We just returned from Kauai and it was awesome because we beat the crowds. Hawaii (and Kauai in particular) have been very strict in how they have handled Covid. (We had to be tested before being allowed to get on the plane.) As a result, many travelers were waiting until things loosened up a bit (a couple of weeks after we were there.) The result, empty beaches, semi-empty hotel, and uncrowded roads. It’s exactly how it should be.
Many times we think (and are told) a vacation spot is one way and when we get there it’s overcrowded and nothing like the perfect pictures on the website. Maybe some people like crowds, but waiting in long lines for services, fighting over lounge chairs by the pool, and being packed in like sardines on a plane is not fun. What’s interesting is the people who live in Hawaii year round had a test of an uncrowded lifestyle during the Covid travel ban and don’t want to go back to the way it was—crowded.
I often wonder if some of the many parks and open spaces we enjoy today (but were constructed or protected years ago) would be possible now. The mentality seems to be that we must maximize every parcel of land to make a profit. Would people pay more to have less crowds? Would we be better off and find it less stressful if there were large swathes of undeveloped land to look at while we drove?
I don’t have the answer, I just wanted to ask the question.
