Holiday Destinations for a UK Citizen in 2021

[omniflow]

I suspect that I might be a little premature starting this thread, but I'd like it to become a collection of facts (and rumours) about which countries are open to tourists who are UK Citizens in 2021. Personally, I am only interested in short haul - but I acknowledge that other people might be considering further afield.

I did read in a local freebie glossy that Cyprus will be allowing UK citizens in who have been vaccinated, but I haven't seen anything to confirm that.
Someone posted a link to a Times article on another thread stating that Greece would be doing the same as Cyprus.
On another thread, someone posted that Spain wouldn't be letting any non-EU citizens in until they had reached 70% vaccinated.

Any more?

[Pete102]

Poland - Currently just a test required, no quarantine. Access for UK citizens is fine (when we can leave this island for non-essential reasons).

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/poland/en...

[Pete102]

Also, this may help. I'm cross posting from Reddit, but it shows the 7 day incidence rate per 100k. As you can see, UK is rapidly falling down the chart (good).

Greece is showing a slightly worrying uptick.

[GT03ROB]

The situation changes so frequently I'm not sure there is any value in doing much planning. It will all just be idle speculation. I have flights to the UK booked for 2 weeks time, quite expect these to change in that time.

The first step will be for the UK government to let you all out, then think about to where.

[omniflow]

GT03ROB said:

The situation changes so frequently I'm not sure there is any value in doing much planning. It will all just be idle speculation. I have flights to the UK booked for 2 weeks time, quite expect these to change in that time.

The first step will be for the UK government to let you all out, then think about to where.

Idle speculation - yes I totally agree.

However, I am extremely idle at the moment, so quite happy to speculate.

The post above yours, pointing out the UK Gov site, is quite useful (although should have been obvious). The site itself is quite poor, with lots of clicks leading to pages which look pretty much identical to the page you were on, until you scroll down. From there, the current state of Greece looks dreadful - 9pm curfew in amber places, 6pm curfew in red places.

The question is -

Do you book now and hope that the refund policy is as good as stated?

or

Do you wait until UK restrictions are lifted so that your travel insurance will provide some cover?

or

Do you wait until both UK and your chosen destination are both rosy?

Holiday company prices are seriously inflated - what we paid £2,700 for 2 years ago is now selling for £3,900. However, putting together an independent package looks completely do-able. A combination of AirBnb (which I have never used) and Easyjet show masses of availability and loads of choice, and the total cost looks to be about £1,000.

[RichFN2]

I suspect the vaccine rollout will play a big part in this, Israel is currently leading the race and UAE is 2nd . They may want travel corridors with other countries that have a high vaccination rate :

https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations

Looking at that the EU is miles behind 4th place USA, although as I type this radio 1 are reporting that Greece are looking into allowing those in that have had the vaccine...

There are YouTube vloggers who are still able to find countries with relaxed rules, Mexico, Columbia and Egypt seem to be very relaxed but you probably have to enter from another country first. Personally I would rather do the vaccine route

[Pete102]

Its fair to say that travel will be restricted throughout 2021, probably into 2022. My predication is that we will see a return of travel corridors based on criteria such as:

• Vaccination rate
• Vaccination program completion
• Presence or prevalence of virus variants
• Infection rate
• Test positivity

Those that have been quick out of the blocks are early contenders i.e. UAE, Israel, Iceland but I would also expect to see European destinations included depending on the situation. Certain islands may qualify or countries of relatively low population / high vaccination.

[GT03ROB]

seen Hancocks latest missive....... do ya really want to go on holiday & risk your destination going into red & then being charged 1750/head for 10 days quarantine on return.

[Pete102]

GT03ROB said:

seen Hancocks latest missive....... do ya really want to go on holiday & risk your destination going into red & then being charged 1750/head for 10 days quarantine on return.

Honestly, right now? If I could travel to a place I wanted to go, absolutely.

This pandemic and the governments (mis)handling of it has already impacted my life too much, the minute I can start grabbing back threads of normality, I will be.

[jesusbuiltmycar]

GT03ROB said:

seen Hancocks latest missive....... do ya really want to go on holiday & risk your destination going into red & then being charged 1750/head for 10 days quarantine on return.

This is thoroughly depressing - Eternal lockdown really is no life - I fell as if I am at the end of my tether...


Back in 2019 I booked a trip to Cyprus for August 2020 - when it came around the Cypriot authorities demanded a negative PCR test which would have involved taking the family on a 200 mile round trip and paying £800 so I had no choice but to pay to move the flights to 2021 - I need a holiday for the sake of my mental well being.

[omniflow]

GT03ROB said:

seen Hancocks latest missive....... do ya really want to go on holiday & risk your destination going into red & then being charged 1750/head for 10 days quarantine on return.

At the moment I think the whole thing is a gamble.

Book now:

Pay less (possibly a LOT less)
Have plenty of choice
Have something in the diary to look forward to during lockdown

Possibly end up losing some or all of your deposit
Be disappointed because you can't go
Pay £1750 to quarantine

Book later:

Covered by travel insurance
More certainty about situation in other countries

Pay more
Take what's left
Lockdown is over - don't need something to look forward to as much

[stu67]

I honestly don’t think there is a chance of “normal” holiday travel in 2021. The EU is so far behind the UK’s vaccination plan it would be mad for them to open up. Under 3% of the population in Spain has been vaccinated so far, in Ireland my old Mum who is in her 80’s asked her doctor re timescales and was told that it was at least 3 months away.
The list of “red” countries this side is not really the issue it’s the restrictions the other end also, tourism as we know it has been thrown on the bonfire for the time being. The very best I think we can expect is a couple of weeks away in the UK. Luckily I’ve got a brother who lives in Cornwall so I’ll be turning up on his doorstep at some point much to his dismay no doubt.

[Canute]

jesusbuiltmycar said:

This is thoroughly depressing - Eternal lockdown really is no life - I fell as if I am at the end of my tether...


Back in 2019 I booked a trip to Cyprus for August 2020 - when it came around the Cypriot authorities demanded a negative PCR test which would have involved taking the family on a 200 mile round trip and paying £800 so I had no choice but to pay to move the flights to 2021 - I need a holiday for the sake of my mental well being.

The United Kingdom is a big place, can you not find an interim solution for a bit of R&R that is not overseas, who knows, by the autumn things should hopefully look a lot different with most countries having vaccinated most of their vulnerable.

[Jaguar steve]

omniflow said:

GT03ROB said:

seen Hancocks latest missive....... do ya really want to go on holiday & risk your destination going into red & then being charged 1750/head for 10 days quarantine on return.

At the moment I think the whole thing is a gamble.

Book now:

Pay less (possibly a LOT less)
Have plenty of choice
Have something in the diary to look forward to during lockdown

Possibly end up losing some or all of your deposit
Be disappointed because you can't go
Pay £1750 to quarantine

Book later:

Covered by travel insurance
More certainty about situation in other countries

Pay more
Take what's left
Lockdown is over - don't need something to look forward to as much

Or accept the fact you're not going anywhere anytime soon and not even think about booking at all.

Nothing you can do about a global pandemic and nobody knows when or how it's going to end. Despite what the travel industry would like you to believe so it can entice you into making bookings and paying deposits to maintain its cash flow there's way too much financial and emotional involvement in making plans for the foreseeable.

I've lost about £1500 of non refundable deposits on a sailing holiday and campsite booking in France as a result of the confusion and shifting sands of the governments advice and rapidly changing European travel restrictions last spring and early summer and have a few hundred more still tied up in 2020 ferry crossings and Gite bookings that have been repeatedly postponed.

Lesson learned. Who knows when we'll be able to go anywhere and even when we can if we'll actually want too.

[Pete102]

I'm sure you staycationers will be thrilled at the transport secretaries comments about not booking a holiday abroad OR in the UK this morning....

[djc206]

GT03ROB said:

seen Hancocks latest missive....... do ya really want to go on holiday & risk your destination going into red & then being charged 1750/head for 10 days quarantine on return.

Hotel quarantine will be abandoned pretty quickly I reckon. Rumour was that it would only be in place until the end of March but I would imagine a little longer than that. It’s not a long term solution though and I can’t see it affecting summer holidays. Using tags for returnees from South Africa for example and linking the fines to income might help deter and would be considerably less onerous on everyone including airports and government than hotel quarantine.

I’m not sure I’d pay much attention to any missive from that shower. Schapps was on TV defending the 10 year sentence this morning while a former senior judge scoffed at the idea that the sentence could ever be handed down for what essentially constitutes forgery.

Anyway my dad is set to start his 10 days at HMP Travel Lodge at the end of next week. I’d imagine I’ll be getting bombarded with angry whatsapp messages about G4S etc.

[jesusbuiltmycar]

Pete102 said:

I'm sure you staycationers will be thrilled at the transport secretaries comments about not booking a holiday abroad OR in the UK this morning....

Why don't they simply offer the UK population a choice between the vaccine or an injection of cyanide ? Without any freedom why is the point - Apart from to go on solitary bike rides I have barely left my house in a year and I have had enough.

[RichFN2]

If its a case of Israel or UAE once you have had your jab then that will do for me, not places that were the top of my list but both are interesting enough to consider. A sunny week in either would be a nice break from my own place and home town..

[Terra1]

Petty I know but why do people call holidays in the UK a 'staycation', it's not! Staycation is stay at home and have days out. Holidaying in the UK is just a holiday!

I'm hoping our re-booked France holiday at the end of August goes ahead and we don't have to scramble for a UK break like we did last year. I guess you just book both and see what happens.

[Jaguar steve]

Pete102 said:

I'm sure you staycationers will be thrilled at the transport secretaries comments about not booking a holiday abroad OR in the UK this morning....

No need to call the chap a ct - the global pandemic isn't his fault and that sounds like entirely reasonable advice under the circumstances to me.