Covid and travel to Iceland.
Iceland along with the rest of Europe in general is currently closed to non-essential travel from North America, as Iceland is part of the European Border Agreement, Schengen. Unfortunately, we do not know how long this new directive is going to last, but we are of course following developments closely. It is our hope and believe that this will be a shorter lived restriction until the current flair-up of Covid cases is normalized in the U.S. and we hope to be back in business again later this summer.
In the mean time, we are of course open, continuing to plan trips and putting together groups as well as preliminary travel packages and working with our vendors to make sure that we can offer full refunds on any cancellations caused by current or future Covid restrictions.
The good news is that Iceland is pretty much covid free. At the time that this is written there are 16 active cases of covid in the country, and 267 people that have been traced to interactions with those 16 individuals and are in quarantine. There are no covid patients hospitalized at this time. Close to 20% of the population has been tested and all foreign travelers are tested upon their arrival in Iceland. There are unfortunately 10 covid related fatalities that have occurred in Iceland during the pandemic. Further information about all covid related statistics and procedures in Iceland can be found at https://www.covid.is/english
The Icelandic Directorate of Immigration also post all relevant legal updates to the situation at https://utl.is/index.php/en/about-directorate-of-immigration/covid-19. Furthermore the American Embassy in Iceland has a page that is regularly updated about the Covid Situation as it pertains to travel to Iceland and in Iceland at https://is.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information/.
We are of course also in a bit of a holding pattern with our trips, due to the fact that the US government has not updated their restrictions on International Travel, and still imposes a 14 day quarantine in your home on anyone traveling back from Europe upon their return. This has limited flight schedules which will remain limited until all involved governments ease restrictions to allow for non-essential travel. All these restrictions have limited Icelandair flights to the US, and the airline is currently only flying to and from Boston, once a day, but Boston is one of the US governments 13 designated cities for arrival of travelers from Europe.
Do let us know if you have any questions we can answer, we are always available toll free at 1-833-IXTOURS and by email at info@icelandx.com