A travel & adventure blog by Kara Santos
After almost two years of community quarantine and working from home, most of us are really eager to go on a vacation. But with the additional requirements, risks, and extra costs of travel these days, thinking about going on a vacation feels like a lot more stressful than it used to be.
A lot of people got into biking last year because of the lack of transportation and as a recreational activity. This year, more people will probably be interested in venturing further from the cities for bike exploration or are planning to meet up with friends for group rides. While borders have started easing up, we’re still not out of the woods yet. As long as vaccines are not yet available, it’s better to err on the side of safety.
That being said, biking is a physical exercise that’s beneficial for maintaining health, fitness, and the body’s immune system. When done alone or with members of your household, it can be a relatively safe and rewarding activity.
Continue reading “Biking safety tips during the COVID-19 pandemic”It’s a really challenging time for travelers. With the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s been a lot of medical jargon being thrown around, unknown acronyms, long list of requirements that vary per destination, expensive tests, and the very real risk of getting sick or stuck in a quarantine facility. Most people have chosen to avoid traveling altogether unless it’s really essential, and I can’t blame them.
I recently had to go through the tedious process for a work trip to Bohol that involved air travel. And while I enjoyed the destination very much once I got there, what went on behind the scenes before and after made me reassess if it’s really worth traveling for leisure at this time.
Continue reading “A Guide to COVID-related Travel Requirements in the Philippines”After months of living under the longest lockdown in the world, many people who live in Metro Manila are eager to travel once again. Different destinations are slowly opening their doors to domestic tourists for “non-essential” leisure travel. The cautious reopening is part of government efforts to kick-start the tourism economy that has suffered from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020.
Like you, I miss the freedom of the open road. I miss that feeling of discovery, of stepping foot somewhere new for the first time and knowing that there’s a beautiful world just waiting out there to be explored. As much as I used to complain about travel burnout in the past, there are simple things I miss about pre-COVID travels. Like riding somewhere without the fear of being stopped at a checkpoint; those sudden and unexpected trip assignments to cover events in another province; or just random city adventures and drinks at a bar afterwards with friends.
I know there are so many bigger problems out there. So many people have been left jobless and businesses everywhere are suffering because of restricted movements brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. The uncertainty of this virus and the possibility of getting sick and dying is very real. Everyone has switched to survival mode and leisure travel should be the furthest thing from everyone’s mind.
Continue reading “How I’m Coping with a Life of No Travel”The travel and tourism industry has been hit hard by the global pandemic. At this point, everything remains uncertain, and we can’t really know if and when things will bounce back to “normal.” As movement around the world has become restricted, airlines and hotels have been forced to cut jobs to lower costs. We can’t expect the same frequency of flights and the vast travel options that we had just two months ago.
Travel as we know it will never be the same again. Here are just a few predictions for travel in the post-COVID era in the Philippines.
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