With the recent wave of stay-at-home orders from 17 states in the US, it's becoming clear that travel plans will need to be postponed until the summertime. Many states have not given explicit ending periods for their orders, or have indicated that the order can be extended. The Governor of Delaware, to our knowledge, extended the stay-at-home order the furthest than other states to May 15, 2020.
If you live in a state that hasn't been hard hit by the coronavirus (COVID-19) and hasn't yet implemented restrictions on travel, you may want to think about traveling in your home state for the next few months. Hotels, vacations rentals, and B&Bs are experiencing much lower capacity and you can likely find some good deals. If you don't own a car, you can always rent a car to take a trip like this.
If your state is already on the "stay at home" list, which restricts non-essential travel, you won't be able to take a trip unless you have documentation that your travel is for an essential reason. In most cases, that will exclude a vacation or discretionary trip. Your best bet in that case is to postpone your plans until later in the spring or early summer. Based on the information we have available from the coronavirus infection timeline in China, it's likely that states will need to extend their "stay at home" orders for at least 2 months in total. That puts most states to around the end of May before they start to open up again for non-essential travel.
We recommend planning your trip to start from June to reduce the risk of having to change the dates. Fortunately most airlines are allowing free date changes to due coronavirus travel restrictions. It's best to check the airlines specific policies before you book flights. Also, if you are booking a hotel, cruise, or other activities, be sure to only book if date changes are free. You may also want to check for free cancellation, if you think moving the dates won't work for you.
