Time to celebrate 'non-essential' travel

Simon Calder’s Travel Week [View in browser]( [The Independent]( [Travel] Simon Calder’s Travel Week [Simon Calder]( Written by Simon Calder | September 17, 2021 Agreed, it wasn't on the scale of the death of Diana or the horrors of 9/11, but I remember exactly where I was exactly 18 months ago today – when, from a British traveller’s perspective, the world closed down. In the early hours of 17 March 2020, I checked in to the Cairo airport Novotel (which, incidentally, features on my very short list of outstanding airport hotels, alongside the Premier Inn at Abu Dhabi; perhaps I should get out more). The travel firm that had organised my package holiday in Yemen found rooms for the nine of us who had flown out on the last plane from Aden the previous evening. Over lunch in those Cairo gardens, where birdsong tussled with airport noise for aural supremacy, I learnt from colleagues in London that the foreign secretary had warned against non-essential travel anywhere in the world. In Yemen, where online connectivity understandably is not one of the national priorities, it had proved impossible to keep track of the spread of coronavirus and, in particular, governments’ responses to it. Off line: a beach on the Yemeni island of Socotra That Foreign Office advice effectively closed down international travel. The trigger was not an urgent need to protect the UK against imported cases of Covid – on the contrary, the nation’s limited inbound quarantine rules had just been completely removed. Instead, the unprecedented warning was imposed because so many frontiers around the world were closing – including the US, where two days earlier President Trump had banned all direct arrivals from the UK. That presidential proclamation remains in place, with Joe Biden in no hurry to lift the travel ban – leaving US-bound travellers to "launder" their UK status in red-list Mexico. Just read that sentence again. What has befallen the vocabulary of adventure? On 17 March 2020, my travel bingo card included none of the following terms: amber plus, green watchlist, traffic lights… Yet over the past 18 months they have become part of the everyday language of travel, alongside acronyms PCR, PLF and NIE – standing for our least favourite Covid test, passenger locator form and “national interest exception,” the US favour granted by Trump to Nigel Farage. My beautiful (quarantine) laundrette: Puerto Escondido in Mexico Since international travel was once again permitted for British holidaymakers – exactly five months ago today – destinations have been rated not in terms of their culture, cuisine, coastline or countryside, but their Covid classification according to the UK government’s highly eccentric and secretive “system” for reducing the risk of travel. Or was it just for reducing travel? Enough: it’s time to reshuffle your travel dreams. One advantage of the UK being the nation with the highest coronavirus levels of any large European nation is that anywhere you go is bound to be safer than here. With that reality finally acknowledged and the “traffic lights” taken out of service, I prescribe some non-essential travel: an autumn escape to the Mediterranean. I regret to inform you that the end of your travelling days is significantly closer than it was 18 months ago. So seize the day, the week, the year … Destination of the week: Naples One hop from Luton: a view across Naples to Vesuvius This morning, southern Italy's most ravishing city (in a crowded field) gets a new link from Luton. Sales of flights on Wizz Air's thrice-weekly link are evidently not soaring, with some one-way hops in the coming week on sale for just £13. At any price, Naples is captivating and joyful in autumn. The city is draped over hills and laced with ancient lanes – whose secrets include the Cappella Sansevero, with Giuseppe Sanmartino’s Cristo Velato – the eerie, veiled figure of Christ's corpse carved eerily in stone. And, of course, comfort food in the form of the world's best pizza and ice cream. Deals of the week: going Dutch and across Scotland - Vaccinated travellers from the UK will be allowed into the Netherlands without quarantine from next Wednesday, 22 September. Eurostar has excellent fares on its direct service from London St Pancras to both Amsterdam and Rotterdam. For a long weekend from 23 to 28 September, the return trip costs £118. - is selling low-demand seats aboard its Inter7City network for as little as £5 one-way, connecting Edinburgh and Glasgow with Aberdeen, Dundee, Inverness, Perth and Stirling. For the lowest price, click on "Best fares found" for available trains. Question of the week: when will the 'eurovisa' begin? Question: Is it true British travellers to the EU will soon need a visa? Answer: Europe's planned Electronic Travel Information and Authorisation System (Etias), modelled on the US Esta, is aimed at third countries such as the UK from which a visa is not currently required. Officially, it is not a visa. But as the Etias requires advance form-filling and payment (£6 for three years), I am content to call it a "eurovisa". Anyway, it was originally planned to come into effect in 2021, but is running a couple of years late. So don't fret about it until 2023. Meanwhile the UK plans its own system: “an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme for those passengers visiting the UK … who do not currently need a visa for short stays.” Stories you might like [Simon Calder’s travel update predictions: what changes will be made?]( [Simon Calder’s travel update predictions: what changes will be made?]( [Will PCR travel tests be scrapped this month?]( Will PCR travel tests be scrapped this month?]( More stories [When will UK-US travel reopen?]( When will UK-US travel reopen?]( [Turkey tipped to come off Covid red list in time for half-term]( Turkey tipped to come off Covid red list in time for half-term]( Other newsletters you might like [Adam Forrest]( Inside Politics Every weekday, 8am (UK time) Written by Adam Forrest [Join now >]( [Joe Sommerlad]( Daily News Briefing Every weekday, 8am (UK time) Written by Joe Sommerlad [Join now >]( Let me know your thoughts on Twitter [@SimonCalder](. 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