Will Devon & Cornwall be ok to go to in July?

[EinsteinaGogo]

We are in a real dilemma.. We have to pay the balance on our holiday in the next couple of weeks which is about another £800 on top of the £400 deposit already paid.

We've gone for a self catering holiday flat on the Devon / Cornwall border for last week of June /
first week in July.

Don't really want to go if the touristy places we'd usually go to aren't open but our holiday company are only offering a reschedule so will lose our money if we cancel. We have a family wedding next year (hopefully) so we don't want to rebook.

We were pretty sure we'd still be in lockdown and be able to get a refund but now that the new rules are in place, I don't know if we are or aren't allowed to go.

AIBU to think we should be able to get our deposit back?

We are booked to go to Newton Abbot on the 9th July. In fairness to Hoseasons they have delayed our balance being due until 20th June. We are desperately hoping that you an't go away in July and we have to reschedule until next year. If not we have to pay in full £1700 and if that is the case we can't afford to just throw the money away.

We also have the added complication that it is 3 separate households all staying in one lodge so if by then households can't mix I can't see Hoeseasons saying we can not pay as they won't care that we all live separately here.

I'm not sure there's anywhere that populations can be generalised as 'friendly' or 'unfriendly'

Liverpool (for genuine friendliness)

"Nobody said outsiders are unwelcome 🤣"

No, you're right, the mention of the torching of tourist cars definitely gives the impression tourists are welcome with wide open arms

Liverpool (for genuine friendliness)

Agreed! Love love love Liverpool.

@NoClarification
Everywhere has its idiots. A minority that you have decided is enough to run us into poverty.
But still you'll make sure us innocents know about it 🤷‍♀️

No you misunderstood me, I meant that it's the Cornish people who would let tourists know about being unwelcome, not me.
And as for wishing poverty on anyone, I don't know where you get that from either. I said exactly the opposite. You seem determined to think I'm out to get you - I'm really not. I'm merely commenting on the vast numbers of Cornish posters virulently telling tourists to get lost in quite unpleasant terms, across multiple threads.

@NoClarification then I do apologise. I though you meant we would know about it in terms of boycott . Yes I've read myself some vile comments but to us they really are a minority. We miss our beaches as much as others but we just are not prepared or safe to take more numbers at the moment. And I think people are frustrated. A lot of mobile homes flocked here at the beginning of lockdown and they are worried the same mindset will happen again. The majority of us are hopeful for this to end quickly and without having more cases than can be handled and can only do that if treliske isn't pushed to much. The chavs talking about torching cars are the same unemployed idiots that say they hate "emmets"

Apparently UK campsites, hotels and holiday parks will remain shut until at least 4 July

I have yet to see a Londoner on any thread telling people not to come to London.

That is true @TatianaBis, I haven't either. But then tourists don't tend to flock to the residential parts of London.

When I lived there, I don't think in 12 years I ever went near Buck Pal, Trafalgar Sq, the Trocadero, or any other tourist hotspot.

It's almost impossible to avoid tourist hotspots in Cornwall, because we actually live in them! (Camborne/Redruth, Liskeard and Par area dwellers notwithstanding)

That might happen if there is a huge spike in the SW and London is almost clear of cases!

To be clear, the Liverpudlians have requested that you stay away from Liverpool this year for your holiday and please come back in 2021 when they will be open again.

If you try to come this year, you’ll find your car propped up on bricks and your hubcaps missing.

And they’ll shout at you from the bridges over the M62. It’d be selfish to go there.

But then tourists don't tend to flock to the residential parts of London

What like Wimbledon, South Ken’s museums, Kings Road, Notting Hill, Primrose Hill, Knightsbridge, Hampton Court, Covent Garden? 😂

It's almost impossible to avoid tourist hotspots in Cornwall, because we actually live in them!
And Londoners actually live across London. Many actually live by Heathrow. And once the virus is on the tube it's going to spread across town.

All of London including central London is residential. And many living in central London are the opposite of rich (before anyone rushes out that myth). There are some very deprived estates centrally.

Of course it's not only tourists visiting London. There's students, and then there's the hundreds of thousands of workers who commute there (including many just returned from Italian ski trips).

Plenty of tourist sites outside zone one. Likewise businesses. And lots of tourists stay outside zone one in (slightly cheaper) hotels. Other visitors might be staying with family in outer zones.

Unlike Cornwall, the housing is high density in London. Hence why Londoners are so vulnerable. More spread out Cornwall was always going to be far safer.

The whole of London is a tourist hotspot. Tourists stay in hotels all over.

I see we have descended into pedantry. Glorious.

I can't resist joining in to say, have you seen how close the houses are in most Cornish seaside villages? Try driving a normal sized car down the streets of Polruan, or Polperro, for example, and you'll see what I mean.

I grew up in London and know it extremely well. It was always going to be high risk for a pandemic. But that doesn't mean other areas that have not experienced the same viral spread should be forced into doing so now by people who bloody-mindedly get in their cars and come here.

That won't happen in London. Flights are (mostly) grounded, and who the hell would travel to London when everything it has to offer is closed?

I've had some lovely holidays both in Devon and Cornwall, but they're not exactly the friendliest of places are they?

This is just about as tiresome as the old trope that 'Londoners aren't friendly'

I've always found people there very friendly, but to be fair, I don't know of anywhere else in the UK that has their own specific derogatory words to describe tourists like emmets and grockles, which are known of nationwide.

95,000 people at least have arrived at UK airports over the last two months. Of those only 53,000 were British citizens. Presumably the rest included tourists.

Btw some of those arrivals may well include locals from Cornwall returning home.

Why was London always going to be a hotspot?

Because it's an international travel hub? Like Cornwall is a major tourist hub?

If we can temporarily suspend one, why didn't we afford the same protection to London (and any other major city)?

I agree people shouldn't spread it further but an apparent entitled attitude from some people in places like Cornwall probably rankles with the millions living (and suffering) in cities. The entitled attitude in expecting protection but dismissing the fact that the same protection wasn't given to cities.

You can't know London that well if you think tourists only visit central London. Especially given the airports are in outer London.

I don't know of anywhere else in the UK that has their own specific derogatory words to describe tourists like emmets and grockles
Yes. No Londoner has any derogatory term for the millions of visitors welcomed to the city. In my experience the 'unfriendly Londoners' aren't actual Londoners. They're generally people from other parts of the UK who've moved to London. It's likely a misguided attempt to fit in.

They're generally people from other parts of the UK who've moved to London. It's likely a misguided attempt to fit in.
That is definitely not true about Cornwall, they have always had nasty names for non Cornish folk.
You could live there for 30 years but if you weren’t born there and brought up there then you are an Emmet and always will be .

Gatwick is actually in Sussex rather than outer London.

Sorry yes you're right chocolatviennois And I was talking about not knowing London...!

I also should've clarified that it's the major airports that are in outer (or outside) London. Of course there's the little City Airport too.

Fluffy emmets is specifically a term for tourists, not simply non-Cornish people. Speaking as a non-Cornish person who has lived here for years, without so much as an eyeroll aimed in my direction.

Noone is better than anyone else.

There aren't many cases in the SW and there are lots in London and other parts of the UK. That is why we, and the govt at the moment, don't want free movement.

If you literally don't give a shit and think oh well we all have to get it anyway then of course come on down in the summer.

The tables might be turned by August and we could be a hotspot with London relatively safe, so I'll come up to the city for a visit then.

No Londoner has any derogatory term for the millions of visitors welcomed to the city

No, but there are plenty who just mutter 'fucking tourists' at people who walk too slowly on pavements or stand on the wrong side of the escalator on the tube.

A quick google will bring up delightful press articles such as:

• 10 things tourists should never do in London
• The most annoying things tourists do in London
• Study reveals what Londoners really hate about tourists

So anyone trying to imply that Londoners are universally tolerant and welcoming of tourists is painting an inaccurate picture.

Tourists are a pain wherever they are found in number. That's the truth of it! (I include myself in that when I have dithered about in places I am new to).