Travel briefs

2023's top destinations

Cue the wanderlust! Frommer's travel editors have gone big with their annual Best Places to Go list, which includes destinations around the world. After two years of domestic travel recommendations — while grappling with understaffed airports, flight delays and high gas prices — they're declaring themselves cautiously optimistic about this far-flung roster of cities, countries and regions on six continents.

The 15 destinations run the gamut from white sand beaches to historic splendors. Some offer an alternative to over-touristed regions — head for Italy's coastal Maratea, they say, which lies 110 miles south of the very famous and very crowded Amalfi Coast.

Some offer major celebrations — Lithuania's Vilnius is turning 700, for example. And some — including Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula — will offer new, streamlined ways to travel next year. The first phase of a $10 billion rail project, a "train through the jungle" route that will ultimately link Cancun, Tulum, Playa del Carmen and Chichén Itzá, is set to open in late 2023.

The top 15 destinations: the Virgin Islands; Tokyo; San Sebastián and Bilbao, Spain; Camp Hale–Continental Divide National Monument in Colorado; Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula; Karnataka, India; Athens; Oahu, Hawaii; Maratea, Italy; Uruguay; Macon, Ga.; Exmouth, Western Australia; Dawson City, Yukon Territories; West Africa by Expedition Ship; Vilnius, Lithuania.

THE MERCURY NEWS

Real ID delayed, again

U.S. air travelers will be required to present the Real ID credential to board a domestic flight beginning May 7, 2025, instead of the previous deadline of May 2023.

Postponing the enforcement of the last phase of the Real ID Act will give motor vehicle departments across the country more time to process the new credentials. Some states have reported that progress on the Real ID program was hindered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Just under half of Americans with a license and state identification card have a Real ID-compliant document, generally identifiable by a star in the upper-right corner, according to the most recent data available.

DHS has extended the implementation multiple times, most recently postponing an Oct. 1, 2021, deadline to May 3, 2023. About 137 million Real IDs have been issued nationwide, which is about 49% of state-issued IDs in circulation, according to federal data obtained through the American Travel Association.

Congress passed the Real ID Act after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Eighteen of the 19 hijackers had obtained state IDs, some fraudulently. The law, which set minimum security standards for driver's licenses and ID cards issued by states, originally was to take effect in 2008.

Moving to 'fully digital'

Frontier Airlines customers will no longer be able to speak by phone with customer support workers after the airline removed its phone service in favor of "fully digital communications."

The Denver-based airline recently transitioned away from the customer service phone number after its Nov. 15 Investor Day report called one-on-one voice calls "unscalable, inefficient and expensive" and left room for "customer negotiation."