SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

With T&T’s bor­ders set to re­open on Ju­ly 17, many cit­i­zens are hope­ful that they will be able to trav­el soon.

But with the COVID-19 virus af­fect­ing the en­tire world, there are still many re­stric­tions for trav­el­ling.

Ac­cord­ing to the trav­el and pho­tog­ra­phy web­site, Cap­ture the At­las, there are cur­rent­ly 123 coun­tries that have opened their bor­ders to tourism. How­ev­er, from that list, there are on­ly 17 coun­tries that have no re­stric­tions for en­try and 88 coun­tries where you can trav­el with­out hav­ing to quar­an­tine.

But if you are plan­ning a trip, most trav­el gu­rus are rec­om­mend­ing that you pur­chase trav­el in­sur­ance, which can cov­er the cost of quar­an­tine and PCR test­ing if you need it.

Many coun­tries open to tourism al­so man­date trav­ellers to have in­sur­ance be­fore they can vis­it.

On the trav­el in­sur­ance web­site, World No­mads, cov­er­age for a five-day trip to the Ba­hamas from Trinidad and To­ba­go was quot­ed at a cost of US $25 for a stan­dard plan, which cov­ers hos­pi­tal­i­sa­tions, med­ica­tion and oth­er emer­gen­cies and US $27.50 for an ‘Ex­plor­er Plan’ base pol­i­cy.

The ex­plor­er plan gives the con­sumer un­lim­it­ed cov­er­age for over­seas med­ical ex­pens­es that arise dur­ing a trip. There are al­so lo­cal in­sur­ance com­pa­nies that pro­vide trav­el in­sur­ance.

Among the coun­tries with no re­stric­tions to vis­it are the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, Brazil, Cos­ta Ri­ca, Greece and Mex­i­co (see box for the full list.)

Burk­i­na Fa­so is an­oth­er coun­try open for tourism with­out re­stric­tions by coun­try but in­com­ing trav­ellers must present a neg­a­tive PCR COVID-19 test. If a test is not pre­sent­ed, trav­ellers will have to pay for their own test­ing at the air­port and iso­late for two weeks.

Most of the coun­tries on the list, even in the ab­sence of re­stric­tions, re­quire a neg­a­tive PCR test to be done up to 72 hours be­fore en­try. In Ghana, an­oth­er of the places you can vis­it when the bor­ders are open, trav­ellers need to present a neg­a­tive PCR test and al­so be test­ed at the air­port up­on ar­rival, at a cost of US $150. Ghana’s no-quar­an­tine pol­i­cy is de­pen­dent on a neg­a­tive test done at the air­port.

It is ad­vis­able to seek in­for­ma­tion on a coun­try’s of­fi­cial gov­ern­ment web­site be­fore book­ing your trip to see the full list of re­stric­tions and re­quire­ments be­fore you trav­el.

Many coun­tries re­quire in­com­ing trav­ellers to use their of­fi­cial health ap­pli­ca­tions to log any symp­toms they may de­vel­op af­ter en­try and have dif­fer­ent pro­to­cols to treat with those who have been ful­ly vac­ci­nat­ed against the COVID-19 virus. 

Coun­tries with no trav­el re­stric­tions: 

Al­ba­nia
Brazil
Bul­gar­ia
Cos­ta Ri­ca
Croa­t­ia
Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic
Greece
Lux­em­bourg
Mex­i­co

Mon­tene­gro
North Mace­do­nia
Poland
Swe­den
Tan­za­nia
Turkey
Ukraine

Coun­tries with no quar­an­tine re­quire­ments:

Al­ba­nia
An­dor­ra
An­tigua And Bar­bu­da
Aru­ba
Aus­tria
Ba­hamas
Be­lize
Bermu­da
Bosnia And Herze­gov­ina
Botswana
Brazil
Bul­gar­ia
Burk­i­na Fa­so
Cabo Verde
Colom­bia
Cos­ta Ri­ca
Croa­t­ia
Cu­raçao
Cyprus
De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Re­pub­lic of The Con­go
Den­mark
Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic
Ecuador
 Egypt
El Sal­vador
France
French Poly­ne­sia
Gam­bia
Ghana

Greece
Grena­da
Guade­loupe
Guatemala
Guyana
Hon­duras
Iran
Iraq
Ja­maica
Jor­dan
Kenya
Koso­vo
Lebanon
Lithua­nia
Lux­em­bourg
Malawi
Mal­dives
Mali
Mal­ta
Mau­ri­ta­nia
Mex­i­co
Mon­tene­gro
Mo­roc­co
Namib­ia
Nicaragua
North Mace­do­nia
Pak­istan
Pana­ma
Pe­ru
Poland
Por­tu­gal
Puer­to Ri­co
Re­pub­lic Of The Con­go
Rwan­da
Rus­sia

Saint Barthéle­my
Saint Lu­cia
Ser­bia
Sey­chelles
Sier­ra Leone
Sint Maarten (Dutch Part)
Slo­va­kia
Slove­nia
So­ma­lia
South Africa
Spain
Su­dan
Swe­den
Tan­za­nia
To­go
Turkey
Turks And Caicos Is­lands
Ugan­da
Ukraine
Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates
Uzbek­istan
Vat­i­can City
Vir­gin Is­lands (U.S.)
Zam­bia

coun­tries open for tourism

Al­ba­nia
An­dor­ra
An­guil­la
An­tigua And Bar­bu­da
Ar­me­nia
Aru­ba
Aus­tria
Ba­hamas
Bangladesh
Bar­ba­dos
Be­larus
Bel­gium
Be­lize
Bermu­da
Bo­livia
Bosnia And Herze­gov­ina
Botswana
Brazil
Bul­gar­ia
Burk­i­na Fa­so
Cabo Verde
Cen­tral African Re­pub­lic
Chad
Chile
Colom­bia
Cos­ta Ri­ca
Croa­t­ia
Cu­ba
Cu­raçao
Cyprus
De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Re­pub­lic Of The Con­go
Den­mark
Do­mini­ca
Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic
Ecuador
Egypt
El Sal­vador
Es­to­nia
Ethiopia
France
French Poly­ne­sia
Gabon
Gam­bia
Ger­many
Ghana
Greece
Grena­da
Guade­loupe
Guatemala
Guyana
Haiti
Hon­duras
Ice­land
Iran
Iraq
Ire­land
Italy
Ja­maica
Jor­dan
Kenya
Koso­vo
Latvia
Lebanon
Liberia
Lithua­nia
Lux­em­bourg
Malawi
Mal­dives
Mali
Mal­ta
Mau­ri­ta­nia
Mau­ri­tius
Mex­i­co
Mon­tene­gro
Mo­roc­co
Namib­ia
Nether­lands
Nicaragua
Nige­ria
North Mace­do­nia
Nor­way
Pak­istan
Pana­ma
Pe­ru
Poland
Por­tu­gal
Puer­to Ri­co
Re­pub­lic Of The Con­go
Ro­ma­nia
Rus­sia
Rwan­da
Saint Barthéle­my
Saint Kitts And Nevis
Saint Lu­cia
Saint Vin­cent And The Grenadines
Ser­bia
Sey­chelles
Sier­ra Leone
Sint Maarten (Dutch Part)
Slo­va­kia
Slove­nia
So­ma­lia
South Africa
Spain
Su­dan
Swe­den
Switzer­land
Tan­za­nia
Thai­land
To­go
Tunisia
Turkey
Turks And Caicos Is­lands
Ugan­da
Ukraine
Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates
Unit­ed King­dom
Unit­ed States Of Amer­i­ca
Uzbek­istan
Vat­i­can
Vir­gin Is­lands (U.S.)
Zam­bia
Zim­bab­we