Canada to quarantine travelers, suspend flights south
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday announced stricter restrictions on travelers in response to new, likely more contagious variants of the novel coronavirus — including making it mandatory for travelers to quarantine in a hotel at their own expense when they arrive in Canada and suspending airline service to Mexico...
Hikers told to forgo entire Appalachian Trail due to virus
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Hikers are being told by the agency that oversees the Appalachian Trail to postpone plans to cover the nearly 2,200-mile (3,540 kilometer) distance this year due to COVID-19. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy made the suggestion because it feels the pandemic makes long-distance hikes unsafe, the Asheville Citizen...
More cancellations for Carnival amid jumbled vaccine rollout
Carnival Cruise Line is canceling and delaying more U.S. trips with new cases of covid-19 averaging about 170,000 per day in the country amid a jumbled rollout of vaccines. Carnival’s planned seasonal service out of San Diego has been suspended until further notice, and cruises scheduled through April 2023 were...
An airport named after Donald Trump? Palm Beach County says ‘no’ to that
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Former President Donald Trump won’t see his name on the airport in his home turf of Palm Beach County — and it also might be difficult to engrave it anywhere else in South Florida. A majority of Palm Beach County commissioners told the South Florida Sun...
Spirit Airlines expands flights from Arnold Palmer Regional Airport to Florida, Myrtle Beach
After months of commercial flight slowdowns and outright shutdowns, the terminal at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport is about to become bustling again with airline passengers. While covid-19 and an $18 million runway widening and facility improvement project took their toll on commercial flight offerings over the last 11 months, officials...
Elvis Presley’s Graceland starting live virtual tours
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Elvis Presley’s Graceland is now offering live online tours for fans around the world, including those who can’t travel to the Tennessee tourist attraction during the coronavirus pandemic. Graceland said the two-hour guided tours will take virtual visitors into Presley’s former Memphis home, which has been turned...
Airbnb to block, cancel reservations in D.C. next week
NEW YORK — Airbnb says it will be blocking and cancelling reservations in the Washington, D.C. area during the week of the presidential inauguration. The decision, announced Wednesday, came two days after it said it was reviewing reservations in the area ahead of next week’s presidential inauguration and said it...
TripAdvisor adds new tool to detect overcrowding in U.S. cities
Travelers hitting the road during the ongoing coronavirus outbreak are concerned about overcrowding, but TripAdvisor has launched a new platform to help avoid those issues in cities around the United States. Engineers with TripAdvisor, Slack, Amazon Web Services and nine other technology companies developed the platform, dubbed Crowdfree.me, to help...
Spirit Airlines holds off on resuming flights from Arnold Palmer airport to Ft. Myers
Passengers flying from Arnold Palmer Regional Airport may be limited to Orlando as a destination for the immediate future, part of the continuing hit air travel is taking from the covid-19 pandemic. While Spirit Airlines flights from the Unity airport to Myrtle Beach, S.C., are expected to resume Feb. 12,...
National Park Service shuts Washington Monument citing threats surrounding inauguration
The National Park Service is shutting down public access to the Washington Monument until Jan. 24, citing threats surrounding Joe Biden’s inauguration. The agency said Monday that it was implementing the temporary closure “in response to credible threats to visitors and park resources.” Park officials say that groups involved in...
Pandemic-era Mardi Gras: No big crowds, but plenty of cake
NEW ORLEANS — A subdued Carnival season began Wednesday after the coronavirus pandemic put an end to the crowd-heavy balls and street parades that draw thousands of people to the city every year. The Mardi Gras season always starts on Jan. 6 and ends on Fat Tuesday, which this year...
Boeing Max returns to U.S. skies with first passenger flight
American Airlines flew a Boeing 737 Max with paying passengers from Miami to New York on Tuesday, the plane’s first commercial flight in U.S. skies since it was grounded after two deadly crashes. American flight 718 carried 87 passengers on the 172-seat plane, and the return flight from LaGuardia Airport...
Mallard to go? Dig of Pompeii fast-food place reveals tastes
ROME — A fast-food eatery at Pompeii has been excavated, helping to reveal dishes that were popular for the citizens of the ancient Roman city who were partial to eating out. Pompeii Archaeological Park’s longtime chief, Massimo Osanna, said Saturday that while some 80 such fast-foods have been found at...
‘Mom’s worth it’: U.S. holiday travel surges despite outbreak
TAMPA, Fla. — Some are elderly and figure they don’t have many Christmases left. Others are trying to keep long-distance romance alive. Some just yearn for the human connection that’s been absent for the past nine months. Millions of Americans are traveling ahead of Christmas and New Year’s, despite pleas...
American tourist returns ancient artifact she stole from Rome with note: ‘I feel terrible’
“I saw it delivered in the morning. A bulky package, quite heavy, carefully packed.” So begins the story in the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero. When the package was opened, staff at the National Roman Museum discovered a “large fragment of millenary marble.” A note was included with it: A woman...
More than 1 million U.S. air travelers screened on day before Thanksgiving
Travelers screened at U.S. airports on Thanksgiving Eve were the highest since coronavirus shutdowns began in mid-March, as many Americans bucked warnings by health officials. More than 1.07 million people went through airport screening on Wednesday, according to data from the Transportation Security Administration. That’s still only about 40% of...
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...
