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Returning international passengers are greeted on arrival at the Perth International Airport Terminal on March 3, 2022 in Perth, Australia.
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Meanwhile in Australia, Four Seasons Melbourne is set to open in a skyscraper complex featuring the world’s tallest vertical garden. Imagine a garden path twice as long as New York’s High Line meandering up the facades of two twisting towers.
Here’s what’s been happening in travel this week.
Reopenings and rule changes
In some happy news, families and loved ones were reunited in Western Australia on March 3, after the state reopened to both domestic and international visitors after a long 697 days of isolation.
Fans of paradise islands will be pleased to hear that Hawaii is lifting some Covid-19 restrictions for domestic travelers later this month, and Bali is about to trial quarantine-free arrivals.
Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images
An aerial view from the window of a plane shows Diamond Head crater in Oahu. Hawaii is lifting some Covid restrictions later this month.
Israel is now open to unvaccinated tourists and Bahrain has dropped all testing, vaccination and quarantine requirements for entry – although Covid-19 measures are still in place.
And in what amounts to a little bit of a slowdown after the Omicron variant spiked around the globe, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has added only one new destination to it its highest-risk category for travel.
The US, Canada, the EU and the UK, among others, have all banned Russian aircraft from their airspaces and Russia has reciprocated the bans – except for the United States.
There are now large no-go areas in the sky and it could have major implications for passengers and the travel industry.
Cruise lines, tour operators and other travel operations have joined in the global protest by canceling Russian tours, among other measures. And Russia’s largest airline, Aeroflot, will be finding it harder to sell seats, after being dropped on Thursday from major global distribution systems.
The world’s largest airplane, the Antonov An-225 – a mammoth cargo plane that’s acquired iconic status in the aviation world – has been destroyed in the conflict, according to Ukrainian officials.
An American basketball player stranded in Ukraine traveled 5,000 miles to make it home. Meanwhile actor Sean Penn, in the country for a documentary, says he crossed the border into Poland on foot.
F.Gottschalk/Adobe Stock
Grand Prismatic Spring: Yellowstone National Park was penned into official existence on March 1, 1872. The park is jam-packed with geothermal features (Yellowstone sits atop a supervolcano, after all). Click through the gallery for more scenery, wildlife and historical photos as the park celebrates its 150th anniversary.
Jacob W. Frank/NPS
Bison: At one point, the number of bison at Yellowstone numbered below 100. They have bounced back in population in a big way thanks to restoration efforts. This herd takes over a wintry road near Frying Pan Spring.
Amanda Mortimer/Adobe Stock
Lower Falls: The park is full of breathtaking sights. Here, sunlight illuminates the spray as the Yellowstone River crashes over the Lower Falls in Yellowstone's own Grand Canyon.
Jacob W. Frank/NPS
Gateway to adventure: Cars come through the East Entrance of Yellowstone. The park set record attendance in 2021, and the line to enter can feel like a city traffic jam sometimes. Consider coming during off-peak dates for a less crowded experience.
Ron Reznick/VW Pics/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
Bears: A cinnamon black bear roams the wilds of Yellowstone. Experts say you should never approach bears or try to feed them.
Jacob W. Frank/NPS
Pebble Creek Campground: If you want to stay in a campground such as Pebble Creek this summer, it's time to book now. And in case you didn't get that bear message, there are signs to remind you.
Wasin Pummarin/Adobe Stock
Old Faithful: Tourists watch Old Faithful, the park's most famous feature, eject its regular hot spray. The geyser has lengthened the time between eruptions by about 30 minutes in the past 30 years, the National Park Service says.
Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images
Important visitors: President Franklin D. Roosevelt visits Yellowstone in 1937. Back on the East Coast, the National Park Service runs his historical home in Hyde Park, New York.
William Campbell/Sygma/Getty Images
Wolves: A wolf treks through the snow at Yellowstone in 1997. Wolves were reintroduced to the park in 1995 after being completely rooted out. In 2022, they're thriving and helping restore the natural balance of Yellowstone.
Neal Herbert/NPS
Mammoth Hot Springs Campground: This is the only campground open all year in Yellowstone and is close to fishing, hiking and the Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces.
Corbis Historical/Getty Images
Mammoth Hot Springs: A man stands at the base of Mammoth Hot Springs circa 1869, before Yellowstone become the first national park in the United States.
khomlyak/Adobe Stock
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone: You might want to hit the StairMaster before coming here. Steps -- many, many steps -- lead down to the bottom of a gorge in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
Jacob W. Frank/NPS
Bighorn sheep: Some 10 to 13 interbreeding bands of bighorn sheep occupy steep terrain in the upper Yellowstone River drainage, the NPS says. This group was seen on Mount Everts.
Gagliardi Giovanni/REDA&CO/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
Mammoth Hot Springs: Visitors need to treat these beautiful and hypnotizing geothermal features with respect. Visitors have been injured and killed by the scalding waters.
Doug Mills/AP
First family visit: President Bill Clinton takes a look through a telescope at the park on August 25, 1995, with his wife Hillary, daughter Chelsea and her friend Rebecca Kolsky.
Jacob W. Frank/NPS
Cougars: A cougar peeks through branches from a tree in Yellowstone. The park estimates there are 34 to 42 there, and they are seldom spotted by visitors.
The Print Collector/Getty Images
Old-style Old Faithful: People visit Old Faithful geyser in 1901. Old Faithful is one of nearly 500 geysers in Yellowstone.
Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket/Getty Images
Bald eagle: At Yellowstone, the US national bird feeds primarily on fish but also on waterfowl and carrion.
One of the world’s longest animal migrations is the 1,000-kilometer trek made each year by thousands of zebras across the salt pans of Botswana’s Nxai Pan National Park. Our writer went along to see it.
From Africa over to North America, where Yellowstone National Park – which sits atop a supervolcano, don’t you know – is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. We look back at the history of one of the United States’ most loved destinations.
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2022 World Monuments Watch list: The World Monuments Fund has rounded up 25 endangered heritage sites to add its World Monuments Watch list for 2022. The list includes the Teotihuacan archeological park in Mexico.
Courtesy World Monuments Fund
Koagannu mosques and cemetery, Maldives: This historic cemetery in the Maldives is included on this year's World Monuments Watch list due to the threat poised by rising sea levels.
Exploring Within/World Monuments Fund
Hurst Castle, Hampshire, United Kingdom: This English fortress, originally built in the Tudor period, partially collapsed in 2021. Hurst Castle was placed on the World Monuments Watch list due to risk of further impact from rising sea levels.
Chris Miller/World Monuments Fund
Socotra Archipelago, Yemen: The 25 sites, including the Socotra Archipelago, pictured, were chosen by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and an independent group of heritage experts from across the globe.
Courtesy World Monuments Fund
La Maison du Peuple, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso: Individuals and community-led organizations nominated sites. The final list includes this African modernist building in Burkina Faso.
Chiva Chaitya/Courtesy World Monuments Fund
Hitis (water fountains) of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal: The 2022 list, which also includes these Nepalese water fountains, was narrowed down from over 225 nominations.
John Partridge/Nuri Archaeological Expedition/World Monuments Fund
Nuri, Sudan: The pyramids at Nuri, including King Aspelta's pyramid, pictured, are also on the 2022 World Monuments Watch list.
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Lamanai, Indian Church Village, Belize: The World Monuments Fund picked this spot in Belize as it says the site needs more inclusive heritage management "to help reinforce the relationship between the site and local residents."
Edithe Pereira/World Monuments Fund
Monte Alegre State Park, Brazil: This Brazilian park, known for its rock paintings, is also on this year's list.
Courtesy World Monuments Fund
Asante Traditional Buildings, Ghana: The World Monuments Fund included these shrines due to concerns about their "ongoing deterioration that calls for new approaches to management and maintenance."
Port of Lisbon/World Monuments Fund
Alcântara and Rocha do Conde de Óbidos, Marine Stations (Almada Negreiros Murals), Lisbon, Portugal: Some of the spots on the Watch list, including these mid-century murals by José de Almada Negreiros, were picked to "disseminate new narratives that contribute to telling a richer, more balanced story," as the World Monuments Fund puts it.
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Mosque City of Bagerhat, Bagerhat, Bangladesh: The Sixty Dome Mosque is one of the mosques in Mosque City of Bagherhat, which is also on the World Monuments Fund's 2022 list.
Courtesy World Monuments Fund
Fortified manors of Yongtai, Fujian Province, China: According to the World Monuments Fund, these buildings in remote southeast China offer "an opportunity for rural revitalization, community-led environmental management, and sustainable tourism."
Maria Gulraiz/World Monuments Fund
Tomb of Jahangir, Lahore, Pakistan: The World Monuments Fund says this spot requires restoration "to foster new visitation and provide invaluable green space for community recreation within an expanding urban setting."
Rediscover Project/World Monuments Fund
Fabric Synagogue and Jewish heritage of Timișoara, Timișoara, Romania: The list, which includes this Romanian synagogue "demonstrates that heritage preservation can offer innovative solutions to contemporary global challenges," as Bénédicte de Montlaur, president and CEO of the World Monuments Fund said in a statement.
The World Monuments Fund has released its list of culturally significant but endangered heritage sites.
New additions include an English castle damaged by storms, the Maldives’ Koagannu mosques and cemetery which are threatened by rising sea levels, and the historic city center of Benghazi in Libya.
India’s famous railways helped turn the country into the economic superpower it is today, but those trailblazing tracks are now getting outdated.
Its neighbor and economic rival China has been undergoing a high-speed rail revolution, with nearly 12,000 miles of lines completed in the last five years alone. Can India keep up?
And if you’d like to know more about India’s rich culture and incredible roadside restaurants, have a listen to Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown podcast: He visited Punjab back in 2014.
tamas/Adobe Stock
Time capsule: Urbino sits in a landscape that has barely changed since the 15th century.
prescott09/Adobe Stock
First approach: The Palazzo Ducale is visible for miles around.
Oliver Petschner/Adobe Stock
Trapped in time: Unesco has remarked on Urbino's extraordinary preservation of its heritage.
F.Poderi/Adobe Stock
Location location: Being set across two hills, the city has barely expanded over the centuries.
Marche Tourism
Roller coaster: The piole are steep streets with step-like blocks to make ascending and descending safer.
Ivano De Santis/Alamy
Hill country: The city is surrounded by green hills which haven't changed in centuries.
e55evu/Adobe Stock
Time travel: The streets are as they were when the likes of Raphael were walking them.
pavel068/Adobe Stock
Easy on the eye: The castle was built to be prettier than other castles.
Ivan Vdovin/Alamy
Teenage dreams: Raphael was born in Urbino. This fresco in his birthplace is thought to have been painted by the teen painter.
D. Fabri/Adobe Stock
Local lad: The house where Raphael grew up is now open for visits.
Roberto Serra/Iguana Press/Getty Images
High stakes: Federico's studiolo was inlaid entirely in wood, a beautiful piece of propaganda.
Roberto Serra/Iguana Press/Getty Images
Art attack: Today, his ducal palace hosts a major art gallery.
Mondadori Portfolio/Hulton Fine Art Collection/Getty Images
Renaissance beauty: The "Madonna di Senigallia" by Piero della Francesca, commissioned by Federico and still housed in his palace.
Antonini Danilo/Adobe Stock
Timewarp town: Urbino hasn't changed since its Renaissance heyday.
eddygaleotti/Adobe Stock
Groundbreaking: The Palazzo Ducale housed Italy's first public library on the ground floor.
Roberto Lo Savio/Adobe Stock
Major assets: Nearby town Urbania sits on the Metauro river, visible in Piero della Francesca's painting of Federico.
Emanuele Leoni Photography/Adobe Stock
Country retreat: Federico would go hunting at this lodge in Urbania.
The Italian city of Urbino was a Renaissance powerhouse – and it’s barely changed since the 15th century. Here’s how this fairytale city stayed intact. For more about where to go in Italy, sign up for our Unlocking Italy newsletter.
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A pilot turned out to be twice the legal limit on a pre-flight Breathalyzer test.
An eagle-eyed security agent “noticed he may have been impaired.”
They don’t call them red-eyes for nothing. If you have trouble dropping off to sleep on an overnight flight, our partners at CNN Underscored, a product reviews and recommendations guide owned by CNN, have put together this roundup of products to help ease your slumber. And during Sleep Week, March 13 through 19, check out other great gadgets for a good night’s rest in the CNN Underscored newsletter.