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An Italy-based writer on what travelers need to know and whether Italy really is ready to relax its borders.

After a closure of more than six months, the gardens that inspired Monet’s world-famous paintings of water lilies are now once again welcoming visitors.

Opening to schoolchildren this week, the show at the Dutch national museum will not open to the general public until the local COVID lockdown eases further, possibly in June.

The American Hotel & Lodging Association doesn’t think so and has issued new guidelines to hotels in response to the CDC’s latest mask guidance.

Author Daniel Loedel on grappling with the past, writing his debut novel “Hades, Argentina,” and making sense of the joy and sadness woven into life in Buenos Aires.

International tourists are exempt from lockdown restrictions that order most Turks to stay home on weeknights and weekends.

In season two of “Travel Tales by AFAR,” we’re featuring stories from some of our favorite people: our readers.

The luxury camping company officially is welcoming guests to its first location in Maine and third in Utah now.

Driven deeper into debt by the pandemic and highly dependent on tourism revenues, several Mediterranean countries are not waiting for the EU to roll out its travel pass system before reopening.

Why we love it: An exclusive oasis, sheltered from the crowds that have descended on Iceland

The Highlights:
- Access to a new, private area of the Blue Lagoon reserved just for hotel and spa guests
- Rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows and lagoon views
- Custom toiletries made with geothermal seawater

The Review:
As Iceland’s popularity exploded over the last decade, the Blue Lagoon gained a bad rap for being a crowded tourist trap. However, the spring 2018 opening of The Retreat at the Blue Lagoon transformed a corner of the UNESCO-recognized Reykjanes Peninsula from a tourist attraction into an intimate hideaway, perfect for those who want to experience the mineral-rich waters in a cell phone–free private lagoon away from the selfie stick–wielding crowds next door.

It’s easy to spend the entire day here floating in the three newly created geothermal pools located within 800-year-old lava rock (don’t miss the unusual—yet deeply relaxing—underwater massage), but when you eventually have to go indoors, floor-to-ceiling windows allow the bright blue waters and the surrounding volcanic landscape to take center stage. Minimalistic-yet-cozy communal spaces, designed by Basalt Architects and Milan-based Design Group Italia (DGI), are equally pleasing to the eye, especially the living room–like lobby, which is decorated with oversized leather chairs and a 1,600-piece collection of ceramics from the Icelandic Museum of Design & Applied Art. Sixty-two guest rooms—all with deep stand-alone tubs and rain showers—look onto the lagoon or the surrounding lava fields (though don’t try swimming in this part, as it’s been intentionally left unheated so that you can enjoy the view with complete privacy). Before you check out, follow our lead and swipe the toiletries made with geothermal seawater sourced from the on-site volcanic aquifers.

When hunger strikes, guests can enjoy casual, healthy meals at the spa restaurant, or head upstairs to Moss for a seven-course meal at the chef’s table, hewn from lava rock quarried on site. It’ll likely still be light outside when dinner is over, so change into your swimsuit for a dip in the lagoon, which stays open until midnight for hotel guests (in winter, you might even catch the northern lights). After a breakfast of Icelandic skyr and house-made gravlax, venture farther afield to the nearby town of Grindavik to ride an ATV through the volcanic landscape. Retreat hosts can also take guests on guided hikes up the dormant volcano behind the property.

Already sold out in San Francisco, the show will open in Atlanta and Houston later in 2021.

Spend your days watching whales, strolling on the sand, and sipping local wines on the Central Coast.

Italy’s Foreign Affairs Minister Luigi Di Maio said the goal is for quarantine-free travel from the United States to begin next month.

Just across the Ashley River from the Charleston Peninsula, Charles Towne Landing marks the site of the forerunner to Charleston, Charles Towne. Settlers from Barbados founded the town in 1670, though after ten years—and a series of attacks by French, Spanish, Native Americans and pirates—they wisely decided to move to the easier-to-defend Charleston peninsula and start over. A recreation of a 17th-century trip, the Adventure, and replica of a colonial home provide insights into life in the earliest years of colonial America.