Traveling, like so many things that have been affected by the pandemic, may look a bit different than it did 18 months ago, but that didn’t stop the Local Foreigner team from getting creative with our travel plans. Here’s how we traveled differently (and safely!) in 2021:

The Great American Road Trip…Part Deux

Last summer, my husband and I road-tripped cross country for the first time together. We drove from New York to Las Vegas with stops in places like Pittsburgh, Birmingham, New Orleans, Marfa, Santa Fe, and Zion National Park along the way. We enjoyed it so much, we decided to do it again…twice… with our six-month old son in tow!

This summer’s road trips were more logistical in nature than last summer’s. Earlier in the year, we decided we would rent a house in Napa for the summer, to reconnect with family and friends in San Francisco while taking a break from life on the east coast and working remotely. To booked our stay in Napa, we drew up two road trip itineraries, learning from our time on the road last year, and expanding on it. This year’s destinations included places like Dayton, Ohio (Hi Libby!), St. Louis, Chicago, Colorado Springs, Yosemite, Sun Valley, and Jackson.

There are so many things we love about these cross country road trips. There’s this feeling of freedom and flexibility, and such a sense of discovery! We had so much fun, seeing how big and diverse the country is, meeting new people and appreciating how lucky we are to call it home. We’re now plotting our next one (in like 10 years when we have older kids), and can’t wait to hit the road again!

-Alex Erdman

Crossing off the “I’ll Get There Someday” Destinations

Back in March when most countries were still closed to American tourists, my (now) husband and I went to Mexico City and Oaxaca. These are places that have been on my bucket list for years, yet I’ve always pushed them aside with a kind of “I’ll get there some day” mentality. When you work in the travel industry, sometimes it’s easy to brush off easy to reach destinations in pursuit of the more far flung corners of the world, so with limited options in terms of international travel last March, it felt like the perfect opportunity to finally visit CDMX and Oaxaca. Both are such complex, deeply cultural and historically rich destinations. It felt like such a treat to discover their food, art, and architecture. I already want to go back!

-Missy Weil

New Traditions with Old Friends

Over Memorial Day Weekend, my husband and I traveled with three other couples and all of our kids (8 adults, 8 young children) to Round Hill’s Longview Villa in Montego Bay. Our stay was absolutely magical. The villa itself is stunning. It sits on top of a hill overlooking the bay and Jamaica’s staggering northern coastline in the distance. There’s 7,500 sqft of indoor and outdoor living space on 4 acres of private land, with room for up to 14 adults — so it’s perfect for groups of friends or families traveling together. In our case, the staff got really creative and made up a dorm-style room for all of our kids and brought in cribs for the babies.

Longview’s outdoor pool is ideal for energetic kids to splash around in, or parents can drop the little ones off at the resort’s Pineapple Kids Club. None of our kids wanted to come home after their days spent with the unbelievable staff there.

Longview is staffed with a dedicated property manager – the unbelievable Mary Philips (former GM of Jamaica Inn), as well as personal butlers, and a private chef. The whole experience honestly feels like you’re living on a private island…without the private island price tag. Mary and her staff totally made the experience. We were all hugging and crying when it was time to say goodbye – they are that special! And the end of our trip, we re-booked the villa for the same weekend next year and committed to making it an annual tradition.

-Elizabeth Walsh

Living Somewhere New

Since much of the Local Foreigner team was (and still is) working remotely, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to work from anywhere by moving to Austin, Texas for a month with my best friend. We lived and worked from Austin for the month of February, which was such a nice escape from the New York winter…though living through a once-in-a-decade Austin snowstorm, losing power, and getting stranded at a hotel downtown for a few days wasn’t part of our initial plan, our time in Austin was incredible. We had a running margarita competition to find the best one in the city. Make sure to check out Licha’s Cantina next time you’re in the Texas capital!

-Tati Stroud

All Alone in Africa

I fell in love with the whole experience of safari on my first visit to South Africa and Zimbabwe a few years ago, and have had an irrepressible urge to share that feeling of joy and discovery with the people I love since then. So when the opportunity presented itself to experience peak season in the bush (and to bring my husband along for the ride), we jumped at the chance. We knew there would be a few extra administrative hoops to jump through, so I prepared by making calendars and spreadsheets, and he prepared by ordering MANY different types of safari hats until he landed on the one that fit his “vibe.”

It was almost empty! The Mara in late August – the middle of the epic great wildebeest migration – is something you need to plan 18+ months in advance under normal circumstances, but the lodges were all at less than half capacity. We had private guides and vehicles the whole way through, which is usually an upgrade that comes at a premium, and we had incredible sightings with not another soul around for miles. We spent one full morning with two separate sets of female lions and their cubs, watching and following them for hours, without seeing any other vehicles. Yes, someone stuck a swab up my nose a few times in ad-hoc med stations set up in the corners of airports, but the tradeoff was having an entire lodge in the Tarangire to ourselves, enjoying a fully private dinner next to the fire surrounded by thousands and thousands of acres of African bush.

-Jordy Lievers-Eaton

Best Laid Plans

My original 2021 Montana ski plans were thwarted this year by a badly-timed case of COVID (not that it is ever a good time to get COVID...). Once I was testing negative and fit to fly again, I ended up at a friend from college’s twin’s boyfriend’s mom’s friend from college’s house on Donner Lake near Lake Tahoe for a few of the best days of skiing I’ve had in years. The snow was phenomenal and I’ve never been so grateful to hit the slopes. Hoping to make Lake Tahoe a yearly tradition!

-Emily Pariseau

Celebrating with Family

I got engaged at the end of May, and in July, my fiancé and I took a trip with my future mother-in-law! We’ve done this in the past, but haven’t traveled all together in a while. We went to Mallorca for a full week and we had the best time. It was so nice to celebrate our engagement, and being somewhere new made the whole experience extra special.

A Different Kind of Travel