Travel To Iceland & Be Transported To A World Without Covid-19
It has been a crazy few months in the United States and around the world. It’s hard to remember a time before the whole Covid-19 pandemic that wreaked havoc on the economy and our everyday lives.
But what if you could go back to those good carefree times? Well Iceland offers just that. People are out and about without worries. Restaurants are full and all the natural tourist attractions are as attractive as ever, and even better than usual right now. There are no crowds of foreigners.
Just a couple of days ago, Iceland celebrated its annual national day, and street were buzzing, CNN reports. No face masks or social distancing.
Iceland Reopened
Iceland was hit by the pandemic as many other countries. But they implemented a rigorous regime of tracking and tracing early on. Now the coronavirus has more or less been eliminated, and the country opened up its borders on June 15.
The pandemic hit its peak back in March in Iceland, while it was just getting started in many other countries. Since mid April there have been only a handful of cases. In total Iceland has 1,819 confirmed cases and 10 deaths. That’s about 3 deaths per 100K population, compared to 36 in the US or 124 in San Marino, which is the highest in the world.
Visiting Iceland
While the country has reopened, they are taking measures to stop the coronavirus from spreading again. Before entering Iceland, travelers must wear a mask on flights and within the arrival halls of Keflavik Airport.
Nose and throat swabs are performed to check for possible Covid-19 carriers. This is an eerie process. This can be an unsettling experience as people dressed in full medical protective gear complete the process in plastic cubicles. Results take a few hours and those who test positive will have to quarantine for 14 days.
And it is not free either. Visitors outside of Europe’s Schengen Zone, will have to pay $114 once they are allowed to visit, starting from July 1st. But some flights are operating already.
If you are looking to visit, Icelandair flies a limited number of direct flights to Reykjavík from Boston and it hopes to expand its international offerings as other countries start reopening.
Conclusion
Let us know if Iceland is in your travel list starting from July. Will the current pandemic status or testing procedures affect the way your travel from now on?
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Interesting, but a less invasive and quicker test will attract more visitors
That would be great but who going to develop that test? In a perfect world a no touch thermal scanner that could provide COVID results would be amazing, surely all airports would jump on that but, for now the swab test is the best and fastest globally.
More interesting is who will pay for the test? If it free for all thousands of arriving OR travelers responsible by cash/ travel insurance? If its free I’m sure many would travel just so they can be tested as it can still be expensive and hard to request a test within the USA.
In addition for those that do test positive what happens to them? Are they places in government quarantine (who expense boarding & meals) could be months until they test negative and free to go or are they put back on to the plane and sent home while they are confirmed sick now infecting more people as they travel back home? Maybe those important details are within the fine print of the visitor advertisement.
Sorry, you’re mentioning traveling in July, missed that.
Iceland is not yet open to U.S. tourists from what I understand.
You say a direct flight from Boston to Iceland. Direct means only one doesn’t have to transfer planes to get to the destination. Let’s be more precise, please.
I’d like to know if the flight is non stop. Is it?
@Robert here you go some help try the link to google flights:
https://www.google.com/flights/
Type in BOS & KEF and dates your interested in and you can learn about all of the direct &/or non-stop flight options you want.
Great it reminds me of many islands within the Pacific and living in Hawaii a worlds without tourist and lowest COVID #’s. What a blessing it has been to have such a tourist break. Everything has reopened without the crowds of foreigners. If we wanted to be 100% COVID free could always jump over to island of Molokai or Lanai. Although it has been wonderful not being overrun by tourist it won’t last forever starting in Aug Hawaii may reopen for tourist with limited flights and most likely swabbing passengers for a negative COVID test upon arrival just as iceland is doing.