Do you think Cornwall will be 'open' in July?

[NoSoapAndGory]

Hi all.

A purely speculative post to gauge opinions, as I know we don't know, don't have a crystal ball, etc etc.

We have booked a self catering holiday cottage near Bude for the first 10 days of July. We live in the South East, so it's about 5 hours drive to get there on a good day. We have a dog so would need to stop at a service station at least once.

As part of general future-focused conversation, DH and I are ruminating about

1: will we be 'allowed' to go
2: if we are, would we want to anyway?
3: if it's 'allowed', will the Bude community welcome us or hate us?
4: will the tourist industry want revenue or not?

Etc. Etc. Etc.

Anyone else having similar discussions, and if so, what are you thinking?

I hope so, I had a holiday in France cancelled. So I have booked a few days in a posh hotel for the last week in July. Going to do lots of national trust properties!

Having a similar discussion but sooner and a different place Husband is 40 at the start of June and have had to postpone our child free mini break currently until August. However my parents own a holiday cottage in the lakes so thinking about going there instead in reality we would take own food if pubs etc shut, go walking in quiet places and chill out with wine Infront of the log burner. It's only a 2hr drive so could go home if needed so all in all although I'd not do it now in lock down I don't think it's a huge risk however I don't want the community to hate us but by then touristy places might need the cash more.. genuinly don't have the answers but you aren't the only person wondering..

We were going to a holiday park near abuse at the start of July- we’ve moved the booking to next July, we didn’t want to take the chance. Bit different from a self catering cottage though.

Abuse?! Worst typo ever. Bude.

God I hope so. I’m desperate to go and visit my parents in Devon.

Think it depends on the corona virus situation. I’m on several Cornish FB pages and there have been quite a lot of negative comments about people coming here and breaking lockdown, but we do only have the one major hospital. I doubt any of the pubs will be open in July though

Nope not a chance - deaths are coming down but are nowhere near where they need to be and July isn’t that far away - then 2nd wave of infections in September - this is going to drag on

Poor Bude being tarred with the abuse brush! 😊

Seriously, though, I'm dreading the tourist influx though I know the local tourist industry is getting desperate. I think we have to trust that the re-opening guidelines will be clear and sensible and that people will respect them. I do fear a spike and I probably will carry on isolating to be safe from infection, regardless of guidance.

Today we saw two vehicles heavily laden, suitcases on roof racks, etc, heading further West. They had clearly got halfway through Cornwall without being turned back. I don't think they were Romanian harvest workers. It may have unofficially begun.

We are due to stay with family in Cornwall in July. Whether we are allowed to or not, I would feel deeply uncomfortable about going. Different situation for us because it’s a longer drive (though we’ve discussed that we’d drive through the night if we did go, so no stops needed for kids to run around) and also because we’d be going into another family’s home. Personally I’d feel too worried about picking something up on the way there or back. Cornwall, and our county, are both very low on Covid cases but we’d have to drive through some highly affected areas to get there.

I'm not sure, I kind of think even if it is the residents might not be too welcoming so it might be miserable. I hope there is some sense of normality by then, but think it's a bit close for comfort at the moment?

We’ve got a week booked at a family run campsite in Cornwall in May which is clearly not going to happen. Last week I booked the same place for the end of July with the thought that surely things will be pretty much back to normal by then.

Now I’m having other thoughts - will we still have to social distance? If so then what are we going to do there - hard to play on the beach, go surfing, visit Padstow, go to NT places if we are.

What about hospitals in Cornwall? Will they be over run with new cases from tourists? What about shops/supermarkets - they are rammed in the summer, how is that going to work?

All in all I’m now not sure we’ll be going which is a real shame as the campsite is really going to struggle with no revenue for what I now feel will be the entire 2020 holiday season - I am really worried for them.

Hospitals in Cornwall .... hospital (singular) and it doesn't survive the winter flu season. If covid comes down to Cornwall in big numbers the hospital is screwed.

Then again if the summer season doesn't happen at all then lots of people will not eat. We mainly rely on summer hours to save up for the winter.

I live in Cornwall & much as I know the tourist trade is needed, I hope not. I asume the same can be said for other touristy parts of the uk. With people not going abroad it will be hell. I can't see how resturants & pubs will be properly open, shops will still have social distancing in place. Having to que for extra time to get into supermarkets because of tourists won't be popular nor will their taking delivery/ click and collect slots. We have had limited Covid cases & our 1 major hospital has coped well mainly because everything else has been moved out to smaller cottage type hospitals. In a normal year the increase in population puts quite a strain on our local health service this year could be catastrophic.

I can’t see how this would be feasible, if you look at Italy and Spain and how long they have been in lockdown we would only be in the very early stages of relaxing the rules on movement and activities.

No I don’t.

I very much doubt it.

No.
I wish it was different but they've been relatively ok so far. It'll be carnage if thousands of people overwhelm their NHS facilities.

I suspect July will be ok for U.K. based holidays because businesses need the money, however until pubs and restaurants reopen it may be tricky to travel (or different). Cornwall won't be allowed to set its own rules

No, I live in North Devon. We have one hospital and similar to Cornwall, would not cope with a massive influx of tourists. Realistically people need not to come to Devon or Cornwall for the summer

I wouldn't go, personally. The fewer people that venture away from home the less chance of transmission. Especially to Cornwall, it only has one hospital for the whole county. And there'll be plenty of people who'll go anway, because they think their need for a holiday trumps everything else.

We're resigned to not getting away this year (even though we both think we may have had CV mildly in March).

No.

I live in a tourist hotspot and I'm dreading tourist season if lockdown is relaxed - we just don't have the hospital space to cope with another outbreak. We were badly enough hit in March.

We might be a tourist area but when it comes to critical care we have very few beds and our hospitals really aren't equipped to handle a pandemic that includes hundreds of thousands of tourists insisting on taking their summer holidays.

How will the tourist businesses in these places survive? The furlough is until may. Are they all happy to sign on until next summer?

Thanks for your views, everyone.

We definitely realise that it's very very unlikely, and we are sensible so won't go against guidelines.

In our wishful thinking world of planning, we are mainly torturing ourselves that it would be great to have a change of scene.

The holiday cottage is much bigger and nicer than our own place, with a big outdoor area. This is the first year we haven't had to tie in with school holidays, so we booked an amazing place that we could never have afforded 3 weeks later.

We would be happy to take all our food and drinks with us, and stay in the cottage most of the time. We would use takeaways / local suppliers IF they wanted the business.

Those of you who live in Cornwall - thanks for your views, I'm very interested in them 🙏

No.

We are keeping our fingers crossed that we can have a week in Cornwall in August - I think it’s 50/50 to be honest