Millions stick to Thanksgiving travel plans despite warningsVideo
About 1 million Americans a day packed airports and planes over the weekend even as coronavirus deaths surged across the U.S. and public health experts begged people to stay home and avoid big Thanksgiving gatherings. And the crowds are only expected to grow. Next Sunday is likely to be the...
Tourists few, N.Y. gift shops struggle but don’t lose (heart)
NEW YORK — In souvenir shops from Times Square to the World Trade Center, shelves full of T-shirts and trinkets still (heart) New York. But the proprietors wonder when their customers will, again. The coronavirus pandemic has taken a voracious bite out of a slice of New York life as...
Dutch Wonderland will open Holiday Lights drive-thru attraction
Dutch Wonderland may have closed their amusement park for the year, but a festive seasonal attraction is starting up in December. The park’s Holiday Lights attraction will allow guests to drive through a ⅕ mile long trail, decorated with hundreds of thousands of electric Christmas lights. The drive-thru destination will...
Mississippi road signs mark Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash site
GILLSBURG, Miss. — Lynyrd Skynyrd, the rock band famous for “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Free Bird,” now has highway signs pointing to the site of the Mississippi plane crash that claimed the lives of some of its members. Fans gathered Sunday as the Mississippi Department of Transportation unveiled exit signs...
Tunnel plan near Stonehenge gets U.K. government consentVideo
LONDON — The British government went against the recommendations of planning officials Thursday when it approved controversial plans for a road tunnel to be built near the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge in southern England. The project, which is aimed at trying to ease traffic along a stretch of road widely...
Is it safe to stay in hotels during the pandemic?
Is it safe to stay in hotels during the pandemic? In a recent travel update, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention makes it clear: Staying home is the best way to protect yourself against the coronavirus. If you do travel, the CDC says, sharing a rental home with...
Cruise industry throws in the towel on 2020, looks to 2021
The cruise industry has jettisoned hopes of restarting operations this year. Days after both Carnival and Norwegian extended a halt on cruises through the end of the year, the group that represents cruise lines with 95% of global ocean-going capacity said Tuesday that its members have agreed to extend the...
It’s a (big) boy: White rhino born at Disney World
ORLANDO, Fla. — It’s a boy — a big boy. A 150-pound white rhinoceros was born at Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park at Walt Disney World in Florida over the weekend. The as-yet-named rhino was born to Kendi, who was the first white rhinoceros born at the animal theme park...
Police, autopsy reports reveal details about Dallas woman who died of covid-19 during flight
DALLAS — A Spirit Airlines employee performed CPR on an unconscious Dallas woman during a July flight that made an emergency landing in New Mexico, where the woman was pronounced dead. The woman’s death was later determined to have been caused by covid-19, and Dallas County officials included her in...
California will allow fans at pro sports but not Disneyland
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California will let fans back in outdoor stadiums for pro sporting events in counties with low coronavirus infection rates but isn’t ready to allow Disneyland and other major theme parks to reopen, the state’s top health official said Tuesday. San Francisco and neighboring Alameda and Santa Clara...
Thousands arrive in Hawaii on 1st day pre-travel testing
About 8,000 people landed in Hawaii on the first day of a pre-travel testing program that allowed travelers to come to the islands without quarantining for two weeks if they could produce a negative coronavirus test. Angela Margos was among the first passengers in San Francisco to get on a...
3rd gun found in 5 days on passengers at Pittsburgh International Airport
Transportation Security Administration agents caught a Texas man with a handgun at Pittsburgh International Airport on Saturday, which was the third gun found on passengers in five days. Last Tuesday, TSA agents stopped two passengers with guns at an airport checkpoint. “What would make someone think they could bring a...
Carnival Cruise Line cancels Florida, Australia trips
Carnival Cruise Line said Monday it was canceling its remaining cruises scheduled for November out of two Florida ports, as well as five cruises from Australia at the beginning of next year. The cruise line had previously announced it was canceling for the rest of the year all U.S. cruises...
After 46 years, Cypriot ghost town’s beach opens to public
The pristine, azure waters lapping at the skirts of uninhabited Varosha contrast sharply with the dilapidated, crumbling buildings lining the beachfront of this abandoned suburb of Famagusta. For the first time in 46 years, members of the public were permitted on Thursday to access the beach of Varosha in the...
U.S. man could get prison for negative review of Thailand hotel
BANGKOK — Labor activists, journalists and whistleblowers in Thailand have been targets in recent years of criminal defamation lawsuits for exposing alleged corporate wrongdoing, but now a disgruntled hotel guest has joined their ranks and could face prison time for his online comments disparaging a hotel. American expat Wesley Barnes,...
Outer Banks sees low covid-19 numbers; remains popular vacation spot despite pandemic
Counties that make up the Outer Banks barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina have mostly been spared by the covid-19 pandemic, and Gov. Roy Cooper on Friday moved the state into the next phase of the tiered reopening plan. The next phase, beginning at 5 p.m. Friday, is...
Laurel Highlands fall foliage ranks 3rd in USA Today voting
The Laurel Highlands is among Readers’ Choice Winners for the Best Destination for Fall Foliage category in the 2020 USA Today 10Best Travel Award Contest. The Laurel Highlands placed third overall in voting amid a field of 20 nominees that also included Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains. Top 10: 1. Upper Peninsula...
Carnival’s Princess cancels some world cruises in early 2021
Carnival Corp.’s Princess line canceled some early 2021 voyages, the latest sign that the covid-19 pandemic is likely to weigh on the cruise industry for many more months. The cancellations affect world cruises on the Island Princess from North America and some South America voyages on the Pacific Princess, the...
Travelers left more than $5,000 behind in Pittsburgh airport security bins last year
Travelers passing through Pittsburgh International left behind more than $5,000 at security checkpoints in one year, part of more than $900,000 that travelers nationwide forgot before their flights during that time. The Transportation Security Administration’s report on cash left behind at security checkpoints runs from fiscal year Oct. 1, 2018,...
United Airlines to offer more direct flights from Pittsburgh to Florida
United Airlines soon will add more direct flights from Pittsburgh and other cities to four popular Florida destinations. Airline officials said the move is part of a “continuing strategy to aggressively and opportunistically manage the impact of covid-19 by increasing service to destinations where customers most want to fly.” Beginning...
‘Into the Wild’ bus likely lands a home at Fairbanks museum
An infamous bus appears headed to a new home at a museum in Fairbanks after being removed from Alaska’s backcountry to deter people from making dangerous, sometimes deadly treks to visit the site where a young man documented his demise in 1992. The state Department of Natural Resources said Thursday...
Laurel Highlands in running for best fall foliage destination
Western Pennsylvanians can let the rest of the country know how beautiful fall is in the Laurel Highlands, by voting for the region in USA Today’s poll of top 20 Best Destinations for Fall Foliage. The nominees, chosen by editors of the USA Today 10Best website, also include the Pocono...
Air travel expected to not recover before 2024
FRANKFURT, Germany — Global air travel is recovering more slowly than expected and will take until 2024 to return to pre-pandemic levels, the trade association for the airline industry said Tuesday. The International Air Transport Association pushed back its prediction by one year due to the slow containment of the...
‘Second wave’ virus fears strike blow to tourism industryVideo
LONDON — Concerns over a “second wave” of coronavirus infections brought on by returning holidaymakers is wreaking havoc across Europe’s tourism industry, particularly in Spain, following Britain’s effective ban on travel to the country. In a move that reflects the continent’s piecemeal approach to keeping the virus at bay, the...
In-store dancing leads to Hawaii visitor quarantine arrest
HONOLULU — Investigators with the Hawaii attorney general’s office arrested a 20-year-old woman after seeing videos of her dancing in a store and dining out when she was supposed to be obeying a traveler quarantine the state mandated to protect against the spread of the coronavirus. Anne Salamanca arrived in...
