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While the most common way for American travelers to get to Portugal had formerly been with a flight to Lisbon (or a transfer in a larger European hub), the country’s exploding popularity has pushed airlines to launch more routes not just to the capital but also to smaller cities that are common destinations for tourists.

For the summer of 2024, Delta Air Lines  (DAL)  resumed a Boston-Lisbon route that was lost to the pandemic while United Airlines  (UAL)  announced a new flight between Newark International Airport (EWR) and Faro in the country’s coastal Algarve region.

Related: This is why you won't be able to get a low-cost flight to Tulum anytime soon

The latter flight, which was initially scheduled to start running on May 24 on a Boeing 757-200  (BA) , is now put off indefinitely as both Boeing and United face investigations over several high-profile incidents such as when smoke filled the cabin on a plane taking off from Los Angeles and a tire falling off at San Francisco International Airport (SFO).

There is a big reason that a glitzy new route was canceled

While no injuries were caused, the airline is holding off on the route that it would want to launch to great fanfare to focus on both the investigation and rebuilding its PR image.

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“It's unlike United to cancel such a splashy new route with such short notice, especially considering how the carrier made a big marketing push around the new route when it was originally announced in October,” writes Zach Griff of The Points Guy. “Turns out, the reason for United's close-in cancellation is due to the ongoing Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) audit that commenced just a few days ago due to recent safety events involving the airline, as confirmed by a carrier spokesperson.”

The same spokesperson said that it still plans to launch the Newark-Faro flight by the summer of 2025 but did not give any more concrete details about the schedule. It is also delaying a “fifth freedom” route that goes from the U.S. to Tokyo and later on to Cebu in the Philippines.

Both destinations have been seeing growing interest from American tourists and the airline tried to tap into a market that was formerly filled only by smaller local airlines that tourists from far away would catch after flying into a metropolis.

There’s been a wrinkle in United’s plan to tap into hot new tourist destinations

"We have consistently been ahead of the curve in finding hidden gem destinations for our customers to explore and remain committed to providing the most unique slate of travel options for their adventures abroad," United's Senior Vice President of Global Network Planning Patrick Quayle said in a statement at the time.

Now, the airline is delaying such routes that it launched both to market itself as an airline that flies to such popular destinations and to slowly build out demand in order to focus on the investigation and bad publicity that came as a result of the recent safety incidents. 

“This schedule change is a consequence of that,” United said in a statement while adding that those who had already booked flights to Faro or Cebu on their site will receive communication from the airline and a “full refund” of what they paid.

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While the 63 national parks spread across the U.S. are an inextricable part of American culture, visiting all of them is by no means a cheap endeavor.

Many are not easy to access without a car and, along with the usual travel and accommodation costs of going to so many states and territories, the parks themselves also charge visitors fees at different points in their visit. Sometimes this is exclusively for “extras” such a spot on a camping site but, increasingly, parks have been either raising or introducing entry and parking fees amid overcrowding.

Related: I visited two of the country's most underrated National Parks — here's what it was like

The most expensive national park in the U.S. is, as travel journalist Stephen Hanson recently identified in a fare comparison, the Gates Of The Arctic National Park & Preserve in Northern Alaska.

This is the most remote (and often most expensive) national park to visit

Often dubbed the “most remote national park in the U.S.,” the Gates of the Arctic has no entry fee but is incredibly costly to get to due to its location in the far north of the Arctic. Without direct road access, the only way to get there is to fly from Anchorage to the nearest small settlement such as Kotzebue or Anaktuvuk Pass by charter plane. The Arctic terrain also means visitors often need to hire guides, pay inflated prices for the limited accommodation and bring special gear.

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“While many beautiful national parks in the US are well worth a trip despite their remote setting, Gates of the Arctic National Park & Preserve requires a particularly dedicated resolve from any traveler who wants to visit,” Hanson writes. “Though prices can vary depending on the length of the trip and the destination, passengers can expect to pay anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars for a ticket.” 

Channel Islands National Park off the coast of Southern California is the country’s second-most expensive in the U.S. for a similar reason. The five Channel Islands sit in the Pacific Ocean and can only be accessed by ferry from Ventura Harbor. Depending on the time of day and year, the three-hour ferry ranges in price from $60 to $120 (the park itself, once you get there, has no entry fee.)

These national parks are also very expensive (here is why)

Parks that are easily accessible by car but have high entry fees due to overcrowding include Yosemite in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains and Glacier National Park on the border between Montana and Canada’s British Columbia. 

Both parks charge each vehicle coming in a $35 entry fee on top of additional additional fees for staying there overnight. In 2021, Yosemite raised the camping fee from $6 to $10 per person to keep up with the cost of running the park amid growing numbers of people who started visiting as part of their local travels during the pandemic.

“Visitors should be prepared to spend more money on gas and set aside an entire day for travel when heading out to the park,” Hanson writes of Glacier National Park. “Upon arriving, visitors to Glacier will have to pay a $35 entry fee.”

SEE THE FULL LIST OF MOST EXPENSIVE NATIONAL PARKS HERE.

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