Hello, it's Monday the 20th of September and thanks for joining me Simon Calder for the latest on travel and destinations from the Green List at the travel desk of the Independent.

Today the US opens up, so how can you take an American adventure? I've got as many details as I can put together. And I've been at Battersea Power Station

for the opening of two new stations on the London Underground. Of course, this podcast is

completely free, as is my weekly travel email. Feel free to sign up at independent.com.

UK forward slash newsletters. This afternoon, British

time, the White House, let it be known that the 18-month travel ban on people from the UK,

as well as much of Europe and a number of other countries, will finally be lifted from early November for fully vaccinated travellers only.

As you'll recall, the presidential proclamation by Donald Trump that took effect in the middle of March 2020

has been successively renewed and indeed Joe Biden continued it for well the first

eight months of his presidency. It applies to all travellers except American citizens and foreigners

with rights of residents in the US who are coming in from these countries.

It's looked increasingly unjustifiable for many, many months, and especially since the

Americans had kept open to arrivals from more than 100 other countries, many of them with

more serious COVID concerns.

Of course, great damage to tourism, but more seriously than that, it was very, very harsh for people with family or partners in the US.

We know not a great deal, but we do know that you will need to be fully vaccinated. And what does

that mean? Well, it means completing a course of jabs with a vaccine authorized for emergency

use by the World Health Organization. These are Oxford AstraZeneca, Janssen, also known as Johnson

and Johnson, Moderna, and Pfizer-Biontick.

And by the way, if you happen to have had either of the two Chinese vaccines, SinoFarm

and SinoVAC, you'll be all right too.

Worth pointing out that the US Food and Drug Administration recognises far fewer vaccines,

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