United Airlines has released an interactive tool called a Destination Travel Guide to help you gauge and prepare for travel restrictions at your destination.
Destination Travel Guide From United
Now available on united.com, the Destination Travel Guide provides a color-coded map to highlight if a destination is closed, partially open, or fully open for travel. It will also note if any tests or self-quarantining is required for travel.
The guide is currently highlights limited to U.S. states, but will expand to include all international destinations that United serves in the “coming weeks.” The tool is straightforward. You can click on an individual state on the color-coded map to view local regulations and travel guidances. There is also the option to filter the map by state to view specific information on each destination, including:
- Medical certificate needed (such as negative COVID test)
- Non-essential shops open
- Tourism accommodation open
- Restaurants open
- Bars and cafes open
- Museum and heritage sites open
- Mask in public required
- Physical distancing required
For example, here’s California:
You can check out the new tool here. What is “with limitations” you might ask? In this particular case, it means outdoor but not indoor dining is available. You won’t find that information in this tool, but each state listing has a link to health agencies within the state.
CONCLUSION
This is a great concept and will be particularly helpful once international destinations are added. I’m still unclear if places like Greece or Portugal are allowing U.S. citizens and have no idea about many countries in Latin America and Asia without googling each one and finding conflicting information. Hopefully, these maps will be moot sooner rather than later…
This would have been helpful when you went to Chicago and wasn’t aware of the quarantine law. I think it’s smart that airlines are proactively communicating this information to customers, so that ignorance of the law isn’t used as an excuse.
Not sure if you’ve already shared this for international travel, or whether it’s even helpful, but IATA publishes this country map that contains some possibly useful travel info:
https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/world.php
Hey Matt,
Do you plan on returning to Germany anytime soon? Since your wife is a citizen I know you’d be allowed to accompany her without restriction. A trip report on a transatlantic flight would be cool to see.
I’d love to, but we are both so busy right now and we were unable to obtain a US passport for our daughter in time for the summer. In fact, she’ll have her German passport before her U.S. passport, which is fine for getting into Germany but not great for getting home.
I definitely understand that hassle. My son has German and US citizenship and that was enough paperwork with all the official translations and dealing with the Standesamt of my hometown. We’re going back to Austria to ski and see my family for Christmas before heading to Berlin/Potsdam to visit my wife’s family. I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks for the reply
Matthew, you should be able to travel to Greece and Portugal with your wife, but regular Americans are still not welcome. The European Commission announced a new plan today — intended for Europeans traveling between Schengen and EU countries — dividing Europe into green/orange/red/grey countries in order to rationalize travel restrictions — quarantine and testing — in the Schengen Area and ensure that all EU citizens can travel to all EU countries. The Commission says they would prefer travelers from higher-risk countries be asked to take a test rather than complete a quarantine — in other words, very sensible, and the opposite of the chaos we have in the U.S. where every state/city has its own quarantine/test policy and its own metrics for determining who must submit to quarantine/testing. It’s sad that airlines have to do what the federal government should be doing, but here we are…
I love that the Florida info on United’s page still lists a quarantine policy for tri-state area visitors. Florida should really eliminate that policy since it’s not being enforced, but I suspect it’s just “reciprocity” at this point. So absurd. Of course, Cuomo’s policy is also absurd.