Travel Briefs
Private OAT tours
Private tours for 5 to 10 people (at least 13 years old) will begin being offered in 2022 by the tour operator Overseas Adventure Travel, or OAT (Boston, MA; 800/955-1925, www.oattravel.com).
COVID testing in Mexico
At press time, three international airports in Mexico were offering rapid COVID-19 antigen tests for outgoing international passengers. A COVID-19 test showing a negative result must be presented by any traveler flying into the US, even a returning US citizen.
Japan stork tour
In Toyooka, Honshu, Japan, visitors can take the private “Oriental White Stork Observation Tour” to see the endangered birds in their natural habitat. Thanks to a captive breeding program, about 140 storks, once extinct in Japan, now breed in the area.
Trinidad cave tours
In Trinidad & Tobago, visitors can take a 3-hour guided tour of the Gasparee Caves on Gaspar Grande island, a 15-minute boat ride from Chaguaramas.
Canada bans cruises until 2022
Canada announced on Feb. 4 that it would ban ships carrying 100 or more passengers from its territorial waters until March 1, 2022. In addition, boats carrying more than 12 people are banned from Arctic waters. (This does not include boats operated for pleasure or hunting/fishing by Arctic residents.)
Northern Cyprus beach resort ‘opens’
Turkish soldiers removed barriers at the abandoned Northern Cyprus resort town of Varusha on Oct. 8, 2020, allowing visitors in for the first time in 46 years. The town, once famous for its beaches and luxury hotels, is now mostly ruins.
New Tokyo ferry
Designed for ease of access by passengers with limited mobility, a new ship in the Tokai Kisen fleet, the Salvia-Maru, began passenger service between Tokyo and the Izu Islands of Japan in June 2020.
Maldives resort bubble
Visitors to the Indian Ocean island nation of Maldives can enter a resort bubble, allowing them full access to all of the facilities and activities at their resort while protecting the country’s general population.
UK requires hotel quarantining
The UK’s prime minister, Boris Johnson, announced on Jan. 27 that everyone arriving in the UK, except from Ireland, will be required to quarantine in a hotel for 10 days at their own expense. That includes UK citizens returning home from overseas.
Anguilla resort bubble
The Eastern Caribbean island of Anguilla now offers a “Vacation Bubble” for incoming travelers.
Cuba scraps CUC
The president of Cuba announced on Dec. 10 that, as of Jan. 1, 2021, the country would no longer be using the convertible peso, or CUC. The CUC was created in 1994 and existed alongside the Cuban peso.
Petroglyph trail in NW Australia
At Murujuga National Park, on the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia, a new half-mile trail culminates at an elevated boardwalk that gives trekkers a close-up look at a group of petroglyphs (rock art) dating back 47,000 years.
Interactive Jordan map
Using the Meaningful Travel Map of Jordan, provided online by the Jordan Tourism Board, travelers can plan their trip to include any of nearly a dozen cultural experiences that benefit local communities. To view the map, go to www.myjordanjourney.com/experience-meaningful-travel.
Audio tours of Nancy
In Nancy, France, two walking audio tours, in English, can be taken using a handheld device rented from the Office de Tourisme (Place Stanislas, 54063 Nancy, France; phone +33 3 83 35 80 10, www.nancy-tourisme.fr/en).
Viking Cruises’ testing lab
A full polymerase chain reaction (PCR) lab was installed on Viking Cruises’ Viking Star, permitting the ship to conduct daily COVID-19 tests of all of its passengers and crew. It is the first full-scale PCR testing facility to be built on board a cruise ship.
Australia underwater experience
From within viewing rooms 26 feet under the Indian Ocean, visitors can observe more than 300 aquatic species during a tour of the Underwater Observatory at Busselton Jetty (Busselton Beachfront; phone +61 08 9754 0900, www.busseltonjetty.com.au), on the southwestern coast of Western Australia.
Airlines’ no-mask blacklists
US airlines have blacklisted hundreds of flyers for not following mask rules on board flights.
New Addis Ababa terminal
At Bole International Airport (ADD), serving Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a terminal expansion completed by Ethiopian Airlines (www.ethiopianairlines.com) in September has made Bole the second-largest airport in Africa, after O.R. Tambo International in South Africa.
Boeing 737 Max returns
With an American Airlines (AA) flight from Miami International Airport to New York’s LaGuardia on Dec. 29, 2020, the Boeing 737 Max passenger jet returned to service in the US after nearly two years of being grounded. The first 737 Max flight since March 2019 occurred in Brazil on Dec. 9.