5 things you need to know about stricter US testing requirements Here are answers to some of the most important questions being asked right now.

5 things you need to know about stricter US testing requirements Here are answers to some of the most important questions being asked right now.

How to determine your testing window for returning to the US Here's how to figure out when you should take your COVID-19 test.

How to determine your testing window for returning to the US Here's how to figure out when you should take your COVID-19 test. Read more

GAZMO debut album preview 79 views • Aug 24, 2021 • GAZMO, an original rock n roll band from Zipolite, Oaxaca, will release their debut album fall 2021. This is a preview of what's to come. One of 11 original songs off of the album, this one is called "in space too long". The video has some of the fliers from some of the shows we have played around Zipolite beach as well as a few of live photos. Enjoy! derek joe brockett - guitars, singing zand vargas - bass el irving - drums

 

#WavesoftheWorld #ASMR #Surfing 🔴 (ASMR) Waves of the World/Surfing🌊 - Hawaii, Indo, Maldives - WITH RELAXING OCEAN SOUNDS AND MUSIC

 

Travelers to the UK must take COVID test before departure in effort to stem omicron If you are planning to travel to the U.K., take note.

Travelers to the UK must take COVID test before departure in effort to stem omicron If you are planning to travel to the U.K., take note. Read more

Diynamic Radishow "Pool" Special X-Mas Edition by Diynamic Music

 

If you’ve never heard of the 24-hour rule, I suppose you’re forgiven. Browsing through the Federal Register isn’t your idea of a good time? But if you know just one Department of Transportation regulation, make it the 24-hour rule. It’s saved me thousands of dollars in airfare, and it can for you too.

If you’ve never heard of the 24-hour rule, I suppose you’re forgiven. Browsing through the Federal Register isn’t your idea of a good time? But if you know just one Department of Transportation regulation, make it the 24-hour rule. It’s saved me thousands of dollars in airfare, and it can for you too.  What is the 24-hour rule? The 24-hour rule is a federal regulation that automatically entitles you to a 24-hour grace period from the moment you purchase a flight during which you can cancel and get a full cash refund. It covers all flights to or from a US airport, even on a foreign airline, so long as: The flight is at least 7 days away It was booked directly with the airline, rather than an online travel agency (For pedants, the rule technically allows airlines to choose between offering a 24-hour hold or a 24-hour refund window, but en masse U.S. airlines have opted to offer the latter.) In addition to giving you clemency for any regrettable drunken flight bookings (not me I would never), the 24-hour rule can be especially helpful in two scenarios.  Scenario 1: Mistake Fares Let’s say we all get lucky and tomorrow morning a Mistake Fare—$169 roundtrip to Paris—pops up. You go to call your partner and coordinate the best date, but then you remember they’re in a meeting all day. Shoot! You could wait until they get home, but fares this good don’t tend to last long. Six hours if we’re lucky. Instead, the 24-hour rule comes in handy. Rather than risk the deal disappearing, you take your best guess about which week works best for their schedule and book it. If it turns out they’re busy that week, the 24-hour rule lets you cancel for a full cash refund. Plus if you want to be really extra, you could book two or three different weeks—one in April, one in May, one in June—and keep the one (or more?) that works best.  Scenario 2: Fare wars Every so often, airlines will get in fare wars, undercutting one another on certain routes tit-for-tat. These skirmishes can sometimes go on for days, and cheap flight lovers are always the real winners. Let’s walk through an example. Say you live in Atlanta and you’ve been really hoping to visit Barcelona. You get an email one morning that Delta flights from Charlotte to Barcelona are on sale for $380 roundtrip. Score! A fare like that is worth the four-hour drive to Charlotte, so you pull the trigger. Not three hours later, you get another email: American has responded by offering flights from Atlanta to Barcelona (with one stop) for $350 roundtrip. Even better! With the 24-hour rule protecting you, you swap out for the Atlanta-departing flight, save yourself the drive, and pocket the $30 difference. But then that evening, Delta ups the battle by offering nonstop flights to Barcelona for the same $350 price. Direct! You take advantage of the 24-hour rule again and wind up with the best of all worlds, a cheap nonstop flight from Atlanta to Barcelona.  Be sure to book your new flight before canceling your old one Let’s say Trae Young snagged that one-stop Atlanta-Barcelona flight on American. Even NBA superstars know a great deal when they see one. Hours after booking, though, he got an alert about the nonstop Delta flight. Young, a cheap flight aficionado, knows that the 24-hour rule lets him cancel the original booking and take advantage of the new fare. But right after he cancels his American flight, the nonstop Delta fare disappears. (This is a prime example of the Hotcakes Principle: the better a fare, the shorter it tends to last.) He tries to reinstate the American flight, only to be told that once you cancel, there are no takebacks. In the end, Young is left with zero cheap Barcelona flights. One simple trick could have prevented this: booking the Delta flight before canceling the American one. That way, if the Delta deal disappears as he goes to book, he’d still have the original American flight.  OTA’s 24-hour cancellation rules The 24-hour rule federal rule only applies when you book directly with an airline, but a handful of major OTAs like Orbitz and Priceline offer their own 24-hour cancellation policies as well. With some OTAs, if the 24-hour window falls on a weekend or holiday, you may get an even longer refund period. While these OTA offerings can be useful and are generally reliable, it’s important to recognize that they lack the same legal protection as the federal 24-hour rule. And if an OTA doesn’t have a self-service cancellation option (as virtually all US airlines do), then a long customer service hold could push you outside the 24-hour refund window by the time an agent picks up. Love, Scott

Espectacular panorámica de los volcanes desde Puebla EN VIVO

 

Hi Mexico-loving friends! I hope you are all having a wonderful start to the holiday season and looking at some warmer places south of the border to enjoy your time off. There are a few changes in the Mexico traffic-light system leading up to Christmas and I have a feeling we'll be seeing a few more changes as we head into 2022.

Hi Mexico-loving friends! I hope you are all having a wonderful start to the holiday season and looking at some warmer places south of the border to enjoy your time off.  There are a few changes in the Mexico traffic-light system leading up to Christmas and I have a feeling we'll be seeing a few more changes as we head into 2022.

Traffic Light Changes

For those that are new around here, last year Mexico's federal government created a traffic light system to help businesses and people understand the risks of Covid-19 in each state around Mexico. It was then up to the state governments to decide how to interpret these traffic light colors. Currently, red means the highest risk of covid and that hospitals are near capacity. It means that capacity at restaurants and hotels is lowered. In some places, it will mean that you will not be able to sit inside a restaurant at all, but only place an order for take-out (unless they have outdoor seating available). For the next two weeks, there will continue to be no states in the high-risk "red" category. Orange is a level below red status and means that there is still a high risk of covid-19 and many restrictions are still in place. The federal government have given control over to the state governments to decide how they implement these colors and what restrictions should be in place. These are the states that will remain in orange with a risk of possibly moving into the red because of continued increases in severe cases and hospitals becoming overrun. There is currently no states in the orange level. Yellow means lower risk level and most places are allowed to have up to 50% capacity. States in yellow are allowed to have fans at sporting events and bars are allowed to be open (in some states clubs are also open in Yellow). Museums and other tourist attractions can be back open with restrictions. Baja California (home to Tijuana and Ensenada) has moved from orange down to yellow this week. The other northern states of Baja California Sur (home to Cabo and La Paz), Sonora, Chihuahua, and Coahuila have all moved from green to yellow this week as case numbers increase in these states. Green means that there is a very low risk of Covid, that many places can have more than 75% capacity and almost all services can resume. Precautions like masks and temperature checks are still being taken, especially when going indoors. There are now four states currently in the green. All other Mexican states except Baja California are now in the green. You can view the full map on the government website here. Just know that "green" and "yellow" look different in every state and even within every city and small town that you may want to visit in Mexico. Please check below for my list of friends and fellow content creators who live in different parts of Mexico. The best way to know what restrictions are still in place is to get in touch with someone who actually lives in the city or town in which you plan to visit.

Mexico Immigration Updates

As things continue to change with the immigration policies in Mexico, I want to make sure to keep you guys up to date whether you are planning to head down just for a few weeks or you're looking to sort out your long-term residency, there are lots of changes coming in 2022. Alex of Backpacking Brunette has been keeping everyone in the know on her YouTube channel and her latest video which you can watch here gives you the most up-to-date information about entering Mexico at the moment. If you missed the first video that she made, you can watch that one here. There is a lot of hearsay and scaremongering going on in many Facebook groups at the moment, so my biggest advice is to seek out expert advice from immigration lawyers (Alex recommends someone she trusts in her videos) and go from there.

Expats & Locals Around Mexico

As always with Mexico, I highly recommend seeking out people who are currently living in the places that you want to visit. With Covid rules changing constantly and safety issues cropping up every now and again, only people who are on the ground there living it every day can share with you what's really happening. For updates about Mexico City, as always I recommend following Ubish Yaren on Instagram. You can also follow Anais of The Curious Mexican for updates on the restaurant and food scene in Mexico City and what is back open. For information about what's going on in and around Puerto Vallarta, be sure to follow along with the Kinetic Kennons on YouTube. For updates about what's going on in Oaxaca, Susan of Brooklyn Tropicali has been sharing her updates of what's going on around the city and state of Oaxaca. For regular updates about life in Merida and around the Yucatan, check out Mexico Cassie who has also recently written a fantastic guide about Traveling Yucatan with Kids. Shelley of Travel Mexico Solo also shares her experiences in Merida and around the Yucatan. Her Instagram is a particularly good resource for what she's seeing at the moment. The Yucatan Times is the local English newspaper in Merida that shares local updates and news reports. To keep up with what's going on in and around Querétaro, follow Alex of the Backpacking Brunette. Vallarta Daily is the local English news there where you can learn about any changes in the situation in Puerto Vallarta and the surrounding Nayarit beach towns as well. Janine Around the World is traveling around the Riviera Maya at the moment sharing her experiences on her blog and Instagram. Riviera Maya News is the local English newspaper there where you can keep up with changes. The Mexican government's Coronavirus website is a huge resource for those that are currently living in Mexico and want to know more about what's happening in their state. As always, a great place to keep up to date with news about what's happening all over Mexico in English is Mexico News Daily.

Visiting Mexico Soon?

If you are planning a trip to Mexico soon, I hope you'll have a browse of the different Mexico guides on my blog or have a search through my YouTube videos to help you plan your trip! If you are planning to spend the holidays in Mexico City, check out my articles about Christmas in Mexico City and New Year in Mexico City.  I also have FOUR extensive guidebooks available for Baja California Sur (brand new and published in July 2021!), Mexico City (updated this year with tons of new content!), Merida, and Guanajuato! If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to email me by simply hitting reply on this email. Speak soon and safe travels, Laura

(FOLLOW-UP) Mexico Immigration Changes 2021 | Advice for tourists & foreigners living in Mexico