Continuing Impacts of Covid-19 — But Where Will You Live?

We wrote earlier about how Covid-19 has impacted us, such as forcing us to cancel our trip to Istanbul and spend more time in Barcelona and Denver as a result. And, as expected, Covid-19 continues to be a thorn in the side of our travel logistics. We are at almost nine months of full-time travel and are still 100% in love with, and committed to, our perpetual nomad lifestyle.

Our time in Denver has been enjoyable, for certain. The weather has been wonderfully warm and sunny, warmer than is typical for this time of year, and we managed to arrive shortly after the last snowfall of the season. In fact, I think this is the first May in all the years we’ve lived in Denver that it didn’t snow at all! But we’ve also had opportunities to catch up with friends and enjoy being outside since we arrived as well. Our Airbnb here is right next to a park, making it a great location for meeting up with friends for some appropriate social distancing get-togethers. We decided against renting a car for the first month here since we had to quarantine for the first 14 days anyway, plus Colorado is still under a “safer-at-home” order. We picked up a car this week though, so Carrie is pretty excited about driving for the first time in almost six months.

So what do our future plans look like? This is one of those times that we really wish we had a crystal ball!

Breckenridge

On June 7th we’re supposed to spend a week at a resort in Breckenridge where we plan to get a fix of hiking and outdoors in the mountains. However, this plan is up in the air, even at the time of writing now only ten days away. Although restaurants, hairdressers, hotels, and all manner of other businesses are allowed to reopen in Colorado, the state still has not granted Summit County, home of Breckenridge, permission to reopen short term rentals (even though they’ve been allowed in neighboring Eagle County, among others). Normally this would prevent us from our stay, but because we’re booked using timeshare credits gifted to us by a close family member, we’re considered “owners” and will be allowed to honor our reservation. However until we actually check in, we won’t really be certain!

After Breckenridge, we have plans to visit family in Florida and North Carolina through early July. At the moment, we’re not anticipating any complications with those plans since we will mostly be staying with family and don’t have to worry so much about short-term rental bans. But we definitely feel that our plans for Tokyo beginning July 8th are up in the air.

Tokyo

Although Japan lifted its state of emergency this week, their borders are still not open to US visitors and most attractions are still closed. Since the Olympics have been postponed, our primary motivation for spending a month in Tokyo has evaporated. Our Airbnb in Tokyo is both the most expensive and the smallest we’ve ever booked. Considering how many Airbnb rentals we’ve had, that’s saying quite a lot! At this point, our preference would be to skip Tokyo altogether and find someplace where we can get a nicer place at a more reasonable cost. But the Airbnb cancellation policy is presenting a hurdle.

Long term rentals on Airbnb are subject to a much stricter cancellation policy. Generally speaking, if you cancel you still must pay for the first thirty days of your reservation. So if we were to cancel now we would lose almost the entire cost of the rental. Of course, the host can provide a refund at their own discretion, but our host has refused to let us cancel with any refund at all.

Airbnb has implemented a blanket extenuating circumstances policy due to Covid-19 that allows guests to cancel and receive a full refund, overriding the standard cancellation policy. This policy applies to any reservation booked before March 14th with a check in date up to June 30th. This policy has been a boon for us and many other travelers affected by travel restrictions, winning much guest loyalty for Airbnb even as they struggle with backlash from the hosts who are losing money as a result. Although Airbnb has set up a $250 million fund to partially reimburse affected hosts, many are feeling the pinch and are struggling. This makes it doubly frustrating when state and local governments ban short term rentals but allow hotels (who have much more powerful lobbyists) to operate. We expect that Airbnb will update their extenuating circumstances policy on June 1 extending it to cover through at least July 15, allowing us to cancel the Tokyo Airbnb with a full refund.

Mongolia

After Japan, we have plans to spend about six weeks in Mongolia, the first two of which will be touring the country and the last month spent in an Airbnb in the capital of Ulaanbaatar. By almost any measure, Mongolia has fared the best throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. They’ve only had 140 cases and (almost?) all were foreigners who brought it with them. No one has died and there has been no spread. Largely this is thanks to them closing their borders much earlier than other countries (January 28!), due largely to their long shared border with China.

I would be very disappointed if we had to cancel this leg of our travels. Mongolia is a country I’ve wanted to visit for a long time. However, they seem to be acting very conservatively when it comes to restricting movement across their borders, with no guidance given yet on when they hope to loosen things up. Plus, we feel like it will probably be really hard to meet locals and get a feel for the local community if there are still social distancing measures in place.

Australia

Following Mongolia, we are scheduled to spend a week at the end of September in Sydney, Australia before popping over to Melbourne for a three week housesit. Housesitting hasn’t been on our radar much, unlike other perpetual nomads we know. However, we thought we would give it a try to allow us to more closely experience the life and culture of the place we're staying, while simultaneously giving us a chance to spend quality time with a couple of pooches.

However, Australia has indicated that they may not open their borders until sometime between September and the end of the year. So until they provide firmer guidance, we’ll just have to wait and hope. Of course, the nice couple we'll be housesitting for have plans to go overseas themselves, which may be canceled and would present another wrinkle.

After Australia, we plan a short little US leg which includes a visit to California and then on to Pennsylvania for a Thanksgiving family reunion on Carrie's mom's side. Of course, we’re not sure if a family reunion will be feasible by then or not. Our Airbnb booking there has a flexible cancellation policy and we haven’t yet booked those flights. While Pennsylvania in November isn’t exactly an ideal combination, it’d be great to see my dad as well as Carrie's many aunts, uncles, and cousins.

South America

We bravely booked a long stay with Airbnb for December (and Christmas if anyone wants to meet up!) in Medellín, Colombia. However, before I booked I negotiated with the host giving us the flexibility to cancel for a full refund if by November travel to Colombia isn’t feasible. After that we already had booked a five day hike in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. This hike is incredibly popular and you have to book almost a year in advance to secure reservations. We had actually planned to do this hike last year in February, but health problems forced us to cancel the entire trip.

But Everything Will Be Fine

Our plan right now is to just take it day by day since that is all you can really do, right? We play a lot of “what if”: What if we can’t go to Japan? Where do we most want to go that will let us in? What if we can’t go to Mongolia, but we can go to Japan? So many potential scenarios. In some ways, it has provided us with a chance to choose how to react to so much uncertainty. Not having a home means there is no traditional fall back. If we can’t go to Japan, etc, we still have to go somewhere. With border closures and 14-day quarantines, it certainly seems to be limiting our options (or is it giving us focus?).

All things considered, despite the additional anxiety induced by all this uncertainty, we often remind ourselves that we’re extraordinarily fortunate. Our problems pale in comparison with those who have lost their lives, lost a loved one, or lost a job. Never mind the folks we know who are considered at-risk and have been self-quarantining to protect themselves. This post is intended to satisfy the curiosity of those following our adventure. Please don’t worry about us; whatever happens we'll get through things just fine. After all, it’s an adventure, right?