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Europe opening up for US travelers

Pauline

Forums Admin
CNN has a good article showing the status for travel by country for Americans. Most countries are open now for travel but some still have lockdown restrictions that you should be aware of (curfews, indoor dining not allowed). All air passengers entering the US need a negative COVID test and you may need one to enter Europe.

Brits must quarantine on arrival in some countries (France, Germany) and may need to quarantine when coming home (until our list of green countries is expanded) because we have increasing cases of the variant originally from India. Some here are predicting a third wave of high case numbers in July.


David Lebovitz’s June 2021 newsletter has a good description of things in France.

I was hoping we could go to France in July, but that is out now (Brits must quarantine on arrival). Now I am hoping we can do our mid-August trip. I’ve been very optimistic about reopening but the news of the India variant and damped my enthusiasm. Still, great news for American travelers and maybe the British situation will improve.
 
This article in the New York Times has better information for fewer countries.


From the article:
“The European Union on Wednesday agreed to reopen its borders to fully vaccinated travelers, including Americans, and people from a list of Covid-safe countries that will be determined later this week ahead of the summer tourism season.

Visitors from outside the bloc who have received E.U.-approved vaccines — including those from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson — will be allowed to enter European Union countries without having to take a test or quarantine upon arrival.

The new measures could go into effect as early as next week, after E.U. leaders give formal approval and individual countries set up systems to check vaccination status. While the E.U. aims to take a coordinated approach to travel this summer, member states will be allowed to set their own requirements for travelers from individual countries based on their own epidemiological criteria.”
 
It's June 2nd, and things are opening up, but still too many restrictions for me. I plan to re-evaluate in a month and gauge improvement for planned trip in September. I've been vaccinated and want to avoid quarantines, bureaucracy of filling out location forms etc.
 
Here is a good resource, Re-Open EU, to research restrictions etc. for each country as the rules vary widely. Enter the country of interest, and click "GO". A map will display on the left and a menu on the right. There are four main subject icons on the top row: Travel, Corona Virus Measures, Health Situation, and Other Information. Clicking on any one of these icons opens a subset of related icon subjects just below. Worthy of exploring, but I did note that some of the information has not been updated recently.

It appears that "EU Digital COVID Certificates" (proof of vaccination) will be the ticket to entry & travel freely. Seven countries (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Croatia and Poland) are using them now with the rest of the EU to join the club on July 1st. The European Commission is in talks with the United States about allowing Americans to also have access to the EU Digital COVID Certificate, but details on that have not been finalized.

According to the Article, "Everything You Need to Know about Europe's Vaccine Passports", Under the vaccine passport scheme, each EU Member State would adopt the same entry requirements for visitors. The Digital COVID Certificate will show that a person has been vaccinated against COVID-19, received a negative test result or recovered from the virus. Fully vaccinated travelers would be allowed entry to each EU country without the need for a further COVID-19 test result or quarantine on arrival.

Stay tuned.... I'm hopeful that we learn more before July 1st.
 
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While I'm not ready to travel anywhere internationally just yet....I'm MAYBE, PERHAPS, TOYING....with the idea of Christmas 2021 in Florence IF it's not a huge hassle to fly there and I find a "kinda-sorta" cheap airfare. I've got 2 big trips in 2022; the Luberon in mid May and the Cotswolds in mid July.
So much can change quickly....BUT I feel at least mostly confident of my 2022 adventures and experiences!! (and I need to renew my passport; will start the process this Sept).

Mindy
 
While I'm not ready to travel anywhere internationally just yet....I'm MAYBE, PERHAPS, TOYING....with the idea of Christmas 2021 in Florence IF it's not a huge hassle to fly there and I find a "kinda-sorta" cheap airfare. I've got 2 big trips in 2022; the Luberon in mid May and the Cotswolds in mid July.
So much can change quickly....BUT I feel at least mostly confident of my 2022 adventures and experiences!! (and I need to renew my passport; will start the process this Sept).

Mindy
Mindy: I was just reading a thread on the Rick Steves Travel Forum, and it seems that in the US, passport renewals are taking up to 6 months to process....just a thought in case you want to start renewing a bit earlier....!
 
Mindy: I was just reading a thread on the Rick Steves Travel Forum, and it seems that in the US, passport renewals are taking up to 6 months to process....just a thought in case you want to start renewing a bit earlier....!
Thank you! Sept. is 9 months ahead as my passport expires in June 2022. I'd read to allow 9 months! I'll have my picture taken right after I leave my hair appointment :)
 
According to the updated June 2021 Covid-19 U.S. Government Passport web site, the current processing time appears to be much shorter than mentioned above, stating the following:

"It may take up to 4 weeks from the day you apply until your application status is “In Process.” During these 4 weeks, your application is delivered to a mail facility, your payment is processed, and your application is scanned and sent to us. If your passport status update says “Not Available,” your application and supporting documents are safely on their way to us."

The web site also includes a link for checking status with their Online Passport Status System. The nine month passport processing time appears to be an outlier or outdated. The recent Rick Steves' travel forum reports a two month processing time as of April 2021.
 
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It looks like the final stage of opening from lockdown in England on June 21 is going to be delayed by 2 - 4 weeks because of the Delta variant spreading in parts of the country (not in my area so far). This means travel to Europe for Brits may not start until mid-July (unless they want to quarantine for 10 days on return).

Here I was thinking we could travel in Europe this summer without all those annoying American tourists, but instead Americans will be able to travel in Europe without all the annoying Brits!

I have our Switzerland trip booked for mid-August. Fingers crossed!
 
It looks like the final stage of opening from lockdown in England on June 21 is going to be delayed by 2 - 4 weeks because of the Delta variant spreading in parts of the country (not in my area so far). This means travel to Europe for Brits may not start until mid-July (unless they want to quarantine for 10 days on return).

Here I was thinking we could travel in Europe this summer without all those annoying American tourists, but instead Americans will be able to travel in Europe without all the annoying Brits!

I have our Switzerland trip booked for mid-August. Fingers crossed!
I try to avoid all those annoying American tourist too! And I am one, American , not annoying. We're going to put off Switzerland until next year, so much family in the US to see.
 
Wow, sorry to hear that Pauline. Just yesterday in the US news they were speculating that when Biden met with Johnson they would be announcing the opening up of travel. I guess not.
 
IF we travel this year - still a HUGE if! - we'd go to Ireland, then fly to Italy, meaning we'd have to comply with whatever rules Ireland has in place, then figure out what we, as Americans, would have to do if we arrived in Italy from another EU country rather than directly from the U.S. That would certainly eleimnate the possibility of the Covid-free flights that AA and Delta are offering from the U.S., and may require additional testing in Irelad before we fly to Italy. If it gets too complicated I may just give up.
 
Here's a restriction from Alitalia's web site:

"During the flight, it is necessary to replace your protective mask with a new one every 4 hours; please bring an adequate number of protective masks according to the duration of your flight"

I'm a firm believer in the value of wearing a mask, but this seems a little overboard to me, especially for those that have been vaccinated. One wonders what other surprises will be encountered on a trip now. Something else to research besides hotels, restaurants, and landmarks!
 
"During the flight, it is necessary to replace your protective mask with a new one every 4 hours; please bring an adequate number of protective masks according to the duration of your flight"...

Actually, in my humble opinion, this demand/restriction is justified. Vaccinations still do not provide full immunity for the elderly (their main benefit for the weak and unhealthy is the lessening of the symptoms, if they get infected), and there are still unknowns about the transmission of the virus by vaccinated people. If you add to this that current estimates state that there will probably be a need for a booster shot sometime in the next 8-12 months to all those that received their full doses - then you get a situation where the dynamics of the future spread of the virus are still a mystery. Indeed, one of the main ways in which variants - one of which could prove to be less responsive to current vaccines - could continue to endanger global recuperation from the pandemic, is through int'l travel. And the airlines certainly don't want to be accused of being the new vector of transmission, just when things are starting to work for them again.

So I'd say : yes, wear the mask and exercise caution in crowded places. Travel - and life in general - is still not completely back to the "old normal", if it ever will be.

A good recent read on what the world has learned after administrating almost two billion doses, from the Nature site.
 
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Here's a restriction from Alitalia's web site:

"During the flight, it is necessary to replace your protective mask with a new one every 4 hours; please bring an adequate number of protective masks according to the duration of your flight"

I'm a firm believer in the value of wearing a mask, but this seems a little overboard to me, especially for those that have been vaccinated. One wonders what other surprises will be encountered on a trip now. Something else to research besides hotels, restaurants, and landmarks!
I've noticed if I wear a mask for an extended period, 3-4 hours, moisture from my breathing seems to collect on the outside of the mask, so the changing of ones mask every 4 hours seems like a prudent idea now that I think about it.
 
I've noticed if I wear a mask for an extended period, 3-4 hours, moisture from my breathing seems to collect on the outside of the mask, so the changing of ones mask every 4 hours seems like a prudent idea now that I think about it.
After thinking about it, I have to agree that changing masks does make sense. Fasten you seatbelts, and change your masks. :cool:
 

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