COVID test for return to U.S.

In July I got an antigen test at the airport in Istanbul for about $35, less than 20 minutes.

If you fail they give you a pieced of paper that says as much and send you on your way.

Of course without a passing test you cant get a boarding pass so you are pretty much trapped in the airport.

But they do have a nice, reasonably priced hotel in the airport.

The PCR test takes about an hour; don't know the price but doubt its $100

Last week our group of seven got antigen tests at the Venice Train Station for free. It is organized by the Italian Red Cross and intended for travelers. There were signs to the effect of going elsewhere if you had symptoms. My understanding is that all the major train stations in Italy were doing this testing. We got there at 7 am and waited until 8 am when they opened. There were already 20 people in line when we arrived. All seven of us had been tested and had our negative results by 8:45 am. Our Air bnb host had given us lists of other places to test but they all were quite expensive-about 80-100 Euros. I had found some other pharmacies online that were charging about 23 Euros but we decided with a large group getting appointments for all of us might be problematic. The airport was also doing tests for 35 Euros but the it wasn't that easy for us to access and we didn't want to wait until the day we were traveling.

I thought about doing the tests you take along but decided against it because of possibility of technical issues. Some people said that phones were not adequate to connect and we were not taking ipads or computers. I was very glad we had not purchased them because as it turned out our Air Bnb did not even have operating Wi Fi, although it was listed as though it did.

We had to show our passports to test but they did not keep them. We tested three days before our flight--which is longest allowed. We were given a signed paper showing we tested negative which we had to show to board our flight in Venice.

Every city and every country in Europe has got their own system and cost. The rapid test is acceptable for re-entry to the US. Rather than incur the expense and bother of procuring tests here, and twisting around about whether the test results won't be accurate if you do it, or wondering if a self-administered test will be adequate for re-entry (i.e., if you do it, who will issue a certificate verifying its' accuracy?), and/or false positives, just go with what your hotel says (why would you trust Rick Steves forum readers over local authorities, anyway?), set it up when you get there and get it over with. I'd like to see everyone make this entire issue/process deal with this with a little less self-inflicted trauma. No one can control a false positive result with any kind of test administered by anyone, the cost of doing it locally or procurng test kits domestically, or anything else with regards to COVID. I agonized over this issue too, but it was a waste of time and energy. Focus on planning your fun vacation and less about the drudgery and (monetary) price of travel, which, at the end of the day, is exactly what this is.

For my trip back from Italy I got a negative result antigen test at the airport for 35 euros in Florence, two days before departure. Results came back in 20 minutes. I did not have an appointment and there was no line no waiting. The Red Cross also had a tent operating at Florence Santa Maria Novella train station where I could have gotten a free one but the line was always too long if you did not get up before they opened. A week before that I also got the same test for 29 euros at a pharmacy in Chamonix in order to attend a festival there. There was no line no waiting and the results came back in 30 minutes. Yeah, I did not really think too much about it until near the very end of the trip; I flew back from Milan.

@Beth. I am thinking along the same lines and I have heard of people having some issues with the mail order tests. Thanks for telling of your experience.

@James, good to hear your experience. I do know the PCR tests are well over $100 in a lot of places, including the Warsaw airport.

@Jazz, Thanks. My impression is that most people are using the antigen tests. Glad things worked well for you. I'm leaning towards just waiting and doing a test at my departure city. I think I would get it before going to the airport some time before the flight.

@Wanderlost. Thank you for your thoughts. I am not agonizing over this decision. I know the U.S. requirements, and I've outlined my understanding of what tests are available. I have talked to the owner of the BnB in my departure city. Basically, I'm thinking about whether I'd like to order the Abbott tests or wait and do one of the tests available when I'm ready to return to the U.S. There has been a lot of reports from people returning from U.K., Italy, Spain or France, less so from other places. In terms of getting info on this issue from the forum, its good to hear people experience with the testing and making an informed decision based on the information I have and input from others.

I just returned from Europe and we flew out of Switzerland. We ended up testing at a local pediatric clinic in Lucern that did testing (including for travel) since we had children with us. Some of the testing places had age cut offs and I did not want to spend our vacation time running around to get all of us tested. The price was in line with the options at the train station or Zurich airport (which we flew out of). The price was 62 CHF each and we had our results emailed within an hour. I had the results printed at the hotel (probably not necessary but easier than showing all 4 results letters on my phone).

I had originally planned to use the Abbott tests but needing a separate test session for each of us and the unknown of the wait times turned me off of that.

We flew from Athens to SFO the middle of July. Before we left for Greece, we identified clinics that were COVID testing at our last stop (Mykonos). We made an appointment for 2 days prior to departure and did the rapid test. No worries. There were many people from other countries getting the PCR test-only Americans could get the rapid test. We met an American couple that were leaving the next day and they promised to let us know (which they did) if the rapid test worked out, or if we needed to go back for the PCR test. Some Americans we met used the home kit, which is used during a live video chat with a doctor. We didn't want to worry about that or carry it in our luggage. Our rapid tests were 20 euro each for the test, and 10 euro each for the certificate, so 60 total.

We just returned from Iceland back to Seattle last night. A few days before we left Seattle we got our PCR tests done, with no charge at all to us. We took the eMed test kits to Iceland with us, and I brought a few extra just in case. Those tests were very easy to use, but we did have one glitch in that the dropper in my kit was empty. I did not have to use one of the extra kits though as the proctor let me just use the leftover drops from my husbands test which he did a few minutes before me. The entire thing took may 25 minutes, as you first answer some questions, then the proctor walks you step by step through the process and then you wait 15 minutes for the results, and then the proctor goes over the results with you. We were very glad to go this route as it was so convenient for us, and the cost was inexpensive.