Gabe The Travel Guy

The summer road trip is about to begin, and odds are that those of us in big cities -- I live in LA -- will want to head somewhere small. Open spaces and remote destinations appeal a lot to us right now. And the affordability and the ease with which we can plan a small town escape makes them extra appealing. But here's a fact: while you're aching to go there, the folks who live there may not want you there, at least not in large numbers and perhaps even not right away. Data just published by San Francisco-based  Destination Analysts  show 57% of Americans don't want travelers coming to their town, while only 16% do . I call it the delicate dance: reconciling this dichotomy as we yearn to see the restart of regional travel and balancing our desire to visit off-the-beaten-path places with respect for those who live in those attractive destinations. With this in mind, I put together my top 5 drivable destinations from LA for the 4th of July weekend. COVID-19 numbers ar

A rise in coronavirus numbers across the U.S. may be tempering a bit the recent uptick in travel demand, but the numbers don't lie: this Monday, June 22, more than 607,000 travelers went through TSA checkpoints. A major drop-off from the 2.7 million people who made it through security the same day last year, but the largest passenger number since March 19th. Slowly but surely, desire is turning into action, and Americans are starting to travel again. Here's a quick recap of how the travel experience is shaping up at some popular destinations: Me visiting with Mickey at Disneyland during the holidays Disney : Disneyland has postponed its July 17th re-opening date; no new date has been announced. Disney World parks in Orlando are still on track to reopen by mid-July. When the parks do reopen, there will be no parades, no fireworks shows and no character interactions. But tapping into the Disney experience remains a priority for many families. This week, Disney launched