Aruba, Antigua & St. Lucia Have Started Welcoming Back Tourists This Month

Slowly but surely, international travel is starting to reopen, and now you can add some Caribbean Islands to the mix.

In Antigua, Tourism Minister Charles Fernandez announced the government is opening both Antigua and Barbuda back up to tourism, with the first flight landing there on June 4. There are currently daily flights scheduled from Miami; they did say that since “New York is still a hot spot for COVID-19 cases, it would be one of the last cities that we would actually open up [to].”

The Aruba Government declared on May 8 that they were preparing to reopen the island’s borders to travelers. It is scheduled between June 15 and July 1, though is “subject to change as we may consider additional precautionary measures as needed.” According to their tourism website, they started open to Bonaire and Curacao this week, and will expand to Canada and the United States in July. Here’s the plan:

• June 15, 2020 – Bonaire & Curacao
• July 1, 2020 – Canada
• July 1, 2020 – Europe
• July 1, 2020 – The Caribbean (Excluding the Dominican Republic & Haiti)
• July 10, 2020 – The United States of America

Even if you don’t have travel on the brain just yet, this adorable “happiness video” they made will give you a virtual taste of that island life.

And St. Lucia is also reopening borders beginning June 4. There are, of course, many safety measures in place, which you can see easily laid out here. They include: masks, physical distancing and hand-sanitizing at airports and hotels, guest temperature checks at hotel during meals, and limited contact check-in and check-out. This “phase 1” of reopening accepts flights coming from the U.S. only.

Greece and Iceland are also set to reopen to tourists soon.

featured image source: Shutterstock