Do you disapprove of people who are planning an overseas holiday this summer?

[Bahnhof Strasse]

In January this year we booked on a late August trip to Thailand . The vaccination programme was rolling out and we were feeling optimistic.

Our belief in whether we were going away fluctuated with the pandemic and vaccination, right up until May, when we found out the airline had cancelled the flights back in February.

The airline has refunded the money, the hotel hadn't asked for payment, so financially we're square. And we had four months of thinking we may get away.

Planning the trip is half the fun. So you’ve had half at holiday at no cost, jammy bugger.

 

[Argonia]

Work down the mines.

 

[Chilli.s]

Anyone going on holiday at the mo better be prepared for additional quarantine, tests and other assorted inconvenience, if they are good with that then ok. Just not for me.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Do what you like. Don't cry if your plans get fucked. Keep out of my way. Simple.

 

[moose]

It's the multi-bookers I don't like - booking several holidays for the same time to cover all scenarios, then cancelling last minute - limiting availability for anyone else, pushing up prices and disrupting holiday providers. Just rude and selfish.

 

[rubbershoes]

Planning the trip is half the fun. So you’ve had half at holiday at no cost, jammy bugger.

Same as last year. Road trip through California, Nevada and Arizona . That was a bit more tense as we were planning to go around the end of March. We'd booked it all in Autumn 2019.

This new disease in China seemed a long long way away at the beginning of the year. I can't remember when we realised we weren't going. But again, we got all our money back.

Now we have the planning for those two holidays ready for when it's possible to take them.

 

[Elpenor]

I really enjoyed my road trip in that area back in 2015 - monument valley was a highlight. I plan to return in 10 years or so.

 

[rubbershoes]

I really enjoyed my road trip in that area back in 2015 - monument valley was a highlight. I plan to return in 10 years or so.

Mrs Shoes hadn't included that on the itinerary. Thanks to covid, I've got another chance to persuade her.

 

[spanglechick]

I haven’t been on holiday abroad for at least five years, initially because I had a financially chaotic alcoholic boyfriend, and latterly because I’m now spending all my money buying my small London house on my own.

But if I got a big pay rise, would I go away this summer? I don’t think so. Is it weird that one of the most off-putting things is the idea of flying (and faffing through airports) with a mask on. I’ll wait.

I am enormously fortunate. I have a horrible garden, but garden it is - and I have a hammock. And when you have the infinite luxury of living alone, staycationing is pretty fucking relaxing.

My sister and her husband just went to Italy (amber) for honeymoon for a week. They can both work from home so quarantine is fine, and totally could afford to get stranded for a while, I reckon.

 

[nottsgirl]

I'm supposed to be going to London in the summer. I booked it when I thought the vaccine rollout would sort things out. I feel a bit funny about even that. I definitely wouldn't go abroad.

 

[l'Otters]

I think travelling from a country which has a decent vaccination programme to a country which does not is reprehensible. Even if the destination country has a half decent vaccination strategy which is lagging behind the origin country’s it’s still unforgivable.

None of that is in league with the shits who are making and signing off on the travel policies. Or the failure to make the vaccination programme equitable and global. That said, the existence of a greater wrong doesn’t let all individual bad choices off the hook.

 

[frogwoman]

Ive only had a few nights away in Oxford last year. Tbh I don't plan on staying anywhere besides my own bed until I'm fully vaccinated. I don't blame people for going though, including uk holidays, I'm desperate to get away.

 

[purenarcotic]

I don’t judge anyone who does go abroad but I do think it’s naive to think it’s going to be able to happen with any certainty / without disruption until next year. But their time and their money innit. I judge the Government far more harshly for allowing the narrative that it’s safe to go to certain places and then changing their minds half way through like they did with Portugal. It’s disorganised and stupid and an appalling way to treat people. Whilst I’ve come to expect this sort of shitty flip flopping, it’s an absurd way to run a country.

 

[miss direct]

My threatening housemate is going to a Greek island in a couple of weeks. With any luck he'll get stuck there

 

[Artaxerxes]

Airport experience is the fucking shittest most stressful aspect of holidaying at normal times, UK airports especially seem to enjoy squeezing you into the tightest most condensed capitalist shit hole possible, that I'm not sure I could handle airports right now.

I'm also just not sure what I'd do abroad currently, I like the freedom to walk about and just do random things and given I don't feel I can do that here at the moment - spontaneouity is a distant memory - I'm not sure I can do that abroad. What's open, what's not, where are the quick loo's?

 

[Orang Utan]

I might go camping or b&bing near the coast somewhere in August but no way I’m getting on a plane until next year if that. I don’t go on holiday much though as I’m financially chaotic (good phrase, spanglechick ) but I could certainly do with one. I dunno though. It can be lonely going on your own but I equally can’t stand the idea of spending all day with anyone ever.

 

[LDC]

Going to London one night this coming week. What counts for wild times nowadays.

 

[kebabking]

We're off to Northumberland for 10 days in July, then we'll do some camping trips, but an airport? A roulette game of 'am I going to be locked in a hotel room with my kids for 10 days'? Having no real idea about what's open, and with what restrictions?

GTF.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Going to London one night this coming week. What counts for wild times nowadays.

Never seen so many people with northern accents dragging bags around central London as in the last couple of weeks.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Never seen so many people with northern accents dragging bags around central London as in the last couple of weeks.

But the conservatives say true northerners have never left the north and hate London?

 

[LDC]

Never seen so many people with northern accents dragging bags around central London as in the last couple of weeks.

My accent is so southern I sound almost French I'll have you know.

 

[weltweit]

I think people planning to go abroad are taking a few different gambles, with implications for others not just themselves.
1) they are gambling that they won't catch covid-19 while they are aboard
2) they are gambling that they will be able to get a clear test for them and their group when the time comes to return home.
3) they are gambling that they won't get a new variant which might defeat any vaccine they have taken
4) they are gambling that they won't unwittingly bring a new variant back to the UK with them
5) they may be gambling that their destination stays on the green or amber lists for the duration of their visit
6) and they may be gambling that they won't have to do a hotel quaranteen on their return with all the costs associated with that ..

For me, 3 & 4 are the key issues, because they involve others - other than the immediate vacationers.

 

[Reno]

I'm not disapproving of others but everything is still too unstable for me to go abroad. Two friends are now in Spain because they booked the holiday ages ago and they would have lost the money. One had to pay 120€ for a PCR test in Spain without the insurance that they would get the result in time for their flight back. The other one is fully vaccinated but when he got there, he was told that they don't know whether they'll recognise his German vaccination passport and whether he can get on the flight back. Not getting home would be more stress for me than it's worth.

 

[l'Otters]

I think travelling from a country which has a decent vaccination programme to a country which does not is reprehensible. Even if the destination country has a half decent vaccination strategy which is lagging behind the origin country’s it’s still unforgivable.

None of that is in league with the shits who are making and signing off on the travel policies. Or the failure to make the vaccination programme equitable and global. That said, the existence of a greater wrong doesn’t let all individual bad choices off the hook.

Feel I should clarify that this to regarding travel for a holiday, as per the thread title. There are mitigation steps which could be taken to minimise the transmission risk & in contexts such as to see kin who are not long for this world it would be different.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

I'm not resentful of others but everything is still too unstable for me to go abroad. Two friends are now in Spain because they booked the holiday ages ago and they would have lost the money. One had to pay 120€ for a PCR test in Spain without the insurance that they would get the result in time for their flight back. The other one is fully vaccinated but when he got there, he was told that they don't know whether they'll recognise his German vaccination passport and whether he can get on the flight back That would cause me enough stress for me not to bother.

The bureaucracy is definitely the most significant part right now, and international travel is so locked down already that there's no chance of avoiding it.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

I'm not disapproving of others but everything is still too unstable for me to go abroad. Two friends are now in Spain because they booked the holiday ages ago and they would have lost the money. One had to pay 120€ for a PCR test in Spain without the insurance that they would get the result in time for their flight back. The other one is fully vaccinated but when he got there, he was told that they don't know whether they'll recognise his German vaccination passport and whether he can get on the flight back. Not getting home would be more stress for me than it's worth.

You may reassure your vaccinated chum that they’ll be fine. Whoever is the ‘they’ who might not recognise his vaccination passport is irrelevant, Spain to Germany is only of concern to the Germans so the airline check in agent must be satisfied that they will be admitted to Germany, a German vaccination record will of course satisfy that.

There is a huge amount of misinformation regarding travel and Covid right now, I spend pretty much my entire working day sifting through the regulations to work out what is correct, so far I have only had two people denied boarding due to incorrect Covid documents in the past 16 months, and they are particularly stupid people who somehow messed up their entry forms for St Martin. But the information you find online is very misleading, the U.K.’s gov.com site for example states that kids under 11 need no tests to enter the U.K., but their passenger locator form, which acts as an entry permit to the U.K. states kids over 4 need tests. Which is right?

 

[Reno]

You may reassure your vaccinated chum that they’ll be fine. Whoever is the ‘they’ who might not recognise his vaccination passport is irrelevant, Spain to Germany is only of concern to the Germans so the airline check in agent must be satisfied that they will be admitted to Germany, a German vaccination record will of course satisfy that.

There is a huge amount of misinformation regarding travel and Covid right now, I spend pretty much my entire working day sifting through the regulations to work out what is correct, so far I have only had two people denied boarding due to incorrect Covid documents in the past 16 months, and they are particularly stupid people who somehow messed up their entry forms for St Martin. But the information you find online is very misleading, the U.K.’s gov.com site for example states that kids under 11 need no tests to enter the U.K., but their passenger locator form, which acts as an entry permit to the U.K. states kids over 4 need tests. Which is right?

My friends got their flight, but it's still stressful to be told that they you may not be able to, due to the general confusion over rules.

 

[kabbes]

My friend booked a holiday in Portugal in July for her family of four back in March. I thought she was nuts to do it then and it’s pretty much panned out exactly as expected — a constant stress of what tests to arrange, changing country safety status, changing local restrictions and generalised anxiety. My other friend and I have been bemused at every stage — he is normally a big traveler but just decided for largely selfish reasons not to bother in 20 and 21.

 

[MickiQ]

he is normally a big traveler but just decided for largely selfish reasons not to bother in 20 and 21.

People doing the right thing for the wrong reason are still doing the right thing

 

[krtek a houby]

Taking a couple of days off (first since the new year) to unwind by the coast. We're driving and it's a quiet area with a promise of rain. Could be a lot worse.