General Travel

While there have been several news reports of countries opening up to tourism, most of such announcements are plans or proposals that have yet to be enacted or involve only a specific, essential type of travel. Moreover, many such intentions to open up involve travel bubbles where only people coming from selected countries are allowed to enter. Mostly, this would involve countries within the immediate periphery of the destination in question.

This list, on the other hand, aims to show countries which are currently open to visitors from all countries and nationalities without the abovementioned restrictions. I will update this article as and when new countries open up.

As a disclaimer, by coming up with this article, I am not necessarily endorsing leisure travel at this time. This is for informational purposes only. 

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Earlier in October, I had the pleasure of attending the Asia Super Team 2019. The almost week-long event is an annual affair geared towards corporate travelers and is usually held around Taiwan’s national day – 10th October. In it, teams from 8 countries go around various sights in the island and compete in a set of challenges for the grand prize. This year, that prize was US$50,000 worth of incentive travel for the winning team’s company.

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Better late than never in getting this list up! This year marks the 10th year since I first developed the habit of optimizing credit card spend to earn miles so this list is way overdue. Contrary to what many readers might expect, the overwhelming majority of the flights reviewed here come from hard-earned miles from over the years. I am not a spendthrift and do keep a close eye on my expenditures, so I’m still happy to have racked up a decent amount of miles – at least it’s enough for minimally 1 long-haul round trip flight per year. I believe that’s enough for most white-collared workers in Singapore who have enough annual leaves for perhaps 1 long trip and a few short ones.

Without further ado, these are the top credit cards in my wallet (or saved into my mobile payments) right now!

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Singsaver has launched an enticing travel campaign this 2 to 29 September where new sign-ups (that are approved) for selected credit cards and travel insurance stand a chance to win S$1,000 in the lucky draw which will happen each week in September.

Here are the participating products:

You can also check out the full list of credit cards / travel insurance here and apply directly

Aside from the lucky draw, those who sign up are also eligible for the card-specific or insurance-specific bonuses which include rewards like cashback that can go up to S$250 or grab vouchers which are exclusive to those who sign up via Singsaver.

If you have not signed up for these cards yet, this is a good opportunity to do so due to the added lucky draw which is happening only this month. Cut off for the weekly lucky draw happens each Sunday at midnight and participants must have a card approved / travel insurance purchased by the time of the draw to be eligible. Users can only win once but those who don’t win during the week are still eligible for the next week, til end September 2019.

Of the participating credit cards, here are my personal picks:

OCBC 90N Card – This newly-launched card has an enhanced miles earning rate that applies until the end of February 2020 and that alone is reason enough to sign up for this card. Cardholders stand to earn 8 miles per S$1 on Expedia and Agoda hotel bookings, 4 miles per S$1 on Singapore Airlines flight bookings as well as 4 miles per S$1 on all overseas foreign currency spend.

Citi Rewards Card – For folks who do a lot of transactions with online retailers as well as shopping for clothes, shoes and bags (whether online or physical), the Citi Rewards Card is the right card to get for that coveted 4 miles per S$1. Other advantages for getting this card include Citi’s awarding of points on a per S$1 basis (rather than for every S$5) as well as Citi’s bigger number of airline redemption partners. New cardholders who sign up for the card will also receive S$250 via PayNow or S$30 for existing cardholders.

Citi Premiermiles Visa – For all other spend that do not fall into the travel or online shopping category, the Citi Premiermiles is a great “fallback” card with its base rate of 1.2 miles per S$1 spent. New cardholders who sign up for the card will also receive S$250 via PayNow or S$30 for existing cardholders.

Fancy an all expense paid trip to Taiwan? Asia Super Team could be your answer!

Just fill out this simple questionnaire to enter a lucky draw for a free trip to Taiwan.

Also, there is another competition happening similar to “Amazing Race,” Taiwan style! To participate, all you need is to organize yourselves into a team of four and submit your applications by 15th of August! The shortlisted teams will then travel to Taiwan in October for the competition. The winning team will be awarded an incentive trip to Taiwan worth US$50,000.

I will be there as well in October and hope to meet you and your team personally for the fun 5-day challenge. Hope to see you there!

Starting 1st of June 2018, Ethopia has been allowing visitors to enter through an E-visa applicable to all nationalities. Prior to this initiative, nationalities of only 2 countries (Djibouti and Kenya) could enter Ethiopia visa-free while another 40 nationalities could enter by getting a visa-on-arrival.

Ethiopia had initially put the e-visa service on trial for selected categories of visitors in June 2017 but now everyone can avail of it. The e- visa is processed and issued online where applicants apply, pay and secure their entry visa in a few steps. Once the application is approved, applicants will receive an email authorizing them to travel to Ethiopia and they will get their passport stamped with the visa upon arrival. Do note that the E-visa service is available only when entering through Addis Ababa Airport. It is not available for entry in other airports in Ethiopia nor at land borders.

Ethiopian Airlines has expanded to Asia for around a year or so now with direct flights from the likes of Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Bangkok, Hong Kong and soon, Jakarta to Addis Ababa. With the newly relaxed entry requirements, visitors from Asia can now actually stop in Addis Ababa and explore one of the more interesting countries in the continent rather than just use Ethiopian Airlines as a transit carrier to elsewhere in Africa or Europe.

Application for the Ethiopian E-visa can be made HERE.

Price for the Ethiopian E-visa is USD 52 with a validity of 30 days and USD 72 with a validity of 90 days. Only single entry visas are issued at a time.

As of this writing, I observed that the website crashes often so you may need to check from time to time.