Would you book a holiday for 2021? When?

[BananaHammock23]

I saw on the news that flight/travel websites are experiencing a surge in bookings from May onwards. Would you book a foreign holiday? If so, when would you feel 'safe' to book it for? By safe, I mean without risk of it being cancelled.

I'm due in August and would love to get away before but don't feel comfortable travelling late in pregnancy. Not trying to start a bun fight, just curious!

Interesting in the responses. We’ve got Greece booked for the end of August which I’m feeling fairly confident about now but wondering if we could also squeeze something in May half term. Will likely be very last minute if we do but I’ve booked the week off work just in case

We've just stuck to booking UK for a week in August atm, may book something closer to time in Europe but waiting to have rules here and abroad confirmed as they seem to change all the time. Won't bother if there is quarantine and tests.

I just changed my May holiday to the 17 May when it’s supposed to open up. Egypt hasn’t really been closed to brits and doesn’t intend to enforce vaccine passports. I will have had both doses by then as well as my husband.

If that doesn’t go ahead I’m booked in July and for a month at Christmas. Playing it loose, it’ll happen when it happens.

I'm a fairly cautious person, so am sticking to the uk for now. (and will enjoy it as we didn't travel far last year). Greece were on about vaccine passports which is ok if you haven't got little ones who won't be vaccinated yet (who knows which other countries will follow) and also some countries are surely going to want a negative test result - that's ok if you're happy to pay an extra £120 each on top of your holiday cost.

Hope everyone gets the break they want, but either way it's going to be so good to go more than the drive to work or supermarket soon.

What about the quarantine in hotels upon our return? That’s concerning me enough to put off booking anything

@Fgs1

What about the quarantine in hotels upon our return? That’s concerning me enough to put off booking anything

They are only for red list countries and all airlines have changed cancellation policies to allow a refund for those reasons. I pay my hotel on arrival.

I booked a holiday for this year at the end of 2019 and have already postponed it to summer 2022. If things are normal again the worst that’s happened is I didn’t get a holiday abroad this year (and we don’t have one every year anyway). Despite all the announcements over the last few days I’m still not convinced we’ll be back to normal any time soon.

Interesting replies!!

@DazedandConcerned like you, I'm hoping for 17th May opening and thinking about maybe booking a refundable holiday for the first week of June as I feel like that might be the last week I'll feel comfortable being away from home - I'll be about 29/30 weeks then.

@BananaHammock23 I went away in December for two weeks and was the best thing my DH and I did for our mental health. I cannot stare at these four walls or the hospital any longer and I need a break from reality.

We had a package departing on 5 May which was cancelled today so I booked flights only and have a hotel booking I can cancel right up to the bitter end.

If I need to quarantine - like last time - I will. If I need to test - I will.

Luckily by the time we go we’ll both have had both jabs so I’m happy with the risks. We need to get moving again eventually.

Enjoy your holiday. We all deserve it.

I'm hoping to get to Sweden and Denmark at some point this year but no plans to book until travel actually starts up again. Assuming it does follow the estimated/hoped for timeline I'm not sure whether to quickly book for June, when it's the summer and hopefully lowest rates, or mid/late September as I originally had in mind and hope vaccines both here and there will keep rates low into Autumn. Lots to think about as things play out!

I'm hoping for Autumn but won't book anything until it looks more likely. The trouble is lots of countries are way behind us on the vaccine front and anywhere could go on a red list if a new variant pops up.

After last night's news I reckon July onwards should be fine, but as to where? That's the bigger gamble, because AFAIK Greece is the only country that's actually voiced its welcome to vaccinated Brits. I already had something booked from last year, but if it was a new booking I think I'd wait ... unless I could pay a small deposit now and secure a great price!

about four weeks ago i booked a holiday cottage in Scotland for last week of August as we had no destination in mind for overseas as we are planning a bucket list trip to America for 2022 last year cancelled Naples in October went to a holiday cottage in North Wales and had a good holiday so will be happy just to go somewhere pretty in the UK this year too

@zafferana interesting re Greece, I hadn't heard that! I was thinking Greece but worry about healthcare there as I read some horror stories. Ill be later on in my pregnancy so ideally would pop over to France or somewhere closer to home!

@DazedandConcerned I really don't blame you, so jealous! Was it before lockdown or did you travel for 'business' or something of the like?

@BananaHammock23 it was before lockdown. We flew out 9 December and returned on the 23rd. Got home to go into lockdown right after Christmas. And because of 10 day quarantine - which we did - we basically had no freedom after getting back.

It was nice to just feel normal for a change after so long.

No, though I hope to be able to see my family in Denmark! It’s been over a year

Other than that I will take random days off work when the weather looks nice and have beach day where I live (south coast), I plan to make the most being free lance with flexible hours. Not the same as a holiday, but even just a few days where I get to swim in the sea and lie in the sun will be magic

You're up against it in terms of time too OP. If you're due in August, you usually can't fly after 36 weeks IIRC, so with 17th May potentially the first date you could travel and needing to be back in the UK four weeks before your due date I think you'll just have to wait and see what may be possible nearer the time. France is doing terribly with its vaccine roll-out so far, which may affect whether they're prepared to welcome Brits.

Nope.
Frankly can't be arsed. We are ahead of the game in vaccines. It's utterly unpredictable what rules/rates and isolation policies will be in place.
Frankly I could not relax knowing that you could be slapped with 2 weeks quarantine and rules can change whilst you are there.
Might book for next year.

Already got a cottage in Cornwall booked for May half term.

Dh’s family have booked a big house in France for the whole extended family to have a get together in late August for FIL’s big birthday celebration, postponed from last year. I don’t know if it will actually happen, but it’s fully refundable if not.

We may also jump in the car when the kids break up and just drive up to Scandinavia, if we are allowed. We won’t bother booking anything in advance for that, we’ll just play it by ear.

Simon Calder has given really good advice (a couple of columns in the Telegraph - I think) about booking and how to safeguard your money. Go with a ABTA registered company so your money is safe, with good cancellation policies. Greece have said they will welcome travellers from UK as early as May (with a negative test or a vaccine “passport”) Spain has said they want a negative test. The big tour operators are organising “in resort” testing if this is a requirement to travel home with. Good luck, I hope you get away soon! Im hoping to get away in August. I’m due end of June, then mad dash to get the baby registered, passport and then book some sun!!

in many ways cancellation is the least of your worries - if they cancel you get something back. I'm more apprehensive about needing to pay privately for 8 x COVID test (family of four, out and back), quarantining at either end, or finding that the stuff we'd want to do is shut. On this basis we're not planning to book anything overseas until 3-4 weeks before travel. we've got a UK cottage booked for the summer, and if all looks well nearer the time we'll try to grab a long weekend in northern europe.

I’ve got a U.K. holiday with family booked for July which was meant to take place last year. I’m much more hopeful for it now.

I’m not planning on going overseas in the summer. However, I have 2 weeks off in October. I am planning to hold fire until August before booking anything abroad but would like to see by then whether it is safe / possible / worth the money to do a holiday I was meant to do last year to another country. A lot hangs in the balance obviously - our countries situation, over countries vaccination rates and control, borders opening, restrictions may be gone here but not be gone everywhere back then.....will I still have to wear a mask long haul by then?

If I go abroad for holiday this year, it will be booked at most a few weeks out, just to be on the safe side.

But to be honest, U.K. is fine this year for me - I just want a different set of walls and a different view out the window! And any food cooked in a different kitchen and bought to my table is currently 5 stars on my head!

I’ve changed our Easter booking to Italy to a late October trip to Prague, I’ve also booked a spa hotel in Wales for a week in July. At least if the weather is rubbish we have an indoor pool etc.

I've got one booked for September. I've changed it 3 times so I'm hoping for third time lucky. If I have to change it again then I will, the travel industry needs our support and many jobs are relying on people booking.

Nothing abroad booked. Have a hotel booking in the UK that I can cancel up to three days beforehand.