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.
Thanks to the ongoing quality contributions of our loyal readers, we herein offer Part 11 of our series of On-the-Road Travel Tips (each followed by my own comments). We went a bit over the 125-word limit on a couple this month, but that’s the number we ask you to try for when sending in your tip, which is anything that makes the travel experience work better for you while actually traveling.
To escape the winters in Michigan, my travel companion and I, now in our mid 70s, have been going to Europe and Southeast Asia each year for five to six months at a time. However, since none of the countries that we normally visit have been accepting US passports during the COVID-19 pandemic, on Nov. 3, 2020, we returned to Mexico, one of the few countries that will let us in and one that is familiar to us.
It was our ninth visit to the city of Oaxaca, in the state of Oaxaca.
Israel is creating “Green Zones” — areas that require a negative COVID-19 test result to enter — in tourist spots around the country.
The first areas designated Green Zones, created on Nov. 18, were two clusters of hotels along the Dead Sea and another in the resort area of Eilat on the Red Sea. To enter them, a visitor must prove he took a test within the previous 48 hours. Alternatively, rapid-response tests will be available at entry points. Testing is free for anyone with a hotel reservation.
Visitors to Switzerland can book a room in any of 50-plus “Million Stars” hotels. In varying environments around the country, each of the “hotels” (each actually one double-bed accommodation) must meet certain star-gazing criteria to be considered a Million Stars hotel. The “room” must offer unimpeded views of the sky, which means being entirely outside, under a glass roof or surrounded by a clear pod.
The focus of my trip to Guatemala in November 2019 was remnants of the Maya.
It had been 20 years since we last visited Portugal, and we decided it was time to make a return trip to this delightful and friendly country.
