Virus tips

It's a new year! (Or will be soon, depending on when you're reading this.) Which means another edition of the Gold List, Traveler's annual compendium of our editors' favorite hotels and cruises, our 30th time doing it. It's wild to think back to where the world was when we put out the first one I was involved with: Pete Buttigieg was about to win the Iowa caucuses, Japan still thought it would be hosting the Olympics that summer, and COVID-19 was just an alarming headline about a seemingly distant new virus.

Travelers looking to plan international trips in the New Year got some good news this week: Passport renewal will no longer take months on end. Processing times for US passports have finally returned to what they were before the pandemic, according to an update from the State Department.

Masks on planes: It's a topic of conversation that has become more and more convoluted in the past year and change. But in the gauntlet of holiday air travel, one of the most challenging factors for fliers to contend with is avoiding getting sick in overcrowded terminals and jam-packed plane cabins.

Cities around the world manage every year to turn the end-of-year festive mood spotlight on one of the holiday’s most revered symbols, the Christmas tree.

Zika virus, the mosquito-related disease that’s prompted travel advisories across the Caribbean as well as Central and South America, is now in Southeast Asia, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on January 25, 2016 and was updated in December 2018. Please consult this article: Do You Still Need to Worry About the Zika Virus for 2019? for the latest info.

Although a lot has changed since the Zika outbreak in 2015-16, Zika is still a concern for some travelers.

Since it first came to the attention of the World Health Organization, the coronavirus has swept across the globe, being categorized as a pandemic in March 2020. If you have to travel for essential reasons during the coronavirus outbreak, it’s important to do so safely and responsibly, so having an insurance policy that covers travel disruption and medical provision is crucial.