travelling is bad

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A Contrarian View: Why Travel is Bad for the World

Travel is a good thing . To quote Maya Angelou:

Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends

I believe in travel. Heck, I have an entire website and career dedicated to making people do it more!

But, in the rush to get people to travel, we often overlook the negative impact of travel on communities and the environment. We talk about how travel can be a force for good: breaking down social barriers, connecting people, teaching people about life, and themselves but….

Is too much travel a bad thing?

Is there an argument to be made for traveling less?

Are we all, even with the best intentions, doing harm to the very thing we want the most?

Nothing is ever perfect but if I had to make an argument against travel, these are the points I would make:

Travel destroys local cultures – The globalization of food, travel, hotels, and language diminishes the very culture we traveled so far to see. Instead of going out to seek the unknown, most people stay in resorts and hotels, never experiencing the country they are in. We go to McDonald’s or eat food we can get at home. It’s as though we travel to never leave home. Wherever we go, we seem to bring our western culture with us.

Travel makes the world Disneyland – From the hill tribes of Thailand to the Andes to cowboys of America , travelers have a certain expectation of what a place is and how the people should act. We travel to see that expectation. We travel to see Crocodile Dundee, Mayans, Native Americans, and hill tribe cultures in Asia. Cultures around the world then put on a show to give us what we want and in the process “Disneyize” their culture. I hate seeing the little hill tribes in Thailand or Native American shows in America or “traditional” dance in Vietnam . It’s not how they really act. It’s how they act for tourists. Doesn’t that just cheapen the experience and, in the end, cause more harm than good?

Travel destroys local economies – All that travel in big hotels and global restaurants doesn’t help the local economy. Most of that money is removed by corporations to the head office. Travelers go with what they know and most will stay at the Marriott before they stay in some unknown place, never thinking about where the money is going. Travel can be a huge economic boon but only if the money stays local.

Travel hurts the environment – Traveling is not the most eco-friendly of activities . Flying, cruising, eating out, and driving around all have a negative impact on the environment. Most people when they travel constantly use towels in hotel rooms, leave the air conditioner going, or forget to turn off the lights. Jetsetting around the world in airplanes or driving around in an RV all contribute to global warming. Between waste, development, and pollution, we are doing exactly what The Beach said we would do — destroy the very paradise we seek .

Travel produces short-term profits – Everyone tries to grab that last dollar. Travel isn’t the only industry this happens with but it’s the most relevant to us. Instead of building for the long term, people overdevelop in the name of short-term gain. You see it in Thailand with its built up beaches, in Cambodia , in southern Spain , and in Las Vegas with all the casinos (where’s all that water going to come from?). It’s everywhere. Money now, forget later. Eventually, the tourists will stop coming because they will be so put off and so sad the beauty they came for is gone.

While there is a growing effort among people to mitigate these downsides, the truth is we can’t ignore overtourism and the negative side of travel. Yet I don’t think these reasons should make us stop traveling. In fact, I’m just thinking out loud here. Simply letting the wheels turn.

At the end of the day, these negatives come down to personal choice. You can easily travel the world and not do any of these things. I don’t fly much, I don’t stay in giant hotels, I avoid chain restaurants, I stay in local guesthouses, and I won’t do tours that exploit animals or the environment .

Things are only good or bad if they make them to be. If you stay with travelers, never get out of the tourist area, never look up from your phone, waste water, and ride elephants, yeah you’re travel is bad for the world.

But if you do the opposite, then there’s no reason why your travel can’t be a force for good.

While many travelers are good at thinking about the environment and cultures, the majority aren’t. And so I do think there is a strong argument to be made that travel does cause a lot of problems that should make us rethink how and why we travel. There’s a downside to what we do and we should take it upon ourselves not to do those things so we can keep travel the benefit that it is.

Let’s be a force for good and change the way we travel by using our money to support better local environmental initiatives and companies.

As they say, leave no trace behind.  

Book Your Trip: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner . It’s my favorite search engine because it searches websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is being left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation You can book your hostel with Hostelworld . If you want to stay somewhere other than a hostel, use Booking.com as it consistently returns the cheapest rates for guesthouses and hotels.

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

• SafetyWing (best for everyone)
• Insure My Trip (for those 70 and over)
• Medjet (for additional evacuation coverage)

Want to Travel for Free? Travel credit cards allow you to earn points that can be redeemed for free flights and accommodation — all without any extra spending. Check out my guide to picking the right card and my current favorites to get started and see the latest best deals.

Need Help Finding Activities for Your Trip? Get Your Guide is a huge online marketplace where you can find cool walking tours, fun excursions, skip-the-line tickets, private guides, and more.

Ready to Book Your Trip? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel. I list all the ones I use when I travel. They are the best in class and you can’t go wrong using them on your trip.  

Got a comment on this article? Join the conversation on Facebook , Instagram , or Twitter and share your thoughts!

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links above may be affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I earn a commission if you make a purchase. I recommend only products and companies I use and the income goes to keeping the site community supported and ad free.

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The Case Against Travel

By Agnes Callard

What is the most uninformative statement that people are inclined to make? My nominee would be “I love to travel.” This tells you very little about a person, because nearly everyone likes to travel; and yet people say it, because, for some reason, they pride themselves both on having travelled and on the fact that they look forward to doing so.

The opposition team is small but articulate. G. K. Chesterton wrote that “travel narrows the mind.” Ralph Waldo Emerson called travel “a fool’s paradise.” Socrates and Immanuel Kant—arguably the two greatest philosophers of all time—voted with their feet, rarely leaving their respective home towns of Athens and Königsberg. But the greatest hater of travel, ever, was the Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa , whose wonderful “ Book of Disquiet ” crackles with outrage:

I abhor new ways of life and unfamiliar places. . . . The idea of travelling nauseates me. . . . Ah, let those who don’t exist travel! . . . Travel is for those who cannot feel. . . . Only extreme poverty of the imagination justifies having to move around to feel.

If you are inclined to dismiss this as contrarian posturing, try shifting the object of your thought from your own travel to that of others. At home or abroad, one tends to avoid “touristy” activities. “Tourism” is what we call travelling when other people are doing it. And, although people like to talk about their travels, few of us like to listen to them. Such talk resembles academic writing and reports of dreams: forms of communication driven more by the needs of the producer than the consumer.

One common argument for travel is that it lifts us into an enlightened state, educating us about the world and connecting us to its denizens. Even Samuel Johnson , a skeptic—“What I gained by being in France was, learning to be better satisfied with my own country,” he once said—conceded that travel had a certain cachet. Advising his beloved Boswell, Johnson recommended a trip to China, for the sake of Boswell’s children: “There would be a lustre reflected upon them. . . . They would be at all times regarded as the children of a man who had gone to view the wall of China.”

Travel gets branded as an achievement: see interesting places, have interesting experiences, become interesting people. Is that what it really is?

Pessoa, Emerson, and Chesterton believed that travel, far from putting us in touch with humanity, divorced us from it. Travel turns us into the worst version of ourselves while convincing us that we’re at our best. Call this the traveller’s delusion.

To explore it, let’s start with what we mean by “travel.” Socrates went abroad when he was called to fight in the Peloponnesian War; even so, he was no traveller. Emerson is explicit about steering his critique away from a person who travels when his “necessities” or “duties” demand it. He has no objection to traversing great distances “for the purpose of art, of study, and benevolence.” One sign that you have a reason to be somewhere is that you have nothing to prove, and therefore no drive to collect souvenirs, photos, or stories to prove it. Let’s define “tourism” as the kind of travel that aims at the interesting—and, if Emerson and company are right, misses.

“A tourist is a temporarily leisured person who voluntarily visits a place away from home for the purpose of experiencing a change.” This definition is taken from the opening of “ Hosts and Guests ,” the classic academic volume on the anthropology of tourism. The last phrase is crucial: touristic travel exists for the sake of change. But what, exactly, gets changed? Here is a telling observation from the concluding chapter of the same book: “Tourists are less likely to borrow from their hosts than their hosts are from them, thus precipitating a chain of change in the host community.” We go to experience a change, but end up inflicting change on others.

For example, a decade ago, when I was in Abu Dhabi, I went on a guided tour of a falcon hospital. I took a photo with a falcon on my arm. I have no interest in falconry or falcons, and a generalized dislike of encounters with nonhuman animals. But the falcon hospital was one of the answers to the question, “What does one do in Abu Dhabi?” So I went. I suspect that everything about the falcon hospital, from its layout to its mission statement, is and will continue to be shaped by the visits of people like me—we unchanged changers, we tourists. (On the wall of the foyer, I recall seeing a series of “excellence in tourism” awards. Keep in mind that this is an animal hospital.)

Why might it be bad for a place to be shaped by the people who travel there, voluntarily, for the purpose of experiencing a change? The answer is that such people not only do not know what they are doing but are not even trying to learn. Consider me. It would be one thing to have such a deep passion for falconry that one is willing to fly to Abu Dhabi to pursue it, and it would be another thing to approach the visit in an aspirational spirit, with the hope of developing my life in a new direction. I was in neither position. I entered the hospital knowing that my post-Abu Dhabi life would contain exactly as much falconry as my pre-Abu Dhabi life—which is to say, zero falconry. If you are going to see something you neither value nor aspire to value, you are not doing much of anything besides locomoting.

Tourism is marked by its locomotive character. “I went to France.” O.K., but what did you do there? “I went to the Louvre.” O.K., but what did you do there? “I went to see the ‘Mona Lisa.’ ” That is, before quickly moving on: apparently, many people spend just fifteen seconds looking at the “Mona Lisa.” It’s locomotion all the way down.

The peculiar rationality of tourists allows them to be moved both by a desire to do what they are supposed to do in a place and a desire to avoid precisely what they are supposed to do. This is how it came to pass that, on my first trip to Paris, I avoided both the “Mona Lisa” and the Louvre. I did not, however, avoid locomotion. I walked from one end of the city to the other, over and over again, in a straight line; if you plotted my walks on a map, they would have formed a giant asterisk. In the many great cities I have actually lived and worked in, I would never consider spending whole days walking. When you travel, you suspend your usual standards for what counts as a valuable use of time. You suspend other standards as well, unwilling to be constrained by your taste in food, art, or recreational activities. After all, you say to yourself, the whole point of travelling is to break out of the confines of everyday life. But, if you usually avoid museums, and suddenly seek them out for the purpose of experiencing a change, what are you going to make of the paintings? You might as well be in a room full of falcons.

Let’s delve a bit deeper into how, exactly, the tourist’s project is self-undermining. I’ll illustrate with two examples from “The Loss of the Creature,” an essay by the writer Walker Percy.

First, a sightseer arriving at the Grand Canyon. Before his trip, an idea of the canyon—a “symbolic complex”—had formed in his mind. He is delighted if the canyon resembles the pictures and postcards he has seen; he might even describe it as “every bit as beautiful as a picture postcard!” But, if the lighting is different, the colors and shadows not those which he expects, he feels cheated: he has arrived on a bad day. Unable to gaze directly at the canyon, forced to judge merely whether it matches an image, the sightseer “may simply be bored; or he may be conscious of the difficulty: that the great thing yawning at his feet somehow eludes him.”

Second, a couple from Iowa driving around Mexico. They are enjoying the trip, but are a bit dissatisfied by the usual sights. They get lost, drive for hours on a rocky mountain road, and eventually, “in a tiny valley not even marked on the map,” stumble upon a village celebrating a religious festival. Watching the villagers dance, the tourists finally have “an authentic sight, a sight which is charming, quaint, picturesque, unspoiled.” Yet they still feel some dissatisfaction. Back home in Iowa, they gush about the experience to an ethnologist friend: You should have been there! You must come back with us! When the ethnologist does, in fact, return with them, “the couple do not watch the goings-on; instead they watch the ethnologist! Their highest hope is that their friend should find the dance interesting.” They need him to “certify their experience as genuine.”

The tourist is a deferential character. He outsources the vindication of his experiences to the ethnologist, to postcards, to conventional wisdom about what you are or are not supposed to do in a place. This deference, this “openness to experience,” is exactly what renders the tourist incapable of experience. Emerson confessed, “I seek the Vatican, and the palaces. I affect to be intoxicated with sights and suggestions, but I am not intoxicated.” He speaks for every tourist who has stood before a monument, or a painting, or a falcon, and demanded herself to feel something. Emerson and Percy help us understand why this demand is unreasonable: to be a tourist is to have already decided that it is not one’s own feelings that count. Whether an experience is authentically X is precisely what you, as a non-X, cannot judge.

A similar argument applies to the tourist’s impulse to honor the grand sea of humanity. Whereas Percy and Emerson focus on the aesthetic, showing us how hard it is for travellers to have the sensory experiences that they seek, Pessoa and Chesterton are interested in the ethical. They study why travellers can’t truly connect to other human beings. During my Paris wanderings, I would stare at people, intently inspecting their clothing, their demeanor, their interactions. I was trying to see the Frenchness in the French people around me. This is not a way to make friends.

Pessoa said that he knew only one “real traveller with soul”: an office boy who obsessively collected brochures, tore maps out of newspapers, and memorized train schedules between far-flung destinations. The boy could recount sailing routes around the world, but he had never left Lisbon. Chesterton also approved of such stationary travellers. He wrote that there was “something touching and even tragic” about “the thoughtless tourist, who might have stayed at home loving Laplanders, embracing Chinamen, and clasping Patagonians to his heart in Hampstead or Surbiton, but for his blind and suicidal impulse to go and see what they looked like.”

The problem was not with other places, or with the man wanting to see them, but with travel’s dehumanizing effect, which thrust him among people to whom he was forced to relate as a spectator. Chesterton believed that loving what is distant in the proper fashion—namely, from a distance—enabled a more universal connection. When the man in Hampstead thought of foreigners “in the abstract . . . as those who labour and love their children and die, he was thinking the fundamental truth about them.” “The human bond that he feels at home is not an illusion,” Chesterton wrote. “It is rather an inner reality.” Travel prevents us from feeling the presence of those we have travelled such great distances to be near.

The single most important fact about tourism is this: we already know what we will be like when we return. A vacation is not like immigrating to a foreign country, or matriculating at a university, or starting a new job, or falling in love. We embark on those pursuits with the trepidation of one who enters a tunnel not knowing who she will be when she walks out. The traveller departs confident that she will come back with the same basic interests, political beliefs, and living arrangements. Travel is a boomerang. It drops you right where you started.

If you think that this doesn’t apply to you—that your own travels are magical and profound, with effects that deepen your values, expand your horizons, render you a true citizen of the globe, and so on—note that this phenomenon can’t be assessed first-personally. Pessoa, Chesterton, Percy, and Emerson were all aware that travellers tell themselves they’ve changed, but you can’t rely on introspection to detect a delusion. So cast your mind, instead, to any friends who are soon to set off on summer adventures. In what condition do you expect to find them when they return? They may speak of their travel as though it were transformative, a “once in a lifetime” experience, but will you be able to notice a difference in their behavior, their beliefs, their moral compass? Will there be any difference at all?

Travel is fun, so it is not mysterious that we like it. What is mysterious is why we imbue it with a vast significance, an aura of virtue. If a vacation is merely the pursuit of unchanging change, an embrace of nothing, why insist on its meaning?

One is forced to conclude that maybe it isn’t so easy to do nothing—and this suggests a solution to the puzzle. Imagine how your life would look if you discovered that you would never again travel. If you aren’t planning a major life change, the prospect looms, terrifyingly, as “More and more of this , and then I die.” Travel splits this expanse of time into the chunk that happens before the trip, and the chunk that happens after it, obscuring from view the certainty of annihilation. And it does so in the cleverest possible way: by giving you a foretaste of it. You don’t like to think about the fact that someday you will do nothing and be nobody. You will only allow yourself to preview this experience when you can disguise it in a narrative about how you are doing many exciting and edifying things: you are experiencing, you are connecting, you are being transformed, and you have the trinkets and photos to prove it.

Socrates said that philosophy is a preparation for death. For everyone else, there’s travel. ♦

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By Helen Rosner

How Bad Is Air Travel for the Environment?

A large passenger jet may consume five gallons of fuel per mile traveled. Is it possible, then, that planes are more efficient than cars?

Alastair Bland

Wheels good, wings bad.

Environmental activists seem to bleat this mantra frequently in discussions about climate change, whether it’s a sustainable thing to travel and—if we must go anywhere at all—whether it’s better to fly or drive. It’s true that going anywhere via a combustion engine, or even an electric one , produces greenhouse gases. But how much worse, if at all, are the impacts of flying than those of driving? I’ve spent my week sifting through online information, processing data and crunching numbers, and the answer seems to be that flying can be significantly more efficient per traveler, per mile, than driving a car.

Dubious? Then put on your seatbelts, and let’s take a trip through statistic country. Let’s start with a look at the most famous of jets, the Boeing 747 . The Boeing website states that this model, with a gas tank capacity of 63,500 gallons, may burn five gallons of jet fuel per mile of flight . A 4,000-mile flight, then, requires 20,000 gallons of fuel. Divided among roughly 400 passengers , that’s 50 gallons of fuel to move each person aboard from, say, Chicago to London . A Honda Civic that gets 30 miles per gallon would need 133 gallons of fuel to make a trip of the same distance. Shared between two passengers (which may be a generous split; the average car carries 1.6 people in America), that would be 66.5 gallons per traveler. And an RV might move just seven miles on a gallon of gasoline. Split between the two people on board, that would be about 285 gallons of fuel each on a 4,000-mile tour. So far, air travel is looking to be more efficient.

If we keep studying this, the case for flying seems to build: According to FlightStats , an online air travel stat source, an average of 90,000 flights take off every day. The average flight distance is tough to determine, but this site calculated that the average distance of a medium-haul flight is 1,651 miles, so we’ll go with that (though many, many flights are probably 300-mile short hauls). At the 747 rate of five gallons per mile, that’ s 8,255 gallons burned per flight. And times 90,000 daily flights, that’s about 740 million gallons of fuel burned every day by airplanes—a very rough attempt at an estimate, but we get the idea.

Now for land travel: Americans alone reportedly drive 11 billion miles per day, according the Bureau of Transportation . A 2006 report (PDF) from the Environmental Defense Fund stated that Americans are responsible for 45 percent of the world’s vehicle emissions. That means we can roughly double—plus some—those 11 billion gallons per day to get the global total, which we’ll pin at 25 billion miles. If the average efficiency of a vehicle was as good as 25 miles per gallon ( wiki.answers says it’s more like 20 in America), then we can easily calculate that automobiles worldwide consume about one billion gallons of fuel per day.

The score: Automobiles, 1 billion gallons of fuel burned per day, airplanes 740 million. (But according to Carbonica , a carbon offset consultant for businesses, the discrepancy is much greater—and in favor of airplanes. Carbonica’s website states that whereas land transport accounts for 10 percent of carbon emissions , with personal vehicles the major component, commercial airplanes account for just 1.6 percent of emissions.)

Let’s do more math: Jet fuel produces 21 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per gallon burned. (How is that possible, you ask, if a gallon of fuel weighs less than seven pounds? When hydrocarbon molecules separate through combustion, the carbon atoms recombine with two clunky oxygen atoms each, accounting for substantial weight gain.) And gasoline produces almost 20 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per gallon burned. About the same for each, meaning that we get more emissions globally from cars than we do from airplanes.

Now, let’s look at this from another angle and see if the results look similar: Airplanes measure fuel efficiency by how far one seat can travel per gallon, and, according to Department of Transportation data reported in the Wall Street Journal , major U.S. airlines average 64 seat miles per gallon. Let’s say again that the average American car moves 25 miles per gallon, with each car carrying, on average, 1.6 people . Translated into airline units, that’s 40 seat miles per gallon for a car. Airplanes, it still appears, are more efficient than cars.

Some sources report very different conclusions than mine. For example, this article from the U.K.-based Environmental Transport Association reports flying to be about three times more carbon costly than driving . But they came to this conclusion because their calculations are based on an extremely short-haul flight of 185 miles (Manchester to London, one-way) and a very efficient car. Because so much fuel is incinerated during an airplane’s takeoff , the longer the flight, the more efficient it is (though only to a point, due to the fact that it takes fuel to carry fuel , and fuel is heavy; the “ sweet spot ” for airplane efficiency seems to be about 4,500 miles).

Obviously, the more people that can be crammed onto an airplane, the less ownership each individual has in the fumes that it leaves behind. Thus, one obvious fault of the aviation industry is the fact that an airplane, even if just a handful of seats are sold, must still make the scheduled flight: When I flew from Auckland, New Zealand, to San Francisco in February, every passenger on board had room to lie down. In a perfect world, that flight would have been canceled.

Before you walk away thinking flying is greener than driving, consider some key points. First, airplanes emit their fumes directly into the upper atmosphere, where they may linger longer and cause more damage than the same gases at lower altitudes. Second, air travel is not a service that very often takes us places that we really need to be. That is, the Boston businessman that flies once a week to Miami for meetings would not be using a car to make the same journey if airplanes didn’t exist. He might simply not go at all. (Though in a better world, Americans might enjoy a high-speed rail system. Consider, Europe, home of the TGV ; and Japan, where the magnetic levitation train seems almost a trick of magic, moving nearly as fast as an airplane on virtually no fuel. One of the most reliable “high-speed” train corridors in America, according to this article , is the one between Boston and D.C., served by an iron horse that clunks along at 70 miles per hour.) And the cyclist that flies from Seattle to Lisbon for a two-month bicycle tour of Europe might simply never go at all if it required taking a multiweek boat trip just to get to the starting point. She might, instead, explore the Cascades and the Rockies—not a bad alternative. (But this group of musicians— the Ginger Ninjas, which I featured several months ago —has toured in Europe by bicycle after traveling there by boat.) In this sense, flying is bad since it is not replacing another means of transport; it is simply offering the world’s wealthy another travel option. It is a luxury.

What’s more, the airline industry is growing. According to this post in the Guardian ‘s “Travel Blog,” air travel may not be a big contributor to carbon emissions, but it’s been among the fastest-growing causes of global warming for years, with the industry expanding at 5 percent annually . And with the world’s most populous country now becoming among the wealthiest, hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens may soon enter the ranks of the frequent flier, as predicted by Boeing , which expects its passenger traffic to triple by 2030—with most of that growth occurring in China.

Drawing a single conclusion from this discussion isn’t easy, given the many variables, like a plane’s seating capacity, its fuel load, the flight distance and the number of passengers on board. But there is one statement you’d have trouble arguing with: If you hope to visit Hawaii this fall, you should probably fly.

Wings good, wheels good—propeller simply awful: If you think a Boeing 747 is inefficient at five gallons to the mile, then try to swallow this: The Queen Elizabeth II moves 29 feet per gallon . That’s 200 gallons of fuel burned per nautical mile. But the cruise ship, retired as of 2008 , could carry as many as 1,777 passengers, plus another 1,040 crew members. Now that’s a boat in the carpool lane.

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Alastair Bland | | READ MORE

Alastair Bland is a journalist based in San Francisco who writes about the environment, agriculture, science and food.

NASA scientists consider the health risks of space travel

Humans aren't built to live in space, and being there can pose serious health risks . For space administrations like NASA, a major goal is to identify these risks to hopefully help lessen them. 

That was a major theme during NASA’s Spaceflight for Everybody Virtual Symposium in November, a virtual symposium dedicated to discussing current knowledge and research efforts around the impact of spaceflight on human health. During a panel discussion titled “Human Health Risks in the Development of Future Programs” on Nov. 9, NASA scientists discussed these risks and how they are using existing knowledge to plan future missions. 

Each panelist emphasized that the health risks presented by space travel are complex and multifaceted and that all types of risks should be considered closely when planning future missions. 

Related:  Space travel can seriously change your brain  

Five types of risk

When discussing the risks presented by living in space and space travel, there are five main types, the scientists outlined in the presentation. 

Two types of risk, radiation and altered gravity, come simply from being in space, they said. Research has shown that both can have major negative effects on the body, and even the brain . Others, like isolation and confinement as well as being in a hostile closed environment, encompass risks posed by the living situations that are necessary in space, including risks to both mental and physical health. 

Then, there are the risks presented simply by being a long way from Earth. The farther humans get from the Earth, the riskier living in space becomes in almost every way. 

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Everything from fresh food to unexpired medication will be extremely difficult to make accessible with longer journeys farther away. On the International Space Station, astronauts aren’t too far from us, and we can routinely send supplies to the crews in orbit. But a mission to the moon or Mars would pose more problems. 

Communication delays would increase, and there would likely be communication blackouts, said Sharmi Watkins, assistant director for exploration in NASA’s Human Health and Performance Directorate who served as a panelist for this discussion.   She said it would also take longer to get back to Earth if there was a medical emergency. 

"We're not going to measure it in hours, but rather in days, in the case of the moon, and potentially weeks or months, when we start to think about Mars," said Watkins.

Steve Platts, the chief scientist in NASA’s human research program, broke down different levels of risk in space and discussed how NASA uses a "phased approach" when it comes to research on human health. In this approach, initial "phases" include research on the health effects of being in space has also been done in simulated conditions on Earth, from isolation experiments in Antarctica to radiation exposure at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Long Island, New York. Likewise, experiments on the space station will help us to prepare for risk on the moon and Mars — these later phases build on knowledge gained from simulations. 

"We do work on Earth, we do work on low earth orbit and then we'll be doing lunar missions, all to help us get to Mars," Platts said. 

— Deep-space radiation could cause have big impacts on the brain, mouse experiment shows

— Without gravity, the fluid around an astronaut's brain moves in weird ways

— Long space missions can change astronaut brain structure and function

Still, no matter how much we may prepare on Earth, every space mission comes with risk, so NASA has set health standards to minimize this risk for astronauts. 

NASA has over 800 health standards that they’ve developed based on current research. These standards describe everything from how much space astronauts should have in a spacecraft to how much muscle and bone loss an astronaut can experience without being seriously harmed. These standards also include levels of physical fitness and health the astronauts need to meet before going into space. All of NASA’s health standards for astronauts are available online . 

A mission can impact astronauts’ health, but it also works the other way — health troubles with astronauts could impact a mission if they aren’t able to perform mission tasks adequately, said Mary Van Baalen, acting director of human system risk management at NASA and the panel’s moderator. She emphasized the complex interplay between these two types of impacts, both of which NASA scientists must keep in mind when planning missions. 

"Space travel is an inherently risky endeavor," she said. "And the nature of human risk is complex."

You can watch the full recording of the panel discussion and other talks from the symposium here . 

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Is Travel Really That Bad?

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Okay, the title of this article is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but travel does involve considerable costs. The average household spends about $8,500 per year on transportation, making it one of our biggest expenditures. Time is another cost of travel, because the roughly hour and ten minutes American adults spend traveling each day might be better spent on things like work, family, and even sleep. Travel can also be tiring, stressful, dangerous, and more.

So why do we travel so much? Transportation academics have made the obvious assumption that we travel to reach destinations. They view travel as a “derived demand;” we don’t do it for the love of travel itself, but because of the benefits we reap at our destinations. Thus, it is commonly assumed that individuals minimize their travel, so long as they get to the places they need to go.

But is traveling really so bad? Some researchers have concluded that travel might have benefits excluding the obvious one of getting you to places. At least in some ways, travel can be fun. Travel can involve adventure and novelty; it can give your life a refreshing breath of air. Travel may give us a satisfying sense of autonomy and the enjoyable feeling of mastering our surroundings, and can even promote feelings of social status. Operating a vehicle can make us feel like we are in control and accomplishing a challenging task. It can be a thrill to move at high speeds. Looking at the passing scenery can be aesthetically enjoyable. Many people report that travel is a valued “down time” when they are free from the stresses of work, school, and family life. We can also multitask and do enjoyable things when we travel, like listening to music and talking on the phone.

Many people report that travel is a valued “down time” when they are free from the stresses of work, school, and family life.

And there are many forms of travel that people devote lots of time and money to do purely for fun — from skiing to riding roller coasters to sailing, hiking, and biking. Surely traveling to the grocery store isn’t as fun as kayaking down rapids, but maybe there are at least some aspects of recreational travel that we also experience during more mundane, day-to-day trips.

Surveys confirm that travel might not be all bad. Thirty-two percent of respondents in one survey reported they enjoy travel (Ory and Mokhtarian), with only 13 percent saying they dislike it (the rest were neutral). Nearly 70 percent disagreed with the statement that “the only good thing about traveling is arriving at your destination.” Only 20 percent disagreed with the statement that “getting there is half the fun.”

The same survey found that trip purpose matters. Trips to pleasant destinations such as entertainment, social activities, and recreation seem more pleasant than trips to mundane places like work or school.

Mode of Travel

The mode of travel is also important. Two-thirds of respondents said they enjoy biking and walking, and most people said they wished they traveled more by these modes. Auto travel is also generally well-regarded, with 58 percent liking it and less than 12 percent disliking it. Transit, however, fared less well. Only 31 percent said they liked train/subway/light rail travel, with an almost equal number saying they dislike it. And only 8 percent expressed a positive opinion about taking the bus, with a whopping 63 percent responding negatively. Granted, this simple survey data doesn’t take personal characteristics into account or involve any math, but simple descriptive statistics can tell us a lot, particularly with results as striking as these.

To explore this further, Erick Guerra of the University of Pennsylvania and I examined people’s moods while they travel. We used data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), which studies what activities people do in a day, how long they do them for, whom they do them with, and where they do them. Travel is one such activity, which is further broken down by mode and trip purpose. Moreover, in 2011 the ATUS selected three activities per person and asked respondents about the intensity with which they felt certain emotions during them. The emotions the survey asked about were happiness, sadness, stress, fatigue, pain, and whether they found the activity meaningful.

We examined these emotions individually, and also used two different techniques to construct a composite “mood” variable to reflect people’s overall frame of mind. We had more than 13,000 people in our sample who reported on over 39,000 activities. The sample is representative of the entire US adult population.

We used two different modeling techniques. One was ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. Broadly, this tells us if travelers as a group are in a good mood compared to those doing other activities, while holding basic demographic characteristics constant. The other technique was fixed-effects panel regression. This takes advantage of the fact that we have three observations per individual, so for each person who traveled we can see how they were feeling while they were traveling compared with how they were feeling while doing two other things. This is very useful because some people tend to be in better moods in general than others, and a fixed-effects panel allowed us to control for innate mood as well as other individual traits.

The results indicated that the activities people do, like traveling, influence their mood to a perhaps-surprisingly small extent. Our OLS models, which contain all of the demographic variables typically found in social science models (like gender, age, race and income), as well as activity type, only explain about 14 percent of respondents’ moods. Other factors, like people’s basic tendency to feel a certain way, or things that could have affected them during their day, explained much more.

That said, we find that travel is not associated with complete misery. In fact, according to our results, it is a roughly “medium-mood” activity. Travel is associated with a less-positive mood than socializing, volunteering, eating and drinking, or participating in religious activities. But it is associated with more happiness than “poor-mood” activities such as work or household chores. So, there must be some benefits of travel that offset its admitted costs.

Our OLS model shows that travelers are in a somewhat better mood than people who aren’t traveling, but the panel model shows that people are in about the same mood when they are traveling as when they are participating in other activities. This suggests that intrinsically happier people are more likely to travel than others.

The fact that travel must, at least in some ways, be fun has some interesting implications. Perhaps getting to a destination is not the sole reason we undertake many trips. It may be that travel is motivated, at least in part, by a desire to travel for travel’s own sake. In some cases it may be possible that the out-of-home activity is motivated by the desire to travel rather than vice versa. Haven’t you found yourself on some Saturday nights deciding you wanted to go somewhere, and then figuring out where that somewhere will be?

The happiest mode of travel appears to be bicycling. Even after excluding those who bike purely for recreational purposes, bicyclists are in a significantly more positive mood than other travelers such as bus riders or walkers. Given that biking is healthy, eco-friendly, inexpensive, and enjoyable, it makes sense to consider measures like bike lanes to encourage bike riding.

Even after excluding those who bike purely for recreational purposes, bicyclists are in a significantly more positive mood than other travelers such as bus riders or walkers. Given that biking is healthy, eco-friendly, inexpensive, and enjoyable, it makes sense to consider measures like bike lanes to encourage bike riding.

Walkers, however, are not in a particularly good mood. (Again, we excluded people who walk for recreation or exercise.) We suspect our finding masks the fact that there are many types of walking trips, some more pleasant than others. For those who lack access to an automobile and walk from necessity, long distances, inclement weather, heavy burdens, or unsafe neighborhoods might make walking trips an unhappy experience. Those who do have choices, and walk only when they prefer it to other modes, may enjoy it more.

Broadly speaking, our findings suggest that transit is not a particularly happy travel mode. Train/subway/light rail travel fared the most poorly in our OLS models, and bus travel was associated with the worst mood in our panel regression. Why is this the case? Prior scholars and commonsense suggest two major sets of reasons.

First is the feeling that transit travel involves surrendering control. Not only is the rider at the mercy of the transit schedule, but the vehicle’s route might also be indirect and circuitous, and the stops might not be close to the traveler’s destination. Furthermore, the traveler has no control over whether the vehicle is on time or whether a seat will be available. Transit travelers have to cede some control over their personal space, and may not particularly like the people sitting or standing close to them.

The other major set of reasons might be grouped as “discomfort.” In addition to sometimes having to stand on a crowded vehicle, transit travelers might be exposed to bad weather walking to or waiting at stops. The climate control in the vehicle might not be satisfactory, or other passengers’ cell phone conversations might be a nuisance. Discomfort may be psychological as well. Transit travelers might be stressed about when their vehicle might arrive and whether they will get to their destination on time. Also, they might feel stigma and shame about taking modes that are generally associated with lower social status than traveling by private car.

All of this doesn’t necessarily mean we should give up on transit, which, in the right places and at the right times, has the potential to reduce auto congestion, help the environment, and allow the dense concentrations of people that make cities thrive. But these findings do help explain why few Americans choose to ride transit, and suggest that we may need to adopt new strategies to attract more riders.

Typically, we think about improving transit by adding service, building new infrastructure, increasing vehicle frequencies, and increasing travel speeds to make service more convenient and competitive with cars. Without a doubt, these are key pieces of the puzzle. But we also need to focus on what makes transit travel, at least for many people, not fun.

We also need to focus on what makes transit travel, at least for many people, not fun.

There are cost-effective measures that can address transit’s psychological burdens. Examples include electronic signage indicating arrival times, or mobile applications that show where the vehicles are and when they will arrive. In most cases, these aids will not change travel plans, or get people to destinations any faster, but at least they will reduce the stress and uncertainty of waiting for a vehicle.

Finally, we find that auto travel is associated with being in a relatively good mood; the American “love affair” with the car seems to be going strong. One noteworthy finding is that, when we control for the fact that car passengers are more likely to be interacting with another person and that such interactions are quite pleasant, car drivers and passengers are in roughly similar moods. This suggests that driving might not be the chore it is commonly assumed to be, and people might not be as happy to adopt autonomous vehicles as many enthusiasts believe.

Duration and Life Satisfaction

In other research, Eric Guerra and I examined the association between trip duration and mode. We reached the conclusion that longer trips are associated with a significantly worse mood than shorter trips, which might seem self-evident to anybody who has ever been stuck in traffic or taken a long road trip with antsy children in the back seat shouting “Are we there yet!?” Heightened fatigue, pain, and stress account for this drop in mood. These findings imply that efforts to fight congestion may have emotional merits. Another implication is that changing land uses to move origins and destinations closer together might have emotional benefits. Some, however, argue that such strategies might actually increase travel times, because even though distances may be shorter, higher densities might concentrate traffic and produce more congestion.

In other research I have looked for associations between time spent traveling and life satisfaction. On the day of the study, those who traveled more reported being significantly more satisfied with their lives, if only modestly so. This holds true even when people spent the same amount of time at their destinations. This means if two people spend the same amount of time at destinations outside their homes, the one who spends more time getting to that destination is predicted to be somewhat happier. Given my finding that longer trips are associated with worse mood, this is somewhat counterintuitive. Perhaps spending more time traveling pays off because, despite the fact that long trips aren’t pleasurable, they get us to better activities.

Mode choice is also associated with life satisfaction. Bicycling is again the mode most strongly associated with happiness; each minute of biking is associated with 13 times more additional life satisfaction compared to the amount of additional life satisfaction associated with each minute spent in a car. In addition, time spent walking is strongly associated with life satisfaction. Interestingly, travel time is more strongly associated with life satisfaction in small cities rather than in very large cities, perhaps because the latter are more likely to feature heavy traffic congestion and/or greater distances between activity sites.

The problem is that I can only show associations between life satisfaction and travel; showing causation is a lot more complex. The link between travel and happiness almost certainly comes in part because travel enables us to reach destinations — life can’t possibly be good if a lack of transportation prevents us from working or getting to the grocery store. But the link may also come because travel itself is fun, or because people who are happier in the first place may be more likely to travel. My research suggests that all three of these explanations are true; future research should focus on untangling just how strong each of these effects might be.

It’s easy to get depressed about transportation given all of its social costs: congestion, pollution, crash injuries, and more. But we often forget about travel’s private benefits. It’s hard to explain why people are spending so much time and money on something if it’s not doing them a lot of good. No, travel isn’t so bad — though that’s no reason we should stop trying to make it better.

No, travel isn’t so bad — though that’s no reason we should stop trying to make it better.

References and Further Reading

Eric A. Morris. 2015. “Should We All Just Stay Home? Travel, Out-of-home Activities, and Life Satisfaction. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 78 : 519-536 .

Eric A. Morris and Erick Guerra. 2015. “Are We There Yet? Trip Duration and Mood During Travel. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behavior, 33: 38-47 .

Eric A. Morris and Erick Guerra. 2015. “Mood and Mode: Does How We Travel Influence How We Feel? Transportation, 42 (1): 25-43 .

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What a summer of hellish flights taught us about flying now

Easy air travel is a thing of the past.

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More than 240 million people in the US flew somewhere between June and Labor Day, according to the Transportation Security Administration — about 7 million more than in summer 2019.

Air travel is back. But it’s most definitely not back to normal.

Horror stories of interminable delays and vacation-wrecking cancellations came from every corner of the country this summer — caused not just by storms and extreme heat, but also labor shortages. Befuddlement at how much pricier it has become to fly mounted, too.

For travelers, taking to the skies feels like it has reached a nadir. Not only were there bigger crowds and more delays to contend with at airports, but when delays happened, they caused more stress than usual. A recent Forbes Advisor survey of 2,000 travelers found that 61 percent had experienced a flight delay or cancellation this summer, and most of that 61 percent lost some money due to the delay — cash lost on prepaid hotel rooms, missed cruises, parking fees, and even kenneling pets.

Some of the problems are a temporary bump in the runway as the industry gets used to high numbers of travelers again, but some of the most deep-seated causes of passenger disgruntlement might be here to stay.

“Things that may not have upended the entire system in the past — thunderstorms on the East Coast in the afternoon — now seem to have ripple effects throughout the entire system,” says John Breyault, who is the vice president of fraud policy at the National Consumers League and leads its airline advocacy program. “I think that’s symptomatic of a system that is really overtaxed in every way.”

Here’s what we learned from this summer’s travel debacles:

Climate change is straining a fragile industry

Mass flight delays and cancellations happen because of bad weather. Thunderstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes, or even extreme heat aren’t new, but record-breaking temperatures and more frequent weather disasters in the past year added stress on the air travel industry. In December 2022 and July 2023, a series of storms across the country caused a torrent of flight delays that stranded thousands of passengers during busy holiday seasons. Last month, as Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Florida, more than 1,000 flights were delayed across the South.

The weather this summer did more than create delays; it laid bare just how unprepared the aviation industry is for handling any shocks. Weaknesses that might have gone unnoticed by passengers before — like aging, sparse fleets, or difficult conditions for workers, such as extreme heat — suddenly became glaringly obvious, adding to the cascading effects of bad weather and creating disruptions lasting for days. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics says that consumer complaints against airlines have soared by more than 300 percent since 2019. (The most common type of complaint was not getting the refund for canceled flights, which airlines are required to give. The second most common was flight delays and cancellations.)

A single hour-long delay might not seem like a huge deal, but the problem is amplified when airlines are overscheduled — one late flight bumps all the others after it — and when there aren’t enough planes or staff across various airports to accommodate a sudden change in plans. In its most recent earnings call , United Airlines said that its thousands of delays and cancellations in the leadup to the Fourth of July holiday had cost the company 1 point of profit margin for the entire quarter. According to trade association Airlines for America , flight delays in 2022 likely cost the industry billions of dollars.

“We are getting a very real preview of what our new normal will be like for summer travel,” says Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst and president of Atmosphere Research Group. “The first storm tosses Humpty Dumpty off the wall, but sequential storms make it harder to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.”

The labor shortage is sky high

There’s still a widespread shortage of workers in the industry, including pilots, flight attendants, airport workers, and air traffic controllers. Airline employment data from June 2023 shows higher numbers than June 2019, but the industry is still clamoring for more workers. Currently, according to one estimate, US airlines need 8,000 more pilots to fulfill demand. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there will be more than 16,000 job openings for pilots and flight attendants each year between now and 2032.

A labor shortfall becomes especially apparent when something goes wrong: When there aren’t enough people to fill crucial jobs, everything has to slow down, or else risk disaster. A recent New York Times report revealed that near-crashes between planes taking off and landing have become more common because of mistakes by air traffic controllers, who are overstrained amid chronic staff shortages. The Federal Aviation Administration has hired 1,500 air traffic controllers this year, but still wants to hire 1,800 more next year.

Flight delays weren’t just more common. They were more irritating.

While there have been more delays this year than usual, cancellations are actually down. According to data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (which currently only has numbers through May), 20.8 percent of flights were delayed so far in 2023, compared to 18.8 percent in 2019. The average length of delay in 2023 is 53 minutes, just 3 minutes longer than in 2019, according to flight tracking site Flight Aware.

So what’s creating such horrid air travel vibes? One possibility is that there are more travelers now than in 2019, but fewer commercial aircraft are flying , meaning passengers have fewer chances to reroute or get on the next flight when delays happen, leaving them stuck in limbo longer. When over 15,000 flights were axed during the infamous Southwest cancellations last winter , not only outdated tech, but also aggressive overscheduling created a huge domino effect on the system. Delays can have serious consequences for travelers, not just causing people to miss important life events, but in some cases limiting their access to food and water while they’re stuck on a plane for hours. American Airlines was recently fined a record $4 million for hours-long tarmac delays during which it did not allow passengers to deplane.

Extra fees feel unavoidable, and they’re here to stay

Over 22 million more travelers crowded the airports this summer than last — some of them flying for the first time in years — and many were freshly reminded of what’s now the industry standard of nickel-and-diming passengers for checking bags and choosing seats. In the early 2000s, it was mostly ultra-low-cost carriers charging extra to check luggage. But since then, even full-service US carriers are creating basic economy fares that tack on bag and seat fees.

“Drip pricing” for services that used to be included with airfare only piles onto the exasperation travelers feel. According to an analysis by the airline consultancy IdeaWorks , top US airlines demand $33 on average for a preferred seat (which is usually closer to the front of the plane), $48 for an exit-row seat (where there’s more leg room) and $18 for a last-row seat. These are “junk fees” to consumers and the White House , but to airlines, they’re a cash cow. Take United, which made a record $1 billion in revenue just from bags and seats fees from April to June. Having multiple types of seat upgrades “is a key driver of our revenue growth,” United executive Andrew Nocella said in the company’s most recent earnings call . And just look at baggage fees : Last year, top airlines made about $6.7 billion in baggage fees, a spike from the $5.7 billion they made in 2019, despite more flyers that year.

Airline perks and deals were harder to come by

The race to the bottom isn’t going unnoticed by travelers. Flying is becoming more stratified; class divisions feel more heightened than ever, and having frequent flyer status with an airline is more valuable. Airlines know this too, and in response to an inundation of passengers attaining “elite” status , many have upped the threshold to join, limiting airport lounge access to higher membership levels or raising lounge fees.

“I have spoken with airline managers and executives who have said that part of the reason that the standard coach product is so bad is intentional,” says Harteveldt. “They want to get more people paying extra and trading up to a better product. America can claim to be egalitarian, but that claim ends at the airport door.”

Airfare has dropped since reaching new highs last summer, but is still elevated. “This has been one of the worst years I can ever remember for flight deals,” says Ben Mutzabaugh, senior aviation editor at The Points Guy, a popular travel site. Meanwhile, leisure travelers with disposable income have shown a surprising willingness to spend. “A lot of times they’re willing to just buy business-class tickets — we see much more of that now than we did before the pandemic.”

The stark contrast in travel experience between the haves and have-nots may be fomenting resentment on one end and arrogance on the other. Airports and even flights are becoming an all-too-common setting for viral videos of travelers losing their tempers.

Reports of “unruly passengers” — people airlines report for causing a disturbance on flights — skyrocketed amid mask mandates in 2021, almost reaching 6,000 reports , according to Federal Aviation Administration data. In 2019, there were just 1,161.

This is the new normal — unless airlines are forced to change

Some of the annoyances travelers experienced this summer will remain unavoidable in coming months. Increasingly frequent bad weather will keep walloping flights ; that’s the reality of the climate crisis.

Airlines have learned some lessons from this summer’s onslaught of demand. The biggest are to hire more workers and have more spare planes on the ground in case of emergencies, but also to leave more slack in scheduling flights. Airlines have been on a hiring spree, and experts say the worst of the pilot shortage will probably be over by next summer.

But some of the other bugbears of air travel — like airlines’ worst anti-consumer practices — aren’t likely to go away without antitrust action. Much of what we hate about taking to the skies today can be blamed on industry consolidation after the airlines were deregulated in the late 1970s. A handful of airlines — United, Delta, American, and Southwest — control about 80 percent of the domestic market. “Since the government let the industry become a permanent oligopoly, there is zero risk that competition will discipline fee increases,” Hubert Horan, a transportation analyst, told Vox in an email.

The Biden administration has signaled a desire to rein in airlines’ worst practices, voicing support for a policy requiring airlines to disclose all fees from the beginning of a fare search rather than showing a deceptive base fare that will significantly rise as seat and bag fees are added. The administration has also urged Congress to mandate airlines to seat families together for free. But these rules don’t actually exist yet. (A few airlines have voluntarily offered free family seating.)

Under Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the Department of Transportation has revved up its enforcement actions; not only did it order American to pay up, the department has also been levying millions in fines to airlines that didn’t refund customers in a timely manner. Breyault, of the National Consumers League, says that these are steps in the right direction but that the DOT hasn’t used the full force of its authority. By the NCL’s accounting, the frequency of enforcement and the amount of money fined has decreased over the years. Breyault calls even the historic $4 million fine “a rounding error to a company the size of American.”

A flight delay doesn’t have to entirely ruin a vacation, and maybe we don’t have to pay an arm and a leg just to have a pleasant flying experience. But if flying during the high season continues to be awful, that could turn off customers and ultimately dampen demand.

“I don’t think that this is sustainable,” says Breyault.

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Why we don’t need to stop flying to save the planet, according to science

A new study says that the impact of aviation on warming could be halted by reducing the number of flights every year by 2.5 percent

Flying is bad for the planet. We all know that by now. Airplanes blast out loads of pollution, all the time, making them far worse for the environment than trains, boats, coaches and even private cars. But it’s also unrealistic to expect everyone to suddenly stop using planes. At the moment, there simply isn’t the infrastructure to support eco-friendly intercontinental travel everywhere in the world. 

That’s why recent scientific study from Oxford University, Manchester University and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory is so interesting. It suggests that we might not need to stop flying completely  to save the planet. We just need to reduce the amount of flying we do.

The article is called ‘Quantifying aviation’s contribution to global warming’, and it’s full of numbers, variables and equations. It analyses different rates of global warming over different time periods, and also accounts for changes within the aviation industry. It’s thorough and complicated stuff.

But boiling it down to the very basics, here are a couple of the conclusions. One is that the aviation industry is definitely terrible for the environment, and will likely continue to contribute significantly to global warming. Aviation affects global warming more than people think because of its mix of pollutants – contrails (those cloud-like vapour lines that follow planes in the sky) contain CO2 but also other greenhouse gases like nitrogen oxides.

Since humans have started observing climate change, aviation has contributed to 4 percent of all warming. By 2050 the industry will have been responsible for a 0.1C rise in temperatures around the world, which is huge considering that it’s only one industry.

But the paper also has another, slightly more optimistic conclusion. It says that it might take only a small decrease in air travel to make aviation’s contribution to global warming more sustainable – or halt its damage entirely. If there was a 2.5 percent decrease in air travel every year from now on, the study says the aviation industry would cause no further global warming at all . The effects would be immediate.

In other words, we don’t need to stop flying completely to save the planet. And even more positive is that the study’s model is based on continued use of current fuels. If airplanes switched to use low-carbon, zero-carbon or renewable fuels, the industry’s effect on the environment would be reduced even further. Just last month British Airways ran a  commercial flight using recycled cooking oil , showing that a future with more sustainable plane fuel is well within reach.

The alternative is that the airline industry continues to grow at a rapid pace. The impact of aviation on the environment would balloon, becoming an even more significant contributor to rising temperatures.

So how do we, on a daily basis, work on achieving that 2.5 percent decrease? We can consider flying shorter-haul and holidaying closer to home, but it’s much more important for people who fly a lot to reevaluate their need for frequent long-haul travel. Why should you forsake your yearly getaway when there are billionaires and businessmen jet-setting around the world several times a week? We’re looking at you, Bill Gates .

Of course, this paper is only one study and there is doubtless much more to figure out about the impact of aviation on global warming. If you want to find out more about the paper and its conclusions, or want to read its methodology in more detail, here it is . 

Now read about  why we’re changing how we cover travel – starting now .

• Ed Cunningham News Editor, Time Out UK and Time Out London

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The many, many reasons space travel is bad for the human body

Leaving earth upends almost every system inside of us.

After the astronaut Scott Kelly spent a year on the International Space Station, he returned to Earth shorter, more nearsighted, lighter and with new symptoms of heart disease that his identical twin brother did not share. (Mark Kelly, now a U.S. senator, also spent a brief time in space.)

Even their DNA diverged, as nearly 1,000 of Scott Kelly’s genes and chromosomes worked differently. (On the upside, he aged about 9 milliseconds less that year, thanks to how fast the space station circled the Earth.)

Most of these effects cleared up within a few months, but not all — underscoring the potential health hazards of space travel, many of which are unknown. These will ratchet up during ambitious future trips, such as NASA’s planned Artemis mission to the moon and later travel to Mars.

Even a partial list of the likely physical and emotional consequences of deep space travel is daunting.

Your browser does not support the video element.

Space motion sickness sets in almost immediately. The nausea, dizziness, headaches and confusion can linger for days.

“Puffy Face Bird Leg Phenomenon” develops, as blood and other bodily fluids rush to the upper body in low gravity and stay there, swelling heads and shrinking legs.

Astronauts’ appearances can change as their faces swell. The astronauts may feel congested, as though they have a constant head cold.

Muscles atrophy by as much as 1 percent every week in weightlessness, especially in the legs.

Blood volume drops — and with less blood to pump, the heart weakens and loses its signature heart shape, growing more rounded.

Like any other muscle, the heart doesn’t need to work as hard in microgravity and will begin to atrophy without rigorous exercise.

Doused with radiation, many immune cells die and immunity is lowered. There’s also DNA damage, potentially upping cancer risk.

Inflammation spikes throughout the body, possibly contributing to heart disease and other conditions.

Bones thin by about 1.5 percent a month. Spinal discs harden.

In the head, parts of the eyeball can flatten, causing sharper distance vision and dimmer near vision.

Fluids flood the skull, diminishing smell and hearing.

Gene activity changes, including in the brain. In mice, 54 different genes in the brain worked differently after weeks in space.

Brain cells can be affected by radiation, diminishing memory and thinking (in mice).

Circadian rhythms falter, making insomnia common.

Finally, months or years of solitude — or close confinement with fellow astronauts — can lead to lasting psychological stress.

“Space is just not very hospitable to the human body,” said Emmanuel Urquieta, chief medical officer at the Translational Research Institute for Space Health in Houston, which partners with NASA to study the effects of deep space exploration.

Humans evolved in conditions of plentiful gravity and relatively slight background radiation, he said. Space is the reverse and it upends the operations of almost every biological system inside of us. —

Most of the potential health risks of space travel can be mitigated to some extent, scientists point out. Exercise, for instance, “is quite effective” at helping astronauts maintain muscle mass and bone density, said Lori Ploutz-Snyder, the dean of the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology. She was previously a researcher at NASA, where she led studies of exercise and space travel.

The New Space Age

On the space station, astronauts routinely work out for about an hour most days, she said, using specialized devices to run, cycle and lift weights, despite being weightless. But on lunar and Mars missions, which will involve smaller ships and possibly years-long durations, exercise equipment will need to be shrunk and astronauts’ willingness to keep up with the workouts enlarged.

[ To counter the effect of sitting too much, try the astronaut workout ]

The Earth’s magnetic field shields the relatively close-in space station as well from some of the worst deep-space radiation, but the lunar and Mars missions — higher and farther from Earth — will not enjoy that protection.

The moon and Mars journeys will demand advanced shielding, Urquieta said, together with drugs and supplements that might lessen some of the internal effects of the remaining — and inevitable — radiation. Antioxidants, such as vitamins C and E, could sop up a portion of the damaging molecules released after radiation exposure, while other protective drugs and nutrients are under investigation, he said.

Despite every available precaution and protection, deep space will remain a harsh, unwelcoming place for the human body. But it will also, and always, represent something else for the human imagination, Urquieta said — its endless sweep of sequined darkness sparking our ambitions, dreams and stories.

Which is why, even knowing better than most people the toll such a trip might take on him, he would go into space “in a heartbeat,” he said. “Absolutely. No question. It’s so inspiring. It’s space."

About this story

Additional design and development by Betty Chavarria. Editing by Kate Rabinowitz, Manuel Canales and Jeff Dooley. Copy editing by Wayne Lockwood.

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Flying Is Bad for the Planet. You Can Help Make It Better.

By Tatiana Schlossberg

• July 27, 2017

Take one round-trip flight between New York and California, and you’ve generated about 20 percent of the greenhouse gases that your car emits over an entire year.

If you are like many people, flying may be a large portion of your carbon footprint . Over all, the aviation industry accounts for 11 percent of all transportation-related emissions in the United States.

According to some estimates, about 20,000 planes are in use around the world, serving three billion passengers annually. By 2040, more than 50,000 planes could be in service, and they are expected to fly more often.

If you’re flying, you’re adding a significant amount of planet-warming gases to the atmosphere — there’s no way around it. But there are some ways to make your airplane travel a little bit greener.

First, fly less.

The most effective way to reduce your carbon footprint is to fly less often. If everyone took fewer flights, airline companies wouldn’t burn as much jet fuel.

According to the World Bank, the average American generated about 16.4 metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2013; according to some calculations, a round-trip flight from New York to San Francisco emits about 0.9 metric tons of carbon dioxide per person. For an American, that represents about one-eighteenth of your carbon emissions for the year.

(For perspective, the global average was about five tons of carbon dioxide per person in 2013.)

Should you drive instead? The longer the distance, the more efficient flying becomes, because cruising requires less fuel than other stages of flight. So it’s certainly better to fly cross-country than to drive solo. If you’re taking a short trip, it may be better to drive .

Flying nonstop can help, too: The more times you take off, the more fuel you use. According to a 2010 report from NASA, about 25 percent of airplane emissions come from landing and taking off . That includes taxiing, which is the largest source of emissions in the landing-takeoff cycle.

Some research suggests that flying in warmer temperatures is less efficient, since hot air is thinner and makes it harder for planes to get enough lift to take off.

If you fly, offset it.

When you buy carbon offsets, you pay to take planet-warming carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere in exchange for the greenhouse gases you put in. For example, you can put money toward replanting trees, which absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

You can buy offsets through some airlines — Delta , United and JetBlue , among others. But they don’t necessarily make it easy during the booking process; some airlines offer offsets only on separate sustainability pages. You can also buy offsets through other organizations.

To offset the almost 0.9-metric-ton carbon footprint of a single passenger traveling on United from New York to San Francisco in July and back again, Sustainable Travel International, which runs United’s offset program, offers two choices: Donate $8.95 to a wind farm in Texas or donate $10.75 to a forest conservation program in Peru.

95-Degree Days: How Extreme Heat Could Spread Across the World

Extremely hot days are expected to be much more frequent in the coming decades, potentially disrupting our everyday lives.

There’s some debate about the best way to offset — where and when tree-planting programs should occur for maximum effect, for example.

“Offsets can provide a useful way to help reduce your climate footprint,” said Peter Miller , a scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “But it’s important to make sure that you’re getting credible and actual real emissions reductions.”

To make sure that an offset program really does what it says, it has to meet several criteria, including that it be verified by an independent third party. All of the programs used by the major airlines are verified by such groups to make sure they provide the carbon reduction effects that the companies claim.

According to a study from the World Bank, the emissions associated with flying in business class are about three times as great as flying in coach.

In business class and first class, seats are bigger, so fewer people are being moved by the same amount of fuel. The study estimates that a first-class seat could have a carbon footprint as much as nine times as big as an economy one.

At last, coach passengers have something to be happy about: smaller carbon footprints.

Listen to the flight attendants.

Apparently, some of the rules about lowering and raising your window shades could help cut emissions.

When you land at a warm destination, flight attendants might ask you to shut your window shades, said Christine Boucher, a director of global environmental sustainability for Delta Air Lines.

The reason? It reduces the amount of fuel used to cool the aircraft when it’s sitting at the gate, she said.

This won’t do anything to counteract all the emissions the plane created while flying. But it’s an example of how far airlines will go to save fuel when they can. That helps their bottom lines, but also the environment.

Know your fuels.

Commercial airlines have been using biofuels in some passenger flights since 2011, mixed with conventional petroleum-based fuels in varying amounts. The biofuels, which can come from sources like natural oils, seaweed and agricultural waste, can help reduce planet-warming emissions from aviation.

Last year, United Airlines started using biofuels in all of its flights out of Los Angeles. The biofuel, made by a company called AltAir Fuels , is estimated to cut at least 60 percent of greenhouse gas emissions compared to regular jet fuel, according to United. (It cuts the emissions used to make the fuel as well as the emissions from burning it.)

Other companies and the American government are working to develop alternative biofuels to use in the airline industry. So far, however, a viable commercial market has not been developed.

In October, more than 190 countries agreed to reduce the carbon footprint of air travel through a combination of offsets and improvements in efficiency.

You can check the fuel efficiency of the airlines you fly. According to a report from the International Council on Clean Transportation, Alaska Airlines and Spirit Airlines were the most efficient domestic carriers in 2010. American Airlines and Allegiant Air were at the bottom of the list of the 15 largest airlines.

Learn More About Climate Change

Have questions about climate change? Our F.A.Q. will tackle your climate questions, big and small .

Cattle ranches have ruled the Amazon for decades. Now, new companies are selling something else: the ability of trees to lock away  planet-warming carbon.

Paris is becoming a city of bikes. Across China, people are snapping up $5,000 electric cars. Here’s a look at a few bright spots  for emission reductions.

In theory, online shopping can be more efficient  than driving to the store. But you may still want to think before you add to cart.

“Buying Time,” a new series from The New York Times, looks at the risky ways  humans are starting to manipulate nature  to fight climate change.

Did you know the ♻ symbol doesn’t mean something is actually recyclable ? Read on about how we got here, and what can be done.

Places the U.S. Government Warns Not to Travel Right Now

You may want to reconsider traveling to these countries right now.

Do Not Travel to These Countries

Getty Images

Crime, civil unrest and terrorism are common risk factors for countries that end up on the State Department's "Do Not Travel" advisory list.

In 2024, tourism across the globe is “well on track” to return to pre-pandemic levels, according to projections by UN Tourism.

Global conflicts and natural disasters , ranging from a series of coups across Africa to catastrophic earthquakes in the Middle East affected international travel patterns throughout 2023. Still, international tourist arrivals reached 87% of pre-pandemic levels in 2023, according to estimates by UN Tourism .

In January 2024 alone, about 4.6 million U.S. citizens left the country for international destinations, 17% higher than the same month in 2019, according to the International Trade Administration . But some destinations warrant more caution than others.

On Oct. 19, 2023, following the outbreak of war between Israel and Gaza and flaring tensions in the region, the U.S. State Department issued a worldwide caution advisory due to “increased tensions in various locations around the world, the potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations or violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests.” Prior to this update, the most recent worldwide caution advisory was issued in 2022 after a U.S. strike killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s successor as leader of Al Qaeda, causing “a higher potential for anti-American violence.” The worldwide caution advisory remains in effect.

The U.S. State Department also issues individual travel advisory levels for more than 200 countries globally, continually updating them based on a variety of risk indicators such as health, terrorism and civil unrest. Travel advisory levels range from Level 1, which means exercise normal precautions, to Level 4, which means do not travel there.

About 10% of countries – 19 total – have a Level 4: “Do Not Travel” advisory as of Mar. 4. In Level 4 countries, the U.S. government may have “very limited ability” to step in should travelers’ safety or security be at risk, according to the State Department. Crime, civil unrest, kidnapping and terrorism are common risk factors associated with Level 4 countries.

So far in 2024, the State Department made changes to the existing Level 4 advisories for Myanmar, Iran and Gaza, and moved Niger and Lebanon off of the Level 4 list.

Places With a Level 4 Travel Advisory

These are the primary areas the U.S. government says not to travel to right now, in alphabetical order:

Jump to Place: Afghanistan Belarus Burkina Faso Central African Republic Myanmar (formerly Burma) Gaza Haiti Iran Iraq Libya Mali Mexico North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) Russia Somalia South Sudan Sudan Syria Ukraine Venezuela Yemen

Afghanistan: The Central Asian country is wrestling with “terrorism, risk of wrongful detention, kidnapping and crime,” according to the State Department. U.S. citizens are specifically at risk for wrongful detention and kidnapping. In 2022, the government reinstituted public floggings and executions, and women’s rights are disappearing under Taliban control. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul halted operations in August 2021. Since the Taliban took control , many forms of international aid have been halted . Meanwhile, in 2023, some of the year’s deadliest earthquakes killed more than 2,400 in Afghanistan while the country continues to face a years-long extreme drought.

Belarus: Belarus, which shares a western border with Russia and a southern border with Ukraine, has been flagged for “Belarusian authorities’ continued facilitation of Russia’s war against Ukraine, the buildup of Russian military forces in Belarus, the arbitrary enforcement of local laws, the potential of civil unrest, the risk of detention, and the Embassy’s limited ability to assist U.S. citizens residing in or traveling to Belarus.” The U.S. Embassy in Minsk halted operations in February 2022.

Burkina Faso: Terrorism, crime and kidnapping are plaguing this West African nation. Terrorist attacks may target hotels, restaurants and schools with little to no warning, and the East and Sahel regions of the country are under a state of emergency. In late November 2023, hundreds died in clashes between state security forces and rebels near the country’s border with Mali. In June, more than 2 million people in Burkina Faso were displaced due to “violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.”

Central African Republic: While there have not been specific incidents of U.S. citizens targeted with violence or crime, violent crime and sudden closure of roads and borders is common. The advisory states that “Embassy Bangui’s limited capacity to provide support to U.S. citizens, crime, civil unrest, and kidnapping” is a factor in its assessment. Recent data from UNICEF suggests the country has the worst drinking water accessibility of all countries in 2022.

Myanmar (Formerly Burma): Armed conflict and civil unrest are the primary reasons to not travel to this Southeast Asian country, which experienced a military coup in early 2021. Limited health care resources, wrongful detentions and “areas with land mines and unexploded ordnance” are also listed as risk factors. After Ukraine and Israel, Myanmar had the highest conflict-related death toll in 2023.

Gaza : Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization as designated by the State Department, controls much of the Gaza Strip, which shares borders with both Israel and Egypt. On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas fighters broke across the border into Israel, killing hundreds of civilians and soldiers in a brazen attack that stunned Israelis. On Oct. 10, Israel hit the Gaza Strip with “the fiercest air strikes in its 75-year conflict” according to Reuters . The conflict has since escalated into war between Israel and Hamas, with regular Israeli airstrikes leading to extensive civilian casualties in Gaza. As of mid-December, nearly 85% of Gaza’s population were displaced from their homes, according to UN estimates . The region continues to face shortages of food , water, electricity and medical supplies , with conditions deemed “far beyond a humanitarian crisis.” The State Department warns of terrorism and armed conflict within Gaza’s borders.

Haiti: In July 2023, the Department of State ordered all non-emergency U.S. government personnel and family members to leave the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince in response to the increased risk of kidnapping and violent crime in the country , as well as armed conflict between gangs and police. The travel advisory states that cases of kidnapping “often involve ransom negotiations and U.S. citizen victims have been physically harmed during kidnappings.” The travel advisory also states that “U.S. citizens in Haiti should depart Haiti as soon as possible” given “the current security situation and infrastructure challenges.” A series of gang attacks in late September 2023 caused thousands to flee their homes, and many aid groups have been forced to cut or suspend operations amid escalating violence in recent months.

Iran: Terrorism, kidnapping and civil unrest are risk factors for all travelers to Iran, while U.S. citizens are specifically at risk for “arbitrary arrest.” U.S.-Iranian nationals such as students, journalists and business travelers have been arrested on charges of espionage and threatening national security. Executions in Iran rose sharply between 2021 and 2022, bringing the country’s total to nearly 580 people over the year, according to a report by Amnesty International released in May 2023.

Iraq: The State Department cites “terrorism, kidnapping, armed conflict [and] civil unrest” as cause for the country’s Level 4 distinction. Iraq’s northern borders, and its border with Syria, are especially dangerous. Since the escalation of conflict in neighboring Israel in October, there has been an increase in attacks against Iraqi military bases, which host U.S. troops and other international forces. In October 2023, non-emergency U.S. government personnel and eligible family members were ordered to leave the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.

Libya: Following the end of its dictatorship over a decade ago, Libya has been wrought with internal conflict between armed groups in the East and West. Armed conflict, civil unrest, crime, kidnapping and terrorism are all risk factors. U.S. citizens have been targets of kidnapping for ransom, with terrorists targeting hotels and airports frequented by Westerners. The U.S. Embassy in Tripoli halted operations in 2014. In mid-September 2023, floods, which some say were intensified by climate change , killed thousands in eastern Libya. Clashes between armed factions escalated across the country in the latter half of 2023, including in the capital city of Tripoli and in Benghazi.

Mali: After experiencing military coups in 2020 and 2021, crime, terrorism and kidnapping are all prevalent threats in this West African landlocked nation. In July 2022, non-emergency U.S. government employees and their families were ordered to leave the country due to higher risk of terrorist activity. A U.N. report in August 2023 said that military groups in the country, including both Mali security forces and possibly Russian Wagner mercenaries, were spreading terror through the use of violence against women and human rights abuses. Democratic elections were supposed to occur in February 2024, but Mali’s military junta postponed the plans indefinitely. In December, the U.N. officially ended a decade-long peacekeeping presence in the country, which had been among the agency’s deadliest missions, with hundreds of the mission personnel killed since 2013.

Mexico: Each state in Mexico is assessed separately for travel advisory levels. Six of the 32 states in Mexico are designated as Level 4: Colima, Guerrero, Michoacan, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas and Zacatecas. Crime and kidnapping are listed as the primary risk factors throughout the country. Nearly 112,000 people were missing across the country as of October, a number the U.N. has called “alarming.”

North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea): U.S. passports are not valid for travel “to, in, or through” this country, home to one of the world's longest-running dynastic dictatorships. The travel advisory states that the Level 4 distinction is due to “the continuing serious risk of arrest and long-term detention of U.S. nationals.” In July 2023, a U.S. soldier fled across the border into North Korea, where he is believed to be in North Korean custody, the first American detained in the North in nearly five years. He was returned to U.S. custody in September 2023.

Russia: The travel advisory for Russia cites its invasion of Ukraine , harassment of U.S. citizens by Russian government officials and arbitrary law enforcement as a few of the reasons for the Level 4 designation. Chechnya and Mount Elbrus are specifically listed as Level 4 regions. Terrorism, civil unrest, health, kidnapping and wrongful detention are all noted as risks.

Russia Invades Ukraine: A Timeline

Somalia: A severe drought resulting from five failed rainy seasons in a row killed 43,000 people in 2022, and caused a famine amid conflict with Islamist insurgents . Violent crime is common throughout Somalia , pirates frequent its coast off the Horn of Africa, and medical facilities, where they exist, have limited capacity. Crime, terrorism, civil unrest, health and kidnapping are all risk factors. In January 2024, some passengers aboard a U.N.-contracted helicopter were taken hostage by al-Shabaab militants after the vehicle crashed in central Somalia.

South Sudan: Crime, kidnapping and armed conflict are the primary risk factors for South Sudan, which separated from Sudan in 2011, making it the world’s newest country . Weapons are readily available, and travelers have been victims of sexual assault and armed robbery.

Sudan: The U.S. evacuated its embassy in Khartoum in April 2023, and the country closed its airspace due to the ongoing conflict in the country, only permitting humanitarian aid and evacuation efforts. Fighting has escalated in the region between two warring generals seeking to gain control after a military coup in 2021 ousted the country’s prime minister. Civil unrest is the primary risk factor for Africa’s third largest country by area. Crime, terrorism, kidnapping and armed conflict are also noted. The International Criminal Court began investigating alleged war crimes and violence against African ethnic groups in the country in 2023. Millions have fled their homes due to conflict, and the U.N. has said its efforts to provide aid have been hindered by a lack of support, safety and resources. As recently as December 2023, the United Nations warned of catastrophic famine , with millions of children at-risk for malnutrition .

Syria: The advisory states that “No part of Syria is safe from violence,” with terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping, armed conflict and risk of unjust detention all potential risk factors. U.S. citizens are often a target for kidnappings and detention. The U.S. Embassy in Damascus halted operations in 2012. Fighting in neighboring Israel has escalated since October, and the conflict has spilled over into Syria, where the U.S. has carried out air strikes following drone and rocket attacks against American troops in Syria and Iraq, triggered by the Israel-Hamas war.

Ukraine: Russian setbacks in their invasion of Ukraine buoyed hopes in Ukraine in 2023. However, Ukraine is a Level 4 country due to Russia’s invasion, with crime and civil unrest also noted as risk factors. The country’s forces shot down two Russian fighter jets on Christmas Eve 2023, in a move Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “sets the right mood for the entire year ahead.”

Venezuela: Human rights abuses and lack of health care plague this South American nation, which has been in a political crisis since 2014. In 2019, diplomatic personnel were withdrawn from the U.S. Embassy in Caracas. Threats in the country include crime, civil unrest, kidnapping, wrongful detention and poor health infrastructure.

Yemen: Six of the nine risk factors defined by the State Department – terrorism, civil unrest, health risks, kidnapping, armed conflict and landmines – are all present in Yemen. Despite private companies offering tourist visits to the Yemeni island of Socotra, the U.S. government argues those arranging such visits “are putting tourists in danger.” Civil war and cholera are also both present throughout the country. The U.S. Embassy in Sanaa halted operations in 2015. The country has experienced a relative lull in the civil war fighting, but as peace negotiations have gotten traction, flare ups in the fighting have jeopardized progress. Most recently, the U.S. and U.K. have carried out a series of airstrikes in the country, targeting Iran-backed Houthi sites.

Other Countries to Watch

Since Jan. 1, the State Department has updated travel advisories for 17 different countries as well as for the West Bank and Gaza, adding information about specific regions or risk factors, or simply renewing an existing advisory. Travel advisory levels can change based on several factors in a nation, such as increased civil unrest, policies that affect human rights or higher risks of unlawful detention.

The State Department has given about 25 countries an assessment of Level 3, meaning it recommends people “reconsider travel” to those destinations.

On Oct. 14, one week after the deadly Hamas attack on Israel, Israel and the West Bank were both moved from Level 2 to Level 3, while Gaza remains at Level 4. The region’s travel advisory was updated in November to reflect travel restrictions for certain government employees who have not already left the area, and it was updated again on Jan. 3.

Following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in early October, the U.S. State Department raised Lebanon ’s travel advisory level from a Level 3 to a Level 4 level due to “the unpredictable security situation related to rocket, missile, and artillery exchanges” between Israel and Hezbollah or other militant groups. In December, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut returned to normal staffing and presence, and on Jan. 29, the country was moved back to Level 3. Crime, terrorism, armed conflict, civil unrest, kidnapping and unexploded landmines are listed as the country’s primary risk factors. However, the country’s borders with Syria and with Israel, as well as refugee settlements within Lebanon, are specifically noted as Level 4 regions.

China became a Level 3 country in late 2020, with an update in December 2022 citing “the surge in COVID-19 cases, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, and COVID-19-related restrictions” as the reason for the advisory. In June 2023, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) was moved from the Level 3 to the Level 2 list, but travelers are still advised to be cautious in the area due to “arbitrary enforcement of local laws.” Meanwhile, Macau remains at Level 3.

Following an attempted coup in August 2023, Niger was elevated to Level 4 in August and the Department of State ordered all non-emergency U.S. government personnel and family members to leave the U.S. Embassy in Niamey. In early January 2024, the overall risk level for the country was lowered back to Level 3. Despite the new classification, the State Department still asks non-emergency government personnel and eligible family members to depart the country.

In mid-December 2023 there was an explosion at Guinea’s main fuel depot which has since affected access to health care and basic goods and services. The country was subsequently designated a Level 3 nation after having previously been Level 2. Concerns about civil unrest, health, crime and fuel shortages impacting local infrastructure were listed as the primary risk factors contributing to the change.

Several Level 3 countries are among the worst countries for human trafficking, as designated by the State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report . Level 3 countries on this list include Papua New Guinea, Guinea Bissau, China and Chad. There are also nine Level 4 countries designated as among the worst for human trafficking: Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, Syria, South Sudan and Venezuela.

Over 70 countries are currently at Level 2, meaning the State Department recommends travelers “exercise increased caution” when traveling to those destinations.

Botswana became the newest Level 2 country on Feb. 26 after having previously been Level 1, with crime noted as the primary risk factor.

France, which saw nationwide protests throughout 2023, has civil unrest and terrorism noted as risk factors for its Level 2 status, and Sweden’s Level 2 status is associated with risks of terrorism.

The Level 2 travel advisory for the Bahamas was updated in January to reflect water safety concerns. The advisory warns that “activities involving commercial recreational watercraft, including water tours, are not consistently regulated” and notes that government personnel are “not permitted to use independently operated jet-ski rentals on New Providence and Paradise Islands.” It also warns visitors to be mindful of sharks, weather and water conditions. The advisory also says that crime is a primary risk factor with gang-on-gang violence contributing to high homicide rates in some areas. Visitors are asked to “be vigilant” and to not physically resist robbery attempts.

Bangladesh 's Level 2 travel advisory was updated in October 2023 to add a note about the country’s general election , which took place Jan. 7, 2024. The advisory states “demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence.” The U.S. has since claimed the country’s election was not free nor fair.

In November 2023, several Level 2 travel advisories were updated with new cautionary information. The advisory for Ghana was updated to reflect threats against LGBTQI+ travelers specifically, noting “anti-LGBTQI+ rhetoric and violence have increased in recent years.” Meanwhile, the advisory for South Africa was updated in February to note that routes recommended by GPS may be unsafe with higher risk for crime.

Turkmenistan was moved off of the Level 2 list to become the newest addition to the Level 1 list on Jan. 22, meaning normal precautions are recommended but there are no risk factors causing travelers to practice increased caution.

The State Department asks travelers to pay attention to travel advisory levels and alerts , review country information pages for their destinations and read related country security reports before going abroad.

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Tags: Russia , Ukraine , Travel , Coronavirus , Travel Tips , Israel , Gaza , violence , Civil War , crime , kidnapping , international relations

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What Are the Pros and Cons of Traveling Abroad?

Find Out Whether International Travel Is Right for You

Visiting another country can reward you in many ways, but you will also encounter issues you would not face at home. Here are some points to consider as you think about traveling abroad.

What's in It for Me?

• History - There is something special about standing where history happened. Whether you want to take a photo from Catherine the Great’s doorstep at St. Petersburg’s Winter Palace or walk along the Great Wall of China, there is an unmistakable thrill that comes from being where history was made.
• World Cultures - Some travelers want to immerse themselves in another culture, trying everything from local foods to traditional sports. If you would like to travel like a local, choose a “home base” and rent an apartment or cottage where you can buy groceries, take walks, experience festivals and hang out with the neighborhood denizens. You will come away feeling you have really learned about your chosen city or region.
• Food Adventures - For some vacationers, it’s all about the food. You might want to taste all the dishes you have seen on an episode of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern or learn how to make veal marsala. If culinary adventures appeal to you, consider combining your trip abroad with cooking lessons or a wine tasting tour.
• Sense of Accomplishment - Travel can be challenging if you are unfamiliar with the language, customs and cuisine of your destination country. For some travelers, that’s part of the fun. When you unscramble the dinner menu or finally board the right bus, you will feel an adrenaline rush and a sense of pride.
• Dream Destinations - Perhaps your grandfather told you stories about Lake Como or played Hawaiian traditional music for you, and those experiences inspired you to consider traveling abroad. If you can supply an answer to “I’ve always wanted to visit (blank) because..." in five seconds or less, consider crossing a border or two during your next trip.
• Learning Experiences - According to the American Society on Aging, your brain continues to make new cells and establish nerve connections throughout life. For this to happen, you must exercise your brain. Combining travel with learning experiences can keep your brain as healthy as the rest of your body.
• Wonders of the World - Some travelers like to make lists of related destinations – such as the New 7 Wonders Of the World – and visit each place on their list. If you are looking for a worldwide travel project and climbing the Seven Summits isn’t your thing, a visit to each of the New 7 Wonders of the World could be just the project you’re looking for.
• Family Connections - Many travelers decide to visit their ancestors’ homeland on their first trip abroad. Genealogy is an extremely popular hobby, and there is nothing quite like doing your research on-scene . You might see the buildings your ancestors lived in or meet a distant cousin. Finding new information about your ancestors and immersing yourself in their culture will add new dimensions to your family history research.

What Problems Could I Encounter While Traveling Abroad?

• Language Difficulties - Learning a few words in another language can be a daunting experience. If language barriers bother you, but you would still like to visit another country, consider traveling with a tour group.
• Increased Cost - Transportation costs add up quickly. If you want to travel to another country, you may discover that transportation costs use up a large portion of your budget. Save money by booking a tour or cruise through a travel agent who has access to promotions and discounts.
• Poor Accessibility - Some destinations are not wheelchair-friendly. Elevators are narrow, important places do not have elevators or wheelchair ramps and curbs lack cuts. Subway travel might prove difficult – long staircases are a hallmark of subway stations – so you will need to check on elevator availability and learn how to request assistance before you travel. Check with a travel agent who specializes in accessible travel to find the best destinations for persons with your particular disability.
• Dietary Issues - If you like to eat certain types of food – meat and potatoes, for example – expect to pay a premium for the meals you prefer when you travel abroad. Dietary restrictions and food allergies may present special problems. Wherever you travel, bring along a menu translation card or dictionary so you can discuss dining options with the wait staff.
• Safety - While you can avoid most travel-related crimes by wearing a money belt, securing your valuables in hotel safes and staying away from high-crime areas, safety is still an important concern. You will need to identify safe places to stay and learn how to avoid scams and pickpockets .
• Passport Problems - If you are traveling on the spur of the moment, you might not have time to get a passport. As soon as you think you might want to travel abroad, find out how to apply for a passport and start the application process.

How Can I Minimize Problems and Still Travel Abroad?

If you do not want to plan every detail of your trip, consider an escorted tour or international cruise. An independent tour, where the tour operator handles travel logistics but does not hold you to a set itinerary, might help you deal with details while giving you more schedule flexibility. Traveling with an experienced companion could be a cost-conscious way to see the world with a readily available helper.

The Pros and Cons of Solo Travel

How to Find an Ethical, Authentic Food Tour

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20 Reasons Traveling Is The Worst Thing To Do And We Should Never Ever Leave Our Bed

Imagine finally making the trip to Giza, picturing a magnificent vista, and instead seeing a Pizza Hut and a Starbucks between the Sphinx’s paws

It’s funny, isn’t it, how many ideas seemed great at the time? Whether it’s a relationship (your mama warned you about them, but you didn’t listen), a questionable hairstyle, an unfortunate tattoo or your choice of major, there are so many things we can come to bitterly regret later.

I mean, hindsight won’t help you when your parents bust out the home videos and there you are, sporting a goatee and a half-afro like Ross in the Friends flashback episodes. Your finest hour, that was not.

When it comes to travel, a similar sort of rule applies. When friends and family tell you of the exotic places they’ve been to, they sometimes tend to leave out the less savoury parts of the story. The dark side of travelling. The rampant mosquitos using their unmentionables as a chew toy. If a veteran cruiser is trying to sell you on the idea, it’s probably best not to tell you about that time the ocean had your stomach doing the Gangnam Style dance inside your body.

Besides, a lot of us, for a whole variety of reasons, prefer to experience travel vicariously. It can be a darn expense business, depending on where you’re going and what you’re doing, and that’s a real barrier of entry for most of us. Who are we, Kim Kardashian?

Needless to say, I’m a huge fan of travelling, and tongues are firmly in cheek here. With that said, though, just for fun, here’s a snarky rundown of 20 reasons you should never travel any further than the refrigerator and back.

20 We Have Jobs, You Know

I’m sure you’ve heard the super-wise old saying, “Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” As Most Powerful Life demonstrates, these words (and variations thereof) have been attributed to everyone from Confucius to Mark Twain, which just proves that nobody in heckola really knows what they’re talking about.

Job satisfaction is certainly a huge factor in our overall happiness, but let’s face it: for the vast majority of the average person’s week, our jobs are our lives. Aside from a few precious days each year, we can’t just abandon them to go sunning our back fat in the Bahamas.

19 I Wonder How Much One Of My Kidneys Will Fetch?

Tying in with that first point, we have the reason why our jobs consume so much of our lives in the first place. Namely, because we need money to function. Increasing amounts of it, too.

Have you noticed how expensive everything’s getting? Too darn expensive is how expensive. To explain this phenomenon, a super-wise scientist (by which I mean Wyclef Jean, obviously) once explained, “dollar, dollar bills, y’all.”

Now, of course, travel on a shoestring is completely possible and endlessly fulfilling, as we showed in 20 Cheap Ways We Can Travel Through Europe (And Save Hundreds). The sad fact is, though, the luxury travel some of us envisage is just beyond our means.

18 You Might Catch Something Exotic And Scary

Now, some of us prefer to keep our travel domestic. After all, our home countries, whichever they may be, offer an embarrassment of riches beyond those we see on an everyday basis.

On the other hand, when some of us travel, we really travel. Vacations can find us visiting the other side of the darn world. What does that mean? It means exposure to a whole range of exotic new viruses and bacteria, which your colon does not want to get on first name terms with.

The Center For Disease Control And Prevention have put together a handy-dandy guide to what’s breaking out where, and it’s enough to make anyone want to lock themselves in their homes for life.

17 All The Other Dangers Too

So, yes. Maybe you’ve worked like a beast of burden all year, and you’re not going to let a little thing like a polio outbreak stop your vacation. You’re a fearless rebel who cannot be tamed, you have no bedtime, you only call your ma eight times a day, and you are going to sun your cheeks on that beach.

Good for you, friend. However, health concerns are just the start of it. With the current state of things around the globe, you’ve got to be super wary of where and when you go. It doesn’t matter which shot you’ve had, it might be best to hold off.

16 What If They Don’t Allow Children?

So there you are. Footloose and fancy-free, with some actual money to your name. Where are you off to? Well, just about anywhere you fancy, really. The whole planet is a metaphorical oyster with your name on… or something.

Spare a thought for the families among us, though. Parents and guardians (who need dang vacations more than anybody, let’s be honest) have some strict limits on their options. For one thing, as Money Saving Expert reports, they sometimes face fines for taking children out of school during term times (and the holidays tend to be much more expensive, of course).

For another, a lot of hotels and resorts proudly advertise the fact that they’re adults-only. Which is helpful.

15 What If They *DO* Allow Children?

Then, of course, there’s the inverse of that problem. Maybe you’re one of those super-organised families that have everything all worked out (these people do exist, I’m told). You know where you’re going, you know your little darlings will be welcome, everything’s looking rosy for your vacation.

Sadly for you, your two-year-old is having mixed feelings about the air pressure and turbulence on the airplane, and has decided to express them by screaming throughout the whole six-hour flight to Iceland.

The funny thing about this situation is, your fellow passengers all give you, the parents, funny looks. What are they expecting you to say? Oh, sorry, I didn’t realise my child’s intense anguish was disturbing you. I’ll give them a Vulcan nerve pinch immediately.

And what if your child suffers from travel sickness on top of that? And wants to pack absolutely everything they own?

14 Been There, Done That

In the last several decades, travel has taken off in a big way. A huge way. The industry has advanced in leaps and bounds, and this wide world of ours is more connected than past generations could ever have imagined.

The upshot of all this, sadly, is that the magic of travel can be seen to have been diminished a bit. It’s become mainstream.

There you are, excitedly telling your in-laws about your recent trip to Europe. Do you know what they’re thinking the whole time? They’re thinking, oh, great, another look-at-me-I’m-holding-up-the-Leaning-Tower-of-Pisa selfie. Nobody has ever done that before, you fearless photographical innovator, you.

13 Tourists? More Like Targets

So, yes. World-renowned tourist destinations like the Colosseum, the Eiffel Tower, Chichen Itza and the pyramids are truly iconic, and very, very popular. It naturally follows that, where naïve tourists gather in droves, opportunistic thieves will always be prowling around.

As Rick Steves reports, visitors to certain pickpocketing hotspots will need to be darn careful with their valuables. It can be crushing to have something stolen, whether it’s of commercial or sentimental value. That’s one way to put you off of travelling for life. These people are pros, and some of the tactics they’ll employ will shock the best of us.

12 Don’t Drink The Water!

I still remember my first experience of travelling abroad as a child. The whole don’t-drink-the-water thing was completely alien to me, and holy heckola did it make the 12-year-old me paranoid. I felt like I was dang well playing Russian roulette just brushing my teeth in the morning.

I mean, sure, travelling allows you to experience some of the most stunning vistas the world has to offer, but always remember: if you so much as eat a piece of lettuce, you’ll be vomiting both for accuracy and distance for about a week afterwards . Travelling isn’t as glamorous as it’s cracked up to be, friends.

11 You Sure As Heckola CAN Feel The Movement

Speaking of glamorous, cruise ships just define swanky travel in my books. That’s what the whole experience is all about: great food, classy entertainment, stateroom, cocktail dresses and tuxedos… it’s all very lah-di-dah.

Back when I was a nervous first-time cruiser, I was told that you barely feel the movement of the ship, if at all. The fact is, though, you’re still floating out there on the darn ocean, and the ocean doesn’t care if you’re trying to eat a swanky meal. The food’s not so swanky once you’ve seen it in reverse, friends.

Still, this is going to depend on all sorts of factors, like the time of year and where exactly you are in the world.

10 Jet Lag. Just… Jet Lag

If you’ve ever taken a long-haul flight, you’ll know exactly where I’m going with this one. There’s no further description needed here. Jet lag is just the worst.

Airplanes are wondrous, impossible things. I know science has done its best to explain how these great metal behemoths fly, but my feeble brain will never be able to grasp the concept. It’s all confusing enough, even without the fact that you can fall asleep on a flight and wake up (depending on where you’re going) sometime yesterday.

There’s no wonder that we take a long time to adjust after such a trip. The awful, woozy sensation we call jet lag is a bad time all around.

9 The Airport: A Microcosm Of Human Chaos

I was plagued by travel sickness as a child. As such, my memories of vacations are very conflicted. While I loved being away, I hated actually getting there (and coming home again, naturally). To this day, airports make me every possible kind of uncomfortable.

Not only did I feel that sense of impending doom, but airports are just bizarre. They’re a place where every dang rule of society doesn’t apply. There’s a guy having a beer at 5:30am. There’s a woman having a pizza for breakfast. Anything goes.

It’s just chaotic, frustrating and deeply tedious. Like the hospital, nobody’s there because they want to be. It’s a means to an end.

8 It’s All Just Another Contest

The crucial thing about travelling is, you’ve got to be sure that you’re doing it for yourself, nobody else. In today’s super competitive, check-out-my-every-riveting-moment-of-my-life-on-social-media world, nobody seems to have gotten the memo about oversharing. From personal details to 18,000 vacation photos, it’s all here.

Vacations are your crucial break from the working year. They’re for you, first and foremost. If you’re going somewhere for bragging rights, or anything like that, you’re just plain doing it wrong. You should probably stay home.

It’s not about pictures you hope will collect a lot of likes, favourites, retweets, comments and little heart emojis.

7 It’s Just Stress-Amundo Up In Here

As I say, being on vacation can be sweet, sweet relief. Depending on what’s been going on in your life at the time, and how hard you’ve been working, it can be nothing short of essential. Here’s the rub, though: you’ve actually got to get to that point first.

All of the pre-vacation preparation is just a nightmare. World Travel Family has written an excellent piece on what they call ‘packing anxiety,’ and it rings so true for so many of us.

There’s always that moment, when you’re knee-deep in your shorts, your partner’s shirts (why on earth do you need two shirts for every day?) and a pair of sunglasses you just cannot find, that you consider calling the whole thing off.

6 Don’t Forget To Pack Your Summer Body

Tying right in with the whole stress thing is the concept of the summer body. Right around New Year's Eve or so, the motivational posts (or demotivational, as the case may be) start popping out of the woodwork, reminding us that it’s only so-and-so weeks until the summer.

Is your body beach-ready? That’s the question we’re always asked. We all have our insecurities and hangups, big and small, and this is an excellent way to bring them all out to play. Just what the heckola is a beach body? Do we have to bring it along with us, in our bags with our passports and other vacation essentials?

I should go easy on the fries, you say? A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips? Forget it, let’s just cancel the vacation.

5 Umm… Que?

If you’re a seasoned traveller, you’ve probably experienced that feeling at least once. You know the one. You went in overconfident, thinking that your high school French and a quick flip through a phrasebook would be enough. Suddenly, an actual real-life French person is all up in your grill, speaking actual real-life French at your actual not-French ears, and you regret every life decision you’ve made to date.

When you go to one of the busier tourist destinations, you’ll usually find that people are able to speak English. A least enough for you to get by. Off the beaten track, though, the opposite is often expected of you.

4 General Culture Shock

Following on from that last point, a lot of the more popular destinations are very reliant on tourism for their income. As such, yes, many will be very welcoming, friendly and willing to help a poor lost visitor.

Other times, though, you’ll experience some major culture shock. You’re here for new experiences, sure, but some of them will be a little newer than you had in mind. Remember how willing you were to try out some of the local cuisine, until you actually saw the local cuisine? It’s enough to send you scurrying over to the nearest McDonald’s (there’s always a McDonald’s).

3 You Just Can’t Get The Staff These Days

As we’ve seen over the course of this rundown, vacations aren’t all fun and games. You’d think that would be the case (it’s right there in the name, after all), but it’s not that easy. Far from it.

Everything that goes into the packing, arranging the flights, the trips and such… it’s super stressful. Even if you’re totally organised and have all of that under control (which you don’t, let’s not lie to ourselves), there are far too many outside factors to contend with. Delays, strikes, technical problems and all of these things strand families at airports for days at a time every year, and it’s crazy.

2 It Just Can’t Live Up To The Hype

Here’s another crucial factor. When you’ve planned a trip to one of your bucket list spots or attractions, it’s an incredible feeling. For instance, I’ve wanted to see the Colosseum in Rome for as long as I can remember, and finally did so this summer. The feeling of actually travelling there give me a buzz almost as exciting as standing in its presence.

It’s not always that way, though, unfortunately. People do have a way of ruining things, don’t they? Imagine finally making the trip to Giza, picturing a magnificent vista, and instead seeing a Pizza Hut and a Starbucks between the Sphinx’s paws . Sure, I’m being facetious with that, but it’s not far wrong.

1 Boring Old Life Gets In The Way

There we are, then. We’re all huge fans of travel here, and we’ve had a lot of fun taking a snarky look at some reasons why people aren’t so keen on the lifestyle. Some of these are completely legitimate, such as being unable to afford trips (we can help with that; as you’ve seen, we’ve got some excellent hints and tips on travel on a budget).

In most cases, though, the simple factor holding us back is responsibility. Work, children, the other elements associated with general adulting… As with most things in life, you’ve got to do your best to achieve that balance.

Resources: Most Powerful Life, CDC.gov, Money Saving Expert, Rick Steves, World Travel Family.

Reader's Digest

13 Red Flags You’re About to Stay at a Bad Hotel

Posted: November 18, 2023 | Last updated: March 21, 2024

A bad hotel can ruin your vacation

Years ago, when I first started traveling extensively for my job, I learned an important lesson: The place you stay can make or break your entire trip and color your memories of a destination in a positive or negative way. Case in point? My first trip to Edinburgh was spent in a freezing youth hostel, where we piled our clothes on top of us to keep warm at night. It wasn't until I visited again years later and didn't stay at a bad hotel that I started to warm up to that city!

Accommodations don't have to be five-star in order to be enjoyable and welcoming—modest  hotels and motels  (and yes, even youth hostels if you're traveling on a tight budget ) can provide great service and comfortable rooms. But, oh, the bad ones. Whether it's run-down rooms and absent amenities, snitty staff or some of the  gross things hotels do to save money , a bad hotel will leave a bad taste in your mouth for years to come.

But just like the  warning signs of bad restaurants , bad hotels often sound alarm bells in advance. To help you avoid, or at least prepare for, a less-than-pleasant hotel stay, we asked travel experts to weigh in on the top red flags that you're about to stay at a bad hotel. It may be too late to cancel your reservation, but at least you can check your expectations at the door. Of course, once you’re there, remember to be a good guest by refraining from these  things you shouldn't do in a hotel room .

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The photos look fake or generic

You may not realize a hotel is iffy until you arrive, but you can minimize the chances of that happening by looking before you book. Check out the photos on the hotel's site with a discerning eye. "Hotels with a good reputation and nothing to hide will ensure that the quality of their photos is professional, accurate and not overly edited," says Janet Semenova, co-founder of Boutique Travel Advisors. "Hotels whose photos are misleading or heavily photoshopped generally have something to hide." You can also avoid Airbnb scams this way. Pro tip: Look for gradient lines, which indicate that colors were touched up.

And don't stop there. Also compare the website's images with photos from real guests on travel review sites. If you notice discrepancies, there's a good chance it's a sign of a bad hotel, and you shouldn't ignore it.

The mattresses look uncomfortable

When I'm researching hotels online, my top red flag in hotel photos are bad mattresses. You know, the ones with the sharp corners, cheap-looking bed covers, sagging middles and pancake-flat pillows? If the mattress looks uncomfortable in photos, just imagine what it's going to be like to sleep on. It's already difficult to get a good night's sleep in a strange bed—you're at least entitled to a decent mattress and pillows! I look for photos that show neatly made beds with clean-looking covers, "plump" and inviting-looking mattresses  and abundant pillows that ensure you'll have options for resting your tired head.

Key photos are missing

It's not just what you do see in hotel photos that matters—look for what's not there too. If the website only shows photos of the exterior of the hotel or all-inclusive resort , there's almost definitely a reason that there are none of the inside. Even leaving out photos of a significant aspect of the rooms (think: the bathrooms or the beds) can be a red flag. And several photos of the same room or reception area, taken from different angles, means the hotel is pretending to be something it's not. I'm also wary of close-up photos of room or hotel details, like an image of bathroom amenities or a bouquet of flowers, when the "big picture" images are scarce.

All the good reviews are old

You want to know what's happening at that hotel right now, so old reviews aren't necessarily going to tell you much. And this goes for the positive reviews in addition to the negative ones—even the most glowing reviews can't be taken at face value. "The date of a review is just as important as the review itself," notes travel writer Cassandra Brooklyn. "A hotel may have stellar reviews, but if they're all more than six months old, something dramatic may have changed since then." Even if the hotel's overall rating is high, it's a big red flag when the majority of recent reviews are negative. You'll also want to watch out for this red flag at hair salons and, of course, restaurants.

The hotel fires back at negative reviews

A couple of negative reviews need not completely turn you off a hotel, particularly if the guests' complaints seem overly picky or are regarding things you don't care about (like the view). "There will always be complaints or misunderstandings, so that in itself isn't a reason to think the hotel is necessarily bad," says travel blogger Jurga Rubinovaite. What is a red flag, though, is an unprofessional reaction to a negative review. For instance, Rubinovaite says you'll want to take note "if they don't show concern about what happened or if their responses are rude." That's indicative of how they value and treat their guests. Sadly, these two hotel chains have the worst reputations in the industry.

Safety measures are lax

Anyone should be able to request, in advance, a room on an upper floor or a room with no balcony or exterior door. But these safety features are especially important for women traveling alone . If the hotel won't accommodate your request (though in fairness, some motels and low-rise properties may not be able to), keep scrolling.

Unfortunately, some warning signs are apparent only after you've walked through the door. Travel writer Nicole Trilivas sees red (flags) when the reception staff say her room number out loud as she checks in. "Good hotels know to be discreet," she says, "especially as it's a safety issue for me when I'm traveling alone." Travel writer Sunny Fitzgerald also always inspects her hotel-room door. "If the deadbolt on your room shows visible signs of tampering or damage," she says, "ask for a new room or find a safer hotel."

There's ongoing construction or renovations

Hotels may periodically renovate or expand, but they need to let guests know in advance, usually with an announcement on the website. Here's where it pays to use Google Maps and search for recent photos, including street-view shots. If you see signs of scaffolding or other construction work, including road work, either at the hotel or nearby, check the date of the photo. If it's recent and the construction is ongoing, be prepared for an early wake-up call and no afternoon naps! "That fun noise may start at 6 a.m.," says travel writer Jennifer Ceaser, and last all day.

If you have any doubts, call the hotel and ask about the current situation. If they share that there's ongoing construction work, ask for an upgrade to a quieter room farther away from the fracas. And if they don't disclose the possibility of construction noise and disruptions, you've got grounds to ask for a refund or a discount.

The price just doesn't seem to fit

"If a price looks too good to be true, it probably is," warns Leona Bowman, a luxury travel blogger at Wandermust Family. "If you are getting a five-star hotel at a two-star hotel price, it is worth doing some more investigating." Many hotels are now doing "dynamic pricing," or charging higher rates when demand is high, and vice versa when demand is low. So if you find a hotel with unusually low prices in high season, your bad-hotel Spidey sense should kick in.

Brooklyn recommends taking a quick look at the price of other, similar hotels in the area to see if the charge seems reasonable. "If the hotel is much cheaper than surrounding hotels with similar amenities, there's probably a reason that the hotel can't charge higher … [such as] terrible service," she says. Here's how to get a good rate on a hotel that you can trust.

The hotel has a late check-in and early check-out

There's nothing like arriving to a hotel after a long drive or flight and finding that you can't access your room yet, due to the hotel's late-afternoon check-in policies—some of which can go as late as 4 or 5 p.m. While this might not be the sign of a truly "bad" hotel, it is a red flag that they're not putting guests' comfort first. Couple this with an early check-out time of 10 or 11 a.m., and you're paying big bucks to occupy a room for just 15 to 16 hours. Plus, early check-outs are annoying and inconvenient. "Any hotel that makes guests check out at 10 or 11 a.m. is a bad hotel in my book!" says travel writer Marla Cimini.

If your room isn't ready when you arrive, at minimum the hotel should be able to offer a place to freshen up, as well as free luggage storage. And they should call or text you if your room is ready early. For late check-outs, make sure to ask 24 hours in advance, and be aware that some hotels will charge for that extra hour you want to remain in the room.

Common areas appear poorly maintained in photos

If a hotel common area looks dark in website photos, that might be intentional. Dark lighting can hide a multitude of sins, such as frayed and stained carpeting, scuffed walls and worn-out furnishings. Also watch for dirty amenities (both in hotel photos and those posted by guests), such as a pool that's green, moldy or "closed for maintenance." These are red flags that management doesn't care, is in over their heads or both. This is especially disappointing when you booked the hotel especially for this amenity—like, for instance, a steam room for relaxing or a pool for the kids. That said, you should be aware that some amenities are disappearing from hotels altogether.

Breakfast is stingy

While many hotels had to switch to pre-packaged goods during the pandemic (and some eliminated breakfast service altogether), those health and safety restrictions have largely been lifted, which means we can go back to fresh croissants! But first, you'll want to make sure the hotel's offerings are all you're hoping for. Before you book, pay close attention to guest photos—not management's photos—of the breakfast area. "If it consists of just one small counter with a few packaged cereals, instant coffee, cream in a powder form and disposable plates and utensils, you should adjust your expectations accordingly," says Fitzgerald. If you can't switch hotels, she adds, "plan to order delivery or go out for fresh food and good coffee."

And if you're already committed to the hotel breakfast , we'd caution you to avoid any items on the breakfast buffet that look past their prime. Think: dried-out pastries, fruit that doesn't look fresh or any cooked items that look like they might be yesterday's leftovers.

The hotel has dodgy payment and refund policies

If a hotel's payment and cancellation policies are far more rigid than those of its competitors, it may be a sign of a business that's not trustworthy. While it's quite normal for a hotel or online booking agency to require a credit card to reserve a room, it's less common for a hotel to charge you for all or part of your stay upfront. Typically, the credit card is there in the event you're a no-show, in which case, one or more nights of your stay will be charged to the card, in accordance with their cancellation policies. But when a hotel charges you in advance and has a no-cancellation, no-refund policy, then it's buyer beware. "With both those things," says travel writer Valentina Valentini, "if they require payment up front but don't allow cancellations, I'm outta there."

In all cases, you should review a hotel's cancellation policies before you click through with your payment info. Lower nightly rates may be non-refundable and non-cancelable, so book these only if you're 100% sure you'll be making that trip.

The drive-by disappoints

If you're on a road trip or just like to travel with spontaneity, you may prefer to choose your hotels as you go—say, by pulling off the highway and seeing what you can find. But you can start telling the good hotels from the bad hotels before you even step out of the car: Are the signs neat and orderly, with no neon letters burned out or missing? Julie McCool, a travel blogger in Fairfax, Virginia, suggests that travelers pay attention to these literal signs. "If the hotel won't maintain the first branding you see, they may be ignoring maintenance issues throughout the property," she tells Reader's Digest .

Be sure to check the grounds too. If there's a lawn, is it neatly mowed? Is the parking lot clean? Does the building itself look well-maintained, or does it need a power-washing and a good coat of paint? If the outside of the hotel looks shabby, keep driving—there's zero reason to expect that the inside will look any better.

Additional reporting by Meghan Jones.

• Janet Semenova, co-founder of Boutique Travel Advisors
• Cassandra Brooklyn , travel writer and founder of Escaping NY
• Jurga Rubinovaite , travel blogger at Full Suitcase
• Nicole Trilivas , travel writer
• Sunny Fitzgerald , travel writer
• Jennifer Ceaser , travel writer
• Leona Bowman, luxury travel blogger at Wandermust Family
• Marla Cimini , travel writer
• Valentina Valentini , travel writer
• Julie McCool , travel blogger at Fun in Fairfax VA

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Why cracking your knuckles is so satisfying—and if it’s really a bad habit

Your friends and family may have told you knuckle cracking is bad for you. But is it really as harmful as some might think?

Cracking your joints can evoke a myriad of reactions, from cringing to pure satisfaction. Despite its bad reputation, understanding the mechanics behind this practice can shed light on why it's such a gratifying experience. Here’s what you need to know.  

Why is joint cracking so satisfying?

The popping sound that comes from your joints isn’t actually anything “cracking,” per say. Inside the joint capsule, you have synovial fluid which has gas bubbles, mostly carbon dioxide and nitrogen. “Stretching the joint capsule to its end range of motion creates almost like a vacuum," says Matthew Cavanaugh , a chiropractor based in Lafayette, Louisiana. “The speed in which [the adjustment] is done causes that gas bubble to dissolve quickly inside that joint capsule.”  

If it’s just a gas bubble collapsing , why is it so satisfying? Well, it can actually provide a physical sensation of release and a temporary increase in joint mobility , says Rojeh Melikian, an orthopedic spine surgeon at DISC Sports and Spine Center in California. “It really does feel good,” he says, adding that one common theory is that the abrupt motion can also stimulate the nerve endings around the joint, leading to a decrease in pain and a release in endorphins, although this hasn’t been proven.

( Here are some bedtime myths, debunked .)

But there's more to it than just physiology; there's a psychological aspect at play as well. The act of cracking joints can become a habitual ritual, reinforced over time, possibly triggering a placebo effect . Some people get a rush just from hearing the sound of popping. “I recently discovered the ASMR videos on TikTok,” says Cavanaugh. “There are people that just want to hear the popping sound. They don't even get the physical release.”

Is cracking your joints bad for you?  

Despite what friends and family may have warned, habitual joint cracking does not appear to increase the risk of developing arthritis. Although this is a common scare tactic, “ studies [dating back from 1998] have shown no significant correlation between habitual knuckle cracking and the presence of hand osteoarthritis,” says Melikian.

“Some studies have indicated that habitual knuckle crackers may experience more hand swelling and reduced grip strength ,” he adds, although it seems the jury is still out on grip strength: A 2017 study in Hand Surgery & Rehabilitation examined 35 habitual knuckle crackers (at least five times a day) against non-crackers and found that while the knuckle crackers developed thicker metacarpal head cartilage (the cartilage around the knuckles on your palm) than the control group, their grip strength was not negatively affected.  

However, it's not all smooth sailing. Larger joints, such as the neck and spine, require careful handling. These areas are intricate and prone to injury and side effects, such as   headaches, tingling in the limbs, and dizziness , if mishandled. In severe cases, cervical spine manipulation has even been associated with arterial dissection, or tearing of the inner artery walls, which can lead to stroke.  

During self-adjustment, applying excessive force or using improper techniques can potentially cause damage to ligaments, muscles, or nerves, as the neck and spine are “complex structures that are subject to a variety of stresses and strains every day,” Melikian says. Your vertebrae also surround the highly-sensitive spinal cord, so if you’re going to attempt to crack this area on your own, Cavanaugh recommends using what he calls a “high-velocity, low-amplitude thrust,” which is a quick, gentle push delivered over a short distance.  

( Do you really need 10,000 steps a day? Here’s what the science says .)

“The main problem with self-adjusting is that people might use the wrong amount of force or push the joint in the wrong direction,” says Cavanaugh. “As long as you’re going with normal joint motion, it’s pretty safe to do.” One example is twisting knuckle joints. “Fingers don’t twist, they bend,” he says. “When you twist the joint that’s not supposed to be twisted, you’re straining the ligaments and it can cause trauma to that joint which leads to inflammation.” If you experience any pain during self-adjustments, stop and see a professional.  

While the majority of research has shown that habitual joint cracking doesn’t have any major long-term effects, the stigma prevails. “Are you a knuckle cracker?” I ask Melikian. “I am not,” he replies. “I need my hands for work.”  

For Hungry Minds

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Florida's 6-week abortion ban is now in effect, curbing access across the South

Stephanie Colombini

Thousands of abortion rights protesters rallied in Tampa on Oct. 2, 2021. Stephanie Colombini/WUSF hide caption

Thousands of abortion rights protesters rallied in Tampa on Oct. 2, 2021.

TAMPA, Fla. — Starting today, people can no longer access legal abortions in Florida beyond six weeks of pregnancy, except in rare circumstances.

The restriction replaces a 15-week ban that's been in effect since July 2022, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade .

Abortion rights supporters say it will dramatically curb access to the procedure for thousands of residents in Florida and around the South. Proponents of the ban say it "protects life."

Abortion rights on the ballot may not be bad news for Republicans everywhere

Voters will have a say on the matter in November when a proposal to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution will appear on the election ballot. Regardless of what happens this fall, the ban could have far-reaching effects.

Opponents of the ban stress that many people don't realize they are pregnant at six weeks. But for those that do, abortion services remain available in the state until that time frame.

Abortion care providers in the state like Planned Parenthood are doing ultrasounds earlier and have extended their hours to accommodate as many patients as they can.

"We want to be able to help everyone with information in order to access care as quickly as possible," says Barbara Zdravecky, interim CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida.

Still, she expects many patients will be too far along when they reach out for help.

"The emotional turmoil that's going to happen, the anger, the fear, the anxiety is going to be great," says Zdravecky, who adds centers are ramping up support staff to respond to patients' concerns and help them navigate their options.

Adding to scheduling challenges are Florida's 24-hour mandatory waiting period and a ban on using telemedicine for abortions. Patients have to attend two in-person appointments, one for a consultation and another for the procedure at least one day later.

The South loses a major abortion access point

An examination room in a clinic that provides abortion care on April 30, 2024, in Jacksonville, Fla. Joe Raedle/Getty Images hide caption

An examination room in a clinic that provides abortion care on April 30, 2024, in Jacksonville, Fla.

Florida joins eleven other states in the South that have already severely restricted abortion in recent years, either with six-week bans or total bans. Residents in those places have relied on Florida to access the procedure.

Out-of-state residents fueled a steady increase in abortions in Florida despite the 15-week ban. Nearly 8,000 people traveled to the state last year for abortions, according to data from the state Agency for Health Care Administration. That's nearly 10% of all patients.

"We don't want to be an abortion tourism destination," Gov. Ron DeSantis said last fall .

Florida is no longer an option for the rest of the region. North Carolina allows abortions until 12 weeks of pregnancy, but has a 72-hour mandatory waiting period with in-person requirements, so it isn't always a viable alternative.

Shots - Health News

How florida and arizona supreme court rulings change the abortion access map.

Instead, advocates that help people access abortions are advising them to travel further to places like Virginia, Illinois or Washington, D.C. That will become increasingly difficult if clinics in states with expanded abortion access struggle to accommodate the influx of patients.

"We're estimating about 90% of our callers are going to need to go out-of-state and that we'll have a large increase in callers because this is going to be a whole new cost for people seeking abortions," says McKenna Kelley, a volunteer board member with the Tampa Bay Abortion Fund.

Abortion funds can help pregnant people cover the cost of abortion procedures and relieve some of the logistical challenges associated with seeking care. But paying for flights, hotel stays and other expenses associated with long-distance travel is much more challenging than giving someone a ride to a nearby clinic.

While what Kelley calls "rage donations" poured in from supporters angry about the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision in 2022, abortion funds say Florida's recent ban hasn't been met with the same response. Organizers fear they won't be able to help everyone in need, but say funds are working together to form a stronger support network around the country.

Even with assistance, travel may not be an option for some people, which means they may choose to self-manage their abortions or carry unwanted pregnancies to term.

"This truly is an American health care crisis," says Zdravecky with Planned Parenthood.

Supporters of the ban suggest pregnancy centers that oppose abortion as alternatives

Orlando Police officers move back anti-abortion rights protesters near the "Rally to Stop the Six-Week Abortion Ban" in Orlando, Fla., on April 13, 2024. Joe Raedle/Getty Images hide caption

Orlando Police officers move back anti-abortion rights protesters near the "Rally to Stop the Six-Week Abortion Ban" in Orlando, Fla., on April 13, 2024.

Opponents of abortion rights in Florida advocated for the state's six-week ban and have also been busy gearing up for its implementation.

"Our position is we need to protect unborn children, we need to celebrate life, protect life, that's the chief role of government," says John Stemberger, president of Liberty Counsel Action, a religious liberty organization that supports abortion bans.

The group has been briefing the nearly 200 crisis pregnancy centers in Florida about the law and how to prepare for a potential increase in demand for services, he says.

These centers are usually run by faith-based organizations. They encourage pregnant women not to get abortions and to consider parenting or adoption instead. They sometimes offer free ultrasounds or baby supplies.

"We really want to appeal to young mothers or even older mothers who are in what we'd consider a crisis pregnancy to basically think differently about the issue," says Stemberger.

The law that imposes the six-week abortion ban also increased funding for pregnancy centers to $25 million, up from roughly $4 million in 2022.

Some crisis pregnancy centers have been known to provide people with misleading or inaccurate medical information. There have also been calls for more oversight.

Adoption services in the state are also preparing to support more birth mothers who may choose that option.

Florida's six-week ban includes exceptions for some vulnerable communities and when a mother or fetus' life is in danger.

Survivors of rape, incest or human trafficking can access abortions until 15 weeks of pregnancy under the new law, but it mandates they provide documentation, such as a police report or medical record, and providers may be obligated to report the crime in some cases.

Many survivors don't feel safe or comfortable reporting assaults, says Stephanie Loraine Piñeiro, executive director of the abortion fund Florida Access Network. She calls the requirements "unrealistic" and "incredibly cruel."

As with the previous 15-week ban, there are exceptions to save the pregnant person's life or avert "substantial and irreversible" bodily harm. Patients can also access abortions until the third trimester if physicians detect the fetus has a fatal abnormality.

Voters can weigh in on the ban in November

Supporters of President Joe Biden cheer as they await his speech about reproductive freedom at Hillsborough Community College-Dale Mabry Campus in Tampa, Fla., on April 23, 2024. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Supporters of President Joe Biden cheer as they await his speech about reproductive freedom at Hillsborough Community College-Dale Mabry Campus in Tampa, Fla., on April 23, 2024.

On the same day that it upheld the 15-week ban, which allowed the six-week ban to go into effect, the Florida Supreme Court also allowed a proposal to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution to remain on the November ballot.

If passed, Amendment 4 would allow abortion access in Florida until fetal viability, which is usually around 24 weeks, "or when necessary to protect the patient's health, as determined by the patient's healthcare provider."

Supporters and opponents of abortion rights have made it a priority moving forward.

"It's critical that we turn out the vote this fall for people to protect their freedoms. The [state] Supreme Court has basically put this issue in the voters' hands," says Florida House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, a Democrat.

President Joe Biden made abortion the focus of a visit to Tampa last Monday , while Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to talk about it in Jacksonville on Wednesday.

Opponents of the ballot initiative call it a "radical, no-limits" abortion amendment and are campaigning against it.

"Prop 4, the abortion lobby's dream amendment, is extremely misleading," says Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser in a statement following President Biden's visit to Tampa.

The wording of the proposal was at the heart of the state's legal challenge to the effort. Attorney General Ashley Moody argued it would confuse voters. But in its 4-3 opinion, the state Supreme Court wrote that the proposal was "plainly stated in terms that clearly and unambiguously reflect the text of the proposed amendment."

The increased attention on the ballot initiative is appreciated, says Megan Jeyifo, executive director of the Chicago Abortion Fund, which has been working with partners in Florida to help patients travel to the Midwest for care. But she worries people may devote all their resources to getting that passed and forget the pregnant people affected by the ban now.

"Because [Amendment 4] will be won on the backs of those people, you know it will be won, and people will give birth when they didn't want to," she says.

Other states have successfully passed ballot initiatives to protect abortion rights, but none had quite as high a threshold as Florida. For Amendment 4 to pass, 60% of voters need to approve it.