Green air travel; holiday travel tips; Maine’s coastline; hiking Lebanon
|  | Friday, November 5, 2021 | | | | |
| In today’s newsletter: making air travel green; easing the stress of holiday travel; why scientists are studying Maine … and the complex history of a fall rite of passage | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY BRUNO ARBESU, REA/REDUX | |
| By George Stone, TRAVEL Executive Editor
For travelers, the pandemic has forced the adoption of technologies that might have been baffling—or even irritating—had it not been for the logic that makes them so … well, logical. Some of these inventions are now so common (I’m looking at you, non-woven polypropylene N95 masks) it’s amazing they were once as novel as SARS-CoV-2 used to be.
“These days it’s hard to be out in the world without encountering QR-coded menus or supplying digital vaccine passports,” writes Jackie Snow in our story about pandemic tech innovations that will change travel forever. Indeed, in the 20 months since the COVID-19 pandemic began, many things have gone from futuristic to familiar.
I don’t know if it’s ever cathartic for shopkeepers to aim temperature guns at their customers, but they certainly command respect when they do. Those gadgets are pedestrian compared to crowd-control technology like Singapore’s roaming, vaguely terrifying robots that announce people are too close together. (Pictured above, another robot, more of a guide, at Seoul’s Incheon International Airport.)
“As throngs of travelers return to popular destinations, similar methods and devices may be implemented to prevent overtourism,” Snow writes. “But while novel interventions such as real-time translation devices and facial recognition passport control may make travel safer and more efficient, there are downsides, including concerns about privacy, data security, and biased technology.”
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 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY NELSON ALMEIDA, AFP/GETTY IMAGES | |
| Our story spotlights the growing application of augmented reality and virtual reality to create online exhibits and experiences; efforts to use UV-C light (pictured above) to halt viral spread at indoor public spaces including airports and planes; and amped-up contract-tracing tools for infectious disease prevention and control.
We are not out of the woods yet—the World Health Organization has just warned that spiraling infections place Europe again at the epicenter of the pandemic. But since we somehow managed to embrace elbow bumps, social distancing, and the phrase “the new normal,” surely we can learn to love rolling robots at train stations and airports. The future depends on it.
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| Adiós, queen of the skies: That’s how the Boeing 747 was known after the wide-body jumbo jet began commercial flights in 1970. But nearly all airlines have decided to discontinue using their four-engine Boeing 747s in favor of more fuel-efficient, newer generation two-engine planes, National Geographic reports. Photographer Jassen Todorov captured one 747 being taken apart at the Southern California Logistics airport. Todorov made the image while flying his single-engine Piper Warrior.
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 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY MAYNARD OWEN WILLIAMS, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION | | A complex history: In many parts of the country, fall farm visits to pick produce are a rite of passage. But such pick-your-own trips are part of a history that stretches from the depths of the Great Depression and illustrates how farmers harvested fortune from hardship, Nat Geo reports. (Pictured above, female workers under a cherry tree at an orchard near Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, in summer 1933.)
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| Brace yourself: Cancellations and delays due to labor shortages have made things more stressful at airports. Adding to the frustration: Multiple airlines have sold more tickets than people they can accommodate. Traveling over the holidays? Plan ahead and plan early, the Wall Street Journal advises.
Or relax: Thailand, Australia, and Israel relaxed their border restrictions for the first time in 18 months as South Korea opened some public spaces. Vaccinated travelers from areas deemed “low risk,” including the United States, China, and most of Europe, are allowed into tourism-dependent Thailand again, a change that represents a “test” for tourism, Forbes reports.
Hiking Lebanon: A 15-year civil war kept people from moving freely about Lebanon, leaving hikers dependent on experienced guides to help navigate poorly marked trails and undetonated landmines. Now the Lebanon Mountain Trail is designed to create a new hiking culture that aims to teach local and international hikers about the country’s diverse landscapes while also educating the country’s often-fragmented sects about each other, BBC reports.
We asked, you responded: In last week's newsletter, we featured a 70-year-old woman's birthday climb up Yosemite's El Capitan and asked if you'd surprised others—or yourself—by doing something outside your comfort zone. The replies have been heartening. Wrote reader Claire Hill, who impulsively went skydiving in Arizona after turning 69: “I had never contemplated doing such a thing, I just felt compelled to do it. I’m so glad I did!” | | | |
PAID CONTENT FOR LINDBLAD EXPEDITIONS | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH FROM LINDBLAD EXPEDITIONS | | | Voyage to the Galápagos Islands | | Join naturalists, undersea specialists, and photo instructors on an extraordinary expedition to the Galápagos Islands to understand what makes this otherworldly archipelago so spectacular. | | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY JOE MAMER, ALAMY | | Become a naturalist: Acadia National Park’s vibrant intertidal zone (pictured above) may be in danger. Organisms in that ecosystem are dependent on wild rockweed, a commercially harvested seaweed. Due to climate change and potential overharvesting, scientists are researching if these threats could adversely affect the algae’s capacity to sustain essential tidal ecosystems, Nat Geo reports.
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| This newsletter has been curated and edited by David Beard, Jen Tse, and Monica Williams. We’d love to hear from you at david.beard@natgeo.com. | | | |
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