The world is missing us more than you might think

Simon Calder’s Travel Week [View in browser]( [The Independent]( [Travel] Simon Calder’s Travel Week [Simon Calder]( Written by Simon Calder | January 07, 2022 Being refused entry to a country is no fun. I still cherish the hope of visiting Turkmenistan and Eritrea, but the embassies of both nations declined my visa application without explanation. At least I didn’t even try to make the journey. Rejection by Honduras was much more annoying: it was 1991, and I had trudged halfway across war-torn El Salvador to reach the lonely border post of El Amatillo. I got no further than the far end of no-man’s-land before a frontier official took a dislike to a Cuban stamp in my passport. It seemed an arbitrary decision with no legal basis, but the passport man held all the cards. I retraced my steps to the capital, San Salvador, and booked a flight to the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, next day, and was allowed in with barely a glance at my previous Latin American meanderings. Reaching a Central American frontier is usually easier than crossing it As Novak Djokovic has discovered, the world has far more tangled frontiers now than it did three decades ago. These days exclusion is more likely to be made on the contents of your bloodstream rather than your passport – and specifically the absence of antibodies to coronavirus. As you read this, the [first few thousand travellers to benefit from the reversal of the UK’s Omicron measures]( are breezing out of Heathrow and the Port of Dover. [No one who arrived after 4am was required to provide a pre-departure Covid test]( or self-isolate until they receive a negative post-arrival test result – unless they have not been double-jabbed. Unvaccinated arrivals must still undergo 10 days of quarantine and multiple PCRs. The right to decide on your own medical treatment looks, to me, inviolable. But as Mr Djokovic discovered, the right to enter another country is far from automatic. For every international sports star who is unceremoniously rejected, there are tens of thousands of people who have been turned away, often in tears, because of some discrepancy in the reams of paperwork and online wizardry that are required to unlock journeys these days. Which way now? Statues in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris, currently off-limits to British travellers France – [which continues with its futile and damaging policy of closing its frontiers to the UK]( – is an outlier. In a world where divisions between the jabbed and the jabbed-nots are hardening, international travel is now much tougher for those who choose not to be vaccinated – or have not yet had the chance to be fully boosted. The next hurdle for those of us who, frankly, would ingest wellbeing crystals dissolved in absinthe if it made the difference between “go” and “no-go”, is how “fully vaccinated” is defined. All of which may persuade you that booking a holiday in these troubled times is making you a hostage to misfortune. But [allow yourself to dream in wide screen](. And remember that whatever the rules are today, they will be different next week, next month and next year. The world is missing us more than you – and Novak Djokovic – might think. Destination of the week: Marble Arch Mound, London Mountain high: the Marble Arch Mound, whose final day is on Sunday 9 January “In these unprecedented times, delivering a new and meaningful experience that captures the imagination of residents, businesses and visitors has never been more important.” So says Westminster City Council about the [Marble Arch Mound](, which closes at 10pm on Sunday, 9 January. While the £6m temporary London attraction is [some way short of Alpine](, it does give a fresh perspective on the capital – and there is no need to book in advance. Have your say on the future of the Independent Travel section Perhaps you could kindly [complete this survey]( to let me and the team know about your preferences around researching and booking holidays. It takes less than 10 minutes and will help us shape the future of The Independent’s travel section. Complete the survey and you could be in with a chance of winning one of 10 £50 vouchers! [TAKE OUR SURVEY]( Don’t miss my daily travel podcast [Green List Travel]( For all the latest travel tips, advice and news analysis, listen to ‘Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast’ – available from Monday to Friday for free on [Spotify](, [Apple Podcasts](, [Pocket Casts]( or [Acast](. Deal of the week: Wizz Air flash sale, ends 11pm The budget airline Wizz Air is staging a flash sale until 11pm tonight. Out from Luton to Rome on 8 March, back on 17 March, is currently £22 return. Travel voucher of the week [Voucher]( [Claim an extra £100 off when you spend £750 on First Choice holidays in January & February]( Travel question of the week: Will US cruises be banned? Q Are cruises going to banned again, based on CDC advice? A On 30 December the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC, the American health regulator) [issued a stark warning against going on cruises](: "Avoid cruise travel, regardless of vaccination status. The virus that causes Covid-19 spreads easily between people in close quarters on board ships. The chance of getting Covid-19 on cruise ships is very high, even if you are fully vaccinated and have received a Covid-19 vaccine booster dose." The UK Foreign Office picks up the theme, saying: "Although operators have taken steps to improve infection control, cruise ships continue to experience Covid-19 outbreaks, affecting passengers and seafarers. The confined setting on board and combination of multiple households enables Covid-19 to spread faster than it is able to elsewhere." Yet however governments (and I) might feel about cruising, currently many people are at sea. The cruise lines say they can offer cruising with confidence. "We’re fully prepared with immediate medical evaluations, rapid testing and more critical care beds on each ship in the event of a suspected case of Covid-19," says one of the biggest, Royal Caribbean. Stories you might like [Pre-departure tests and PCRs scrapped for vaccinated travellers - follow live]( [Pre-departure tests and PCRs scrapped for vaccinated travellers - follow live]( [The hacks you can learn from reading ‘fine print’ of airline policies]( The hacks you can learn from reading ‘fine print’ of airline policies]( More stories [Travel expert Simon Calder to answer your latest questions live]( Travel expert Simon Calder to answer your latest questions live]( [Every US passenger cruise currently has Covid cases on board]( Every US passenger cruise currently has Covid cases on board]( Other newsletters you might like [Brexit and Beyond] Brexit and Beyond Every Thurday, 7am (UK time) Written by Adam Forrest [Join now >]( [Voices Dispatches] Voices Dispatches Every Saturday, 7am (UK time) Written by Victoria Richards [Join now >]( Let me know your thoughts on Twitter [@SimonCalder](. If you can spare a minute we’d love your [feedback]( on our newsletters. [The Independent]( Join the conversation or follow us [Facebook]( [Twitter]( Please do not reply directly to this email. You are currently registered to receive The Independent's Travel email. Add us to your safe list of senders . If you do not want to receive The Independent's Travel email, please [unsubscribe](list_name=IND_Travel_Newsletter_CDP). If you no longer wish to receive any newsletters or promotional emails from The Independent, you can unsubscribe [here](. This email was sent by Independent Digital News and Media Ltd, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5HF. Registered in England and Wales with company number 07320345. Read our [privacy notice]( and [cookie policy](.