Traveling During Corona??

This post is more informational, less travel fun/tips so feel free to skip it if that doesn't interest you.

We all know I'm a little bit crazy.

Like many people I know, I love to travel. Like most, I had tons of trips planned that couldn't happen this year. My last time out of Israel was November 2019.  I had planned to travel in March, May, possibly June, August, and October (again, I know I'm crazy).  Since March, I, like everyone, have been feeling cooped up and looking every so often at how and where I might be able to get away. Meir is a teacher, so we need to work around his schedule. We thought we'd go away for Sukkot, which is one of his breaks, but since he's working in person, and travel at that point (October) required a 2 week quarantine upon our return to Israel, we couldn't work it out. We did go on a nice mini cation to the north of Israel for 2 days in August, but that was it. And now, with me being pregnant and his next break not being until Passover (in April), when we won't be traveling since baby will be so young, it meant I wouldn't get to go anywhere again until next summer, and I just couldn't handle that.

With Meir's Hannukah break, I knew I needed out. That being said, we had similar complications to October, plus being toward the end of when it's safe for me to travel... 

We decided it was best to wait until last minute, to be on the safe side from all sides.  Thankfully my pregnancy has been uncomplicated, or we wouldn't have even considered a vacation. As for quarantine, Israel has a list of 'green countries', countries you can return to Israel from without quarantining upon return (based on their coronavirus numbers etc) (just because Israel considers a country green doesn't mean that country allows Israelis in without restrictions).  Coming up to Hannukah, it seemed we had 3 choices - Rwanda (hard to get to), Seychelles and the UAE (just Dubai).  Based on what I'd read it was important to go somewhere with a good medical system for just in case since I'm pregnant, and looking into Seychelles I was skeptical, so that left the UAE.  Dubai is allowing travelers to visit as long as you take a COVID test within 96 hours of landing and another one when you land. (Abu Dabi and other areas have a 2 week quarantine requirement, so they were off the table).

And then Israel started talking about turning the UAE red... I looked into it and it turned out to be just because the Israeli government was nervous that so many Israelis were traveling to Dubai and would all meet up there... it had nothing to do with COVID numbers. Ridiculous. The plan was to turn it red on the 17th, so I decided whatever and just went ahead and bought flights with a changeable return for Tuesday. 

And then I got started on the logistics. Since this was all my crazy I didn't want to put anything on Meir, so it was all on me. First thing I did, since it was Wednesday morning and our flights were for Friday morning, was book our COVID tests for that afternoon. Lucky for us I mostly work from home at this point and Meir gets home early as a teacher, and there were appointments available. I don't know about other countries, but Israel has testing sites specifically for people traveling, so that you can get the English results you need in order to travel.  This was the part I was most nervous for, having never gotten a COVID test before (I'm mostly home all the time and see very few people and have lucked out that none of those people have gotten sick). When we got there we took a number and were called to a desk to give our information. The woman asked for our passports which makes a lot of sense but I hadn't seen it written anywhere that we need to bring them so I didn't have them. Thankfully, after freaking us out, she said that her shift ended in an hour so if we went home right after the test, she'd call us and see could give her the numbers over the phone. Disaster averted. 

The test wasn't as bad as I'd worried. Definitely uncomfortable and my eyes teared but I could handle it (the guy giving it thought it was so funny how nervous I was and I think was surprised it was my first).  The only other issue we had was it took us a while to get the website working where we were supposed to get our results, but it must have just been a glitch in their system or we had a bad connection or something and in the end we were able to get on.

Next up: insurance. It may not be the smartest, but we typically travel without any sort of insurance. With COVID and pregnancy I didn't think that was a great idea, so I did a little research and asked around and found an insurance company that covers COVID and the UAE and booked that (it was cheaper than I expected, though mine was significantly more expensive than Meir's since I'm pregnant).  I knew Meir was a bit uncomfortable with the whole traveling with someone pregnant during Corona (I wonder how he would've felt without corona... I guess we'll never know) so I was hoping this step would make him feel better (I'm not sure it did, but it did help me).

Then we needed a place to stay. My boss had been to Dubai a few weeks earlier and met with some agents, so he put me in touch with them and I reached out for hotel recommendations and prices.  Dubai, as I had read, is a super spread out city with different areas, and we were landing Friday, going into Shabbat when we don't take transportation, use electricity, etc. So I asked for a hotel in an area we could walk around.  They got back to us with a few options that all appeared to be in the same area, and all looked nice, so we just went with the cheapest one (5 stars, $100/night including breakfast! In Israel you couldn't find that for less than $350!). Side note - we never stay in 5 star hotels. In fact, we often don't stay in hotels at all. We had researched AirBNBs and they looked amazing and were of course cheaper, but then I decided that if, God forbid, any medical complications came up (again, mostly pregnancy cautions) we would have no idea how to get help, whereas in a hotel we'd just be able to call the front desk.

Thursday morning I signed the health declarations needed to leave Israel and sent them to Meir to print at work (good thing he was working, since we don't have a printer at home). We got our COVID test results (negative thank goodness - it's crazy this whole time I haven't been worried we have it but as soon as we got the tests I was so worried what if we somehow got it and this was all a waste of time!) and I had Meir print those as well. It was unclear if we needed everything printed but in the end I'm glad we did. We might not have needed it but it certainly made things quick at the airport. 

And that was that! After a long day finishing up some work and school work and packing, we were off to the airport!