Evacuation tips

In a tragic accident on Tuesday, a Japan Airlines plane and Japanese coast guard aircraft collided on the runway at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. The crash killed five coast guard crew members who were on their way to deliver aid to victims of a deadly earthquake that hit Western Japan on Monday.

Greece will offer a free hotel stay to travelers who were affected by last summer’s devastating fires on the island of Rhodes.

Following last summer’s devastating wildfires on the island of Rhodes, Greece has announced it’s giving thousands of affected holidaymakers free trips.

Dave Dzurick likes to play it safe when he travels, so he shops around for travel insurance. But lately, he's noticed that the policies have gotten more expensive.

The Blue Lagoon resort in the south of Iceland is a scenic network of steaming azure pools surrounded by dark rocks, where tourists dip in the geothermal water, have spa treatments and enjoy what the resort advertises as “a universe of radiant well-being.”

Desron ‘Lava Man’ Rodriguez is a person of few words, but those he does utter can stop you in your tracks — for this mild-mannered, softly spoken Vincentian can detail what it’s like to climb an erupting volcano. “I didn’t want anyone else telling me how it was up there,” he answers to the inevitable question: why? “I had to witness it with my own eyes.” 

It's been 18 months since the Federal Aviation Administration invited the public to weigh in on airline seats, inspiring a flood of anecdotes about sore knees, poor circulation and cramped conditions.

Many travelers tend to forget that the primary responsibility of flight attendants isn’t to mix your drinks and serve you snacks—it’s ensuring the safety of everyone on board.

As flames enveloped Japan Airlines Flight 516 early this month, the flight crew oversaw an orderly evacuation that brought all 379 passengers and crew aboard the Airbus A350-900 aircraft to safety.

A volcano erupted in southwest Iceland on Sunday, posing an immediate threat to a nearby small fishing town although it had been evacuated earlier and no people were in danger, authorities said.

The crash between a Japan Airlines passenger jet and a Japanese coast guard plane in Tokyo this week is resurfacing questions about standards used to evaluate whether aircraft can be safely evacuated during emergencies.

As photos and video from the collision between two aircraft at Tokyo's Haneda Airport (HND) began circulating on Tuesday, it was immediately clear that a rare but catastrophic disaster had occurred.

“We regret to inform you that on the evening of January 2, JL516 was involved in a collision with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft during its landing at Haneda Airport, resulting in a fire on the runway. Our thoughts and prayers are with the deceased members of the Japan Coast Guard,” Japan Airlines wrote in a memo about a Tuesday evening runway collision that resulted in the Japan Airlines flight 516 erupting into flames.

Flights are again departing from Tokyo's Haneda Airport (HND) following a runway disaster that left at least five Japanese service members dead and two aircraft destroyed.

The recent volcanic eruption in Iceland has brought worldwide attention back to the land of fire and ice. It’s the fourth eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula in just three years.

​In this series, Lonely Planet's team of writers and editors answers your travel problems and provides tips and hacks to help you plan a hassle-free trip. This week, Icelandic travel writer Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir from Reykjavík brings us up-to-date on the volcanic activity in Grindavík and how it could impact travelers.

After weeks of anticipation, a volcanic eruption in Iceland’s most populated area sent lava spewing into the night sky late Monday and pushed the authorities into action mode Tuesday. The eruption, which was larger than volcanologists had predicted, happened not far from an evacuated town and a power plant.

Over several weeks, thousands of small earthquakes have shaken Iceland, splitting pavements, spurring evacuations and even shutting down the country’s most popular tourist attraction, as the country braces for the eruption of a volcano within 20 miles of the country’s main international airport.

Is it still safe to visit Iceland? That’s the question on the minds of many tourists after a section of the island nation was placed under a state of emergency following a spike in seismic activity. The recent uptick in occurrences of small earthquakes began on October 24 and has reached as many as 1,000 quakes in 24 hours—and scientists are predicting an imminent volcanic eruption.

Thousands of residents have been evacuated from a coastal Icelandic town and a world-famous spa has closed as experts fear a nearby volcano could erupt in a matter of days. Travelers should watch the situation closely, but there’s no need to alter travel plans—yet.

The strong earthquake swarm that started this week near Grindavik on Iceland's Reykjanes peninsula is caused by magma forming a dike - a vertical fissure-shaped intrusion at shallow depth, which allows the magma to rise and get closer to an eruption. This now threatens one of Iceland's most important tourism regions and is home to the iconic Blue Lagoon Resort. Civil Protection just declared a Level Orange emergency, and residents of Grindavík were told to evacuate.