Absolutely gutted we cancelled our Greek holiday because of covid :{

[mostwonderfultime]

We decided to cancel this year because we were concerned about having to isolate if anyone on the plane was found to have covid, and also because we thought it was too much money or a holiday that was potentially not going to be as good as pre/post covid what with masks, social distancing etc. But now I keep seeing pictures on Facebook etc of people seemingly having amazing holidays abroad. I also feel bad for my dc who've complied with home learning and been cooped up for months and should be on a lovely holiday now

We cancelled 3 holidays abroad so far this year. We have a small house in house and had booked at Easter, May and to go for 4 weeks in the summer. I don't regret cancelling it for a second. We cancelled the lot. I'm off for the next 4 weeks or so. We've been pond dipping, in the woods, the zoo, three NT places, and today a beach trip - and same tomorrow. We were up and at the beach by 8am and after a lovely 4 hours -fish and chips and in the car home. I have to say I'm loving it. It is was it is. If I think about "my holiday and what I'm missing- French bread, cheese, pate, peaches.........wine argh! in our second home" I'm well peed off -but I can't just can't think like that -I'm going for the -buy some expensive bread, pate, cheese and peachers from tesco and nice wine and put a film on here and just enjoying it. It could be much worse. I for one and grateful not to be on a ventilator.

You’ve just got to suck it up. It’s one summer. We had a holiday of a lifetime booked to Florida, spent 2 years saving for it. Still waiting for the refund. It’s shit but there’s no point dwelling on it.

We were off to Greece also, but its the UK now. Got a can-do anorak attitude!

But Greece is a long game. Think retirement. The Finance Ministry are just about to introduce a flat 7% tax rate for 10 years on worldwide income for retirees moving there.

There was an epidemiologist on Breakfast TV this morning. He basically said that whilst masks, local lockdowns and testing was all well and good, really the best chance to limit Covid 19 was to stay put.
He said that the we should be trying to eradicate this over the summer and to take advantage of us being an island; that advantage is lost if we are travelling overseas obviously.
Also better for the economy to spend our money on hotels and travel here.
Makes sense I think.

How on earth is there going to be room for all of us in Britain, though? Millions of us go abroad each summer, and still most British resorts are packed too.
We managed to book a cottage in Devon for mid-August a couple of days before Boris relaxed the restrictions, but I'm now wondering if it might be so crowded there as to make it unpleasant - not to mention risky. We were assuming at the very least we would have a change of scenery to go out on long walks and have an ice-cream though.
We'll see. There will be other years to go off travelling again (hopefully).

@CallmeAngelina

How on earth is there going to be room for all of us in Britain, though? Millions of us go abroad each summer, and still most British resorts are packed too. We managed to book a cottage in Devon for mid-August a couple of days before Boris relaxed the restrictions, but I'm now wondering if it might be so crowded there as to make it unpleasant - not to mention risky. We were assuming at the very least we would have a change of scenery to go out on long walks and have an ice-cream though. We'll see. There will be other years to go off travelling again (hopefully).

Central London is fairly empty. Lots of available hotel rooms.

@LemonRabbit

Go on holiday in Britain *@mostwonderfultime*!

We cancelled our three weeks travelling around Spain... for the same price we’ve got 4 nights in Devon and at the moment the forecast is rain all week.

UK - draw a line from Beer to Scarborough. Beaches to the south-east side of that line will be sunny and warm for August. Everywhere else looks like being mixed and cooler according to the Met Office forecast for August. Scotland looks wet, but at least it is scenic.

Central London is fairly empty. Lots of available hotel rooms.
Possibly for good reason!
Anyway, that would hardly be a good holiday for us, when we live within half an hour of there by train.
Maybe for some though, although arguably Spain is less of a risk.

I think at one point in March/April/May going on holiday this summer would have been unthinkable so you made the right decision at the time.

I certainly wouldn’t have booked anything.

The people that went probably faced the same dilemma and worries.

They chose to go, and they won't be posting what a bad decision they made, they'll be picking the nicer photos and posting those. Doesn't mean they are having the time of their lives; just making the best of the situation and only showing the good stuff.

Personally I think either choice is difficult to make. But I seriously doubt we would have gone anywhere. So many stories of getting it on the plane, local lockdowns when there, isolating when getting back, wearing masks on the beach...not a lot of fun.

Don't base your upset on others photos. Remember in order to feel 'better' about things, you'd need to see lots of people having a horrible time so you made the right decision (IYSWIM) but you wouldn't want that either.

We don't have holidays abroad anyway, and we also don't holiday in the UK either because prices are stupid for something really crappy. Never got the fascination with 'a change of scenery' that is shittier than your own home.

I do feel very sorry for anyone with holidays who were forced to cancel and lose money, forced to reschedule and pay more, or forced to 'go' effectively by the first 2 options.

Crappy crap crap.

YANBU to be upset - it's horrible feeling like you should have been doing x, y and z and instead have to stay home. It's not end-of-the-world stuff, but it's alright to be gutted. We should have been on holiday now - we booked somewhere for the DC to scuba and snorkel and we were all really looking forward to it. It feels a long time til next summer!

We cancelled a holiday in Italy - right thing to do but of course it's upsetting. Especially as this year is the last year we can travel so easily in Europe - next year have to go through Customs and apply for visa waivers.

Still, there are a lot of people worse off so need to keep a cool head about it.

We aren't off on holiday this year either, instead we're doing day trips out to quieter places where there aren't a lot of other people and the DCs are getting experiences they wouldn't normally get. Can you do something similar?

So far this week we haven't been anywhere with more 6 or 7 other people so social distancing has been simple. We've had a good time too.

Weigh the risk - if the trip gets cancelled because the spread of virus increases can you afford to lose the money? If you end up having to quarantine when you get home how will that affect your employment and income? If you can accept those risks and potential losses then maybe book and go.

If nothing else, it proved that every penny spent on a proper holiday was totally worth it.

Fair enough some people love them, but for me "staycations" are frankly.. a bit shit. That's what we do at weekends, it's not a holiday.

Plus I agree, with so many people stuck in a small place, it's not such a pleasant (or safe) environment. It was the right decision to cancel, but people claiming that "abroad" is a danger zone whilst the island is safe are wrong.

Maybe for some though, although arguably Spain is less of a risk

As part of Europe that has fairly lax borders that’s pretty hard to argue.

The last thing the tourism industry needs is multiple waves of lockdowns and uncertainty.

I’m not a panic merchant but I see the logic of a doing things differently this summer.

We cancelled Greece too. Didn’t feel right to travel and would be so much underlying uncertainty around rules suddenly changing (either in Greece or when returning home).

For the times we’d either be wearing masks, or perhaps being served food by people wearing masks it also felt like it would just have an odd vibe, not quite the relaxing break away from everything we were hoping for.

Better to use the money another time when (fingers crossed) this is all over.

Had Munich and Montenegro cancelled so we’re going to the Cotswolds instead.
Do I wish I was going for a lie on the beach, swim in a warm sea, sightseeing and shopping in markets- darn yes but hey ho going to make the most of the Cotswolds

How thoughtless and self centred of people to be posting Greek holiday pictures on facebook in the current environment, when so many have had holidays cancelled.

@HPFA

We cancelled a holiday in Italy - right thing to do but of course it's upsetting. Especially as this year is the last year we can travel so easily in Europe - next year have to go through Customs and apply for visa waivers.

Still, there are a lot of people worse off so need to keep a cool head about it.

Oh don't... all the fuff about driving licence, insurance, mobile phone rates and the pounds worth next to nothing... it is a great shame!

@minipie

How thoughtless and self centred of people to be posting Greek holiday pictures on facebook in the current environment, when so many have had holidays cancelled.

People can post pictures of whatever they want on their own social media!

We are in exactly the same situaiton.

FWIW I think you have amde the right decision. I have a separate account in which i save for and then pay for holidays. I still have our Greece money sitting there and an adding to it every month. I am telling my family that we will basically be having two years worth of savings next year so we can go all out - a nice hotel- more trips out etc.

It helps a abit.

Although we are planning a trip to the IOW later in the summer as a little bit of something to look forward to. But i am hoping that the 10-11 months worth extra savings emans we can really have the holiday of a lifetime next year.

Would doing something like that help?

And I say that at someone who posts absolutely nothing. If I don’t like someone else’s posts, there’s a ‘snooze for 30 days’ option. Or just ‘unfollow’. It’s pretty simple.

Can you book something else? Lots of cheap flights at the moment. I went on a holiday just in the UK recently and got lucky with the weather and it was brilliant. It did me so much good. Even with masks/hand sanitisers, I had a lovely time and the virus felt much further away. I take the view that we don't know how hard the winter will be so it's important to have fun now while you can.