It’s tricky when you invite someone who’s afraid of the water to get on board a ship. It’s especially unusual to ask that person to christen the ship, become the ship’s godmother, and then take a four-day cruise. But everything went according to plan this week when television star and journalist Meredith Vieira christened the newest “suite ship” in the Avalon Waterways fleet. (See short video here) Vieira handled the honors with aplomb in Bratislava, Slovakia on Tuesday, and with a bit of emotion to boot, cutting a long cord with a pair of scissors and sending a bottle of Read more
Europe
Canadian searches for international flights are outweighing those for domestic trips, but flights within Canada remain very popular, a new study says. Kayak.com looked at flight searches for the week of April 10 and compared them three years ago, prior to the pandemic, and then to a month ago. For three year comparisons, they found Dubai led the way, with searches up 105% since April of 2019. Next was Halifax at 97%, followed by Istanbul at 90%. For month-over-month comparisons, searches for flights to Frankfurt were on top, with a gain of 17% from March to April of this year. Read more
Air Transat is pleased to be back in Dublin, after over two years of forced suspension due to COVID-19. The airline operated its first flight between Toronto and Dublin (TS230) yesterday evening, which will be offered five times a week at the height of the season. Until the end of October, the airline will operate these flights with its new-generation Airbus A321neoLR aircraft. As of March 6, all COVID-19 travel restrictions were removed for travelling to the Republic of Ireland. Visitors no longer need to complete a passenger locator form to travel, nor do they need proof of vaccination or Read more
Forbes has a great item today about what countries in Europe are open for visitors. I’ve also got items on the resumption of cruise ship travel in Canada, passengers behaving badly, the resumption of Transat flights to Italy, a nice story on Ottawa and news about suspended flights between Vancouver and India. WHAT COUNTRIES ARE OPEN IN EUROPE Many European Union countries, including the UK and Ireland, have entirely done away with COVID-19 travel restrictions for non-EU travelers. Others, however, still have restrictions in place. Continue reading the Forbes story here. AND WHAT’S OPEN IN THE CARIBBEAN, TOO Travelweek has Read more
Air Transat has announced the gradual resumption of its operations to France, starting today with the departure of its first direct flight from Montreal to Marseille. From Brittany to Provence, Aquitaine and Auvergne, six destinations will be available once more to Quebec travellers in the coming weeks. In addition to gradually increasing flight frequency between Montreal and the City of Light, the airline will soon be relaunching its service to Paris from Toronto and Quebec City. “We are very pleased to resume our flights to France’s regions. These routes—most of which we operate exclusively—have been an integral part of our Read more
