Like many Americans, the early months of the pandemic, my travels were limited to must-see grocery stores and short, remote walks around the neighborhood.
However, it didn’t take long for me to start looking for wonderful adventures and in May I booked an Airbnb rental in Northeast Maine for the entire month of August. Better yet, he’d booked an Audi Q5 rental at Silvercar, the same SUV he’d brought on shorter trips to Colonial Williamsburg, plus a week on the Outer Banks.
On the morning of our departure to New York, my friend and I folded the two back seats and loaded the Q5 with suitcases, a pair of folding bikes, two inflatable kayaks and even our Peloton training bike, for eight hours to Acadia. Maine National Park. This is what I learned from my biggest pandemic path to date.
Prior to the pandemic, you were much more susceptible to booking a flight online than planning a road trip. Sometimes I rented a car, but every now and then I relied on car sharing or public transportation to get around. However, I absolutely replaced my technique this summer: we didn’t take an advertising flight for singles, who prefer to explore the East Coast with an Audi Q5 borrowed from Silvercar. I even learned to drive a mile or two off the road to avoid crowded fuel stations and to wear a mask for very short breaks. in the indoor bathroom.
– Zach Honig (@ZachHonig) August 1, 2020
Flying is the fastest option if you travel long distances, however, I love the variety of roads. Considering local quarantine and access requirements, you can enrich them with some obstacles halfway. This time, the real focus was our afternoon. prevent near Portland, for a certainly amazing lobster roll at Bite Into Maine.
This is where having your own car is really useful, just like the satellite view of Google Maps. No matter where you go, chances are you’ll find a less traveled beach, lake, or trail. If the hot spots are too crowded, do a few minutes of study and create your own adventure instead. We were able to locate a fantastic beach (very quiet), for example, and a top-notch position to drop our kayaks as well.
I am known for packing my task of full-time activities, however, spending a month in Maine encouraged us to slow down significantly: spending two hours hunting seashells on a beach or putting images of laughter would not have been on my radar. .
I’ve never been smart to disconnect from the network, despite the most productive intentions, but it’s great to be disconnected here and there: much of Acadia has no cellular service, for example, and our favorite beach doesn’t have a signal either. for a month it meant largely a paint trip, but it was great to disconnect a little when we could.
Possibly they would seem a little ridiculous at first glance, however, I have become a great supporter of folding motorcycles. We brought two to Maine and, because they are so compact, we left them in the car for day trips, allowing you to have a motorcycle at your disposal every time you find a trail of laughter. The DH Mariner D8 has become my favorite (costs $749, but I have a new one for $600 on eBay).
You’ll pay to be self-sufficient during the pandemic. There was motorbike and boat rentals in Bar Harbor, but opening hours can vary, costs can be high and you will also have to worry about sanitation. two very affordable inflatable kayaks and I had no challenge to install two on our Audi Q5, even with our luggage, folding motorcycles and Peloton for home workouts. My favorite so far is the Intex Challenger K2, which I bought in early summer for just under $100 on Amazon.
A mask was not mandatory for much of our holidays (driving, kayaking, sitting on an empty beach), however, other travelers seemed to come out of nowhere every day, especially when walking down a crowded trail. COVID-19 is contagious, but so is courtesy: we showed ourselves the mask when confronting other teams of travelers, and more than not, they did the same thing If they didn’t, we would just walk (very) out of the way to let them go and take that time to enjoy the view.
We’ve been supplying lobster rolls all month, more than a dozen, and while parts of Maine are less congested than they have been in recent years, there have occasionally been long waits at top-productivity lobster sites. an option in many cases, and in some cases you can eat on site, especially when remote picnic tables are offered. Also, being able to avoid a busy queue made it less difficult for us to restrict our time with other people, even though most visitors to the place to eat were very smart when dressing in masks.
Most tourists met local mask guidelines, but this was not the case. If the remote outdoor seats were not available, we would only ask that our food be ate at our rental home. We don’t save cash, we include a generous tip. however, it was much less stressful to be able to enjoy the most productive thing about Maine without an unmasked dinner nearby.
There is nothing greater than the ease of checking into a hotel, and trust ends up getting the value of your money, however, having a personal home that belongs to us has really taken a step forward in fun throughout the summer, and has become more food. a laugh and affordable, too. We had plenty of takeaways during our month in Maine, but we also took advantage of our vacation to be more artistic in the kitchen, like the chirashi bowls I prepared after assembling an amazing tuna at the fish market.
– Zach Honig (@ZachHonig) August 24, 2020
In fact, we redefined “going out” our month in Maine. Instead of evening dinners in places to eat or an excursion to Bar Harbor bars, we were left alone, sipping craft beers at home or visiting some of our favorite places to watch the stars. Here, being away from the action is a smart thing to do; on the one hand, it gave me a new appreciation of the night sky.
The Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max has been my favorite camera for up to a year and, to get the most photos I need, it does a wonderful job. But on this trip, I also borrowed a Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, because I knew you can find some scenes that would get advantages from a longer zoom. The $1300 bill features a built-in 5x optical zoom camera, which brought me much closer to the action without loss of quality. I could even take wonderful 10x photos, which also works with some virtual zooms, however, the 50x “spatial zoom” has failed regularly; if you’re looking for a genuine superzoom, you still need a camera for that.
Also on the front of the photograph, I recently added an FAA remote pilot certificate to my list of travel publisher credentials, and learned a lot about how to run a drone safely during the process. Better yet, I discovered that it is possible that I could fly legally in spaces that I could assume would be prohibited. My favorite place: on the water just outside Bar Harbor, with my DJI Mavic 2 Zoom ($1350). National parks are prohibited, however, add Acadia; be sure to check local ordinances and THE FAA’s B4UFLY application to make sure everything is okay.
You can also categorize it as “Photo Tips” if you wish, but it goes far beyond photography. We learned temporarily to plan our adventures at certain times of the day; Mornings were the best for more comfortable walks or trips to the beach, and the sunset was the best time to take photos, but we also had to watch for the tides, especially when you came here to take the photos you were looking for or to safely launch our inflatable boat (a little fragile).
Our month in Maine turned out to be as magical as expected. We had amazing food, lots of adventures at sea, challenging walks and some of the funniest summers I’ve ever met.
In addition, having an Audi Q5 Silvercar made the vacation as simple as imaginable: it was great to be able to take two kayaks, motorcycles and our Peloton with us during our month, which helped us save on appliance rental and stay in shape. drunk on the face of delicious lobster and other treats every day.
Photo via Zach Honig / The Points Guy
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