobs and hanheld shower nozzle

11. Toilet paper holder

12. Toilet flush buttons

13. Hair dryer

14. TV remote

15. Coat hangers

16. The phone

17. Probably more items I am not remembering now (I think our door key cards?)

Outside of our hotel room, our guard was lower, certainly we both touched potentially germy places like the ones below.

Six Shared Germy Places that I Likely Touched in Our Hotel

1. Pushing elevator buttons (calling the elevator and inside the elevator)

2. Pushing coffee machine buttons at the breakfast buffet (everybody seems to touch those)

3. Pushing juice machine buttons

4. Utensils on the breakfast buffet

5. Front desk, exchanging money, using pens, etc.

6. Generally, all doors in the hotel that we needed to open

 

So in beginning to write this blog post I wanted to start with sharing the backstory of making the decision to travel during the early initial Coronavirus COVID19 outbreak, but at this point I think it is starting to become the ultimate Coronavirus checklist for travelers as a starting point if you need to travel safely.  And that is a good thing.  Checklists and ideas to help people realistically understand ways to protect yourself from germs, colds and flu viruses while traveling are always a good thing to have on hand.  Kind of like a classic black dress, every woman’s closet needs one.

 

To close this blog post out, I’ll wrap with a summary checklist of 10 pieces of practical advice to help protect  yourself from getting the Coronavirus, whether your travels take you across the globe or across  your local city.  If even one single person finds something useful and puts it into practice and it keeps them healthy and safe, then I am comforted by the thought.

10 Recommended Actions You Can Take to Help Protect Yourself from Coronavirus while Traveling

1. Sanitize your airplane seat – all of it. Don’t forget seat belt, recline button, entertainment screen, tray table.

2. Use a travel scarf. A light travel scarf can be lifted in front of your face, mouth and nose. If you cough or sneeze, cough or sneeze into the scarf and not on your hands or skin.  If someone around you is coughing or sneezing adjust your scarf to cover mouth or nose area.

3. Wear long sleeve shirts that can stretch over your hands if needed. Helpful for opening doors, pushing buttons in public areas while keeping your skin away from contact to germy areas.

4. Keep travel size disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer with you. Even is you wash your hands with soap and water at every opportunity, these are extra layers of defense.

5. Wash your hands with soap and water every chance you have, wash longer than you think is necessary.

6. Use hand sanitizer sporadically throughout the day.

7. If you see a public hand sanitizer dispenser (hotel desk counter, hallway of an airport, etc.) go use it.

8. Take vitamins every day – even if you normally do not take them at home. Bring medicines to alleviate cold or flu symptoms with you, just in case you need it.

9. Take light gloves – you might want to wear them on the plane or in public transportation – quicker and easier protection than sanitizing everything.

10. Don’t touch your face. This one is super-duper hard for me. I think I do this a lot without realizing it. Good luck, I hope you can do it.  I can’t seem to get the hang of it.

 

This post has not gotten longer than anticipated and I am going to sign off for now.

But if you have diligently read this far, then I cannot help to add on parting word of advice that has absolutely friggin’ nothing to do with Coronavirus…

If you think you can tolerate you parents on a vacation, please invite them on one.  It truly can shift the dynamic of a relationship by creating lasting, memorable stories together that have absolutely nothing to do with your parent/child relationship over the years. 

Think they’ll drive you nuts?  Hire a tour guide! This is my saving grace. Truly.  By scheduling guided tours,  it makes Mom or Dad’s incessant questions the job of the tour guide to answer, not your. Tour guides are used to that kind of stuff and a good tour guide will convert a crabby old timer into a curious explorer in no time at all.  Everyone wins!

I fell like I waited too long to invite my Mom on a trip, but I’m glad I did take that first step and hope to enjoy more travels with her for years ahead.

Safe travels, wherever you may roam!