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In this week’s roundup of travel news: visiting the Japanese island of Okinawa 80 years after the World War II battle, the riskiest part of your airplane flight, plus new tourist taxes around the world.
Passports, visas and entry fees
We live in an age of unprecedented travel freedom, but recently a few doors have been slamming shut.
Italy is drastically tightening its citizenship requirements, ending the dream for many thousands hoping to get an Italian passport through ancestry. Spain has ended its “golden visa” program giving residency rights to foreign citizens. And visitors to the UK from the European Union now join those from 48 other countries who must now apply and pay a fee before travel.
And those are just the headlines from this week.
In measures to counteract overtourism, Venice is doubling its daytripper entry fees, and Edinburgh will be taxing tourists for overnight stays.
In New York, the Empire State Building has introduced surge-pricing — where prices increase according to demand — and in Japan, Kyoto is reported to be raising its hotel taxes up to tenfold.
Mountaineers are also needing more moolah. Permit fees for climbing Mount Everest are increasing by more than 35%, and climbing Mount Fuji now requires a $27 fee and a test.
A little ray of freebie sunshine to end the roundup: The European Union is giving away 36,000 free international rail passes to young people.
For a chance for European adventure, applicants must be 18 years old and a resident of one of the EU member states or third countries associated with its Erasmus+ education program. The deadline is April 16.
One of the deadliest battles of World War II took place on the Japanese island of Okinawa, during which an estimated 240,000 people were killed or went missing.
Eighty years later, the battle sites are still giving up bones and bombs. Visitors can get up close and touch history at the ruins left behind.
The southern Netherlands offers another poignant taste of World War II history. Just outside the town of Margraten, the country’s only American military cemetery honors about 10,000 US soldiers who died in the war.
The cemetery is one of several across Europe with grave-adoption programs. Since the late 1940s, local Dutch families have volunteered as caretakers for American soldiers’ graves, in an enduring culture of commemoration.
A flight from Bali, Indonesia, to Melbourne, Australia, on Monday was forced to turn around after a passenger tried to open a plane door over the Indian Ocean.
On Tuesday, passengers were evacuated from an American Airlines jet in Georgia after a burning odor and smoke were reported in the cabin.
On Wednesday, the FAA announced that a “stress management team” would be meeting with air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport after a rash of recent incidents, including a deadly mid-air collision and a control tower fight.
Flying does, however, remain the safest way to travel, with millions of people enjoying uneventful journeys every day.
To dig down into the data, though, some parts of your flight are riskier than others — read more here. As for the much-debated question of whether some seats in the plane are safer than others, here’s what experts have to say.
‘Just dumb!’ A new travel trend has people getting through an airport in 15 minutes… or not
Do you really need to turn up at the airport two or three hours before your flight? A new viral trend called “airport theory” sees people test the limits of how late they can arrive at the terminal — a high-stakes gamble with both winners and losers.
If even thinking about this concept has you breaking out in a sweat, our partners at CNN Underscored, a product reviews and recommendations guide owned by CNN, have a roundup of products for passing time at the airport. Better safe than sorry.
An American tourist was arrested after allegedly attempting to contact the “world’s most isolated tribe.”
He made an illegal voyage to North Sentinel island in the Bay of Bengal.
Last year Barcelona finally turned on its crowds of tourists.
Now it’s worried about what happens next.
Carbon monoxide poisoning has been tied to several traveler deaths.
Here’s how to stay safe on your next trip.
Food writer Chris Dwyer has eaten at the world’s best restaurants.
Yet one of the best things he’s ever tasted cost $2 from a tiny takeout store.
