Dominica During COVID

Any travel, and particularly international travel, is more complicated during the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic. We did experience additional travel stress because of COVID-19 during our visit to Dominica. This post talks about traveling to Dominica and provides tips for reducing the anxiety and stress of traveling to Dominica during COVID-19.

WARNING: With COVID, things are changing constantly and it is recommended that Dominica's latest requirements be reviewed before planning any travel to Dominica.

Dominica's Travel Restrictions and Entry Requirements During COVID-19

Information on travel requirements and restrictions related to COVID-19 and travel to Dominica can be found at the site "Travel Advisory for Dominica." At the time of our trip (and of this writing), Dominica had different travel protocols for vaccinated travelers than for unvaccinated travelers. Because of this distinction, it is important to read the protocols for one's COVID vaccination status and try to keep those details separate from the protocol details for tourists with a different vaccination status. All vaccinated visitors who travel to Dominica through the United States only also enjoy easier pre-travel COVID test requirements.

Dominica currently offers a "Safe in Nature" managed tourism experience that unvaccinated travelers must participate in for the "first 5-7 days of arriving to Dominica." This program includes certified lodging accomdations, tour operators, and transportation.

Vaccinated travelers do not need to participate in the "Safe in Nature" experience, assuming they meet all other requirements related to COVID.

Health Questionnaire

Dominica currently requires that a health questionnaire be submitted in advance of travel to the country. Although we had filled out similar forms for travel to Puerto Rico and Greece and Italy during COVID without significant incident, this one almost cost us our trip to Dominica and was a significant source of early-trip stress. I'll explain the situation here and steps to take to reduce the likelihood of this being such a negative and stressful issue.

We submitted our health questionnaires electronically a couple days before our trip, but our PCR COVID test results had not come back yet and we could not attach them to the questionnaire. We almost immediately received an email message saying the questionnaires had been received. Because we received these confirmation email messages, we made the mistake of assuming that future email messages would also go to our inbox. However, the e-mail messages denying travel due to no test results being attached went to our "Spam" folders instead of our "Inbox." The Dominican web site does warn that this is a possibility, but we mistakenly assumed that because we got the confirmation email in our Inbox, we'd similarly get the approval or denial email in our Inbox. Because we did not check our "Spam" folder until we were at the airport, we almost failed to get approval to travel to Dominica in time to board the flight!

Pre-Travel COVID Tests

A common challenge for travel during COVID-19 is getting a pre-travel test done in time to have the results before traveling without taking the test too far in advance. Many destinations require the test to be taken 72 hours or less before expected arrival at the destination, but it can sometimes take 2-3 days to get test results (especially PCR). This makes the timing tricky. We had good luck getting free Walgreens PCR tests in time for our trips to Puerto Rico and Europe, but we could see that was likely not going to be the case for Dominica. We ended up paying quite a bit more (nearly $160 USD each) to get a same-day COVID-19 antigen test from a Denver-area urgent care facility. If we hadn't paid that, we'd have not gotten our results in time and would not have been allowed to board the flight from Miami to Dominica. Fortunately for us, we were able to use an antigen test (rather than a PCR test) for this pre-travel test because we were traveling to Dominica from the United States. We got our free Walgreens PCR COVID-19 test results while waiting in the Dominica airport to have our arrival COVID tests administered. It is likely that we would have had the test results from the free Walgreens test in time if we had taken the antigen test rather than the PCR test.

Arrival COVID Test in Dominica

All individuals arriving in Dominica, vaccinated or not, must take an antigen COVID-19 test at the Dominica airport. With approximately 70 passengers on our American Airlines flight from Miam to Dominica, this ended up in a bit of chaos and long waits at the airport. We had prepaid for this arrival test online ($100 EC), which simplified matters a bit, but we were still at the airport for well over two hours waiting in lines to answer questions about our stay, to get tested for COVID, and to wait for the results of those tests.

We had not paid the extra to sit further in front in the airplane because the flight from Miami to Dominica did not seem long enough to justify the extra cost. However, had I realized how much longer the wait for testing at the Dominica Airport would be for those in the back of its line, I'd have likely paid the extra to sit closer to the front and be well farther forward in the line in the airport. I suspect that being in the first several rows of that airplane would have saved us 60-75 minutes in the airport! The line and wait were so long at the airport that the thought crossed my mind whether the trip to Dominica was worth this. It turned out it was!

Departure COVID Test in Dominica

The United States requires a COVID test be taken no more than one day before departure for the United States and Dominica offers this in Roseau (Roseau Health Center) and Portsmouth (Portsmouth Hospital). It can be prepaid online ($100 EC). We were told that the car rental row at the Dominica Airport also has a facility for taking a pre-departure COVID test.

American Airlines Check-in Not Allowed Until COVID Test Results are Available

When we traveled to Europe, Lufthansa Airlines allowed us to reserver our seats before official check-in to accomodate later-arriving COVID test results. American Airlines, on the other hand, did not allow us to check in or reserve seats until our COVID-19 test results were available. We had taken the test the morning before our depature, but did not get the results until the morning of our departure. By the time we could check in (after uploading our test results via the VeriFLY app), we did not have any real choice of seats and had been moved away from our originally ticketed seats. This was another source of stress, but that turned out much better than we anticipated because the airplane was not as full as check-in had indicated and we were able to sit in the aisle and window seats with an empty middle seat.

Dominica During COVID

Once we got through the long line and wait for the arrival COVID test at the Dominica Airport, our Dominica experience during COVID began to improve dramatically. For the remainder of the trip, COVID-19 did not present any challenges different from what we'd have experienced at home (wearing masks when indoors in public areas unless eating and drinking). Dominica is a great destination (once you're through the airport!) during COVID-19 because it's relatively uncrowded and so many of its highlights are outdoor activities.

Tips Summarized

Here are some summarized tips for reducing the stress associated with flying to Dominica during COVID-19:

• Take pre-travel COVID test as early as possible in the 72-hour window before arrival in Dominica and either have (usually faster) antigen test administered (if it is allowed for your situation) or pay higher test costs to have a more rapid PCR test administered.
• Prepay for arrival and departure COVID tests in Dominica online using credit card with no foreign transaction fee ($100 EC per test will be charged).
• Select seats as close to front of airplane heading to Dominica as possible to be earlier in line in Dominica Airport for arrival COVID testing. This could save you a lot of time!
• Check your "Spam" or similar folder/label in your email for messages from Dominica regarding your submitted health questionnaire even when you've successfully received earlier email messages from them.
• Consider (heavily) travel insurance and purchasing airfare, lodging, and tours that are either refundable or at least "changeable."
• Have backup/contingency plans for situations such as not getting COVID tests back in time to travel or testing positive for COVID.

Conclusion

When we were waiting in line in the Dominica Airport amidst the confusion and chaos after our arrival, I could not help but ask myself if it it was going to be worth it. It turned out that visiting Dominica did end up justifying the stress we went through to get there. Sharing the gorgeous Nature Island with only a tiny number of other tourists was fantastic experience that was due in part to the challenges of getting there. The direct American Airlines flight from Miami to Dominica makes getting there without a cruise ship far easier that it would have been formerly.