Latest Travel News tips

Most frequent travelers have already crossed Paris’ famed Louvre—the world’s largest art museum—off their bucket list. But another cultural hub is opening its own Paris-approved Louvre, and it might put the institution right back into the top of your travel to-dos: Louvre Abu Dhabi.

The folks at Travelex, the foreign-exchange giant, recently published a list of the destinations where £500 (currently, $674 USD) would last the longest. Although the list targeted British travelers, the figures should work out about the same for travelers from North America, with roughly $700 in mind.

The TSA is experimenting with new scanning cameras that can detect concealed explosives on travelers as they walk by. The TSA, along with local law enforcement, is testing the new devices at a busy metro station in Los Angeles and in railway hubs in Washington, D.C.

Fresh on the heels of Carlson Rezidor’s rebranding as the Radisson Hotel Group and the relaunch of Club Carlson as Radisson Rewards, Radisson has launched its first-of-the-year global promotion.

When Marriott acquired Starwood in 2016, there was much speculation on how the merger would affect two very different loyalty programs. Since then, the Marriott and Starwood programs have operated independently, but as of yesterday, Marriott has announced that the programs, plus the Ritz-Carlton Rewards program, will officially merge into one mega-program beginning in August 2018.

Some Global Entry applicants are reporting waits of six months or longer for a Global Entry interview. That’s a long time for conditionally approved travelers to wait for the speedy immigration-line benefit.

When someone raises the question of travel rights, the focus is usually on airlines and not hotel guest rights. That’s probably because air travelers have lots of rights, many guaranteed by government regulations and airline contracts. Moreover, key government-enforced rights have teeth: Failure to honor your rights often leads to some combination of mandated traveler repayments and airline-paid fines. But on a typical trip, you spend more on a hotel, resort, or at vacation rental than airfare. So what are your resort, vacation rental, or hotel guest rights?

What’s the worst airline out there? The Wall Street Journal’s Airline Scorecard just made a surprising claim, ranking JetBlue as the country’s worst airline while Delta ranked first.

The IHG Rewards Club MasterCard, issued by Chase, has long been a favorite of the frequent-traveler crowd. For good reasons:

The Trump administration’s newly imposed restrictions on travel to Cuba were expected to have a chilling effect on U.S. tourism to the island nation, but maybe not so quickly.

Don’t have anyone to travel with, but not really up for wandering the world alone? You’ve now got a few new options.

Dreaming of an expedition to Antarctica? Even at the literal end of the Earth, you don’t need to go without art and culture. MS Roald Amundsen, a 530-passenger expedition ship launching in 2019, will sail to the Poles with a collection of nearly 600 works of art onboard—many chosen by Queen Sonja of Norway.

DNA technology is increasingly changing the way we view the world, and now it may be changing travel. If you’ve ever considered taking a DNA test to uncover your heritage, or have gone down a records rabbit hole to find your ancestors, you can now physically follow your roots to the far-off destinations they’ll point you to.

The Department of Homeland Security officially lifted the ban on large carry-on electronics for U.S.-bound flights. At the same time, new enhanced security measures are rolling out, leading airlines to warn travelers of new procedures around the globe.

United Airlines hasn’t exactly been killing it when it comes to generating loyalty and respect. Passengers unceremoniously bumped from flights. Dodgy Wi-Fi. A loyalty program that often seems to consciously emulate the worst features of American and Delta’s.

The European Union’s Court of Justice this week rejected Uber’s claim that it is merely a digital service provider, connecting travelers with independent drivers. Instead, Uber is properly classified as a transport company, and must be regulated accordingly.

Travel doesn’t always involve two parents, a fact that family travel tours don’t always acknowledge. But Intrepid Travel, which has included family tours in its offerings for a decade, is leading the way with the debut of dedicated solo-parent family tours.

In the airline business, bad ideas are a lot easier to find than good ones. But a recent development from Hungary’s Wizz Air is, surprisingly, one I’d like to see others copy.

With a travel insurance policy (and any other kind of insurance coverage) the devil is in the details—more specifically, the fine print. And one word can make a huge difference in your risk coverage: “unforeseen.”

It has long been a centerpiece of Uber and Lyft’s self-promotion that the proliferation of such ridesharing services was a boon to the country’s most congested cities. The idea was that by giving people an alternative to firing up their own cars for every trip, no matter how long or how short, the net amount of city traffic would be reduced.

If you plan to park your car at an airport for more than a day or two, fees can add up quickly—even at the discounted off-site lots. And even if you don’t leave your car at the airport while you’re gone, your car just sits somewhere being of no use to anybody while someone you don’t know arrives at your hometown airport and rents a car, again for a stiff fee. And maybe you’ll need a car rental at your destination, too.