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The Complete Beginner’s Guide to International Travel

So you’ve decided to travel internationally, have you? Traveling to another country is something I wish for everyone to experience at least once in a lifetime.

Unfortunately, not everyone has the privilege to do so. But for those of us with passports that allow us such opportunity, it’d be a shame to never explore an international destination in our great, big, beautiful world !

It might seem a bit scary to take your first international trip, but I promise it’s not that bad. To help you, I’ve put together this thorough guide on everything you need to know in order to have a successful international trip ! Let’s get straight to it.

Before You Depart for Your Trip

There’s quite a bit to get ready before your international trip. But, don’t worry. It’s all doable, and it’ll all be worth it!

Apply for a Passport

First things first. In order to travel internationally, you’ll need to have a valid, unexpired passport . On top of that, many countries require you to also have at least three or even six months validity left on your passport from your date of travel. So, if you don’t have a valid, unexpired passport or your passport is expiring in three to six months, it’s time to get a new passport before your trip. This process can take a couple months! So plan ahead, and submit your passport request early to save yourself stress and/or expediting fees closer to your departure date.

If this is your very first passport, your last passport was from when you were under 16 years old, your previous passport was lost, stolen, or damaged, or your last passport was from 15 or more years ago, you will need to apply for your passport in person. Here are the official steps for the new passport process .

If the above doesn’t apply to you, you simply have to renew your passport. You can do this via mail. Here are the official steps for the renewal process .

Choose Your International Destination

Yipee! Now that you’ve either already got your passport or have applied for a new one, you can choose your international travel destination. This is largely based on your own interests. But as this is your first trip internationally, keep in mind things like language, similarity in culture to back home, and ease of travel-related infrastructures (like trains or buses).

Apply for Any Visa(s)

Once you have chosen your destination(s), check whether you need visas or not . A visa is basically permission from a foreign government for you to be in their country. Some countries may grant you a free visa upon arrival with a simple stamp on your passport. Some countries simply require you to fill out a form online and pay a small fee before you can board your flight. And some countries require expensive visas which you must apply for months in advance. It all depends on that country you are visiting, your passport country, and how long you plan to stay. I love using Travisa ‘s free search tool to quickly and easily check what requirements exist for me before I book a flight. 

Get Any Necessary Vaccines

Before confirming your destination, you should check if any vaccines are necessary for that place. Some vaccines are simply recommended for your own health, while others are requirements before you will be allowed into the country , or even allowed into other countries afterwards (like yellow fever). The CDC website is an easy way to check this. Some vaccines, like yellow fever, are low in supply and hard to get last minute. Others, like malaria pills, require a doctor’s prescription. So don’t leave this step until the last minute !

Check Travel Restrictions

Lastly, make sure there are no travel restrictions or decision-altering political tensions for your destination. Do this by checking the Travel Department site . Simply type in your destination country’s name into the search bar on the left hand side of the screen. 

Preparing Your Finances

Now that your passport is on its way and you’ve settled on your international travel destination(s), it’s time to start thinking about finances.

Some destinations are very credit card friendly. Others operate on only cash and debit cards. And some don’t even have ATM machines! So you’ll need to do a bit of planning before departure to make sure you’re not stressing during your trip, and to save yourself transaction fees.

Get a No Fees Credit Card

Most banks charge a 3% fee every time you use your credit card to pay for a foreign transaction. As you can imagine, this adds up to a lot over the course of even a one week international trip. The good news is, many banks offer credit cards without foreign transaction fees . Do a quick internet search to see if your bank offers such a card. 

Get a No Fees Debit Card

Most banks charge a 3% fee and $5 each time you withdraw foreign currency from an ATM. Especially if you are traveling to a mostly-cash destination, this is a surefire way to rack up unnecessary travel costs. To avoid this, consider opening a free brokerage account with Charles Schwab to also receive their debit card with zero transaction fees . I first heard about this card when moving to London to study abroad, and I have to say it’s served me well. 

Get Foreign Currency Beforehand

Sometimes, but not often, it’s necessary to have cash in your destination’s currency either before you depart home or right when landing . This might be because your destination does not have ATMs, or because you just want to feel prepared.

If you need foreign cash before leaving home, head to your local bank and exchange currencies. (Just FYI, you’ll get a bad conversion rate doing this, since the bank needs to make commission.) If the currency you need isn’t a common one, your bank won’t have it on hand. In that case, you’ll have to request the exchange online with your bank. 

Many countries that don’t have ATMs also don’t allow their currency to be taken outside their country (like Cuba). In this case, you’ll need to bring enough cash with you in a common currency (like USD, GBP, or Euro). Then, when you arrive at your destination’s airport, you can exchange your cash from home for the local currency.

Sign Up for Airline Rewards Programs

You might already know this if you fly domestically, but most airlines have rewards programs. These allow you to accumulate “miles” in your rewards account each time you fly. Eventually, you might rack up enough to redeem those miles in exchange for a flight !

Consider Travel Hacking

Now, some people use airlines rewards programs and racking up miles on steroids, and this is called travel hacking. Many airlines and banks offer huge amounts of miles when you sign up for a card, or offer miles every time you use that card for a purchase. This allows you to rack up enough miles for a free flight or hotel stay more quickly (or sometimes immediately!). I personally have no energy for travel hacking, as I’m not convinced the miles rewards are worth more in dollars than my current card’s cash reward system. But I would be amiss to not mention travel hacking in a guide to international travel.

Planning Your International Trip

Phew! Now that you’ve got all the annoying administrative work out of the way, it’s time for the fun stuff; planning your trip .

I have a whole ten-step guide to planning a trip , so I won’t go into too much detail here. But this can be broken down into planning out your travel itinerary, booking your flight, and booking your accommodation.

Create Your Dream Itinerary

Decide everything you want to see in that destination. I love using Pinterest , Instagram , and travel blogs for inspiration. This is my favorite part of planning a trip , because it gets me so excited about what’s to come! Then, figure out how many days each spot deserves if you are moving around, and figure out how to get from point A to point B (train, cab, ferry?). 

Book Your Flight

After you’ve decided how many days you need, you can decide what your travel dates are and start looking for a flight. You can sometimes find good deals really close to the date, but that isn’t guaranteed. I recommend not leaving this until the last minute! I go into more detail how I search for cheap flights in my trip planning guide .

Book Your Housing

Once you have your flight booked, all that’s left is your housing. I love using Booking.com because of its interface, but any hotel search engine will suffice. Also consider AirBnB if you like the idea of staying in a local apartment, or Hostelworld if you’re looking for a social (and often budget-friendly) option. I go into more detail on different types of travel accommodation in my trip planning guide .

Here are some discounts if it’s your first time using AirBnB or Booking.com:

• Save 15% off your first booking by using this link  to sign up for AirBnB for the first time.
• Get  10% back  from your first booking when you use this link  for your first time using Booking.com.

Preparing for Departure

Woohoo! You’ve got your passport, your trip is planned, and all that’s left is to depart. There are a couple things you should do to best prepare for your upcoming international trip.

Scan the Front Page of Your Passport

Before leaving home, make a copy of the front page of your passport (the page with your picture). Either print it out or send it to yourself via email. In case your passport gets lost, stolen, or damaged during your international trip, this makes it easier to have your passport replaced abroad at an embassy.

Expect Cultural Differences

Every country or region has its own culture and norms, and that’s what makes traveling so great. In some places, like the US, it’s common to greet strangers “hello,” or for shop associates and waiters to be extra doting. In other places, like much of Europe, the slower cafe and restaurant culture means your waiter might not come to you unless beckoned. It’s almost seen as if the waiter is rushing you! Similarly, in Japan, it’s offensive to tip waiters, as it suggests their only incentive to do their job well is receiving your pocket change. No culture is right or wrong, but keep an open mind as you travel, and don’t assume something means the same as it does back home .

Prepare for Language Barriers

Many popular travel destinations have adopted English as a common language due to how many international tourists they receive. So, if you know English, chances are you’ll be fine getting around many travel destinations around the world. But it still doesn’t hurt to learn some basic words in your destination’s language .

Saying “hello” or “thank you” in a person’s mother tongue can go a long way in warming them up towards you. Learning common menu items or words on train station signs will also likely make your life easier and give you more confidence abroad. I love using the free version of Duolingo’s mobile app ( iOS and Android ) for a few weeks before I head somewhere new to learn a language’s basics. Alternatively, you could simply head to Google translate and jot down key words on a small piece of paper before you depart. Then, keep this paper handy while you’re out exploring for easy access.

What to Expect on an International Flight

Even if you’ve flown domestically before, flying internationally can be a whole different experience . Here are my top tips for flying internationally.

What to Pack in Your Carry On

Packing carry on luggage for an international trip is similar in many ways to for a domestic trip. The same rules apply with regards to liquid sizes and electronics. However, as international flights tend to naturally be longer than domestic flights, there are a few extra considerations.

Make sure you are comfortable. Bring your own favorite headphones instead of using the uncomfortable free or for sale ones on board the flight. Also bring an eye mask (and a neck pillow if you need that) so that you can try to sleep a bit. You’ll also want to pack clothing items like one pair of pajamas and one or two proper outfits, in case your luggage is lost or delayed . It would be super inconvenient to buy these things right after you land in a foreign country!

Common Flight Etiquette

No one likes flying. So to make it easier on everyone, here are some best practices for being polite while in the airport and on the plane.

• While in the airport, don’t stand up and crowd around the gate way before your boarding group is called. Everyone will get their chance to board.
• Once on the plane, the middle seat person gets dibs on the inner arm rests .
• Right after the plane lands, don’t rush to pull your luggage from the overhead before the plane doors have even opened (especially if you’re in the back of the plane!). If you’re in a rush to catch a connection you think you might miss, ask the flight attendants before landing if they can help you get off first. Sometimes they’ll make an announcement that everyone should stay seated until those about to miss a connection exit first!

Staying Healthy While Flying

The last thing you want is to get off your flight and feel unwell the first days of your epic trip! Here are precautions you should take to ensure you land in tip-top shape.

• Stay hydrated . Airplane air has less humidity (only about 10 – 20%!), so make sure you are drinking enough water, especially on long haul flights. I always bring a large, refillable water bottle when I fly. I fill it up at an airport water fountain right after passing security and finish it all before boarding. Then, I refill it again to have a full supply while on board. This is important not only for headaches and such, but also to prevent skin breakouts in the days after landing.
• Keep the blood flowing . Not only are you not moving for hours upon hours when flying internationally, but your feet are flat on the floor the entire time, too. This isn’t great for blood circulation, and can cause swelling in your ankles and feet the days after your land. (It’s also just not good for your health to not move!) So, make it a point to get up and walk around the plane. Since you’ll be drinking a lot of water anyways, maybe walk up and down the aisles for some minutes each time you finish using the toilets. Do some stretches , like pulling your feet up to your booty one at a time and holding, or lifting each knee up and holding. If you have a layover with enough time, walk around the terminal for some time before boarding your second flight.
• Stay clean . Even pre-Covid-19, planes and airports have never been the cleanest places to be. Wash your hands frequently with soap, use hand sanitizer , and consider disinfecting your food tray, screen, and arm rests right after getting on board. Make sure not to touch or pick your face too much, especially since it’s already dealing with the dehydrating air!

Flying with Dietary Restrictions

Airplane food is pretty much never great, especially if you aren’t flying first class. But if you’re on a particular diet or have dietary restrictions, you’ll need to plan ahead of time. Consider packing some of your favorite nutritious snacks instead of relying on the salty pretzels you can expect on board. If you have a specific need, like vegan meals, call the airline 24 hours before your flight to put in your request for a special meal . You might also want to double-check the meal request before take off at the gate.

Staying Safe While Traveling Internationally

While the world isn’t the big, bad, scary place we’re often made to believe, that doesn’t mean travel is free of risks.

A lot of the safety precautions and considerations you should take while traveling abroad are similar to those you take at home. But a few aren’t. Here are my main safety tips for international travel.

Solo Travel

By its very nature, traveling alone is more risky than traveling with a companion. Is it significantly more risky? I think not. But that’s not to say you shouldn’t take any extra precautions when traveling alone.

One precaution I take is to always let someone know where I am . If I have a full itinerary planned, I send my mom a summary of each city and accommodation I plan to stay at. If I’m doing something like a hike without any new friends I’ve met, I’ll let the front desk know my plans before I head out. I also try to be confident . Even if I don’t know where I’m going, I try to look like I do! If I need to look directions up on my phone, I might do it before leaving the hotel or shop or restaurant.

Another thing to remember is that traveling solo is not traveling alone . Especially if staying in hostels, you’ll meet other people traveling solo like you are, and you can do activities with them.

Solo Female Travel

Something my loved ones tell me often is how it’s so unsafe to travel alone as a woman. But the truth is, is it perfectly safe to be a woman anywhere in the world? Even when I’m in in the comfort of my home country, I rush to my car when in public garages at night, receive uncomfortable comments from strangers on the street, and face the potential of sexual harassment or even assault. Sexism exists everywhere, not just abroad. Of course, I do take extra precautions as a solo female traveler compared to a male solo traveler. But I also take extra precautions as a female in my home country, too.

These are some of the precautions I take while traveling as a woman, in addition to the precautions I take for traveling solo in general:

• I never walk alone past dark . Ever, ever. Even if I “feel” safe in a place (which is most of the time), it’s just something I’ve promised myself I wouldn’t do.
• I try to dress conservatively in certain destinations. Especially as a Californian, I’m used to super short shorts and low-cut shirts being totally normal. While these are still often acceptable abroad, they definitely cause a lot of stares that I personally have decided I’d rather avoid if I can. So, I’ll wear looser, longer shorts instead of tight short-shorts, or midi skirts and dresses instead of what I consider normal length. This isn’t so much because I feel unsafe, but because I’ve realized it decreases bothersome male comments and advances immensely.
• I haven’t actually done this yet, but it’s a trick I have in my back pocket. Bring a fake wedding ring . Depending on the destination, this can help ward off some comments (and even playful marriage proposals!).

Traveling as a Person of Color

Similar to the solar female travel issue, a lot of my family fear that I’ll stand out like a sore thumb as a black woman. Also similar to the solo female travel issue, racism is simply something that exists everywhere, not just abroad . Of course, I do take extra precautions as a black solo traveler compared to a white solo traveler. But I also take extra precautions as a black person in my home country, too.

The main extra consideration I take while traveling as a person of color is to research the experiences of other black people or black women in destinations I know less about , or that I know have few black people or tourists. I recommend you do the same for whatever race or ethnicity you might identify with, as destinations might be used to one group but not a different group. This, of course, can be difficult, as the voices in the travel sphere are mostly white men, and next white women. (This is why it’s important to have better representation.) If you can’t find the insight you need online, consider directly emailing or messaging any travel writers or influences whose experiences you’d like to hear.

Traveling with Cash and Valuables

Like you would in certain areas of your home country, don’t flash valuables while traveling. Be cognizant as you withdraw or exchange any cash . Being a tourist can make you a target already, so don’t give pickpockets any extra incentive!

Be careful not to carry all your cash and cards in one place. If you can, take some with you as you explore, and then leave back up cards, unneeded cash, and your passport back in a safe in your accommodation . That way, if anything gets stolen or lost while out exploring, you have back ups to hold you over.

Bring Locks for Hostels

If you are planning on staying in hostels, definitely purchase a lock before your trip. Hostels usually have lockers, but charge a couple bucks to rent a lock. It’s much more economical to purchase once and not pay each time.

Register with Your Country’s Embassy

This is a step I never usually did before, but one I’ll be doing every time in the future! I was “one of those” people who got stranded abroad in a foreign country when the world started closing borders in response to Covid-19. I always thought registering with the local embassy for my country was a waste of time, but this turned out to be the best way to get up-to-date information on the situation. After missing out on crucial info once, I signed up. And it’s thanks to that I was able to eventually get home!

You never know what could happen when you are abroad, whether that is a pandemic, weather-related disaster, local protests, or political tensions. It’s near-impossible to keep up with your foreign destination’s news while traveling. So registering with your embassy is an easy way to get a simple email for key things you should know . For Americans, this program to register is called the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) , but other countries have pretty much the same thing.

Get Travel Insurance

I’m not sure I believe “everyone” should “always” get travel insurance. But for a first trip abroad, it’s worth considering. I typically never purchased it when I traveled places I knew well. But these days, as I’m no longer on my parents’ good insurance, and as I travel mostly solo, I do purchase travel insurance. It often only costs a couple dollars a day , and usually covers lost baggage, medical visits for accidents or illnesses, theft, and more. Especially if you are planning adrenaline activities or traveling somewhere distant, you should consider it! 

What Do You Think About My International Travel Guide?

And there ya have it, folks! Are you feeling prepared for your international trip! I hope this guide was helpful. If you still have more questions before your trip abroad, definitely comment below and I’ll answer. Or, if you have any advice you think I missed that others should know, please also comment below!

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Further Reading...

The Beginner’s Guide to Staying in Hostels

Complete Guide to Flying RyanAir (& Not Getting Ripped-Off)

20 Trips to Take in Your 20s

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Art & Culture Travel Blog

History of travelling: how people started to travel.

• Tea Gudek Šnajdar
• Cultural Tourism

Although we often have a feeling like people are travelling for the last few decades only, the truth is – people are travelling for centuries. Old Romans were travelling to relax in their Mediterranean villas. At the same time, people in Eastern Asia wandered for cultural experiences. I’ve got so fascinated with the history of travelling, that I did my own little research on how people started to travel. And here is what I’ve learned.

History of travelling

I was always curious about the reason people started to travel. Was it for pure leisure? To relax? Or to learn about new cultures, and find themselves along the way?

I wanted to chaise the reason all the way to its source – to the first travellers. And hopped to find out what was the initial motivation for people to travel.

According to linguists, the word ‘travel’ was first used in the 14th century. However, people started to travel much earlier.

While looking at the history of travelling and the reasons people started to travel, I wanted to distinguish the difference between travellers and explorers. Most of the time, when thinking about travel in history, people like Marco Polo or Christopher Columbus are coming to mind. However, they weren’t really travellers in a modern sense. They were explorers and researchers. So, to really learn about how people started to travel, I wanted to focus on ordinary people. Travellers like you and me, if you wish.

Romans and their roads

First people who started to travel for enjoyment only were, I’m sure you won’t be surprised, old Romans. Wealthy Romans would often go to their summer villas. And it was purely for leisure. They could, of course, start doing that because they invented something quite crucial for travelling – roads. Well developed network of roads was the reason they could travel safely and quickly.

However, there is another reason that motivated people in Antiquity to travel. And I was quite amazed when I learned about it.

It was a desire to learn. They believed travelling is an excellent way to learn about other cultures, by observing their art, architecture and listening to their languages.

Sounds familiar? It seems like Romans were the first culture tourists.

⤷ Read more : 20 Archaeological sites you have to visit in Europe

Travelling during the Middle Ages

It may come by surprise, but people started to wander more during the Middle Ages. And most of those journeys were pilgrimages.

Religion was the centre of life back in the Middle Ages. And the only things that connected this world with the saints people were worshipping, were the relics of saints. Pilgrims would often travel to another part of the country, or even Europe to visit some of the sacred places.

The most popular destinations for all those pilgrims was Santiago de Compostela, located in northwest Spain. People would travel for thousands of kilometres to reach it. To make a journey a bit easier for them, and to earn money from the newly developed tourism, many guest houses opened along the way. Pilgrims would often visit different towns and churches on their way, and while earning a ticket to heaven, do some sightseeing, as well.

Wealthy people were travelling in the caravans or by using the waterways. What’s changing in the Middle Ages was that travel wasn’t reserved only for the rich anymore. Lower classes are starting to travel, as well. They were travelling on foot, sleeping next to the roads or at some affordable accommodations. And were motivated by religious purposes.

⤷ TIP : You can still find many of those old pilgrim’s routes in Europe. When in old parts of the cities (especially in Belgium and the Netherlands ), look for the scallop shells on the roads. They will lead you to the local Saint-Jacob’s churches. Places dedicated to that saint were always linked to pilgrims and served as stops on their long journeys. In some cities, like in Antwerp , you can follow the scallop shell trails even today.

Below you can see one of the scallop shells on a street and Saint-Jacques Church in Tournai , Belgium.

Grand Tours of the 17th century

More impoverished people continued to travel for religious reasons during the following centuries. However, a new way of travelling appeared among wealthy people in Europe.

Grand tours are becoming quite fashionable among the young aristocrats at the beginning of the 17th century. As a part of their education (hmmm… culture tourists, again?) they would go on a long journey during which they were visiting famous European cities. Such as London , Paris , Rome or Venice, and were learning about their art, history and architecture.

Later on, those grand tours became more structured, and they were following precisely the same route. Often, young students would be accompanied by an educational tutor. And just to make the things easier for them, they were allowed to have their servants with them, too.

One of those young aristocrats was a young emperor, Peter the Great of Russia. He travelled around western Europe and has spent a significant amount of his time in the Netherlands. The architecture of Amsterdam and other Dutch cities definitely inspired a layout of the new city he has built – Saint Petersburg . So, travelling definitely remains an essential part of education since Roman times.

⤷ Read more : 15 Best museums in Europe you have to visit this year

The railway system and beginning of modern travel in the 19th century

Before the railway system was invented, people mostly travelled on foot (budget travel) or by water (the first-class travel at that time). However, when in the 1840s, an extensive network of railways was built, people started to travel for fun.

Mid-19th century definitely marks a real beginning of modern tourism. It’s the time when the middle class started to grow. And they have found a way to travel easily around Europe.

It’s coming by no surprise that the first travel agency, founded by Thomas Cook in England, was established at that time, too. He was using recently developed trains together with a network of hotels to organise his first group trips.

⤷ Read more : The most interesting European myths and legends

History of travelling in the 20th century

Since then, things started to move quickly. With the development of transportation, travelling became much more accessible. Dutch ships would need around a year to travel from Amsterdam to Indonesia. Today, for the same trip, we need less than a day on a plane.

After the Second World War, with the rise of air travel, people started to travel more and more. And with the internet and all the cool apps we have on our smartphones, it’s easier than ever to move and navigate your way in a new country. Mass tourism developed in the 1960s. But, with the new millennium, we started to face the over-tourism.

We can be anywhere in the world in less than two days. And although it’s a great privilege of our time, it also bears some responsibilities. However, maybe the key is to learn from history again and do what old Romans did so well. Travel to learn, explore local history and art, and be true culture tourists.

History of Travelling , How people started to travel , Travel

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• THE BIG IDEA

Why travel should be considered an essential human activity

Travel is not rational, but it’s in our genes. Here’s why you should start planning a trip now.

In 1961, legendary National Geographic photographer Volkmar Wentzel captured two women gazing at the surf off Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia. This and all the other images in this story come from the National Geographic image collection.

I’ve been putting my passport to good use lately. I use it as a coaster and to level wobbly table legs. It makes an excellent cat toy.

Welcome to the pandemic of disappointments. Canceled trips, or ones never planned lest they be canceled. Family reunions, study-abroad years, lazy beach vacations. Poof. Gone. Obliterated by a tiny virus, and the long list of countries where United States passports are not welcome.

Only a third of Americans say they have traveled overnight for leisure since March, and only slightly more, 38 percent, say they are likely to do so by the end of the year, according to one report. Only a quarter of us plan on leaving home for Thanksgiving, typically the busiest travel time. The numbers paint a grim picture of our stilled lives.

It is not natural for us to be this sedentary. Travel is in our genes. For most of the time our species has existed, “we’ve lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers moving about in small bands of 150 or fewer people,” writes Christopher Ryan in Civilized to Death . This nomadic life was no accident. It was useful. “Moving to a neighboring band is always an option to avoid brewing conflict or just for a change in social scenery,” says Ryan. Robert Louis Stevenson put it more succinctly: “The great affair is to move.”

What if we can’t move, though? What if we’re unable to hunt or gather? What’s a traveler to do? There are many ways to answer that question. “Despair,” though, is not one of them.

In this aerial view from 1967, wall-to-wall seaside sunbathers relax under umbrellas or on beach towels in Ocean City, Maryland .

A 1967 fall festival in Guadalajara, Mexico , starred traditionally costumed musicians and dancers.

We are an adaptive species. We can tolerate brief periods of forced sedentariness. A dash of self-delusion helps. We’re not grounded, we tell ourselves. We’re merely between trips, like the unemployed salesman in between opportunities. We pass the days thumbing though old travel journals and Instagram feeds. We gaze at souvenirs. All this helps. For a while.

We put on brave faces. “Staycation Nation,” the cover of the current issue of Canadian Traveller magazine declares cheerfully, as if it were a choice, not a consolation.

Today, the U.S. Travel Association, the industry trade organization, is launching a national recovery campaign called “ Let’s Go There .” Backed by a coalition of businesses related to tourism—hotels, convention and visitor bureaus, airlines—the initiative’s goal is to encourage Americans to turn idle wanderlust into actual itineraries.

The travel industry is hurting. So are travelers. “I dwelled so much on my disappointment that it almost physically hurt,” Paris -based journalist Joelle Diderich told me recently, after canceling five trips last spring.

(Related: How hard has the coronavirus hit the travel industry? These charts tell us.)

My friend James Hopkins is a Buddhist living in Kathmandu . You’d think he’d thrive during the lockdown, a sort-of mandatory meditation retreat. For a while he did.

But during a recent Skype call, James looked haggard and dejected. He was growing restless, he confessed, and longed “for the old 10-countries-a-year schedule.” Nothing seemed to help, he told me. “No matter how many candles I lit, or how much incense I burned, and in spite of living in one of the most sacred places in South Asia, I just couldn’t change my habits.”

When we ended our call, I felt relieved, my grumpiness validated. It’s not me; it’s the pandemic. But I also worried. If a Buddhist in Kathmandu is going nuts, what hope do the rest of us stilled souls have?

I think hope lies in the very nature of travel. Travel entails wishful thinking. It demands a leap of faith, and of imagination, to board a plane for some faraway land, hoping, wishing, for a taste of the ineffable. Travel is one of the few activities we engage in not knowing the outcome and reveling in that uncertainty. Nothing is more forgettable than the trip that goes exactly as planned.

Related: Vintage photos of the glamour of travel

Travel is not a rational activity. It makes no sense to squeeze yourself into an alleged seat only to be hurled at frightening speed to a distant place where you don’t speak the language or know the customs. All at great expense. If we stopped to do the cost-benefit analysis, we’d never go anywhere. Yet we do.

That’s one reason why I’m bullish on travel’s future. In fact, I’d argue travel is an essential industry, an essential activity. It’s not essential the way hospitals and grocery stores are essential. Travel is essential the way books and hugs are essential. Food for the soul. Right now, we’re between courses, savoring where we’ve been, anticipating where we’ll go. Maybe it’s Zanzibar and maybe it’s the campground down the road that you’ve always wanted to visit.

(Related: Going camping this fall? Here’s how to get started.)

James Oglethorpe, a seasoned traveler, is happy to sit still for a while, and gaze at “the slow change of light and clouds on the Blue Ridge Mountains” in Virginia, where he lives. “My mind can take me the rest of the way around this world and beyond it.”

It’s not the place that is special but what we bring to it and, crucially, how we interact with it. Travel is not about the destination, or the journey. It is about stumbling across “a new way of looking at things,” as writer Henry Miller observed. We need not travel far to gain a fresh perspective.

No one knew this better than Henry David Thoreau , who lived nearly all of his too-short life in Concord, Massachusetts. There he observed Walden Pond from every conceivable vantage point: from a hilltop, on its shores, underwater. Sometimes he’d even bend over and peer through his legs, marveling at the inverted world. “From the right point of view, every storm and every drop in it is a rainbow,” he wrote.

Thoreau never tired of gazing at his beloved pond, nor have we outgrown the quiet beauty of our frumpy, analog world. If anything, the pandemic has rekindled our affection for it. We’ve seen what an atomized, digital existence looks like, and we (most of us anyway) don’t care for it. The bleachers at Chicago ’s Wrigley Field; the orchestra section at New York City ’s Lincoln Center; the alleyways of Tokyo . We miss these places. We are creatures of place, and always will be.

After the attacks of September 11, many predicted the end of air travel, or at least a dramatic reduction. Yet the airlines rebounded steadily and by 2017 flew a record four billion passengers. Briefly deprived of the miracle of flight, we appreciated it more and today tolerate the inconvenience of body scans and pat-downs for the privilege of transporting our flesh-and-bone selves to far-flung locations, where we break bread with other incarnate beings.

Landscape architects work in their Rio de Janeiro, Brazil , studio in 1955.

A tourist photographs a towering century plant in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, in 1956.

In our rush to return to the world, we should be mindful of the impact of mass tourism on the planet. Now is the time to embrace the fundamental values of sustainable tourism and let them guide your future journeys. Go off the beaten path. Linger longer in destinations. Travel in the off-season. Connect with communities and spend your money in ways that support locals. Consider purchasing carbon offsets. And remember that the whole point of getting out there is to embrace the differences that make the world so colorful.

“One of the great benefits of travel is meeting new people and coming into contact with different points of view,” says Pauline Frommer, travel expert and radio host.

So go ahead and plan that trip. It’s good for you, scientists say . Plotting a trip is nearly as enjoyable as actually taking one. Merely thinking about a pleasurable experience is itself pleasurable. Anticipation is its own reward.

I’ve witnessed first-hand the frisson of anticipatory travel. My wife, not usually a fan of travel photography, now spends hours on Instagram, gazing longingly at photos of Alpine lodges and Balinese rice fields. “What’s going on?” I asked one day. “They’re just absolutely captivating,” she replied. “They make me remember that there is a big, beautiful world out there.”

Many of us, myself included, have taken travel for granted. We grew lazy and entitled, and that is never good. Tom Swick, a friend and travel writer, tells me he used to view travel as a given. Now, he says, “I look forward to experiencing it as a gift.”

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Traverse With Taylor

| Helping You Experience Europe Easily

33 Helpful Tips For Traveling Internationally the First Time

Traveling abroad for the first time and not sure what you need.

I’m a European travel expert, and over the past decade, I’ve traveled internationally a ton. Meaning, I’ve figured out how to travel well, and I’ve made plenty of mistakes, too! In this blog post, I’ll provide some international travel tips and advice for first-time travelers to help make their journey smoother and more enjoyable. From packing essentials to cultural etiquette, I’ll cover everything you need to know to have a successful and memorable international adventure.

Traveling internationally for the first time is an exciting yet daunting experience. It’s a chance to explore new cultures, taste new cuisines, and create lasting and life-changing memories. However, it can also be overwhelming to navigate unfamiliar customs, languages, and currencies. I took my first international trip in 2014, and it was an unforgettable experience. But I did it all wrong. Between 5 countries, countless cities, and way too many currency changes, I messed up plenty. Long story short, having the advice below as a first time international traveler could’ve helped my trip run so much smoother and be even more fantastic than it was.

Planning a Trip Soon? Use My Favorite Resources Below!

Booking a Flight : Use Skyscanner to find the best prices! Accommodations : I love Booking.com ! Travel Insurance : SafetyWing Is the best in the industry! Things to Do: Use Viator for amazing experiences ! Car Rental: In Europe, I recommend DiscoverCars

Logistics & International Travel Tips For Planning Your First Time Abroad

The logistics of travel documents and planning can be one of the most daunting parts of adventuring internationally for the first time. Here’s what you need to know:

✔️ 1. Get Your Passport in Order!

First, get a valid passport. And then… Understand that some countries require your passport to be valid for 6 months AFTER your return date , or you will not be permitted to board your international flight. Even if you’re returning on March 6th and your passport expires on March 26th…it’s a no-go. Don’t even try. Seriously…my friend and I were at the airport, ready to head to Barcelona, and were denied boarding because her passport expired earlier than 6 months after our return. (Hi, Jen! Still love you, though!). Don’t let that happen to you. It is a HUGE disappointment (And annoyance as you’re unpacking).

✔️ 2.Make Copies Of Your Passport + Other Important Documents!

Have physical AND electronic copies of your passport. The last thing you want is to be stranded with no passport in a foreign country. Thankfully, extra copies of your passport can help prevent delays and will be helpful in getting a temporary passage from an embassy. You’ll also want to have copies of any other important documents. I generally store these in my luggage and in my carry-on. Just in case I get separated from my checked baggage.

✔️ 3. Register Your Trip With the International State Department (Smart Traveler Enrollment Program)

Register your trip locations and dates with The Smart Traveler Enrollment Program. This will notify appropriate United States embassies and consulates that you are traveling abroad. It can be exceptionally useful in a few events: ⭐ If there is an emergency or catastrophe, the embassy will know to look for you in that country and can easily assist you. ⭐ If you happen to lose a passport or need other assistance, they will already see the record of your trip. You can register with the International State Department here .

✔️ 4. Plan Your First Time Traveling Internationally, But Don’t Overplan It

Have a fantastic itinerary for your first trip abroad, but don’t schedule yourself down to every last minute. It can be tempting to pack your days full of amazing things to do, but you want to leave some time to explore on your own. You’re apt to walk past a store you’re dying to check out or see a cute bakery that makes your mouth water. If you have a jam-packed itinerary, you won’t be able to stop and smell the roses or wander around.

✔️ 5. Print Confirmation Paperwork

Have hard copies with you for all of your major bookings: flights, hotels, trains, tours, car rentals, etc. In the era of wifi and cell phones, many people rely on email confirmations in the event of confusion. However, it is pretty much guaranteed (Newton’s law or something like that, right?) that the moment you need access to your email, wifi and phone service won’t be working for you. Plus, you don’t want to have to sift through confirmations while you’re dealing with a frustrated gate agent. Have a folder with printed confirmations, and whip that baby out in the event of an issue.

✔️ 6. Purchase Travel Insurance

Purchasing travel insurance is one of the best ways to protect yourself from losing out on a ton of money. Most first-time travelers don’t realize just how much travel insurance does. It covers you in the event of most cancellations, weather delays, lost luggage, health emergencies, and many other nuanced situations that can delay or ruin your international trip. I only ever purchase travel insurance through SafetyWing. Their flexible policies and customer service have always made the process easy and reliable.

Tips: What to Pack

Pretty much everyone I know (including myself) has either under-packed or severely over-packed the first time they were traveling internationally. This is how to do it the right way!

✔️ 7. Consult a Packing List

An international travel tip you can’t afford to skip: Research what you need to take with you ahead of time! You do not want to take your first trip abroad and forget something absolutely vital that you had no idea you needed. Like, seriously, who knew you needed a power adapter just to plug in your straightener or phone charger? Yep, you do! Don’t get caught without the tools you need to make your first trip abroad a success. Similarly, a travel passport wallet is one of the top travel items I recommend everyone have on hand.

✈️ Need a full packing list for your first international trip? Here’s everything you need to take with you!

✔️ 8. Spend The Money on Good Luggage

Save yourself the trouble. Buy good luggage! There is (almost) nothing worse than traipsing around a foreign country with broken luggage. You know- walking to your hotel, dragging (or carrying) all of that stuff you just had to have with you on your trip.

Pro Travel Tip: You want luggage that rolls all ways and is reliable. I personally love this soft-sided set , but if you prefer a hard-sided suitcase, this Samsonite one is also a great choice!

✔️ 9. Mark Your Luggage Visibly

Buy something to mark your luggage with! Because basically everyone in the world travels with black luggage. Have you ever seen a packed baggage carousel? In the massive sea of black bags, you know what stands out? Bright colors. Flashy tags. I generally go for my personal favorite… Pomchies! Little pom poms that snap right onto your luggage handle. I can’t make myself buy anything but black (sorry not sorry!), but, if you’re really into being visible, you can always purchase a colored suitcase, too!

✔️ 10. Don’t Overpack

Do not cram your suitcase full on your way to your destination. This will prevent you from being able to purchase souvenirs or other items you decide you want to bring back. Trust me, I have had to pay $150 to check a suitcase full of extra things (granted, it was planned). Leave room in your suitcase; you need less than you think you do.

✔️ 11. You Need to be Able to Carry Your Luggage

An often overlooked travel tip: You WILL need to walk with your luggage at some point during your travels. Therefore, you don’t want anything more than a backpack (personal item) and a suitcase. If you can’t walk through a street to your hotel with it in one trip, you should not pack it. You will feel like a pack mule and regret it.

⭐ The first time I took her abroad, my mom brought a TON of stuff. Like…multiple small bottles of bath bubbles (because we had time for that 😂) and could not get across the s treets of Amsterdam without help. She was frustrated, and so were we (Hi, Mom!). Don’t be that person.

✔️ 12. Bring a Bag to Carry During the Day

Having a crossbody bag or other small bag for daily explorations is one of my top tips for traveling internationally for the first time. Your backpack or personal item from the plane is too big to carry around cities during the day. Plus, many places, for example, churches or historical sites like the Anne Frank House , will not let you take large bags inside with you. A crossbody bag or a belt bag is a perfect option because it is secure and compact, yet large enough to carry a few must-have items with you like money, chapstick, or sunglasses.

✔️ 13. Invest in Great Shoes

You cannot travel abroad as a first-time international traveler without comfortable walking shoes. When traveling, you’ll walk so much more than usual-especially if you are traveling to larger cities like Paris, Krakow, or Edinburgh . Buying comfortable shoes guarantees that you’ll be able to have an enjoyable trip. The alternative is getting blisters, being uncomfortable, and, depending on how badly your feet hurt, being unable to walk around the next few days.

✔️ 14. Know What Will Make Your Long-Haul Flight More Comfortable

There are international travel tips that you can use to make that long flight a bit more bearable. Plan ahead and figure out what YOU would like to bring. This can vary for just about everyone. I personally always have with me things to do ( a book , my airpods, etc.), chargers, snacks, water, toiletries, a change of clothes, a face mask for moisturizing, and fuzzy socks so that I can take off my shoes but not touch the nasty airplane floor -ew . Whatever will make you comfortable- bring it along!

All Things Money, Cards & Currency

It often goes unnoticed that one of the largest things to plan for when you’re traveling internationally for the first time is how you’ll access money and how you’ll get local currency. Luckily, I’ve perfected this process for you step-by-step!

✔️ 15. Don’t Exchange Money Ahead of Time

Wait a beat and exchange your currency locally once you arrive at your destination. Exchanging ahead of time in the United States will not get you the best bang for your buck. Plus, you don’t want to carry around a ton of extra cash during your flight or lengthy travel. Talk about an easy way to lose your money…yikes!

Tip: I generally do exchange money at the airport just so that I have local currency right away. However, you’ll find the best exchange rates at local banks.

✔️ 16. But…Carry Cash

You need to have cash in the local currency. Pre-Covid, cash was king in many countries- especially in Europe. Although countries are moving towards being cashless now more than ever, there are still many times you’ll need cold hard dinero. Smaller cafes and restaurants, local artisans, and street food vendors are just a few of the places you DEFINITELY want to visit that likely won’t accept card or touchless pay. Trust me, missing out on an experience you really want just because you don’t have cash is THE WORST.

⭐ Europe Tip: You’ll want to carry cash AND coins as most countries in Europe only have paid public toilets ! Take it from someone who has been there…you don’t want to be wandering around Paris trying to find a bathroom at the last minute just to find out you need a Euro and you don’t have one. It is awful. And embarrassing.

✔️ 17. Bring a Credit Card (With No Foreign Transaction Fees)

Bring a credit card along with you on your trip- preferably one that has no foreign transaction fees. Although you can use cash, you will also frequently need to use a card too in order to avoid stopping by ATMs constantly. Taking out cash charges a transaction fee, whereas a credit card with no foreign transaction fees will be free to use. Just be sure to choose the local currency at checkout in order to get the best conversion.

✔️ 18. And Bring an Extra Credit Card, Too!

Stash an extra credit card in your suitcase or in your hotel safe. That way, if the notorious European pickpockets get you, or you lose your wallet, you won’t be completely out of luck. You’ll still have an extra card stowed away for an emergency!

✔️ 19. Notify Credit Card Company That You’re Traveling

Let your credit card company know where you are traveling and when. Depending on your bank and the type of card you have, you might be told to skip this step. But, I HIGHLY recommend you do it anyway. I once forgot to tell my credit card company that I was traveling, and they shut off BOTH of the credit cards I had with me. I was stuck in Amsterdam without access to money. I had to three-way call my parents and my bank to get it fixed- a nightmare you don’t want to add to your first international trip. Save yourself the headache and call!

Technology Tips to Use Before Your First International Trip

Things like apps and how you’ll use technology abroad are important pieces to consider prior to your travels. They can both make traveling significantly easier and more convenient!

✔️ 20. Plan For Your Phone

Decide whether or not you need an international phone plan. Most carriers offer daily rates for unlimited data and calls internationally. For instance, the AT&T plan that I use charges me $10/day for international access. Verizon offers a similar option. You can simply call your phone carrier and ask them what their options are and put this plan on your device.

Tip: If you have an iPhone, you may decide you do not need a phone plan. You’ll be able to utilize wifi at public places, hotels, and other locations in order to access apps, iMessage, Facetime, or communicate via WhatsApp. However, you won’t be able to text or call.

✔️ 21. Check the Weather. Then Check it Again.

You need to keep tabs on the weather in the country you’re traveling to…and you need to pack for it. Download your favorite weather app and check a few weeks or months in advance just to get an idea of what you might need to start purchasing. Then, check a week or two in advance as you start setting things aside to pack. Finally, double-check the weather the week of your trip as you’re packing. This will tell you what types of clothing to pack and whether you need any additional items like heavy boots or a particularly weather-durable jacket.

✔️ 22. Know a Few Phrases

Learn some key words and phrases in the native language prior to your first international trip. Being able to use common courtesy in a foreign country will go a long way toward making traveling internationally for the first time so much easier. People all over the world genuinely appreciate when you attempt to say hello, goodbye, please, thank you, and good morning in their native language. In addition, you do not want to get caught in a situation where you need a bathroom badly and cannot find one. Always know how to ask for a restroom. You don’t have to be an expert! Just try to learn a few phrases.

✔️ 23. Use Google Translate

Don’t be afraid to utilize tools like Google Translate to help you out! If you grab the app ahead of time, you can download specific languages so that they can be used offline. Meaning, whether you have an international phone plan or wifi at the time or not, you’ll still always have access to the translations. While many countries speak English in tourist areas, this can be useful if you come across a language barrier!

✔️ 24. Download Offline Maps Ahead of Time

It’s a great idea to download city maps from Google Maps ahead of time so that you can use them offline as well. This will prevent you from getting into a situation where you are unsure of directions or where to go and have no way of finding your way around. Regardless of service, you’ll be able to search locations and instructions for travel. This article has easy directions on how to download these offline maps.

You’ve Made It! On-Trip Tips

Finally, some of my tried-and-true tips for how to maximize your time abroad in the best ways.

✔️ 25. Try Local Grocery Stores

When you’re traveling abroad for the first time, you want to try all the foods, right? Look, it sounds a little out there, but this is like my FAVORITE tip for traveling internationally ever (can you tell I love food?). Each country you travel to likely has its own chain of local grocery stores. In the United Kingdom, you’ll find Tesco. In the Netherlands, Albert Heijn. In Poland, Biedronka. In France, Monoprix. These local grocery stores are THE BEST PLACES to grab food and try it . It’ll be a wild guessing game of trying to decipher packaging based on photos and words you know, but it’ll be an experience for sure!

⭐ Pro Tip: Get water bottles each day at the grocery stores. It’s so much cheaper than buying water elsewhere, it’ll help you stay hydrated, and you’ll have something to sip on back at your hotel!

✔️ 26. Public Transportation is Better

In most of the larger international cities (and, really, even smaller ones), public transportation is a godsend. In the United States, we are so used to shunning public transport. It’s inefficient, it’s often dirty, and it is not cost-effective for the most part. Internationally, this couldn’t be more false. You WANT to take public transportation while you’re traveling abroad for the first time. Particularly in Europe, the network of trains, buses, trams , and other types of travel are so intricate and efficient that it saves an incredible amount of time. You’ll also get a legitimate local feel if you take public transport. You might get on the wrong train, head in the wrong direction, or feel like you stand out from the crowd. But, again, you’ll remember the experience forever.

😂 Embarrassing Story Time: One time, I tried to get off of a tram in Amsterdam at the last minute, tripped over my suitcase, and fell flat on my face in front of a bunch of local Dutch people. I felt like an idiot (my husband never lets me live it down- even still), but everyone was so sweet and helpful. Hey, it happens to the best of us. Don’t be afraid to try public transport! What’s the worst that could happen!?

✔️ 27. Don’t Block Lanes

Watch out for European traffic lanes (Ex: the fietspad- bike lane- in the Netherlands ) because you will get run over. In the U.S., we don’t really have alternate traffic lanes other than our traditional car ones. At least, they’re not extraordinarily frequent. In Europe and other places, this couldn’t be less true. In the Netherlands, for example, you’ll often have lanes for cars, lanes for bikes, and walking paths, too! It is so easy to find yourself in the middle of these lanes without even knowing it. Pay attention! And, for the love of God, stay out of the fietspad 🙃

✔️ 28. Look For the Locals

Locals know what they’re doing- follow them. If a restaurant or store is empty aside from people with tour stickers and souvenir bags- avoid it! Locals know where the hidden gems are. Keep an eye out for populated cafes, bars with relaxed locals, and stores that are not tacky chains. You’ll have a better overall experience trying out what is really awesome in a given country vs. what the internet and tourists say is awesome.

✔️ 29. Eat Off the Beaten Path

DO NOT eat anywhere within a few hundred feet of a large monument, attraction, or historical site. You will never- I repeat, never – find great food in these tourist areas. Walk away from the Eiffel Tower, the Rialto Bridge, the Grand Place. Find restaurants down a side street and enjoy some of the best foods of your entire life.

✔️ 30. More People Will Speak English Than You Think

A significant number of the people you come across during your international travels will likely speak English , so you do not need to expend energy worrying that you’ll never be able to communicate with anyone. The first time I traveled abroad, we had a stop in Poland, which was much less of a popular tourist destination at the time. I was so concerned that we’d be stuck in Krakow for a few days , trying desperately to translate Polish. Well, guess what…pretty much everyone in Krakow spoke English just fine. No sweat.

Getting Into a Traveling Mindset

Traveling well is not as easy as just hopping on a plane and doing the damn thing. You also have to prepare yourself for the journey. You have to get into the correct traveling mindset.

✔️ 31. Get Ready to Be Outside Your Comfort Zone

At some point in your trip, you will be uncomfortable. Rules of the game, my friend. Recognize that you did not travel across the world to experience the very same things you could easily have experienced at home. Travel intentionally pushes you out of that little zone where you feel safe. Learn from it and embrace it! Be intrigued by what lies past those boundaries you’ve set for yourself.

✔️ 32. Don’t Take Things Personally

The customs of other countries are NOT the same as the customs in ours. You’ve likely heard, for example, that Germans or French people can be curt and unkind. The reality is that the German language sounds rougher than it is in general , and French people have just gotten a bad rap likely due to a disdain for small talk. What’s rude in your country may not be considered rude in another. Try not to take anything personally. Unless you’re being raucous, obscene, and massively inconsiderate, I promise, it’s not about you.

✔️ 33. Be Flexible

Things will go wrong the first time you’re traveling internationally . It’s like an unwritten rule, and it just be like that sometimes. It is incredibly easy to allow these setbacks, route changes, or inconveniences to impact your entire mindset, and, therefore, your entire trip. Don’t let it! Be as flexible as you can! It’ll help you have the most amazing time.

Everything You Need to Know For Your First International Trip

That’s a wrap! My top 33 tips to help you have a smooth, successful, and, most important, ENJOYABLE first time traveling internationally. Exploring new countries and cities is life-changing , and I know you’ll come back with memories you’ll never forget! Safe travels!

Taylor Beal, owner and author of Traverse With Taylor, has been traveling in Europe for more than a decade and helps others explore Europe easily through amazing guides and itineraries. She has adventured through more than 20 countries, searching for the best experiences, must-try foods, and delicious beers! She spends a lot of time in Scotland and Amsterdam, two of her favorite places! Taylor is also a Holocaust educator focused on raising awareness around WWII historical sites.

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The History of Transportation

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Whether by land or by sea, humans have always sought to traverse the earth and move to new locations. The evolution of transportation has brought us from simple canoes to space travel, and there's no telling where we could go next and how we will get there. The following is a brief history of transportation, dating from the first vehicles 900,000 years ago to modern-day times.

Early Boats

The first mode of transportation was created in the effort to traverse water: boats. Those who colonized Australia roughly 60,000–40,000 years ago have been credited as the first people to cross the sea, though there is some evidence that seafaring trips were carried out as far back as 900,000 years ago.

The earliest known boats were simple logboats, also referred to as dugouts, which were made by hollowing out a tree trunk. Evidence for these floating vehicles comes from artifacts that date back to around 10,000–7,000 years ago. The Pesse canoe—a logboat—is the oldest boat unearthed and dates as far back as 7600 BCE. Rafts have been around nearly as long, with artifacts showing them in use for at least 8,000 years.

Horses and Wheeled Vehicles

Next, came horses. While it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly when humans first began domesticating them as a means of getting around and transporting goods, experts generally go by the emergence of certain human biological and cultural markers that indicate when such practices started to take place.

Based on changes in teeth records, butchering activities, shifts in settlement patterns, and historic depictions, experts believe that domestication took place around 4000 BCE. Genetic evidence from horses, including changes in musculature and cognitive function, support this.

It was also roughly around this period that the wheel was invented. Archaeological records show that the first wheeled vehicles were in use around 3500 BCE, with evidence of the existence of such contraptions found in Mesopotamia, the Northern Caucuses, and Central Europe. The earliest well-dated artifact from that time period is the "Bronocice pot," a ceramic vase that depicts a four-wheeled wagon that featured two axles. It was unearthed in southern Poland.

Steam Engines

In 1769, the Watt steam engine changed everything. Boats were among the first to take advantage of steam-generated power; in 1783, a French inventor by the name of Claude de Jouffroy built the "Pyroscaphe," the world’s first steamship . But despite successfully making trips up and down the river and carrying passengers as part of a demonstration, there wasn’t enough interest to fund further development.

While other inventors tried to make steamships that were practical enough for mass transport, it was American Robert Fulton who furthered the technology to where it was commercially viable. In 1807, the Clermont completed a 150-mile trip from New York City to Albany that took 32 hours, with the average speed clocking in at about five miles per hour. Within a few years, Fulton and company would offer regular passenger and freight service between New Orleans, Louisiana, and Natchez, Mississippi.

Back in 1769, another Frenchman named Nicolas Joseph Cugnot attempted to adapt steam engine technology to a road vehicle—the result was the invention of the first automobile . However, the heavy engine added so much weight to the vehicle that it wasn't practical. It had a top speed of 2.5 miles per hour.

Another effort to repurpose the steam engine for a different means of personal transport resulted in the "Roper Steam Velocipede." Developed in 1867, the two-wheeled steam-powered bicycle is considered by many historians to be the world’s first motorcycle .

Locomotives

One mode of land transport powered by a steam engine that did go mainstream was the locomotive. In 1801, British inventor Richard Trevithick unveiled the world’s first road locomotive—called the “Puffing Devil”—and used it to give six passengers a ride to a nearby village. It was three years later that Trevithick first demonstrated a locomotive that ran on rails, and another one that hauled 10 tons of iron to the community of Penydarren, Wales, to a small village called Abercynon.

It took a fellow Brit—a civil and mechanical engineer named George Stephenson—to turn locomotives into a form of mass transport. In 1812, Matthew Murray of Holbeck designed and built the first commercially successful steam locomotive, “The Salamanca,” and Stephenson wanted to take the technology a step further. So in 1814, Stephenson designed the "Blücher," an eight-wagon locomotive capable of hauling 30 tons of coal uphill at a speed of four miles per hour.

By 1824, Stephenson improved the efficiency of his locomotive designs to where he was commissioned by the Stockton and Darlington Railway to build the first steam locomotive to carry passengers on a public rail line, the aptly named "Locomotion No. 1." Six years later, he opened the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the first public inter-city railway line serviced by steam locomotives. His notable accomplishments also include establishing the standard for rail spacing for most of the railways in use today. No wonder he’s been hailed as " Father of Railways ."

Technically speaking, the first navigable submarine was invented in 1620 by Dutchman Cornelis Drebbel. Built for the English Royal Navy, Drebbel’s submarine could stay submerged for up to three hours and was propelled by oars. However, the submarine was never used in combat, and it wasn’t until the turn of the 20th century that designs leading to practical and widely used submersible vehicles were realized.

Along the way, there were important milestones such as the launch of the hand-powered, egg-shaped "Turtle " in 1776, the first military submarine used in combat. There was also the French Navy submarine "Plongeur," the first mechanically powered submarine.

Finally, in 1888, the Spanish Navy launched the "Peral," the first electric, battery-powered submarine, which also so happened to be the first fully capable military submarine. Built by a Spanish engineer and sailor named Isaac Peral, it was equipped with a torpedo tube, two torpedoes, an air regeneration system, and the first fully reliable underwater navigation system, and it posted an underwater speed of 3.5 miles per hour.

The start of the twentieth century was truly the dawn of a new era in the history of transportation as two American brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright, pulled off the first official powered flight in 1903. In essence, they invented the world’s first airplane. Transport via aircraft took off from there with airplanes being put into service within a few short years during World War I. In 1919, British aviators John Alcock and Arthur Brown completed the first transatlantic flight, crossing from Canada to Ireland. The same year, passengers were able to fly internationally for the first time.

Around the same time that the Wright brothers were taking flight, French inventor Paul Cornu started developing a rotorcraft. And on November 13, 1907, his "Cornu" helicopter, made of little more than some tubing, an engine, and rotary wings, achieved a lift height of about one foot while staying airborne for about 20 seconds. With that, Cornu would lay claim to having piloted the first helicopter flight .

Spacecraft and the Space Race

It didn’t take long after air travel took off for humans to start seriously considering the possibility of going further up and toward the heavens. The Soviet Union surprised much of the western world in 1957 with its successful launch of Sputnik, the first satellite to reach outer space. Four years later, the Russians followed that by sending the first human, pilot Yuri Gagaran, into outer space aboard the Vostok 1.

These achievements would spark a “space race” between the Soviet Union and the United States that culminated in the Americans taking what was perhaps the biggest victory lap among national rivals. On July 20, 1969, the lunar module of the Apollo spacecraft, carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, touched down on the surface of the moon.

The event, which was broadcast on live TV to the rest of the world, allowed millions to witness the moment Armstrong became the first man to ever step foot on the moon, a moment he heralded as “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”  

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What is travel? We answer the big, burning question

‘What is travel?’ is an interesting question, but more for what it tells you about the people doing the asking. The meaning of travel, despite ‘definitive’ articles to the contrary, is pretty subjective. And your relationship to it changes as you get older and begin to spend your weekends doing things like browsing health insurance policies. Reasons and motivations begin to wrinkle, just like us, revealing character.

Because when you’re young travel is sensory and simple. It’s that white-knuckle feeling of a plane taking off for the first time, when your stomach drops and your ears pop. The sustained hyper-real sensation when everything is new and brightly coloured. Ice-creams taste sweeter, smells are stranger. You can almost feel the synapses firing, taking it all in.

By middle age the motivations behind travel get more complicated, like your tax returns. It becomes an escape from cubical drudgery, a sun-soaked interlude from Real Life, or an existential change of perspective: the cultural equivalent of surfacing for breath. There’s more awareness about where you’re going, and what’s waiting for you when you get back home.

In his famous essay Why We Travel , Pico Iyer said , ‘We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves.’ And to be honest, he kind of nailed it. The very fact that people dwell on the nature of travel, try to get at its secret truth like hungry kids scrabbling at a piñata, is because we feel deep down that there’s something magic in there: it makes us happy . And not just happy in the way you feel when you upgrade your iPhone. A more deep-seated, integral sort of happiness (maybe ‘content’ is a better word – more wholesome, less fleeting).

This happens even when we’re uncomfortable on our travels – perhaps especially when we’re uncomfortable. When we lose the map in Hanoi and have to improvise with pigeon-Vietnamese and hand gestures. When the tent leaks in Yosemite and we wake up with wet socks. When our legs ache on the Inca Trail and we’re pretty sure the small Peruvian porter is judging our lack of fitness. All temporary discomforts that somehow add up to…what? Personal discovery? A sense of accomplishment? A good over-dinner anecdote? It’s hard to pin down why, but we know instinctively that there’s gold there.

Image Pankaj Kaushal, Flickr

I think it’s got something to do with the way we live now. Most things in our lives are geared towards convenience and gratification, which is another way of saying most things are predictable. We spend a lot of energy trying to eliminate discomfort from our meals, television watching, phone calls, work spreadsheets, morning commute. Basically deleting anything resembling a surprise. Is it any wonder we’re so bored?

But travel isn’t like that. When travelling, discomfort finds you . The whole thing is unpredictable at a fundamental level. That’s kind of the point. When you order chargrilled gizzards in Tokyo’s Memory Lane or fight for seat space with chickens on a bus in Ecuador, you don’t know what’s going to happen next. And isn’t that incredibly liberating in a way? It’s like a search for something that can’t be Googled. Something that has to be earned through effort, not given by chance.

There’s a great quote from Robert Pirsig in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance that goes: ‘It’s the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top.’ Which is a pretty apt description of travel, all things considered. Life occurs in the hard uncomfortable bits, not the breezy view from the summit. And sometimes the old chestnut is true after all: the destination doesn’t matter, all we want is somewhere to get lost on the climb.

Feature image c/o Karl Grenet, Flickr 

Feeling inspired?

James Shackell

I was born in 1987 and aged from there. I like the sound of pop-rocks and dislike the sound of styrofoam. The length of my forearm is approximately the same as the length of my shin. My favourite Beatle is Ringo. I believe that junk food tastes so good because it’s bad for you and that your parents did the best job they knew how to do. If Johnny Cash wrote a song about my travels it would be called ‘I’ve been to several places but still have many other destinations on my to-do list, man’. Sometimes I have trouble finishing sen

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Meaning of travel in English

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travel verb ( MAKE JOURNEY )

• I like to travel but, then again, I'm very fond of my home .
• It's often quicker to travel across country and avoid the major roads altogether .
• Passengers without proper documentation will not be allowed to travel.
• The elderly travel free on public transport .
• We like to travel in the autumn when there are fewer tourists .
• The tragedy is that cultures don't always travel well, and few immigrant groups can sustain their culture over the long term .
• around Robin Hood's barn idiom
• baggage drop
• communication
• first class
• peripatetically
• public transportation
• super-commuting

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

travel verb ( MOVE )

• The objects travel in elliptical orbits .
• In 1947, a pilot flying over the Cascades saw nine metallic flying objects traveling at an estimated 1,200 miles per hour .
• The elevator traveled smoothly upward .
• White light separates out into its component wavelengths when traveling through a prism .
• As the material travels through the winding machine , excess liquid is squeezed out by rollers .
• Lead dust travels easily from hands to mouth and can't be seen .
• body English
• kinetic energy
• recirculate
• recirculation
• repair to somewhere

travel verb ( BREAK RULE )

• foul trouble
• free-throw lane
• free-throw line
• run-and-gun

travel noun ( ACTIVITY )

• They offer a 10 percent discount on rail travel for students .
• The price includes travel and accommodation but meals are extra .
• His work provided him with the opportunity for a lot of foreign travel.
• The popular myth is that air travel is more dangerous than travel by car or bus .
• Passes are available for one month's unlimited travel within Europe .
• break-journey
• circumnavigation

travel noun ( MOVEMENT OF OBJECT )

• It can be difficult to predict the travel of smoke from smouldering fires .
• The travel of the bullets and blood spatter showed that he was lying on the ground on his side when he was shot .
• This seemed to prove that light has a finite speed of travel.
• Striking the ball when the clubhead is already past the lowest point of its travel gives a slight overspin.
• The actuator then rotates its output shaft to the extremes of its travel.
• bring someone on
• non-competitor
• park the bus idiom
• play big idiom
• step/move up a gear idiom

travel | Intermediate English

Travel | business english, examples of travel, collocations with travel.

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• travel (MAKE JOURNEY)
• travel light
• travel (MOVE)
• really travel
• travel (BREAK RULE)
• travel (ACTIVITY)
• travel (MOVEMENT OF OBJECT)
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Definition of travel

 (Entry 1 of 2)

intransitive verb

transitive verb

Definition of travel  (Entry 2 of 2)

• peregrinate
• peregrination

Examples of travel in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'travel.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Middle English travailen, travelen to torment, labor, strive, journey, from Anglo-French travailler

14th century, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1a

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing travel

• pre - travel
• see / travel the world
• travel agency
• travel agent
• travel light
• travel sickness
• travel trailer

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Dictionary Entries Near travel

Cite this entry.

“Travel.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/travel. Accessed 13 May. 2024.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of travel.

Kids Definition of travel  (Entry 2 of 2)

Middle English travailen "torment, labor, strive, journey," from early French travailler "torment, labor," from an unrecorded Latin verb tripaliare "to torture," from Latin tripalium "an instrument of torture," literally "three stakes," derived from tri- "three" and palus "stake, pale" — related to pale entry 3 , travail

More from Merriam-Webster on travel

Nglish: Translation of travel for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of travel for Arabic Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about travel

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• Travel Tips

What Flying First Class Is Really Like and How to Decide If It's Worth It

Here's what to expect if you're flying in first class on Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and American Airlines.

Evie Carrick is a writer and editor who’s lived in five countries and visited well over 50. She now splits her time between Colorado and Paris, ensuring she doesn't have to live without skiing or L'As du Fallafel.

Every time you board a plane, there they are: the flight's first-class passengers. While you were at the gate waiting for your group number to be called (and likely stressing about nabbing space in the overhead compartment ), they were getting settled into their extra-large seats with dedicated carry-on space. And as you sulk past them toward your narrow seat in the back of the plane, they snuggle in under a complimentary blanket and sip Champagne .

That, you tell yourself, is what flying should be like.

But is the extra space and next-level service worth the pricey ticket ? To explore that very question, we've pulled together what it looks like to fly in first class on various U.S. airlines, how flying in first class is different from traveling in business class and economy, and how the benefits change — in some cases, dramatically — when you book first class on a long-haul international flight versus a domestic one.

Benefits of Flying in First Class

First-class passengers enjoy several benefits before they even board the plane. For starters, they don't have to wait in the long economy check-in line, they get free checked bags, and they have an easier time going through security , as that first-class ticket may mean access to a different TSA line.

From there, they get to board the plane first, so they have time to stow their bags and settle in without a line of passengers crowding around. And, of course, on board, they often get extra legroom, a wider seat with a more exaggerated recline, a blanket and a pillow, a plush amenity kit, beverage service that includes alcohol, and better food (and more of it).

Flying First Class on Delta Air Lines

Delta Air Lines has six onboard experiences: Delta One, Premium Select, First Class, Comfort+, Main Cabin, and Basic Economy, but some offerings and cabins are only available on certain routes. For example, the ultra-luxe Delta One cabin — which has lie-flat seats, lip balm and hand cream by Grown Alchemist, and sleep amenities like an oversized duvet and a comfy down-alternative pillow — is only available on long-haul international flights and select long-haul domestic flights.

Pre-flight Service: Those flying in first class with Delta get Sky Priority service from the moment they enter the airport. That translates to accelerated check-in, security, and baggage handling, plus early boarding.

Baggage: Up to two free checked bags.

Seating: Up to eight inches of extra legroom and up to 5.4 inches of seat recline.

In-flight Service: A dedicated first-class cabin flight attendant and complimentary drinks and a snack. Those flying more than 900 miles can expect to receive a first-class meal box; passengers traveling between 900 and 2,399 miles receive a chef-curated meal and snacks, while flights over 2,300 miles include a full meal service with snacks and several entrées to choose from.

Flying First Class on United Airlines

On flights within the U.S., United Airlines' highest level of service is United First, but on flights from the U.S. to Latin America or the Caribbean (and some U.S. transcontinental flights) United Business is the first-class equivalent. Meanwhile, United Polaris provides the airline's ultimate flight experience — think lie-flat seats, Saks Fifth Avenue bedding, and slippers.

Pre-flight Service: With United, first-class passengers can use the quicker, shorter Premier Access lines to speed up the check-in, security, and boarding processes.

Baggage: Up to two free checked bags with priority baggage handling, meaning your suitcases get special attention and will be among the first to arrive at baggage claim.

Seating: In United's first-class cabin, expect the most legroom possible, and with United Polaris, get ready for fully reclining seats that convert to a flat six-foot, six-inch bed.

In-flight Service: Beer, wine, and spirits (including a rotating craft beer selection) and access to DirecTV and United Private Screening, for all the latest movies and TV shows.

Flying First Class on American Airlines

Like on United, on American Airlines, the first-class designation marks the highest level on flights around the U.S., while business class is the highest level on shorter international routes, including Bermuda and Canada. On some long-distance flights (both domestic and international), passengers have the option to book seats in Flagship First or Flagship Business classes, which make up the brand's most luxurious product — think lie-flat seats, access to the Flagship Lounge, and a sleep amenity set from Casper.

Pre-flight Service: Those booking a first-class ticket with American will be granted priority access through the airport's most congested areas, from check-in to security to the gate.

Baggage: Up to three free checked bags, depending on the flight.

Seating: In American's first-class cabins, seats are wider and recline farther, although the exact increase varies by flight and aircraft layout.

In-flight Service: In first class, passengers will enjoy menus curated by premier chefs — such as chef and registered dietitian nutritionist Ellie Krieger, who focuses on healthy dishes, and Sam Choy, creator of Pacific Rim cuisine — thanks to the airline's partnership with the James Beard Foundation, along with extra snacks and a beverage service that includes alcohol.

Flying First Class Versus Business Class

On some airlines, like United and American, first-class fares offer the highest level of service on flights across the U.S., while business class provides the highest level of service on shorter-distance international routes (such as those heading to the Caribbean). If a plane has both cabin types, flying business class is typically a step down from flying first class.

Keep in mind that some airlines have a premium economy category (think Delta's Delta Comfort+), which tends to fall between economy and business or first class. A premium economy booking may have extra legroom, better meal service, and an increased bag allowance, but the perks can vary.

Flying First Class on Long-haul International Flights

Want the ultimate first-class experience? Save up and book a first-class ticket on a long-haul international flight (or in some cases, a U.S. transcontinental flight). It's on these long routes that you'll find that dreamy elevated flight experience.

While almost all airlines offer lie-flat seats and thoughtful sleep amenities, some of them truly excel at taking things to the next level. First class on Emirates' A380 and Boeing 777 planes, for instance, means flying in a fully enclosed suite with a full bed, an onboard shower, and a first-class bar and lounge. Meanwhile, Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways , Etihad Airways, and Air France are all known for their respective first-class service and amenities.

Related Articles

Historic aircraft engine completes major test using innovative new fuel — here's what it could mean for future air travel

F or the first time, a widely used commercial jet engine just completed a test powered solely by plant-based fuel, according to Interesting Engineering .

This exciting milestone brings us a big step closer to more sustainable air travel .

The V2500 engine , which powers many Airbus, McDonnell Douglas, and Embraer aircraft, has been in service for over 30 years. Running it on 100% sustainable aviation fuel made from renewable sources demonstrates the potential to lower the carbon footprint of flying with current technologies.

Sustainable aviation fuel has been years in the making. It reduces CO2 pollution by up to 80% compared to regular jet fuel, according to Airbus . And the best part? It can be produced from waste oils, fats, and even by capturing carbon directly from the air.

This breakthrough test proves that SAF works in the real world, not just in a lab.

During the successful one-hour test flight in Germany, the V2500 engine performed flawlessly using only synthetic fuel derived from renewable raw materials such as vegetable oils and animal fats.

Watch now: These futuristic gas stations could completely change what it's like to own an EV

"MTU Maintenance Hannover is the first maintenance, repair, and overhaul facility worldwide to carry out a 100% SAF test on a V2500," Michael Schreyögg, chief program officer at MTU Aero Engines, stated.

Air travel accounts for over 2% of global carbon pollution, according to the International Energy Agency . If the aviation industry were a country, it would be a top-10 polluter .

As more people take to the skies each year, finding sustainable flight solutions becomes increasingly urgent. In the United States, transportation is the largest source of planet-overheating gas pollution, which fuels more frequent extreme weather events that threaten our communities and food supply.

But SAF gives us a powerful tool to cut those emissions while still connecting humanity across distances. The less pollution we release, the more we protect our health and planet. Plus, who wouldn't feel better jet-setting on flights powered by French fry oil instead of dirty gases?

The International Air Transport Association, which represents 290 airlines, aims to reach net-zero carbon pollution by 2050 . To get there, the industry is working to ensure all aircraft engines and fuel systems can run on 100% sustainable fuel.

With this successful V2500 test and the 3,000 aircraft it powers, International Aero Engines AG is gearing up most of its facilities for wider use of SAF within the next few years.

So, next time you board a plane, know that your aircraft may soon be powered by cleaner, greener fuel — a small change that will make a world of difference at 35,000 feet.

Historic aircraft engine completes major test using innovative new fuel — here's what it could mean for future air travel first appeared on The Cool Down .

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Why Do We Travel?

• Written by Nicolás Valencia
• Published on September 13, 2019

Everyone wants to travel the world, whether it's to meet new people, taste new food, or visit new places. Travel is consequently an extremely lucrative industry, but tourist destinations are getting more crowded than ever and associated pollution emissions are only worsening the climate emergency .

Why do we travel? In this edition of Editor's Talk , four editors from ArchDaily based in Lebanon, the United States, and Chile share their thoughts on the meaning of travel, and why tourists enjoying a beach in a location like Brazil should also care about the cities they visit.

Nicolas Valencia: Travel was June's Monthly Topic . Back then we published articles about architecture guides and travel-related typologies, but we didn't talk about the experience of traveling. What does travel mean to you?

Dima Stouhi : I was born and raised in Lebanon, but I'm moving to Switzerland next month. This will be the first time that I experience living abroad. Because Lebanon is so different from any other country, traveling is incredibly important for me to see how other people live and what other cultures are like.

Eric Baldwin: I often introduce myself by saying that I’m a farm kid from rural Iowa. My idea of the world, including different cultures and ways of working, was limited for much of my youth. In college, that worldview expanded greatly. I was able to study and travel around the world, in places like China, Italy, and Greece. I believe that context is everything; travel is one way to expand your context.

Christele Harrouk : I was born in Beirut too, coming from French roots, so It was always easier for me to travel, and it was always an option for me to live abroad. Nevertheless, I never opted for this choice: I did spend a couple of months here and there, but to me, the notion of home was more important. Traveling has opened my eyes to what this world holds, and it has also made me better appreciate what I had and took for granted.

Nicolas Valencia:  But it's still a luxury nowadays.

Eric Baldwin:  Travel has been priceless to me, but it’s also become terribly destructive to our environment. In many ways, it is a luxury. As Greta Thunberg showed when sailing across the Atlantic on a zero-emissions yacht, we have to come up with better ways to travel. Our current conditions are becoming more and more unsustainable.

Dima Stouhi:  Traveling is definitely a luxury now. Especially for people who need visas to travel, like me.

If you travel, you are a loser

Nicolas Valencia: In June we published an article titled The Age of Travel is Over . The author says that "if you travel to earn your living, you are a loser. If you travel to see places, or to learn, you are an enemy of the planet."

Eric Baldwin: I think it was meant to be a sort of provocation. Travel is still so important, but that doesn't mean there aren't better ways to travel. Or that we shouldn't continue to imagine new modes of connection that bring us together and expand our context without harming the environment.

Christele Harrouk:  Traveling is a pure form of learning, possibly the most genuine way of getting information, but I always go back to the idea that if you don't do anything with these experiences, they become useless and the whole process becomes futile in a way. The more I meet people, the more I discover that a lot of them, who pretend to roam the globe, are so closed into themselves.

Dima Stouhi:  The idea of traveling is different now. People want to travel to show everyone that they traveled or just for the sake of traveling. There isn't much thought to what they harm along the way.

Nicolas Valencia:  Dima has a point. Traveling has become a sort of meta-traveling:  visit  a place to say you visited a place.  I'm very critical of those who don't learn anything from traveling, but then, I think, "Why should they experience it the same way I do?"

Dima Stouhi:  That's the thing, it's a matter of perspective. I doubt that people "never learn" from traveling. Regardless of how different each individual is, at least one experience, building, or even meal is going to get stuck in their head. It's just a matter of what people are paying attention to while traveling.

Eric Baldwin:  We travel to work, to discover, to connect with family or friends, to get the perfect Instagram post, to escape. As long as we continue to question why, and whether we are doing so responsibly, I think travel will continue to have meaning. Beyond location, I think being a "good" vs. a "bad" tourist is part responsibility and part perspective. If you travel to escape your daily life and enjoy a beach in Brazil, but you don’t care to learn about the city, people, or culture you visit, is that inherently bad? Again, it’s a matter of context.

Cities for rich tourists

Nicolas Valencia: Bloomberg published a chart on Instagram a few days ago explaining that "tourist destinations are only going to get more crowded," especially in Europe. We recently saw Venice ban large cruises from its historical center . How do we think other cities are going to deal with tourism?

Dima Stouhi:  I support Venice's decision. I went to Vatican City last year in August. I remember at one point I just wanted to leave because of how crowded it was. We couldn't even stop for one second to look around us. There was no place to stand in the Sistine Chapel. It's sad.

Eric Baldwin:  It’s a tricky thing. It’s tied to preservation: when does saving something relegate it to becoming frozen, functionless scenery? Again, I go back to context. What does tourism give to a city, and what does it take away? Does heritage have a part to play? No city remains the same, and in turn, tourism and travel have to change too.

Dima Stouhi:  But Eric, the way we see it, preservation comes first because we know and appreciate the value of historical sites. The majority of people don't.

Eric Baldwin:  I question the value of historical sites. How do we measure relevance or heritage? Why are the pyramids worth preserving? It’s a question — and battle — of values and those things that define us. In turn, it’s directly related to why we travel.

Nicolas Valencia:  Countries such as Spain rely strongly on tourism — the industry accounts for around 13% of its GDP. It's hard to regulate if your city's economy relies so strongly on tourism. Anyway, I'd assume that restricting access to tourists will eventually punish middle-class tourists. 

Christele Harrouk:  Well, I'm not sure about this. Maybe not restrict accesses but make them more organized.

Dima Stouhi:  I don't believe that increasing prices and limiting access to rich tourists is the way to solve it. I think it's like what Christele said: it's how governments organize it that might make a difference.

Christele Harrouk:  This is the responsibility of the cities: they have to advertise different areas. It's not difficult, but they just don't take the initiative. Changes in marketing strategies can indirectly reduce the concentration of tourists in one place and divide it into many regions, making new areas grow and develop as well.

Nicolas Valencia:  If I'm going to Venice, I'm going to visit downtown, not a peripheral neighborhood.

Christele Harrouk:  But if there is a Zaha Hadid building in the periphery, you will go there, and spend less time downtown.

I Love City Branding

Nicolas Valencia:  We have been talking about Europe, but what about Latin America? Africa? Asia? Have you visited these regions?

Dima Stouhi:  Dream destinations, big budgets!

Nicolas Valencia:  In Latin America, we are more interested in visiting Europe and the US, rather than our own region. This is despite the fact that airfare has plummeted in this region, so it's cheaper than ever to travel across Latin America.

Christele Harrouk:  This may be global, but don't you think this is where city branding comes in hand?

Nicolas Valencia:  Sure, city branding defines what we think about them. But one thing that freaks me out about traveling is that after spending a week abroad, people think they gain a certain power to explain what a whole country is like. We each have different backgrounds of emotions, ideas, and expectations, so a gay man visiting a city after breaking up might have a totally different experience from a heterosexual woman who meets a guy in that same city. Each person's visions of the same city are completely unique, which means these narratives can't be universal.. 

Dima Stouhi:  I think these assumptions are a normal human reaction. Whatever is different from what they usually see, they pin-point it as if it were a flaw..

Eric Baldwin:  I think that's a very hard thing to change. You inherently have more perspective than someone who has never been there, but at the same time, you have an inherently limited understanding as well. I think the after-visit stereotypes will continue to happen, as Identity is always tied to travel and context. How that context is shaped happens in a myriad of ways, and defines who we are.

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Thousands ordered to evacuate Fort Nelson, B.C., due to wildfire

Blackouts expected as local power generation winds down.

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UPDATE, May 11:  Evacuees in northeast B.C. escape raging wildfire

Poor internet connection? Access a low-bandwidth, accessible version of this story on CBC Lite.

More than 3,000 people were ordered to leave their homes Friday as a fast-growing wildfire advanced toward the community of Fort Nelson, part of the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality (NRRM)  in northeast B.C, prompting an evacuation for the entire community as well as the neighbouring Fort Nelson First Nation.

The Parker Lake fire  was about half a square kilometre in size at 5:25 p.m. MT Friday, but quickly grew to four square kilometres an hour later. By 9 a.m. MT on Saturday, it had quadrupled in size to 16.9 square kilometres. Fort Nelson uses mountain time year-round.

The service said at 10 p.m. MT the fire was 12 kilometres west of Fort Nelson, located near the border with the Northwest Territories and Yukon, about 1,000 kilometres northeast of Vancouver and 540 kilometres north of Prince George.

It was fuelled by ongoing dry conditions in the region as well as strong winds, which were forecast to gust as high as 70 kilometres an hour.

Wildfire burns near Fort Nelson, B.C.

NRRM Mayor Rob Fraser said the fire started when high winds blew a tree over and it fell onto a power line, causing it to catch fire.

"And then by the time our firefighters were able to get down there, the wind had whipped this up into a fire that they weren't able to handle with the apparatus that we had," Fraser told CBC News on Friday night.

Speaking to CBC News again shortly before midnight, Fraser said the fire appeared to have continued advancing, estimating it was about nine kilometres from the community at that point.

Conditions had calmed with nightfall, he said, but the message to residents remained the same: "We want them to leave the community. We want them to be safe."

Blackout expected

Fort Nelson First Nation Chief Sharleen Gale said residents were co-operating with the order for the most part, though some who were farther from the flames and separated by a river had chosen to stay put.

She reiterated the message to leave for safety, and warned of an expected blackout for Fort Nelson, the Fort Nelson First Nation and the Prophet River First Nation, which receive electricity through natural gas.

She said transfers of gas were being wound down as a precaution and a transfer station had burned down in a separate fire, limiting supply.

"We've done all we can," she said. 

Evacuation details

The evacuation order for the region was issued by the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality (NRRM) and the Fort Nelson First Nation shortly before 7:30 p.m. MT on Friday.

"Residents are advised to evacuate the area immediately and begin driving south towards Fort St. John. If you have a recreational vehicle, or your own vehicle, fuel stations are being planned along the route south," the NRRM said in a Facebook post.

"If you know of and have the ability to take additional passengers who may need assistance or transportation, please consider doing so."

Evacuees were told to report to the North Peace Arena at 9805 96 Ave. in Fort St. John — a drive of about 380 kilometres southeast along the Alaska Highway — said Jessica Harrison, an information officer for Fort St. John Emergency Support Services.

⚠️ EVACUATION ORDER ISSUED⚠️ <br>Residents are advised to evacuate the area immediately and begin driving south towards Fort St. John. More information is available on the NRRM website at: <a href="https://t.co/qhcyH8YXxI">https://t.co/qhcyH8YXxI</a> &mdash; @NorthernRockies

Long drive for evacuees

The fire closed Highway 97 with Highway 77 north of Fort Nelson closed due to another fire, according to Drive B.C.

That meant residents faced a roughly four-hour drive south on a single-lane highway along with hundreds of others to the city of Fort St. John.

Harrison, with Fort St. John Emergency Support Services, said she was expecting more than 3,000 people and have enough hotel rooms to shelter everyone.

"We're here at the ready to receive our neighbours," she told CBC News on Friday night. "We're looking forward to welcoming them, even though it's a stressful situation."

Anyone needing with transportation was advised to call 250-775-0933 and evacuees told to register on the Evacuee Registration and Assistance website at www.ess.gov.bc.ca , the district said.

The B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS) said the fire is "highly visible" from the town, where approximately 3,400 people live, according to the most recent census.

• Your guide to B.C. wildfires: Maps, evacuation orders, air quality and more
• 2023 'holdover wildfires' producing smoke again: wildfire service

Fire showing 'extreme' behaviour

The BCWS said Friday night the fire was exhibiting "extreme fire behaviour" fuelled by winds and dry conditions.

In at 10 p.m. update, the service said the fire was being fought by ground crews and nine helicopters bucketing water on the blaze, and air tanker support has been requested.

It said that in addition to wildfire service firefighters, members of the local fire department and the RCMP are involved.

Thinking of people evacuated from Fort Nelson and Fort Nelson First Nation as wildfire activity grows close to their communities. BC Wildfire service is responding and we will be working around the clock to support people. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BCwildfire?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BCwildfire</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/BCGovFireInfo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BCGovFireInfo</a> &mdash; @Dave_Eby

B.C. Premier David Eby said on social media platform X that he was "thinking of people evacuated from Fort Nelson and Fort Nelson First Nation as wildfire activity grows close to their communities."

"B.C. Wildfire Service is responding and we will be working around the clock to support people."

Hospital being evacuated, phones impacted

The Northern Health Authority closed Fort Nelson General Hospital and had plans to evacuate all patients, including long-term care residents, to alternate locations in Fort St. John and Dawson Creek.

The Northern Rockies Regional Municipality has also warned that landlines in the region were affected, with 10-digit dialling unavailable.

Fort Nelson &amp; area residents are advised that Fort Nelson General Hospital is closed, due to the expanded evacuation orders resulting from wildfire activity in the region. FNGH inpatients and LTC residents are being evacuated due to the wildfire threat: <a href="https://t.co/m2nMgTK7Wo">https://t.co/m2nMgTK7Wo</a> <a href="https://t.co/MWI7HjmY5g">pic.twitter.com/MWI7HjmY5g</a> &mdash; @Northern_Health

Northwestel, which provides phone service in Fort Nelson, said in a Facebook post that wildfires have damaged telecommunications infrastructure, disrupting internet, phone and mobility services in parts of northern B.C., as well as parts of the Northwest Territories and Yukon.

"We are closely monitoring the situation and working to restore connectivity as soon as possible," they said.

• Phone and internet being restored after technicians fix wildfire-damaged line

Holdover fires from 2023 a threat

The fire comes the day after two sleeper fires from 2023 reignited in the area, prompting an evacuation alert and the deployment of crews to the area.

The Nogah Creek and Patry Creek wildfires, both near Fort Nelson went underground for the winter. They became what's known as sleeper fires — or more menacingly, zombie fires.

This spring, they both reignited after the snow melted and the ground thawed, explained Pedro Roldan-Delgado, an information officer for the B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS).

Wind this weekend may exceed 70 kilometres per hour, and could shift direction rapidly, according to the BCWS. This creates the potential for extreme fire behaviour at both sites.

Fraser said earlier that residents are apprehensive of the "big dry storm coming through" this weekend.

"These fires are hold-over fires and if the winds pick up in that dry country, we're looking at a big major spread outside the current fire control area," Fraser said.

At the advice of the BCWS, the municipality issued an evacuation alert on May 9, warning residents who live near both fires that they need to be ready to evacuate on short notice. Fraser said the areas are mostly uninhabited, but include some oil and gas camps that may house around 30 people each.

• Is today's weather normal? Search for your town or city to compare it to previous years
• Track wildfire smoke, active fires and air quality across Canada

The Nogah Creek fire is about 60 kilometres east of Fort Nelson, while the Patry Creek fire is about 40 kilometres from the junction of the Alaska Highway and Highway 77. 

As of May 10, there are 119 active wildfires in the province, but only nine of those fires are categorized as out of control — including the Patry Creek and Nogah Creek fires.

Drought conditions

The evacuations and evacuation alerts come as the province reports a snowpack of 66 per cent of normal — a sharp decrease from last year's 91 per cent. According to the province, it's creating a significantly elevated drought hazard.

The BCWS has reported that the conditions around both fire areas resemble those of late summer, even though it's only May.

• 'Every drop counts': B.C. prepares for impacts of ongoing drought
• Temperatures to soar above 30 C in parts of B.C.

Fraser said that some locals are critical of the BCWS for not addressing the sleeper fires earlier, including during the winter when the Nogah Creek fire was accessible by road.

"But they didn't hire their crews until late in March, and so they just didn't get out there in time to get some of these fires out," he said.

B.C.'s 2023 wildfire season is widely regarded as the worst on record after about 400 structures were destroyed. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes, and wildfire damage cost insurance companies more than $720 million.

Clarifications

• This story has been updated to clarify the distances between Fort Nelson and other communities. May 13, 2024 10:40 AM PT

Corrections

• An earlier version of this story included an incorrect emergency help number. It has been updated. May 11, 2024 10:01 AM PT

With files from Andrew Kurjata, Moira Wyton, Tessa Vikander, Megan Turcato and The Canadian Press

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The huge solar storm is keeping power grid and satellite operators on edge

Geoff Brumfiel

Willem Marx

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of solar flares early Saturday afternoon. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says there have been measurable effects and impacts from the geomagnetic storm. Solar Dynamics Observatory hide caption

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of solar flares early Saturday afternoon. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says there have been measurable effects and impacts from the geomagnetic storm.

Planet Earth is getting rocked by the biggest solar storm in decades – and the potential effects have those people in charge of power grids, communications systems and satellites on edge.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says there have been measurable effects and impacts from the geomagnetic storm that has been visible as aurora across vast swathes of the Northern Hemisphere. So far though, NOAA has seen no reports of major damage.

The Picture Show

Photos: see the northern lights from rare, solar storm.

There has been some degradation and loss to communication systems that rely on high-frequency radio waves, NOAA told NPR, as well as some preliminary indications of irregularities in power systems.

"Simply put, the power grid operators have been busy since yesterday working to keep proper, regulated current flowing without disruption," said Shawn Dahl, service coordinator for the Boulder, Co.-based Space Weather Prediction Center at NOAA.

NOAA Issues First Severe Geomagnetic Storm Watch Since 2005

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"Satellite operators are also busy monitoring spacecraft health due to the S1-S2 storm taking place along with the severe-extreme geomagnetic storm that continues even now," Dahl added, saying some GPS systems have struggled to lock locations and offered incorrect positions.

NOAA's GOES-16 satellite captured a flare erupting occurred around 2 p.m. EDT on May 9, 2024.

As NOAA had warned late Friday, the Earth has been experiencing a G5, or "Extreme," geomagnetic storm . It's the first G5 storm to hit the planet since 2003, when a similar event temporarily knocked out power in part of Sweden and damaged electrical transformers in South Africa.

The NOAA center predicted that this current storm could induce auroras visible as far south as Northern California and Alabama.

Extreme (G5) geomagnetic conditions have been observed! pic.twitter.com/qLsC8GbWus — NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (@NWSSWPC) May 10, 2024

Around the world on social media, posters put up photos of bright auroras visible in Russia , Scandinavia , the United Kingdom and continental Europe . Some reported seeing the aurora as far south as Mallorca, Spain .

The source of the solar storm is a cluster of sunspots on the sun's surface that is 17 times the diameter of the Earth. The spots are filled with tangled magnetic fields that can act as slingshots, throwing huge quantities of charged particles towards our planet. These events, known as coronal mass ejections, become more common during the peak of the Sun's 11-year solar cycle.

A powerful solar storm is bringing northern lights to unusual places

Usually, they miss the Earth, but this time, NOAA says several have headed directly toward our planet, and the agency predicted that several waves of flares will continue to slam into the Earth over the next few days.

While the storm has proven to be large, predicting the effects from such incidents can be difficult, Dahl said.

Shocking problems

The most disruptive solar storm ever recorded came in 1859. Known as the "Carrington Event," it generated shimmering auroras that were visible as far south as Mexico and Hawaii. It also fried telegraph systems throughout Europe and North America.

Stronger activity on the sun could bring more displays of the northern lights in 2024

While this geomagnetic storm will not be as strong, the world has grown more reliant on electronics and electrical systems. Depending on the orientation of the storm's magnetic field, it could induce unexpected electrical currents in long-distance power lines — those currents could cause safety systems to flip, triggering temporary power outages in some areas.

my cat just experienced the aurora borealis, one of the world's most radiant natural phenomena... and she doesn't care pic.twitter.com/Ee74FpWHFm — PJ (@kickthepj) May 10, 2024

The storm is also likely to disrupt the ionosphere, a section of Earth's atmosphere filled with charged particles. Some long-distance radio transmissions use the ionosphere to "bounce" signals around the globe, and those signals will likely be disrupted. The particles may also refract and otherwise scramble signals from the global positioning system, according to Rob Steenburgh, a space scientist with NOAA. Those effects can linger for a few days after the storm.

Like Dahl, Steenburgh said it's unclear just how bad the disruptions will be. While we are more dependent than ever on GPS, there are also more satellites in orbit. Moreover, the anomalies from the storm are constantly shifting through the ionosphere like ripples in a pool. "Outages, with any luck, should not be prolonged," Steenburgh said.

What Causes The Northern Lights? Scientists Finally Know For Sure

The radiation from the storm could have other undesirable effects. At high altitudes, it could damage satellites, while at low altitudes, it's likely to increase atmospheric drag, causing some satellites to sink toward the Earth.

The changes to orbits wreak havoc, warns Tuija Pulkkinen, chair of the department of climate and space sciences at the University of Michigan. Since the last solar maximum, companies such as SpaceX have launched thousands of satellites into low Earth orbit. Those satellites will now see their orbits unexpectedly changed.

"There's a lot of companies that haven't seen these kind of space weather effects before," she says.

The International Space Station lies within Earth's magnetosphere, so its astronauts should be mostly protected, Steenburgh says.

In a statement, NASA said that astronauts would not take additional measures to protect themselves. "NASA completed a thorough analysis of recent space weather activity and determined it posed no risk to the crew aboard the International Space Station and no additional precautionary measures are needed," the agency said late Friday.

People visit St Mary's lighthouse in Whitley Bay to see the aurora borealis on Friday in Whitley Bay, England. Ian Forsyth/Getty Images hide caption

People visit St Mary's lighthouse in Whitley Bay to see the aurora borealis on Friday in Whitley Bay, England.

While this storm will undoubtedly keep satellite operators and utilities busy over the next few days, individuals don't really need to do much to get ready.

"As far as what the general public should be doing, hopefully they're not having to do anything," Dahl said. "Weather permitting, they may be visible again tonight." He advised that the largest problem could be a brief blackout, so keeping some flashlights and a radio handy might prove helpful.

I took these photos near Ranfurly in Central Otago, New Zealand. Anyone can use them please spread far and wide. :-) https://t.co/NUWpLiqY2S — Dr Andrew Dickson reform/ACC (@AndrewDickson13) May 10, 2024

And don't forget to go outside and look up, adds Steenburgh. This event's aurora is visible much further south than usual.

A faint aurora can be detected by a modern cell phone camera, he adds, so even if you can't see it with your eyes, try taking a photo of the sky.

The aurora "is really the gift from space weather," he says.

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• solar flares
• solar storm

Watch CBS News

"Extreme" G5 geomagnetic storm reaches Earth, NOAA says, following "unusual" solar event

By Li Cohen

Updated on: May 11, 2024 / 8:32 PM EDT / CBS News

An "extreme" G5 geomagnetic storm reached Earth on Friday, NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center said , after issuing a watch earlier in the day warning of the potential for a severe impact. 

The watch followed days of solar activity that sent several explosions of plasma and magnetic fields toward Earth. 

G5 is the strongest level of geomagnetic storm , on a scale from G1 to G5. 

"Widespread voltage control problems and protective system problems can occur," NOAA warns. "Some grid systems may experience complete collapse or blackouts. Transformers may experience damage." 

Radio transmissions and satellite navigation may also be disrupted.

The last G5 geomagnetic storm, in October 2003, caused power outages in Sweden and damaged transformers in South Africa.

A geomagnetic storm also means aurora borealis , otherwise known as the northern lights , could be seen as far south as Alabama and in Northern California. 

Earlier, NOAA had issued its first watch for a potential G4-level geomagnetic storm in almost 20 years. "If geomagnetic storms were hurricanes, 'severe' would be category 4," SpaceWeather.com says. 

In a press release on Thursday, NOAA said the most recent series of solar events started on May 8, when a large cluster of sunspots produced "several moderate to strong solar flares." Solar flares are bursts of radiation known to be the solar system's largest explosive events, according to NASA. The area where the flares are occurring is 16 times the diameter of Earth, the NOAA said, and more solar activity is expected. 

That sunspot is so big you may be able to see it with your own eyes  — with your solar eclipse glasses. The spot is known as AR3664 , and it was responsible for most of the geomagnetic activity Friday, the NOAA reported. According to Space.com, it measures about 124,000 miles across and is one of the "largest and most active sunspots seen this solar cycle." 

The NOAA reported that a strong solar flare was observed peaking from AR3664 at 9:23 p.m. Eastern Time Friday. 

"Flares of this magnitude are not frequent," the prediction center said . 

Still have your solar eclipse glasses? There's currently a sunspot so large you will be able to "spot" it while wearing them 15x wider than the earth! pic.twitter.com/XpQJEd4Qk0 — Eric Fisher (@ericfisher) May 9, 2024

There has also been a series of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are explosions of plasma  and magnetic fields that come out of the sun's corona, the outermost part of the sun's atmosphere. At least five CMEs appear directed toward Earth and could arrive as early as midday on Friday and persist through Sunday, the agency said. 

"This is an unusual event," NOAA said.

In a call with reporters on Friday, Shawn Dahl, service coordinator at the Space Weather Prediction Center, said that some CMEs "are catching up with other ones." He said officials are expecting a "big shock arrival" when they hit Earth. Dahl said at the time that while officials weren't predicting a G5 storm — the strongest of geomagnetic storms — they couldn't discount a "low-end G5 event."

"We're really buckling down here," Brent Gordon, chief of the space weather services branch, also said on the call.

G4 conditions were detected by Friday afternoon, marking a "major disturbance in Earth's magnetic field," NOAA said, adding that "the public should stay properly informed of storm progression."  

In a forecast discussion at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center said that solar activity is expected to continue at "high to very high levels" through the weekend, with additional solar flares expected, including X-class flares , the most powerful class of solar flares.

As of Friday afternoon, NOAA said it had observed a moderate solar radiation storm that could expose people in high-flying aircraft to "elevated radiation risk" and cause infrequent issues with satellite operations. 

Radio blackouts have also been detected with an R3 designation, meaning that the blackouts were "strong" on a scale from R1 (minor) to R5 (extreme). At this level, wide blackouts of HF radio communication is expected, as well as loss of radio contact, for about an hour on the sunlit side of Earth, as low-frequency navigation signals decline for roughly an hour. 

"Geomagnetic storms can impact infrastructure in near-Earth orbit and on Earth's surface, potentially disrupting communications, the electric power grid, navigation, radio and satellite operations," NOAA said. "[The Space Weather Prediction Center] has notified the operators of these systems so they can take protective action."

Dahl agreed Friday that the event is "pretty extraordinary" and said that it could impact infrastructure, including high-voltage transmission lines of the power grid. Dahl said that infrastructure operators have been notified to adequately prepare. 

This is the first time a storm watch has been issued for a G4 since January 2005. There is an average of 100 severe geomagnetic storms every solar cycle, but so far, there have only been three observed in the most recent cycle that began in December 2019. The most recent occurred on March 23. 

• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Li Cohen is a social media producer and trending content writer for CBS News.

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First person to receive a genetically modified pig kidney transplant dies nearly 2 months later

BOSTON (AP) — The  first recipient  of a genetically modified pig kidney transplant has died nearly two months after he underwent the procedure, his family and the hospital that performed the surgery said Saturday.

Richard “Rick” Slayman had the transplant at Massachusetts General Hospital in March at the age of 62. Surgeons said they believed the pig kidney would last for at least two years.

The transplant team at Massachusetts General Hospital said in a statement it was deeply saddened by Slayman’s passing and offered condolences to his family. They said they didn’t have any indication that he died as a result of the transplant.

The Weymouth, Massachusetts, man was the first living person to have the procedure. Previously, pig kidneys had been temporarily transplanted into  brain-dead donors .  Two men received heart transplants from pigs , although both died within months.

Slayman had a kidney transplant at the hospital in 2018, but he had to go back on dialysis last year when it showed signs of failure. When dialysis complications arose requiring frequent procedures, his doctors suggested a pig kidney transplant.

In a statement, Slayman’s family thanked his doctors.

“Their enormous efforts leading the xenotransplant gave our family seven more weeks with Rick, and our memories made during that time will remain in our minds and hearts,” the statement said.

They said Slayman underwent the surgery in part to provide hope for the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive.

“Rick accomplished that goal and his hope and optimism will endure forever,” the statement said.

Xenotransplantation refers to healing human patients with cells, tissues or organs from animals. Such efforts long failed because the human immune system immediately destroyed foreign animal tissue. Recent attempts have involved pigs that have been modified so their organs are more humanlike.

More than 100,000 people are on the national waiting list for a transplant, most of them kidney patients, and thousands die every year before their turn comes.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Strong geomagnetic storm reaches Earth, continues through weekend

NOAA space weather forecasters have observed at least seven coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the sun, with impacts expected to arrive on Earth as early as midday Friday, May 10, and persist through Sunday, May 12, 2024. 

NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has issued a Geomagnetic Storm Warning for Friday, May 10. Additional solar eruptions could cause geomagnetic storm conditions to persist through the weekend.

• The First of Several CMEs reached Earth on Friday, May 10 at 12:37 pm EDT.  The CME was very strong and SWPC quickly issued a series of geomagnetic storm warnings. SWPC observed G4 conditions at 1:39 pm EDT (G3 at 1:08 pm EDT).
• This storm is ongoing and SWPC will continue to monitor the situation and provide additional warnings as necessary.

This is an unusual and potentially historic event. Clinton Wallace , Director, NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center

CMEs are explosions of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun’s corona. They cause geomagnetic storms when they are directed at Earth. Geomagnetic storms can impact infrastructure in near-Earth orbit and on Earth’s surface , potentially disrupting communications, the electric power grid, navigation, radio and satellite operations. SWPC has notified the operators of these systems so they can take protective action.

Geomagnetic storms can also trigger spectacular displays of aurora on Earth . A severe geomagnetic storm includes the potential for aurora to be seen as far south as Alabama and Northern California.

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