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?

If you pay the rest of the money and government rules remain will they then refund you? That’s what I’d be asking them.

Not gonna lie. It’s a bit embarrassing the continued please don’t come messages. At first the locals had to be very vocal about the lack of infrastructure here. However it’s been raised and publicised enough by MPs and councils now. People know we will be overwhelmed. To keep on just makes it sound like we are ungrateful for tourism.

When the time allows we will need tourism so badly. Yes things will look different. Attractions may not be reopened. We have renewed passes we probably won’t get to use. However there are many beautiful spots in Cornwall that can still be enjoyed.

Food shopping however - yep dreading that ourselves.

@BetsyBigNose - all very well saying 'don't be an asshole', but last year I booked in good faith and would kind of like my deposit back if 'someone/something' other than me is saying I can't go.

Holdiay sites aren’t opening up here until “July” but it could easily get pushed back even further and there won’t be any shops open either.
We’ve just had our holiday in June to cancelled as the site won’t be open.
You’d be best to reschedule and (this sounds awful, I know) but you won’t get the warmest reception here either.
We have a very overstretched NHS as it is and people are genuinely fearful of tourists bringing chaos here and increasing the number of cases.

I live in North Devon. We have 1 hospital. Yes our economy needs tourism, but our hospital will not cope. Please put off your holiday until later in the year

Where is your neighbour getting his information that Devon has not had its peak, Rufus?

It seems an extraordinary claim, given that the uk peak was over a month ago.

Please don't. The pubs and restaurants are furloughed they will survive without you until next year.

@babybythesea - yes, I definitely know we would need to take everything we would need with us.

That's not a big issue for us as we usually take lots of stuff down with us for money reasons. We normally get fish and chips etc for evening meals but would plan to cook instead and bring stuff for that.

I know it's not really going to be a goer and I get why. I would mainly just like to get our deposit back.

Hospitality industry is in the "1st July at the earliest" category. So you wouldn't be able to go before then, even in the best case scenario.

It would be a really depressing holiday!

Try to get your money back. But if you can't get it back or reschedule then I'd go.

If it's paid for you may as well use it. If the locals don't like it they should take it up with the holiday cottage companies.

I'm buggered if they'd have my money for nothing.

@EinsteinaGogo Like you, I would cancel in a heartbeat if only the (local) cottage owner would refund our money.

Telegraph says that tourist organisations urging opening up for summer months due to the effects on local economies. Those mentioned specifically say self catering options

I have a Haven holiday booked for 6th July. I paid it off the other day and will go even if it just means being in the caravan and being able to go on the beach etc

I'm in Devon, please don't come. Everything is shut anyway.

We are supposed to be staying in Cornwall ins haven site at the end of July. Can't see it happening if I'm honest. If the pubs are.onky going to start to be opened 4th July then I can't see all the holiday sites around he country open a few weeks later

Haven have suspended holidays until 2nd July - so who knows what the next few weeks will bring

Just stay at home ffs, your holiday isn’t more important than not spreading a disease around so you can sit on a different bit of grass.

Sorry. but my family is important to me - even if we still have to maintain a 2m distance between us then. I'm talking about potentially three months or more from now, when we don't know how much might have changed, for the better or the worse. If we can confidently proclaim now not to come in August, why risk December, or Spring or next August?

We can't just give up our whole lives now forever for something that, whilst tragic for those affected, will not have serious consequences for almost everybody who gets it. let alone those that don't. Statistically, we're probably be more likely to die in a road accident on the way there or back than of COVID. On average, 5 people do indeed die this way in the UK every single day. It doesn't mean that I'm never going to go anywhere further than I can walk for the rest of my life.

People are seriously suffering from this right now - mentally and financially - the former way probably none more so than our kids. We can't just lie down and consider ourselves defeated indefinitely.

Some close friends of mine live in Penzance. According to them, feelings are running very high against tourists who come down from ‘up country’ bringing covid with them to infect local communities.

There is genuine concern that with one proper hospital in the entire county and an elderly permanent population, the local NHS could be overwhelmed and local people could die due to the selfishness and entitlement of incomers. If large numbers of tourists insist on visiting this summer despite being clearly and repeatedly asked to stay away, things could get very, very ugly indeed.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll I totally agree with you .

I wouldn't go to Devon / Cornwall again ever - the attitude during covid has been rude & offensive.

If they carry on with their charm offensive they will struggle to get tourists wanting to go there ever again , & then they will truly have their counties to themselves & all the economic hardship that will bring.

95,000 people arrived at our airports over the past two months. Only just over half that number were British citizens (53,000). Some of the others presumably are tourists.

Who knows where all these people (British or not) travelled to. Some might've been returning home to Cornwall or Devon.

There were no checks or quarantine.

There is genuine concern that with one proper hospital in the entire county and an elderly permanent population, the local NHS could be overwhelmed and local people could die due to the selfishness and entitlement of incomers. If large numbers of tourists insist on visiting this summer despite being clearly and repeatedly asked to stay away, things could get very, very ugly indeed.

That's why vigilantes should wind their necks in, yelling at wrong people in the streets! Bloody idiots.

So unwelcoming and threatening, this type of attitude will mean a generally decline in tourism in that area. They need to be careful what they wish for, no tourism will not end well for them.

Sorry copied and pasted the wrong bit!
*
I live on the border and it's very anti-tourist at the moment. Lots of signs in house and car windows telling tourists to go home, I was even yelled at in the street because someone didn't recognise me and thought I was on holiday. It's honestly a lovely place, usually packed with tourists in the summer! And the area does rely on tourism, but if shops, restaurants and pubs are all closed, there's not much benefit at all. Not to mention that a lot of holiday homes are owned by people who don't live here anyway. It's difficult to think ahead to July but I think holidays this summer are just a write-off.*

This is the bit about vigilantes getting it wrong!

I'm in Devon and work for the NHS. Our Nightingale hospital isn't open yet, they are expecting a second wave as tourists start to come back, and staff are being trained to be redeployed as necessary from the end of May.

The hospitals here struggle enough during the summer with drunk tourists falling down the steps to the beach etc without this virus on top.

We'll still be here next year. Please stay away.

Don’t bother going. Tourists aren’t welcome. In fact, please don’t ever visit these places. Maybe then they’ll realise how important tourists actually are to them when the local economy sinks.

We were booked to take all our family to Devon at the end of May but obviously this has been cancelled. Devon is a wonderful place to visit but not for the foreseeable future
Towns are shut down why on earth would anyone want to visit and put their services under pressure.
Wait till this has hopefully passed then give these local tourist places your support.