So a Vistani and Arak walk into a bar...

[Gwenfloor]

Okay, we all know how Vistani can travel to and from domain borders, and we know how the Shadow Rift is very hard to get into, but what of the Vistani's caravans? Are they able to cross into the Shadow Rift? Also, how would the Arak view the Vistani? As just mortals, or mortals that are more wise in the ways of the world?
I think in either Gazetteer V or Van Richten's Guide to the Shadow Fey, it said that whenever S/Foxgrove tried to ask a Vistani about the Shadow Rift, said Vistani made a protective gesture and changed the subject. Could this mean that the Shadow Fey and Vistani are possible enemies, or merely keep each other at arms' length?

[Dimitri Mazieres]

[...]whenever S/Foxgrove tried to ask a Vistani about the Shadow Rift, said Vistani made a protective gesture and changed the subject.

IIRC, that line was already present in 1997's Domains of Dread, so it just might reflect the Vistani's reaction to the sudden apparition of the Shadow Rift after the Grand Conjunction, or what they learned from their encounters with Shadow Fey in other domains.

I'm a little outdated on the latest info, since I haven't read the Gazetteers yet. But from what I remember from The Shadow Rift, the only (known) way into said place was The Fracture, in Tepest (or was it Keening?), which is a complex of tunnels and caverns which caused memory loss regarding the events that transpired during the voyage. Again, the Vistani could probably avoid such effect, but I don't think their caravans would fit in said cavern complex. And descending directly through the Rift was a sure way of being disintegrated.

But, like I said, I didn't read Gazetteer V, so maybe there are new ways for getting into the Shadow Fey realm.

[NeoTiamat]

There are actually several ways to get into the Shadow Rift, but they all basically follow the idea of "obscure, difficult to reach, and function only intermittently." I think the Fracture is the only one detailed, but I might be wrong.