Travel news: India, Bali and Vietnam announce opening plans

(CNN) — This was a pretty good week for the world’s wannabe jetsetters. The UK and Israel both cleared out their travel “red lists,” while India, Bali and Vietnam all announced reopening plans.

Here are 10 things we learned in pandemic travel this week.

Contents

1. The UK cut its ‘red list’ to just seven countries…
2. …But there was anger over its quarantine rules
3. The CDC lowered the risk category for France, Portugal and South Africa

1. The UK cut its ‘red list’ to just seven countries…

Thailand — including Phuket, home to Vijitt Resort — is coming off the UK’s red list.

Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP/Getty Images

The UK introduced a new system for international travel, relaxing testing requirements for many fully vaccinated travelers and designating destinations either “red” or “green.”

From October 11, England is set to remove 47 countries from its red list, leaving only seven red destinations: Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Panama, Peru and Venezuela.

The rules vary in the rest of the UK (that’s Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.) Here’s the CNN Travel lowdown on what travelers need to know.

2. …But there was anger over its quarantine rules

There were accusations of discrimination at the start of October when the UK relaxed its inbound travel rules but fully vaccinated visitors from India and many African countries still faced mandatory quarantine in the UK.

The UK has now changed its restrictions so that from October 11, vaccine certificates will be accepted from close to 40 countries that were previously ineligible, including India, Brazil, Chile, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya.

The UK’s recognized vaccines are Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson), or formulations of these.