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As U.S. Reopening Approaches, Travelers Take Their Marks

The end of the U.S. ban on international visitors has kicked off a surge in travel both foreign and domestic. Here’s what to expect for the holiday season and beyond.

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By Concepción de León

When the Biden administration announced that vaccinated foreign travelers would be allowed to enter the United States starting Nov. 8, it was as though a starting gun had been fired.

Skyscanner , a travel booking site, saw an 800 percent spike in bookings the day after the announcement. In the week after the administration confirmed the date travelers could arrive, Expedia , the online booking site, saw a 28 percent increase in searches for U.S. hotels from Britain and a 24 percent increase from France.

And not only international tourism was given a boost. Experts said that the U.S. reopening signaled to American travelers that they could leave their homes this coming holiday season , too. Searches for outbound international travel on the booking application Hopper, for instance, have increased by 24 percent since the announcement, the highest uptick since the spring.

“There’s just something about the fact that we’re lifting our borders that changes the perception of travel right now and makes people much more comfortable and confident in doing so,” said Misty Belles, a spokeswoman for Virtuoso , a network of luxury travel agencies and advisers.

Though the travel industry continues to face staffing and regulation challenges, the process of traveling is becoming smoother. Coronavirus tests are easier to book, and the process for checking documents at airports has been streamlined. But most important, travelers are becoming accustomed to the uncertainty, planning for rather than dreading it. If you’re traveling this holiday season, here’s what to expect.

Start planning now.

Traveling during the pandemic requires both long- and short-term planning to secure flights and accommodations while leaving room for last-minute changes in regulations, flight schedules or coronavirus infection rates.

Travelers are either “booking for tomorrow or they’re booking for next year,” Ms. Belles said, adding that many travelers “want to get away, but they’re kind of pushing it to the last minute just to make sure nothing changes.”

Waiting can be expensive, as prices have increased across the industry and may continue to do so as international travel rebounds, Ms. Belles said. Travel agents also say that many top resorts, such as Las Ventanas al Paraiso in Los Cabos, Mexico; the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai in Hawaii; and The Breakers in Palm Beach, Fla., are booked for the holiday season, and that those who wait, particularly families with children, will have a smaller selection of places to stay. The app Hopper estimated that domestic airfare over Christmas would likely match 2019 prices, while international airfare is currently cheaper but likely to increase by December.

Still, Willis Orlando, a travel expert at Scott’s Cheap Flights , a service that tracks and emails flight deals to subscribers, said that travelers have an opportunity to snag low fares now, particularly on international flights, as airlines continue to scramble to match supply with demand, which has fluctuated according to travelers’ sentiments about the virus or announcements of country reopenings.

“It’s not going to be long-lived,” Mr. Orlando said. “I think once the rest of the world opens up, those planes will get back to flying the old high-demand routes, but for now, it’s a wonderful opportunity.”

Be prepared to adapt.

Ariel Vinson, 31, a digital content manager for a consumer packaged goods company in San Diego, went to Alaska at the beginning of October. It was her second trip there this year, and she is contemplating moving there.

But her trip was extended when she got Covid-19 a week in. She ended up having to stay an additional week, before flying home on Oct. 24.

“That was a wake-up call for me,” she said. “I don’t think it’s going to stop me from traveling, but I think it’ll make me think about my behaviors during travel,” such as masking outdoors or being more cautious when interacting with strangers, which she had become more comfortable with since getting vaccinated this spring.

Sandra Torres, 32, who manages vendors at a biotech start-up in the Chicago area, said that the couple of times she had traveled by air this year, “the flights themselves were changed multiple times.” A coming November trip to Hawaii, booked in the spring, was changed a month out, with one leg ultimately canceled. She had to rebook with another airline. A planned birthday trip to Tokyo, in February 2022, was recently canceled by the airline.

“It does make it harder to plan things,” Ms. Torres said. “I’ve learned to be more flexible, to be more open. Even if you book things ahead of time, you might still have to change them.”

She added that she’s learned to “have more of a cushion, both financially and just around logistics and departure times.”

You may experience limited services.

The experience of travel continues to be affected by staffing and other challenges. Your hotel’s restaurant may be closed, for instance, and daily room cleaning is only available upon request in many places.

“That part of the business requires a lot more staffing than just the standard hotel operations,” Chip Rogers, the president of the American Hotel & Lodging Association , said of hotel restaurants. “That’s where hotels are having to cut back, because they just don’t have enough people.”

Rental cars remain in short supply, and prices are high, in some cases double or triple prepandemic rates. Many concessions and businesses in airports are still closed, and airlines have canceled hundreds of flights in the last several months, including recent cancellations by Southwest Airlines and American Airlines .

As a result, customer satisfaction has dropped in both the rental car and airport industries, according to recent studies by the data and analytics firm J.D. Power.

Martina Johnson, 35, and her husband, Leslie, 40, who work in marketing and digital advertising in the greater New York City area and document their travels on social media , are planning to spend a couple of weeks visiting family in the Midwest leading up to Thanksgiving .

But they decided to drive there rather than rent a car, because the prices were prohibitive. In the past, Ms. Johnson said, they paid $50 to $75 for a weekend car rental, while the price now would be closer to $300. For two weeks, the price would have been nearly $2,000.

“The price of rental cars is ridiculous,” she said. “We want the flexibility without worrying about the cost.”

Ski and beach vacations are most popular.

People are still gravitating to outdoor travel, with the most popular destinations being domestic beach locations or the Caribbean and Mexico.

Megan Moncrief, the chief marketing officer for Squaremouth , a travel insurance company, said that eight of the company’s 10 most popular international destinations were Caribbean countries.

“The Dominican Republic, Turks & Caicos and the U.S. Virgin Islands had never been top destinations during the holiday season, but they are this year,” she said, because those places have largely stayed open when other countries closed their borders.

Ski destinations are also seeing increased interest, said Natalia Sutin, the vice president of revenue management at Vacasa , a vacation rental management company.

“People look for a festive atmosphere, and guests are looking to make up for ski trips from last year,” Ms. Sutin said. In a recent Vacasa survey, 61 percent of respondents said they were replanning a ski trip that they had intended to take last year but canceled.

Demand for ski destinations on Vrbo , a vacation rental company, is also up more than 40 percent this winter compared to the same period in 2019 , and up 31 percent compared to 2020.

Victoria Neff, a 34-year-old assistant director at an education and technology nonprofit in Boston, is spending Christmas in Aspen, Colo. She said she booked her flight and rental car ahead of time because she “was worried about availability” and knew demand would be high.

Cities are preparing to welcome international travelers.

The resumption of international travel to the U.S. on Nov. 8 is particularly important for cities, which derive significant revenue from and are a main attraction for foreign visitors.

“It’s so desperately needed in your gateway markets like New York, San Francisco, Boston, Washington, D.C.,” said Mr. Rogers of the American Hotel & Lodging Association. “Those are markets that really depend on international travel, and those are also the same markets that have been hurt so bad during the pandemic.”

While only 3 percent of hotel bookings nationally come from international travelers, they account for 15 percent of hotel revenue because they stay longer and spend more money.

In Los Angeles, where international travelers were a quarter of overnight visitors and made up 50 percent of overall spending in 2019, bookings and search interest spiked after the reopening was announced, said Adam Burke, the president of the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board.

“We’re now seeing an acceleration of the recovery process,” he said. Tourism Economics , a global travel data company, is projecting 1 million more visitors to Los Angeles by the end of the year and an additional $1 billion in revenue from international travelers.

British Airways and its vacation-booking arm, British Airways Holidays, said that the desire to see friends and family for the holidays was driving a surge in searches for destinations in the United States, particularly in New York, Miami, Los Angeles and Chicago. Searches for Thanksgiving were up 2,000 percent this week over the previous week, the company said in an email, and searches for the days before Christmas were up 900 percent.

For domestic travelers, visiting the country’s urban centers could be cheaper than in the past. Expedia found that accommodations in cities are 10 to 35 percent cheaper than in 2019.

Parents are becoming more comfortable traveling with children.

The survey by Vacasa, the vacation rental management company, found that parents with children under 5 were more likely to say they were planning travel than non-parents, 65 percent compared to 41 percent. And road trips continue to be popular, with 72 percent of travelers saying that they will drive to their destinations.

“We do see that family travel is the trend this year,” said Ms. Sutin of Vacasa. “Most people are traveling with their spouse, children or immediate family.”

Katie Cherico, a travel adviser for In the Know Experiences , a New York City-based agency, said that among her clients, families’ decisions around travel depend on their children’s ages. Those with children under 12, who until recently have not been eligible for vaccination, have been sticking to domestic or nearby resort destinations, like Puerto Rico, while those with vaccinated children 12 and over feel more comfortable traveling internationally. Immunization with the Pfizer vaccine was approved for children 5 to 11 by the Food and Drug Administration on Friday and, if approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, may be rolled out as early as this week. That is likely to boost traveler confidence just as the adult vaccine did in the spring.

Stephen Scott, a Chicago-based travel adviser for Protravel International , added that cruises remain difficult for families with children under 12, because many cruise lines require that passengers be vaccinated and do not make exceptions for children. But these restrictions may be eased on Jan. 15, when the industry will no longer be required to follow federal Covid-19 rules, the C.D.C. said in a statement.

Holiday travel behaviors are shifting.

Covid-19 safety concerns are still top of mind for travelers, keeping them close to home or preventing them from staying with relatives. While most people traveling for Thanksgiving, for example, are staying with family this year, the number is still lower than in 2019, dropping to 73 percent from 83 percent, according to a recent survey by the market research company Morning Consult . Only 57 percent of people stayed with family in 2020, suggesting fears surrounding Covid-19 are lessening but still present.

Lindsey Roeschke, the firm’s travel and hospitality analyst, said that more than a quarter of survey respondents intended to stay masked during Thanksgiving, and that they may be choosing not to stay with family to minimize the need for masking. She added that millennial parents, the group most likely to have young, unvaccinated children, planned to spend more on accommodation than other groups.

Vaccination rates could also be affecting people’s decisions to stay with or travel to visit family. In a survey by The Vacationer , an online resource for travelers, one in three Americans said they were unwilling to celebrate the holidays with people who had not been vaccinated.

Ms. Torres, the traveler who has had to deal with changing plans, said her family members’ vaccination status was part of the reason she decided to stay home in Chicago for the holidays. She typically would have taken a trip to Mexico or El Salvador to visit relatives over Christmas and New Year’s, but because of a lack of vaccine accessibility in those countries, several family members have not been fully vaccinated, and she decided not to risk it.

The record number of pet adoptions during the pandemic is also influencing how people are traveling. Pet-friendliness was the top search priority for travelers in a new survey of 1,000 Americans across the U.S. by the analytics company Zeta Global .

“People are more interested in pet-friendly hotels than they are in clean hotels,” said David Steinberg, the company’s chief executive. “It’s probably not even a metric that would’ve been on the radar two years ago.”

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram , Twitter and Facebook . And sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to receive expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places list for 2021 .

An earlier version of this article misstated the last name of a traveler spending the holidays in Aspen and the location of her employer. She is Victoria Neff, not Ness, and her company is located in Boston, not Concord, Mass. 

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Concepción de León is a travel reporter based in New York. More about Concepción de León

10 best beach towns in New Jersey named by Travel and Leisure. Is yours on the list?

There's something for everyone along the shores of New Jersey.

And it doesn't escape notice.

"The Garden State supplies 130 miles of beachfront real estate, from the top of Sandy Hook to the top of Cape May, Travel and Leisure recently wrote. "And while a certain MTV reality hit series may have depicted one particular — raucous — side of the Jersey Shore, that’s far from the whole picture. Just take it from the millions of families, couples and relaxation-seeking groups of pals who catch rays on the sandy beaches and hit the boardwalks each summer."

The travel magazine took to local experts to determine its list of New Jersey's 10 best beach towns. Check out how many of Monmouth and Ocean counties' towns made the cut.

Escape the crowds: Explore 9 unique small towns in New Jersey this summer

New Jersey's top beach towns

The list, according to Travel and Leisure, is:

• Cape May: "This storied coastal playground boasts an impressive concentration of Victorian architecture, beautiful beaches and ample attractions that make it a multigenerational family destination," Travel and Leisure wrote. It also points to the seaside promenade, trolley tours of the historic downtown, excellent shopping and restaurants.
• Ocean City: "Visitors flock to the wooden walkways for rides, mini golf, arcade games, classic crowd-pleasing eats — from hot dogs and burgers to fries and pizza — and sweet treats," Travel and Leisure says. Also highlighted are the shops along Asbury Avenue and Corson's Inlet State Park for hiking trails and wildlife spotting.
• Beach Haven: The travel magazine points out the plethora of outdoor activities available, like surfing, fishing and boating. It also points out the great restaurants for seafood and family friendly fun at Fantasy Island Amusement Park.
• Spring Lake: "While this storied coastal resort is past its Gilded Age heyday, that sense of grandeur and exclusivity remains with million-dollar mansions, well-groomed beaches and a lengthy boardwalk," says Travel and Leisure. It highlights the sweet treats at Hoffman’s Ice Cream.
• Stone Harbor: "Quiet and charming with a slower pace and nice family vibe, Stone Harbor, Avalon’s southern neighbor on Seven Mile Island, is very much a place to get away with the kids. However, that’s not to say couples won’t find plenty of appeal, too," the travel magazine says. It points out the beaches are rarely packed, and activities like bike riding and paddleboarding on the bay are available, and sweet treats are available at places like Springer’s Homemade Ice Cream and Douglass Candies.
• Asbury Park: "Back and better than ever, Asbury Park recently underwent a major revitalization that restored it to its former glory and even upped its cool factor," Travel and Leisure says. The sandy beaches, boardwalks, live music venues like the Wonder Bar, Stone Pony and Saint are noted for their legendary histories, while the pinball machines and games at Silverball Retro Arcade also get a shoutout.
• Avalon: "Situated on Seven Mile Island, which it shares with Stone Harbor to the south, this Cape May County borough feels like an upscale Jersey Shore vacation option with a sandy shoreline and well-heeled atmosphere," the magazine said. While the amusements are minimal, that plays into the vibes of the area, it says, while there’s still mini golf and ice cream available.
• Margate: A small-town atmosphere and laid-back feel are key to this town's appeal, according to Travel and Leisure. “Everyone seems to know each other — people have been going for generations,” ToursByLocals guide Maria Gorshin told the magazine. “Picture dads pushing big-wheeled wagons loaded up with sand toys, chairs, umbrellas and coolers full of snacks. Crews pack into Betty's Seafood Shack for the lobster rolls. The Margate Dairy Bar is the ultimate classic after-dinner gathering spot,” she adds.
• Point Pleasant Beach: "Families flock to Point Pleasant Beach in the summer for good old-fashioned fun in the sun," Travel and Leisure says. Draws include Jenkinson's Boardwalk with amusement rides, mini golf, arcade games and an aquarium, as well as wide, sandy beaches and great restaurants. It points to Hoffman's Ice Cream as the best way to end the day.
• Ocean Grove: "Anyone looking for a little R&R will enjoy peaceful Ocean Grove, a pint-sized dry town and summer resort. Known for its Victorian houses, sandy beach and booze ban, it’s a lovely place to bring the whole family," according to Travel and Leisure. The boardwalk is great for biking and strolling, with ice cream parlors and souvenir shops for all your beach needs.

State tourism site, college dumpster speak to new LGBTQ bigotry in Florida under DeSantis

Last year, Equality Florida made a bold move in issuing a travel advisory .

The LGBTQ civil rights group warned of “the risks posed to the health, safety and freedom of those considering short or long-term travel, or relocation to the state.”

Too dramatic? Hyped-up caution? It might have seemed so at the time, about this full-throated sounding of alarm.

“As an organization that has spent decades working to improve Florida’s reputation as a welcoming and inclusive place to live, work and visit, it is with great sadness that we must respond to those asking if it is safe to travel to Florida or remain in the state as the laws strip away basic rights and freedoms,” said Nadine Smith, Equality Florida’s executive director.

The travel warning came after the state passed laws that attacked diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the workplace, expanded the state’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law in schools, and blocked or restricted gender-affirming care of transgendered minors and adults in the state.

More on Florida's culture war: Palm Beach County numbers confirm it: Voter suppression is real

The Human Rights Campaign joined Equality Florida in supporting the travel ban with similar language, putting the blame on Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“Because of Ron DeSantis and his frenzied appeal to extremists, LGBTQ+ people in Florida are finding themselves in a state of emergency every single day,” said Kelley Robinson, the Human Rights Campaign president. “Since the day he took office, Governor DeSantis has weaponized his position to weave bigotry, hate, and discrimination into public law for his own political gain.”

But wait, I thought this was the “free state of Florida.” That’s what the new highway signs at the Georgia border say.

And DeSantis is quick to point out that Florida’s legislative efforts are born from an effort to protect children. Florida passed even more legislation this year, including an “anti-grooming” law that targets LGBTQ content and drag shows in the presence of minors by imposing felony-level crimes.

“Today’s anti-grooming legislation punishes those who seek to prey on children and rob them of their innocence,” DeSantis said on the day he signed that legislation. “Florida will continue to be the best state in the country to raise a family.”

See? It’s all about the kids. That’s the argument. 

But two things happened recently to indicate that Florida’s campaign against LGBTQ people goes beyond the protection-of-children argument.

It may have started out that way — or been deceptively packaged that way — but now it’s transitioning to its next stage: a full-fledged government-sanctioned bigotry against adults. 

If you don’t believe me, consider these two recent events. 

VisitFlorida.com, the state’s official taxpayer-supported, public-private partnership to promote tourism in the state, has for years had an “LGBTQ Travel” tab on its website as part of its marketing effort.

“There’s a sense of freedom to Florida’s beaches, the warm weather and the myriad activities — a draw for people of all orientations, but especially appealing to a gay community looking for a sense of belonging and acceptance,” the tourism organization’s page has read.

That tab welcoming LGBTQ visitors to the state doesn’t exist anymore. It was quietly deleted recently from the VisitFlorida’s site, as first noted by NBC News, which retrieved the deleted page from the Internet Archive.

“Whether you’re a couple seeking a romantic getaway or a modern family searching for kid-friendly fun, here are some LGBTQ-friendly destinations for you, throughout the Sunshine State,” it used to say on Florida’s official tourism site.

Now, Florida has pulled away that welcome mat.

Let that sink in. Before gays were reduced to useful political targets for DeSantis, the state of Florida used to reach out to them as members of “modern” families looking to vacation in a “kid-friendly” place. Notice the lack of gay-equals-predator formulation that now pervades Florida's messaging.

Gay tourism has been disappeared. Although, probably not as dramatically as the library of books at New College of Florida’s Gender and Diversity Center and books from the college’s main library on LGBTQ issues. 

Earlier this month, the mountain of books were all unceremoniously thrown out in a dumpster and carted off to a landfill shortly before students returned for a new semester at Florida’s smallest public university.

New College, the once-highly regarded liberal arts school that attracted some of the state’s brightest students, has been under attack by DeSantis.

He oversaw the purge of its faculty, the removal of its gender studies program, and the installation of outsiders hellbent on modeling the school after a right-wing Chrisitian college in Michigan. 

After students took photos of the dumpster full of discarded library books, school officials have said they will investigate the matter while the library director has been put on leave for apparently not following state rules regarding the handling of disposed materials.

But New College President Richard Corcoran, the highly-paid, under-qualified former Florida state legislator and education commissioner who was installed by DeSantis at the college, has already made excuses for trashing the library books. 

"The disposition of materials is a necessary process in libraries, and ensures that our collection remains relevant, up-to-date, and in good condition for our community's use," Corcoran said in a letter to the school’s faculty and students.

He said the photos that showed the dumpster of discarded books were less than ideal optics, but part of an “ongoing structural challenges alongside a standard librarian process.”

"Unfortunately, much of the coverage has been sensationalized, catering to the narratives of our critics," Corcoran said.

It’s not sensational to point out the obvious. College students are adults, not children.

Getting rid of the LGBTQ-themed books at New College, like getting rid of the welcoming tab on the state’s official tourism site, is evidence that the most harmful and pervasive grooming going on in Florida is the grooming of state-sanctioned bigotry.

Equality Florida had good reason to sound the alarm.

Frank Cerabino is a news columnist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the Gannett Newspapers chain.