SAN ANTONIO — Millions of people are making plans to travel for the holidays. However, traveling during the coronavirus pandemic makes things a little trickier. Do you fly? Do you drive?
More than 50 million people typically fly over the winter holidays, but this year that number is expected to be much much lower.
"We have people that are wanting to road trip places because they feel it's safer, or people that are wanting to fly because it's faster, it's quicker to get there," travel agent Crystal Reyes told us.
Medical experts agree that road tripping is safer.
"I would highly recommend if people are going to long-distance that they pair up or triple up and share driving rather than to take what I consider to be still a significant risk by flying," said Dr. Fred Campbell, Internal Medicine Specialist with UT Health San Antonio.
If you fly, you have to deal with travelers at the airports and passengers packed on a plane. So how safe is that?
"I think the airlines are taking such extra precautionary measures that I would feel safe still when it comes to the sanitary portion of it flying for sure," Reyes said.
"You run the risk of non-adherence to social distancing and masking," Dr. Campbell advised.
You can't control the behaviors of others, but you can protect yourself with a mask, or a face shield, or both.
What about driving? That's what Dr. Campbell did when he and his wife traveled to North Carolina, and they saw a bear! They're main concern?
"What we did was to be very cautious about handwashing regularly while we were in the hotel and in particular while we were in the rooms," Dr. Campbell said.
Not only that, but rest stop hazards too.
"You still have to stop at a rest area, stop at gas stations, and you don't know the cleanliness of those places," Reyes added.
It all comes down to personal preference.
"I think people should travel they should just be safe and cautious, and I think the rapid testing is probably the best bet for anybody going somewhere for a long period of time," Reyes said.
But if you're still wary of travel risks, just wait it out.
"The kind of disappointment and delay we are seeing right now will within a period of probably a year at the latest have changed dramatically with the use of an effective vaccine against COVID-19," Dr. Campbell told us.
Check out the latest travel recommendations from the CDC here.
The Texas Department of Health and Human Services has their own advisory page here.
For the latest on travel restrictions by state click here.