Iceland To Welcome Tourists Who Recovered from Covid-19 or Got the Vaccine
Posted on 01/29/2021, 12:00 PM
For months, people in the travel industry have been buzzing about the predicted arrival of "vaccine passports" as a ticket to travel. But Iceland has added a new wrinkle to this concept. That nation's government announced on January 29 that visitors will be allowed to enter without undergoing a test upon arrival as long as they can show proof that they have either been vaccinated for Covid-19 or—a...
Hey, Lazybones! Now You Can Learn a New Language by Binge-Watching TV
Posted on 01/28/2021, 5:00 AM
Ask any immigrant: The best way to learn a language isn't in a class. It's through daily life. And a brand-new language-learning product is built on that principle. The recently launched Lingopie essentially sends students to Netflix to watch foreign-language shows. It's an ideal self-improvement concept for the isolation of our moment: Sit on your couch binge-watching junk TV and come out brill...
Two U.S. Airlines Launch Digital "Passports" for Passengers' Covid Status
Posted on 01/25/2021, 12:00 PM
Frommer's has been talking for months about the advent of vaccination passports, and it looks like the first iterations in the American air industry are here, by way of United Airlines and American Airlines. Both carriers have unveiled plans for portals—new additions to apps and websites—that are designed to both alert travelers to international health regulations and store the documentation needed...
Biden Announces Quarantine Requirement for Those Returning to the U.S. from Abroad
Posted on 01/22/2021, 9:00 AM
Federal regulations regarding travel are changing by the day—if not the hour. On the day after his inauguration as president, Joe Biden announced that, starting Tuesday, January 26, travelers entering the United States from abroad will be required to self-quarantine in addition to showing proof of negative coronavirus test results. Note that U.S. citizens returning from vacations in other countri...
Bad Tourists Are Faking Covid Test Results. Here’s How to Stop Them.
Posted on 01/21/2021, 2:00 PM
The advent of pandemic travel restrictions has given rise to a whole new subset of bad tourists. We're talking about the quarantine flouters, mask refuseniks, and other coronavirus corner-cutters and outright cheats who decide that the laws of government and virus transmission don't apply to them. But the most brazen members of this group might be the vacationers who falsify Covid-19 test results ...
On Day One, President Biden Makes Masks Mandatory on Planes, At National Parks, and Elsewhere
Posted on 01/21/2021, 12:00 PM
Over the last 10 months, common sense sat on the back burner. Even though 33 transportation unions, most airline CEOs, the good folks at Consumer Reports, and hundreds of thousands of travelers begged the Trump administration to create pandemic safety regulations for the spaces that don't fall under state control, no action was ever taken. It was a national shame, and one that Joe Biden rightly fe...
These Last-Minute Rules from the Trump Administration Could Harm Travelers
Posted on 01/19/2021, 9:00 AM
Yes, travel is our focus at Frommer's. But that doesn't mean we can ignore the actions of government that affect how we travel—our safety, our rights as consumers, and the protection of the natural and historic sites we cherish. As the nonprofit investigative journalism organization ProPublica has brought to light, the outgoing Trump administration has enacted a high number of last-minute regulati...
Americans Flying Abroad Must Obtain Covid Tests Before Returning
Posted on 01/15/2021, 12:00 PM
Starting Tuesday, January 26, anyone flying into the United States will be required to produce proof of a negative Covid-19 test. That requirement, announced by the Centers for Disease Control on January 12, might have slipped your notice, or maybe you thought the rule would only affect incoming tourists. Wrong. It's for everyone. Including American citizens. The CDC is explicit. The announceme...
A New Government Rule Might Have Just Killed Involuntary Airline Bumping for Good
Posted on 01/14/2021, 12:00 PM
Midnight regulations are actions taken during the lame-duck period of a presidential administration. They tend to be controversial moves, especially if one party is taking over the White House from another. That has certainly been the case during the waning days of Pres. Trump's time in office. Since losing his bid for reelection in November, Trump has presided over the removal of LGBTQ nondiscrim...
What's the Airport Experience Without CNN? We'll Soon Know
Posted on 01/13/2021, 6:00 AM
As if the travel experience hadn't changed enough recently, the background drone of cable pundits pontificating will soon be gone from U.S. airports. On January 12, CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy tweeted the following statement from CNN president Jeff Zucker: "Today we are announcing that the CNN Airport Network will end on March 31. The steep decline in airport traffic because of COVID-19, coup...
