The weather is finally turning and you’re ready for that cherished summer tradition: spending the day lounging by the outdoor pool or splashing through a water park. But is the pandemic going to dash your watery summer dreams? If you’re safe and understand the risks, not necessarily. First, the growing consensus among experts is that…
As the summer tourist season approaches and Western Europe’s Covid-19 crisis continues to subside, leaders across the continent are deciding whether and how to lift the border restrictions that they imposed amid a flurry of emergency measures in March. The European Commission has urged its members to coordinate their reopening, but a patchwork of strategies…
The glories of the national park system draw hundreds of millions of visitors each year, even in normal times. But in this upside-down year, with the pandemic still limiting much travel in and outside the United States, it’s likely that the National Park Service’s 419 sites, 62 with a “national park” designation, will attract even…
As airlines try to convince Americans to fly again, they have touted their policies for keeping passengers safe, including the requirement that everyone onboard a plane wear a mask. But travelers on recent flights said the rules are not being enforced. And flight attendants said they have been told not to confront passengers who opt…
VENICE — For a change, it was the Venetians who crowded the square. Days before Italy lifted coronavirus travel restrictions on Wednesday that had prevented the usual crush of international visitors from entering the city, hundreds of locals gathered on chalk asterisks drawn several feet apart. They had come to protest a new dock that…
Singing pirates and spinning teacups. Mickey Mouse-shaped waffles. Impossibly chipper employees chirping, “Have a magical day.” Stroller gridlock. Pre-eminent sports venue? Walt Disney World is known for many things, but few people would immediately associate it with athletics, unless you count endurance walking or Super Bowl winners gleefully exclaiming their intention to visit, a marketing…
Commercial air travel has plummeted in the pandemic, but interest in private jet service is surging, particularly among people who have not paid to fly privately before. For years, jet service providers have ferried corporate executives and wealthy leisure travelers who paid high fees for the privacy and security. Now, those same companies are shifting…
In Silicon Valley, the natural order of time is reverse chronological: what matters most is what is newest, and can be constantly refreshed by swiping downward. Why, because the present’s so great? Two decades into a profoundly unpromising century — and amid a pandemic whose social and epidemiological fallout strongly echoes plagues from centuries past…
With travel restrictions in place worldwide, we’re turning to photojournalists to help transport you, virtually, to some of our planet’s most beautiful and intriguing places. In this week’s installment of The World Through a Lens, Scott Baker shares a collection of photographs from his hometown in Alabama. In March, decades after I’d moved away, I…
In the West, cabin-feverish parents yearning to take their children into the woods, couples trying to escape quarantine pods, and all campers who miss their beloved outdoors will this summer find a complicated camping landscape, one of new and conflicting laws, closings and reopenings, and strict requirements on social-distancing and hand-washing. ImagePacking up an R.V.…