It's now 5.30 British time half past midnight here in the United States and I've managed to get across the border.

It took a fair while they hadn't seen any tourists for well nearly two years across here with the land borders being closed and of course British people up until today

have not been welcome in the US due to a presidential proclamation but now if you're lucky enough to be

fully vaccinated America will open for you.

Hello, I'm Simon Calder and welcome to my independent travel podcast, bringing you the latest on travelling wherever around the UK or to the ends of the earth.

Well, I've had an interesting start to the working week.

Currently, I am at Buffalo Airport in New York State,

awaiting a flight to Orlando.

But on Sunday night, I had dinner on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.

And then I took a walk somewhere that's been off limits for 20 months.

By the way, that rumble in the background is Niagara Falls.

America will open for you.

The question is, what do you need to do in order to access it?

And that is a very straightforward matter of being a fully vaccinated adult or a under 18 child

who is unvaccinated but travelling with a vaccinated adult.

If that works then you've now got to move on to the testing bit which involves a lateral flow test on the day you depart

for the US or one of the previous three days. It's a very relaxed set of time constraints,

which I'm very pleased about. Next, you of course will need to have your Esther. That's the electronic visa. They don't really call it that,

but that's what it is that you must apply for online. Or if there's special reasons like you're a

journalist, you of course have to get a proper visa, which means going to the American embassy,

which means the seven

spirals of despair but eventually you probably will get one so there you are

...