Wanna Go to Sicily? The Italian Island Will Help Pay for Your Vacation
Posted on 05/28/2021, 9:00 AM
In April 2020, I told you about a plan Sicily hatched to restart its tourism industry. The government announced it had set aside millions of euros to pay 50% of visitors' airfares and give travelers who booked two nights of hotel accommodations a third night for free. A different bill promised free entry to museums and historic sites around the island when tourism returned. Problem was, there was ...
Going to Disney Is Different Now. Someone Should Warn You About These 10 Things
Posted on 05/27/2021, 3:00 PM
The return of travel brings the return of reassuring old habits. Just as some people feel incomplete until they can root for their favorite baseball team in person again at their local ballpark, others find comfort—deep, soul-soothing, here's-where-I-belong comfort—by playing in a Disney park. To serve those vacationers who crave a return of normalcy, all of the U.S.-based Disney parks are now on...
Thanks to Plummeting Hotel Costs, This Could be New York's Most Affordable Summer in Years
Posted on 05/27/2021, 1:00 PM
Hotel rates and Broadway show tickets have long been the two most expensive parts of most visitors' trips to New York City. But on Wednesday, May 19, some of those expenses were chipped away. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that his city will waive the usual 5.875% hotel room tax for the months of June, July, and August. That will save travelers roughly $6 for every $100 they spend at hotels. As ...
Newly Launched Breeze Airways Connects Smaller U.S. Cities for Low Fares
Posted on 05/24/2021, 2:00 PM
A new low-cost airline dedicated to serving small and "underserved" U.S. cities is set to take off this week. Breeze Airways, the fifth airline startup backed by JetBlue founder David Neeleman, released its introductory set of routes and opened reservations for some very budget-friendly fares that start at just $39 one-way. The lowest fares are the airline's equivalent of basic economy tickets an...
Alaska Cruises Are Back! Congress Saves the 2021 Season and Trips Are Already on Sale
Posted on 05/24/2021, 7:00 AM
Vacationers had written off the 2021 cruise season in Alaska as another casualty of Covid-19. Canada, seeking to protect the health of its population, banned big cruise ships from Canadian waters until February 2022. That decision effectively killed all Alaska cruises, because a quirk in U.S. maritime law called the Passenger Vessel Services Act (PVSA) requires foreign-flagged ships that call on A...
Travel Prices Will Rise Sharply in the Coming Weeks, Warns a New Report
Posted on 05/17/2021, 8:00 PM
I've always said that one of my main jobs as a travel writer is to make really stupid mistakes so I can warn my readers about what not to do. Glory be, I made one such mistake in early April—and it turned out to be a bigger error than I knew at the time. On April 1, I researched a round-trip flight from New York City to Michigan, went to the airline website to buy, and then missed the final step: ...
Royal Caribbean Yanks Newest Ship from Haifa, but Will Politics Ruin a Florida Homecoming?
Posted on 05/17/2021, 9:00 AM
Americans who had hoped to spend some quality summer time aboard Royal Caribbean's newest megaship, Odyssey of the Seas, might now get their shot. In late winter, the cruise line announced plans to move the inauguration of the custom-made vessel out of Florida to a series of sailings from Haifa on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. But the crumbling political and humanitarian situation b...
Masks Are Coming Off but Not on Public Transportation—with One Exception
Posted on 05/14/2021, 7:00 AM
Science has spoken! Yesterday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that Covid-19 vaccines have been so effective that fully vaccinated Americans can return to unmasked life, both indoors and out. "Today, CDC is updating our guidance for fully vaccinated people," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said at a White House COVID-19 briefing. "Anyone who is fully vaccinated can...
U.S. Now Accepts Home Covid Tests from International Travelers and Returning Americans
Posted on 05/11/2021, 4:00 AM
Travelers entering the United States may now use at-home tests to prove they're negative for Covid-19, according to rules updated last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Since January, anyone coming into the country—including citizens returning from vacations abroad—must present proof of negative Covid-19 test results obtained no more than three days before travel (or s...
With the Return of Travel Comes the Return of Robocall Travel Scams
Posted on 05/10/2021, 2:00 PM
If the pandemic had one silver lining, it was that, from March through August, the number of robocalls of all sorts dropped precipitously. Like everyone else, the employees of the call centers where many phone scams originate were unable to go into work, which meant blessed peace for the rest of us—for a while. But as you've likely noticed, the annoying spam calls are back—and many are travel sc...
