Safety and Security

The wellbeing of our participants is at the core of everything we do. In order to offer the safest experience possible we rely on:

• Our experienced country teams. We recruit, hire, and train talented individuals from the countries and communities we operate in. This guarantees that the people developing, organizing, and implementing our trips have firsthand knowledge of the locations where we travel.

• Proven partners. Our team prides itself on working with partners that make safety their top priority. We assure this through regular vigorous assessments of facilities, personnel and equipment. We maintain close relationships with vendors and hotels by visiting locations often and maintaining frequent communication. But these people aren’t just our partners, they are part of our extended family—we work and play alongside them and watch our families grow together. 

• Planning ahead. We work with travel medical, mental health and risk management consultant Cornerstone Safety Group to create comprehensive mitigation and evacuation plans for every trip and vendor, and regularly review and update our contacts and protocols. We stay in touch with local, and international authorities in order to constantly access the changing environment, and give risk a wide berth—we will change plans or itineraries if we foresee unnecessary risk. 

We want you to challenge yourself and your comfort zone, reassured that our team is looking out for you and your group, which is why we’re constantly working to improve our operations in an ever-changing world to provide the best experience for travelers.

 COVID-19

To protect our travelers and staff from contracting or exposure to COVID-19 while traveling, we’ve instituted the following policies based on guidance from our Cornerstone Safety Group, our safety and risk management consultant, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. State Department, the Ministries of Health in the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica, as well as the State Departments of other countries. 

These policies were designed to not only keep travelers safe during their trips, but to help them avoid COVID-19 exposure before they depart.

Please contact us if you have any questions about these policies.

Before Travel

We require that all travelers be fully vaccinated at least two weeks prior to departure. According to the CDC, “Everyone 5 years and older is recommended to receive a primary series of a COVID-19 vaccine to be considered fully vaccinated.”

Because several of our destination countries require being vaccinated to enter (see below), religious or medical exemptions from vaccination won’t apply.

You will be asked to submit proof of vaccination as part of the registration process and if you’re not compliant, your spot on the trip will be forfeited and won’t be eligible for a refund.

We also ask that travelers, to the best of their ability, avoid crowded indoor spaces or socializing with members outside their immediate families for the 7 days leading up to their departures. We understand this may be an inconvenience, but to ensure your ability to travel and our focus on protecting the more vulnerable populations you will come into contact with during your travels, we ask that you do the best you can to avoid any potential COVID-19 exposure in the weeks leading up to your trip.

You will also be asked to submit a negative result from a COVID-19 test before departure:

• PCR tests can be taken no more than 72 hours before departure

• Rapid antigen tests must be taken the day of your departure

Travelers who test positive won’t be allowed to travel and should be isolated in accordance with their local rules and regulations. Those travelers will be given the option to receive a refund minus the deposit or put the balance of their trip payment toward another trip deposit and balance payment.

Our staff, including your guides, will follow the same guidelines. They are fully vaccinated (boosters are not available yet in many countries outside the U.S.) and will get tested within 72 hours of your trip start date.

We continue to monitor COVID-19 transmission rates in the communities and countries where we take travelers. If we determine that transmission rates make traveling to those places unsafe, we will amend or cancel your trip. If either of those measures is necessary, we will give you as much advance notice as we can. But because COVID-19 changes conditions across the world so quickly, we may not be able to give you as much notice as we’d prefer. 

If your trip is canceled because we’ve deemed COVID-19 transmission rates in your destination country make it unsafe to travel, you will be issued a refund.

 During Travel

During your trip, Offbeat Travel and our vendors will observe basic safety protocols to ensure your health and well-being while traveling. Those include:

Masking

• All travelers, guides and staff will mask in indoor spaces, including planes and transport vehicles, during indoor tours and during indoor dining, when outdoor dining isn’t possible because of weather or other reasons (travelers are expected to bring enough masks for the duration of the trip; we recommend disposable N95, KN95 or KF94 masks)

• Masks won’t be required indoors only when travelers are in the hotel rooms or private sleeping quarters.

• Masks won’t be required outdoors when physical distancing can be observed.

• Travelers are expected to provide their own masks, though our guides will carry some extras

Social Distancing

• We will observe social distancing of six feet or more outdoors and indoors whenever possible.

• If our group size allows us to distance in transport vehicles, we will but it may not always be possible. However, if you would like to add a transport vehicle for your group to distance at an additional cost, please let us know. During transport, windows will be down to promote better airflow when possible and we will make more frequent stops during longer trips for eating and drinking.

• If outdoor dining isn’t available, separate groups will be distanced from one another when possible. Only members of immediate families and traveling parties will be allowed to dine together indoors.

Cleaning and Sanitizing

• We will provide hand sanitizer whenever possible and encourage travelers to use it regularly and wherever regular hand washing isn’t possible (we recommend that travelers also bring their own sanitizer for times when we can’t provide it)

• Our partners and local vendors offering accommodation, transportation and tours take health and safety seriously and perform daily or more frequent cleaning/sanitizing of frequently touched surfaces

Our COVID-19 Response

We will do our best to help prevent our travelers from being exposed to COVID-19, but if someone in one of our groups requires testing and treatment, we have procedures in place to respond and minimize the spread to the rest of the group and our staff. Here’s how it works:

1. If a traveler or travelers experiences any cold or flu symptoms during their trips, they must stay in their rooms or private sleeping quarters and report them immediately via text or phone to their guide and quarantine until receiving further instructions. 

2. Guides will follow local health authority guidelines, which may include administering temperature and other symptom checks, visiting a doctor or clinic or being tested for COVID-19. Cold and flu symptoms aren’t necessarily indicators of COVID-19. 

3. If tested or quarantined, travelers should contact their travel insurance providers for additional guidance on financial reimbursement.

4. Travelers who are tested must quarantine until they have the results of their tests. Those who test negative may return to the group and stay masked until their symptoms subside. Travelers who test positive must isolate in accordance with local health authority guidelines. 

5. Guides will arrange for meals to be delivered to any quarantined or isolated traveler/s or a space will be prepared for the traveler to eat away from the group. Anyone in quarantined or isolated can join activities remotely, if possible.

6. The rest of the group will stay masked at all times, other than meals, and continue to social distance. Any group member who subsequently experiences symptoms must report them to the guide and quarantine immediately.

7. Guides and/or other Offbeat Travel staff will continue to support travelers’ well-being and emotional needs until their quarantine period has ended and they can rejoin the group or return home.

8. Travelers can leave quarantine in accordance with local health authority guidelines, which may require a week or more quarantine, no symptoms and a negative COVID-19 test.

Every country has its own COVID-19-related entry and exit requirements for visitors. Because they vary so widely, we’ve included links to U.S. embassy sites in each of our destination countries and the countries where we’ll soon be introducing trips.

After Travel

All travelers returning to the U.S., regardless of vaccination status, are now required to test negative no more than one day before their flights. In addition to that test, we recommend that all travelers also get tested three to five days after returning from their trips and quarantining for seven days, if possible. If testing isn’t possible, travelers are advised to quarantine for at least 5 days. And if travelers live with anyone at risk of increased illness, they should avoid contact for 14 days.

If travelers experience any cold or flu symptoms during their quarantine, they should contact their doctors immediately.

Travelers who test positive should also let us know by filling out this form or emailing hola@offbeattravel.us.