Wildfires in south of France. Cancel my holiday?

[Blurcardionawayrdroe]

Posting for traffic.

We have a holiday booked in a campsite near to Perpignan and it has been evacuated due to the wildfires. My holiday is booked for the last August fortnight. We only just booked it so no travel insurance yet (but booked before the fires spread IYSWIM).

WWYD? It might be fine.

Would you save money by cancelling now? I'd probably wait and see if possible, you're a way off your holiday yet. We're going to Spain next week and the fires there are very close. Keeping an eye on it.

That is soon! We might get some money back but we booked directly and 10,000 in the local area are being evacuated apparently so TBH I’m not going to contact them for a couple of days.

Good luck with your holiday.

This is the list of communities evacuated as of late on the 25th. It is now getting on 250,000 evacuated in the region...I am a holiday accommodation provider and of course want/need reservations. However

1. the need by locals for temporary accommodation is not going away soon and all services will be stretched.
2. I live 300km away from Bordeaux and the air is grey with smoke...
3. The burnt areas do not cover all of France so choosing to stay further away will be more pleasant..
4. We are heading into the 4th over 40°c heatwave this week, so choose where you go carefully, no real guarantees, as it is still early Summer and no rain forecast.List of évacuations in Bordeaux, Gironde

Thank you very much.

Yes I'd cancel, I wouldn't want to be near a holiday resort in a wildfire region.

I know Martin Lewis says get insurance when you book .Is there a reason why you haven't sorted insurance?

I’m trying to find one that lets me cancel the holiday.

You can't get insurance after the event - you'd have to have bought it already.

The best option is to contact the company you booked with and see if they will let you change location and/or dates.

We are going to a campsite just south of Bordeaux, we are due to arrive on that campsite on the 8th August but actually leave the UK on the 4th. We are hoping that things settle down and they manage to get the fires under control before we leave. We are going to go if we can unless we are told not to travel.

I don't think you can take out insurance after you've booked the holiday and then cancel it OP. But I'm no expert. To your original question, I would imagine the government will be commissioning holiday lets etc for temporary housing. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes. I can't imagine it will be particularly conducive to a pleasant holiday environment. I would see if you can change regions/dates.

I don’t think you’ll be able to. Even if you find one which says it provides cover for holidays cancelled in the event of a wildfire they will say this fire was known about before you took the insurance out surely? It’s like if you broke your leg tomorrow, you couldn’t then take out insurance, cancel the holiday and try to claim on the insurance because you’ve broken your leg? 🤷‍♀️

is there still fires near Perpignan? I know there were a few weeks ago, is it still going?

The fires are getting worse at Bordeaux! I hope people are OK.

is there still fires near Perpignan? I know there were a few weeks ago, is it still going?

Does anyone live locally who knows what’s going on?

I don’t think I can get insurance unless we actually mean to go so forget that part of the OP.

This is why you have to get insurance as soon as you book.

They’re telling tourists to stay away.

That's not terribly helpful to the OP?

Is there a reason why you've asked, other than to make her feel worse than she already does?

It's almost 3 weeks until you go. Friends east of Bordeaux (who are from California so very used to wild fires) are not panicking but they do have smoke smells. They had quite a bit of rain yesterday but it's due to be hot again next week.
Check with the company you've booked with if you can get a refund, if not just keep a watching brief. Perpignan isn't actually that near the fires and the fire they had there was well over 2 weeks ago.

There’s another very recent thread started by someone who had just arrived in the area and I think they evacuated. I can’t find it now.

Not the point - but insane to not have insurance before you book a holiday op.

i always just have a yearly policy forever so you don’t have to be thinking about it

pointless trying to get it now - you can’t get insurance for canceling holidays it doesn’t work like that

and you can’t get insurance for fires that’s are already happening - you are too late

id just write this one off op

No it’s not helpful to the OP but it’s a warning to others. Which might be helpful.

Lol, this is why you buy at the same time! No insurer will touch you now and let you cancel the holiday 😂

What part of “forget that part of the OP” did you miss?

I think your best bet would be trying to change the location or dates. I hope you can get something sorted so you can still get away

Tough lesson to learn with travel insurance though.

In three weeks time you might find that there is nothing else to burn in the area and that the fires have gone out. But it might not be very pretty!
If you’re just camping would you lose a lot if you cancelled? Or is it a Keycamps type camping?

Honestly I’d get insurance now and plan to go. I’ve googled the news section for fires in that area and it just talks about fires a few weeks ago. So if there is nothing more recent online I’d kind of assume there’s no longer fires but please do further research and check.

Then at least if you have insurance now if future fires break out between now and then you might be covered if the policy covered fires.