Has anyone travelled against foreign office advice?

[Hakunatomato]

We are due to go to Zanzibar for 4 weeks on Saturday. The foreign office are currently advising against travel to any part of Tanzania, which means insurance would be void. However talking to people on the island of Zanzibar, there is no unrest there at the moment, and flights are going in and out. We have booked flights and accommodation separately. It would be be really stupid to travel without insurance, wouldn’t it? If only I had a crystal ball and could see when this travel ban would be lifted….

I have. You can (or could) get other insurance.
I won’t go into why I went but it wasn’t for a holiday.

Yes to see family/funeral

I wouldn’t for a holiday

Yes I have, but I used to travel without insurance anyway. Remember the overwhelming majority of people do not make any claim on health insurance.

I wouldn't.

It isn't about civil unrest, but the fact that if you required healthcare, repatriation, claiming for lost luggage, cancelled flights to come home etc that nothing would be covered.

I wouldn't go there until the advisory is lifted. If the trouble on the mainland spreads you could get stranded, and the political protests, although they've been in mainland Tanzania, do involve Zanzibar so they could spread.

It's a beautiful place, but has a sketchy undercurrent. It wouldn't be a great location to be in if you needed help and none was available.

I’ve no idea about the situation in Tanzania but I did travel to Uganda when travel wasn’t advised due to civil war. But I was working not holidaying. I’m pretty sure I still managed to get insurance somehow but it was a long time ago.

Have you got insurance? Then it should pay out, cancel and go somewhere else. Your airline should automatically allow you to change dates or change route anyway due to the advisory, reputable booking agents will too but Airbnb is a law unto itself

I wouldn't. I've been to Zanzibar and Tanzania annually for the last several years, including a couple of weeks ago. It was fine when we were there but we did hear a lot about the political situation from locals, and there was loads of election propaganda everywhere. What's your insurance saying?

I am usually relatively agnostic about travel insurance and think it’s a risk-based decision which you have to weigh up but, in this case, I wouldn’t risk it. I know Zanzibar is semi-autonomous with its own government but given what we’ve seen in other East African countries recently, thinking particularly of the coup in Madagascar, it’s not a choice I would take. But I also say that partly because my aunt did end up getting stranded in Madagascar although luckily she’d gone before any trouble kicked off so still was covered by insurance. It was quite a slog to get home though.

Failing that there’s insurance companies that specialise in higher risk locations, I have a quote currently for a trip that includes transiting through a land border region considered red by U.K. the only condition attached was we needed to pass through that 200km section as a convoy (which we will anyway)

We are going to talk to the insurance company first tomorrow, to see if we can pay an extra premium.The FO have advised against anything but essential travel, not all travel. Apparently it is business as usual on Zanzibar, even in DAs es Salem the majority of places are quiet. Yes we could probably get refunded, but the problem is buying a holiday/flight for 4 weeks at such short notice, the prices will be hugely increased.

I wouldn’t if the insurance is void. If you break your leg, you’ll be buggered.

I would (and have) if I’m just not covered for whatever the advice is (unrest etc.). Especially if I’ve checked other countries’ advice. If NZ and Canada are OK with travel and UK isn’t, I’d roll the dice. I do have dual nationality though.

I work for a travel insurance company. Check your terms and conditions but your insurance wouldn’t necessarily be void if you travelled. You’d just need to prove you travelled for essential reasons if you needed to make a claim which a holiday normally isn’t. If it’s a “ standard” travel insurance policy it’s unlikely you’d be able to pay an extra premium to be covered but do check. You may have to look at specialist insurance. Personally I wouldn’t travel anywhere the government had advised against travelling to

Yes. Went on holiday to Portugal during the first UK lockdown in 2020. Heathrow was a ghost town though my flight was almost full. Met lots of other Brits there who had done the same thing. (Portugal came out of their lockdown a few weeks before the UK did.)

If you do end up going @Hakunatomato (and personally I wouldn't), take some hidden emergency cash, probably in US dollars, and make sure you've printed out and got copies of all your travel docs. There's been a few days of no internet/functioning ATMs/card machines - maybe try and contact your hotel to see if it's back. Definitely take anti malaria medication. There's a few Facebook groups for Zanzibar travel that you may have already been looking at – if not I would join them to try and get a sense of what's going on, internet allowing. And go on Google maps and save a map of where you're going so you can use it offline if necessary.

I wouldn't go anywhere for a holiday without insurance. It's nuts.

We have been a few times before, and had got the cash etc. We were flying via Doha. Maybe Qatar air will let us change the 2nd leg to another country, and we will have a mad scramble to find accommodation somewhere else. I don’t think I would want to stay in doha for 4 weeks… Thanks for everyone who has responded. I have been in al, the facebook groups and forums. I have spoken to the owner of the villas, who I know. He says it is calm on the island, and it is not even the majority of das es Salam affected, and it is the only city in Tanzania that is.

Your current travel insurance will cover you so you should get a full refund if costs as it’s advised not to travel unless essential. If you don’t currently have travel insurance then that’s on you. You always need to have insurance that kicks in at least 14 days prior to travel precisely for events such as this.

You can get to some brilliant places from Doha. Uzbekistan? Mongolia? Azerbaijan? India? Sri Lanka?

Stick Doha in Google Flights Explore, non-stop, less than X, and have a look.

If you can get to Sri Lanka go there, it’s amazing. Not sure about monsoon season though?? But plenty of accommodation, most people travel around the island spending a few days in different places. Book a guide for taking you about and they will book accommodation for you too.

It’s a non-stop flight from Doha.

No idea about the monsoon though.

I have regularly travelled to places considered inadviseable. I pay a premium for insurance to do so.

The FO dont issue advice like that lightly. Please think carefully. I bet you’d still want help if something happened

We have insurance, an annual policy. I hope that maybe Qatar will show us mercy if we change the 2nd leg so near to flying. I know that long haul flight prices rise the week before a flight as they are likely to be purchased for business purposes and businesses are not watching the pennies so much. We can’t change dates as we work in specific positions where 4 weeks can only be taken at a particular time, and we have arranged cover etc. We may have to just get a refund and go another time.

Spoke to Qatar, and they can refund the flight up to 3 hours before the flight for cancellation fee etc. Insurance company open at 9 so will see if they can insure us for extra premium. The island of Zanzibar is calm and all flights are landing.