So I did a thing last month!! I took my first real vacation of 2020 & I traveled successfully during a Global Pandemic. It was AMAZING! After months and months of seeing many of my colleagues travel to Mexico, Jamaica & the Dominican Republic with great success, I decided that it was time for a change of scenery. 2020 has been rough on all of us but when you're used to being on the go constantly with travel, dancing, sporting events, concerts and weekend getaways, the lockdown has been tough on the mental health. My husband never stopped working, so he's been putting in his 40+ hours per week and not using his 5 weeks of vacation, which for anyone who knows me, knows that I don't waste his vacation days!
We decided to head to a familiar and favorite place, Los Cabos. Not knowing if this might be our only vacation this year, we decided to make it a nice long vacation and went away for 10 days! We split our stay and spent 4 nights at the beautiful, luxury, adult-only, all-inclusive Le Blanc Resort & Spa and then finished our stay with 5 nights at the Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos, where I've previously stayed twice without Bill. I have written up complete reviews on both resorts paying particular attention to Covid-related protocols that are now in place & I have also reviewed the airport experience both ways. You can take a look at my reviews here: Le Blanc Review Hyatt Ziva Review
We had the most wonderful time & most importantly we felt completely safe and well taken care of at both resorts, through both airports, in the transfer vehicles and on the airplanes.
We slept in most days, grabbed breakfast and lounged by the pool. We enjoyed room service a couple of days & felt totally pampered. I enjoyed a hot bubble bath one night that our Butler Karla drew for me before she left for the evening. We took in lots of Vitamin D & Vitamin SEA. We rented a Cabana one day and watched football by the pool. We enjoyed wonderful dinners that my husband did not have to cook. Full Disclosure: I HATE to cook, I do not find anything about it enjoyable & I'm lucky to be married to a man who is constantly searching and looking for new recipes & has the desire and willingness to make them happen! We're both members of a recipe share group on Facebook and he posts in it almost daily, I have yet to share anything! One of my travel colleagues/friends was also there with us at both resorts for a shorter stay along with her boyfriend & we were able to help her celebrate her birthday. It was so nice to be with other people, it was nice to strike up conversations with strangers in the pool, at the coffee shop, with the wonderful servers at the resort, with social distancing of course. It was nice to enjoy LIVE music each evening & watch Mexican performance shows. We really didn't watch any TV for 10 days, we were pretty well disconnected from news which was a blessing a month before the Elections. We turned on the TV a few times when going to bed, but there was nothing worth watching. The nights were a little quiet at the Hyatt Ziva, but we were happy to play some cards after dinner, listening to our music and enjoying some wine.
I can't stress enough how happy the Mexican people are to have tourists again. Without a doubt these were the BEST 10 days of 2020 & we both needed the recharge badly. Naturally, I posted several times on Facebook or Instagram while we were away with photos and details of our experiences. 99.9% of all comments were positive, people were happy to see us traveling again. Of course, there will always be that one or two who will try to travel shame you (yes, it is a thing now in 2020 to be shamed for traveling during a pandemic), but traveling can be done safely & there are destinations that are open for business. Traveling right now is not for everyone, some people absolutely will not travel until there is a vaccine or a trusted treatment plan and some may never travel again and that's OK, but it's also OK to travel if you feel comfortable doing so. I was anxious, nervous and questioned myself if I was doing the right thing by traveling during a pandemic for weeks up until we left. I was assured by other colleagues who had traveled that my feelings were "normal" in today's climate. That helped me to feel better. But once I was at the resort, sipping a glass of wine, eating lunch and looking out at the ocean, feeling the warm Mexico sun on my skin, I knew that we had made the absolute 100% right decision for us to take this vacation.
If you're ready to recharge and want to getaway, I'd love to help you! Please contact me to book your next vacation: pam@pamstravel.net / 650-363-6156
