Travel European Travel and Holidays 2021/22

Alex Lake

Alex Lake

Location
Deep South of Cambridgeshire
With the removal of Portugal from the Green list (it was always going to be a "brave" choice to travel there), what do forumites think the future holds for travel to Europe this year? Are we looking at a very risky situation for the foreseeable future (well into 2022 or beyond?) or will a compromise be reached once 75% of adults are fully jabbed? And, regardless of what the UK rules are, how do our foreign correspondants assess the coming months?

Would love to get a cheeky little road trip to France in in October or thereabouts, but not holding my breath.

Just back from Pembrokeshire with trips to Lake District and Snowdonia beckoning. All lovely, but it's not quite the same!

Can we make this non-political?!
 
We aren’t planning on leaving France, not that there’s much ‘need’ as we haven’t really explored much.

We are hoping my parents can come and visit at the end of August though.
 
Our South African holiday from January was postponed to January 2022, and we moved some of the specific hotel bookings and so on forward, but not flights which we had refunded. British airways today had return flight for January 2022 a bit cheaper than I've seen them for a while, but I am not buying now: I will wait until I am pretty certain (???) and pay what will be a premium price no doybt, as everyone rushes to book. Same goes for Europe - I really fancy something in the autumn, but will be waiting until there is a level of certainty about it being a stable global or European situation (unlike Portugal at the moment) and again soak-up the undoubted price hikes.
 
Not a holiday, but I need to go to both France and Spain for work in the next few months. Neither would be viable, financially, if I would have to quarantine on arrival (having done home quarantine last year, and just out of hotel quarantine in the UK, I cannot commend either of them to being a positive experience).

I am going to have to wait until there is more stabilisation, which I hope will come from better vaccine take up.
 
My next booked holiday is Portugal in May next year, and I'm feeling confident about that. Hoping to sneak in a break earlier than that if things work out - no great expectations though, and if they don't I'll have no problem waiting.
 
2020 (and likely this year) was the first year I’ve not been to Italy in about 12 years. I really miss it and I’m trying to book a hotel or a villa for us next May on a refundable basis hoping things should be better

this year with a new baby we’ve planned very little but thought we might be able to get the ferry over to Normandy in July as my parents were renting somewhere in the new forest and we thought it might be possible to tack that on. Even the other side of the channel would be a pleasant change. It looks increasingly less likely that this is possible and given that everyone seems to have double booked all the nice hotels in the U.K. we are at a bit of a loss.
Lots of day trips from London is likely the answer.

Really do feel I need a change of scene now
 
Holiday cycling in Netherlands seems compromised...but still hoping to go to France for July-August... hoping they let us back in September... sounds crazy, there were hardly limitations when daily deaths were 500-2000 a day in Uk and 500 a day in France. Now, there are no more deaths in UK and 70 today in France... and we can't travel....
 
In portugal now and already booked to fly back on saturday so should, hopefully, be ok. Really needed a change of scene and been well worth it for the whole family. Fingers crossed, getting back through heathrow on Saturday evening won’t be too painful.
 
As Nayan mentions not all travel is for holidays, something that seems to be overlooked in the press. The inability to visit customers, both in Europe and further afield, is a real problem. It is simply not practical to quarantine for 10 days at either end of the journey.

If I never have another zoom meeting I will be a happy man.
 
I'm theoretically going to England with the family next month.
All of us are fully vaccinated.
it is still unclear to me if quantine is necessary under those conditions.
If so, we will have to cancel everything.

Alex R.
 
Alex Rychlewski said:
I'm theoretically going to England with the family next month.
All of us are fully vaccinated.
it is still unclear to me if quantine is necessary under those conditions.
If so, we will have to cancel everything.

Alex R.
Click to expand...
As it stands, as you are coming from an Amber country you will have to quarantine for at least 5 days. You will also each have to pay for two tests prior to travel. If it's the three of you coming over that's going to add to you bill somewhat.
 
The thing that kills us from going over to our house in France is the cost of the PCR tests for a family of 5. Adds a huge amount of money.
My wife and kids have French passports, so they can head over....."family reasons" .... to see my wife's family for the whole summer once schools finish (my eldest is there already).
I personally cannot stand the thought of a 7 days and then 10 days quarantine all just to go and see the mother-in-law so I'll be home alone (WOOO!!!!).

given rates are so low it does feel frustrating..
 
Paul J a i n e s said:
The thing that kills us from going over to our house in France is the cost of the PCR tests for a family of 5. Adds a huge amount of money.
My wife and kids have French passports, so they can head over....."family reasons" .... to see my wife's family for the whole summer once schools finish (my eldest is there already).
I personally cannot stand the thought of a 7 days and then 10 days quarantine all just to go and see the mother-in-law so I'll be home alone (WOOO!!!!).

given rates are so low it does feel frustrating..
Click to expand...
Paul,
In France quarantine are strongly advised not enforced... but, of course, no compulsion to go and see mother in law... ;)
 
Antoiine, From our experience of the French family, the concept of "quarantine" is somewhat liberally interpreted. One of the family members actually said "well, you can quarantine in bed at night, and do what you want during the day".
 
Hot from the press (Guardian) France
Vaccinated visitors from “orange” countries — including the US and Britain — will no longer need to quarantine on arrival and will no longer have to justify the reasons for their trip to France. They will, however, still be asked for a negative PCR test no older than 72 hours or a negative antigenic test of no more than 48 hours.
 
I'm hoping things will have eased by September. I intend to head down to the Roussillon for a cycling trip and if the scarcity of bikes for sale continues, pick up a new bike and use it for the week and bring it back with me. What I will save on the bike will pay for the bike box there and back!!!

In the meantime Fermanagh beckons in July. That was a feat in itself what with the world in his mother staycationing and trying to get 5 50 somethings to agree on the same thing!
 
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Antoine Singer said:
Hot from the press (Guardian) France
Vaccinated visitors from “orange” countries — including the US and Britain — will no longer need to quarantine on arrival and will no longer have to justify the reasons for their trip to France. They will, however, still be asked for a negative PCR test no older than 72 hours or a negative antigenic test of no more than 48 hours.
Click to expand...
Actually Antoine it’s not yet clear if U.K. citizens will be admitted- I think a further announcement on that is expected later today.
But it’s certainly looking more hopeful. And unvaccinated children can enter with their fully vaccinated parents from amber countries - though one wonders at what age one’s child is an adult for these purposes?!
 
I read a while back that France was 10-12 weeks behind in vaccination, so that implies a fully vaccinated population by september/october. Not sure of the status in other European countries, but I guess summer in Europe is not going to really happen for UK citizens.

Staycations beckon, which if you live where we do ( 80% of munros within 4 hours drive, sailing on the west coast ) then its not an issue. I do feel for folk trying to get a UK holiday booked, speaking to friends with rental accommodation, everywhere is busy. There also seems to be a creep up in prices.

I also wondered how kids used to swimming in the med on holiday are going to react to a sunny swim at St Andrews :)
 
Vaccinations are available in France is for all over 18s now and 12-18 from June 15.

There is good availability here (I could book for this afternoon within 5km) though much more for AstraZeneca than the others (because Pharmacies are only doing AZ).

How high the take up is I don't know!
 
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