Could long-haul adventures finally be back on the agenda?

Even the jet lag would feel magical after the barrier to travel from Covid restrictions, writes Lucy Thackray

The timing of long-haul reopenings such as Japan, Samoa and Canada feels right (AP)

For a while this summer, it seemed like a new country was scrapping its Covid travel rules every day. Down the barriers went like dominos, led by Iceland, Norway, Ireland and the Dominican Republic, dozens of nations from February to July. You could almost hear the cheer rippling like a Mexican wave as travel fans mentally crossed off the extra admin and confusion they’d be spared on their next holiday. Now, momentum has slowed, with most of Europe, Scandinavia, the Americas and more open to all, test and quarantine free.

This week, I did a count of how many countries still had some sort of Covid rules in place ‒ a test before travel, say, or an insistence on proof of vaccination ‒ and despite being pretty clued up on these things, I was stunned at how many there still are. I had in my mind eight places, or 12 perhaps, hanging on to complex rules to shield them from tourists. Without reading ahead, would you know how many?

It was 31. Not counting places like Russia and Iran, of course, where Britons simply cannot go, and including some smaller or far-flung territories such as the Cook Islands and Papua New Guinea. But 31! The truth is that travel beyond Europe, and particularly into Asia, is only just beginning to open up again. On 11 October Japan, one of my personal favourites, will finally swing open its doors to individual tourists after two-and-a-half years, having restricted Brits to approved, operator-organised tours since June. Those with a booster jab may visit without taking a test.

While it’s surprising that so many locations still have rules to untangle, the timing of long-haul reopenings such as Japan, Samoa and Canada feels right. Chatting to readers about their travel experiences this year, many are still trepidatious about ambitious trips to distant continents.

Not only have we feared getting stuck somewhere ‒ or racking up extra costs should a Covid rule revert at the last moment ‒ but many people are still reeling from negative short-haul experiences this summer.

Airlines and airports have floundered and flailed, trying to offer the “normal” holiday experience amid staff shortages, scaling up after mass redundancies, and working around Covid-absence policies. After months of customer misery, they still haven’t quite nailed it. Even as someone whose job it is to zip around the globe, I haven’t ventured farther than New York in 2022.

But following the World Health Organisation’s announcement that the end of the pandemic is “in sight”, it feels as though something is in the air ‒ a long-distance, two-week, real-deal adventure somewhere half a world away.

At this week’s Travel Media Awards, where The Independent’s travel section won big, dozens of prolific writers and editors seemed abuzz with the prospect of returning to Japan, to Hong Kong, to Canada’s wild Yukon territory or New Zealand’s peaceful peaks.

To many of us, it seems surreal that we ever used to step onto a flight after dinner, sleep through until breakfast and then disembark to a new day, a new continent, a new culture. For my part, I can’t wait. Even the jet lag will feel magical.

Yours,

Lucy Thackray

Deputy travel editor