Are you going away in half term?

[Cocopogo]

I have a couple of nights booked in UK. It’s likely the area will be T3 by time our half term in a couple of weeks. Happy to still go, chill in hotel room and walk in remote areas. DP says we shouldn’t go. Would you?
YABU - don’t go
YANBU - go and enjoy!

We are T3 currently and I have been pondering this. We haven't booked yet but hoping to take out tourer caravan somewhere. If we are all well we will likely look to stay in T3 or go to the neighbouring T3 area and as long as our booking is accepted then I want to go.

We will be completely self contained as we have our own bathroom facilities and I will take all food with me and will cook ourselves, go for walks and basically stay away from everyone else, just as we did in the summer. That's on the basis that we are all well at the time.

We have followed all guidelines to the letter so far, we get online shopping deliveries when possible, DH works outdoors and I have been WFH and we haven't eaten out or been anywhere else. We want a break, and if we can do it safely it would be nice to go.

We are in tier 2 and holidaying in the Scottish Highlands next week, staying in hotels. Scotland's Govt website states holidays are still allowed. We won't be stopping in the central belt on the way. We aren't in an area likely to go into tier 3 (if we were, we wouldn't go).

Apart from eating and drinking, our holiday will be spent in the great outdoors enjoying the scenery.

@Youandmeareluckytobeus

We are in tier 2 and holidaying in the Scottish Highlands next week, staying in hotels. Scotland's Govt website states holidays are still allowed. We won't be stopping in the central belt on the way. We aren't in an area likely to go into tier 3 (if we were, we wouldn't go).

Apart from eating and drinking, our holiday will be spent in the great outdoors enjoying the scenery.

You might be 'allowed' but are you really being fair on that local community? You are essentially coming from a high risk area to a low risk one.

If it’s T3 when half term comes then you would be very unreasonable to go, the area will have enough pressure, travelling there will add to it.

If it’s T2 then go for it.

@nonamehere

Fair enough - we're in Lancaster, which I guess isn't in the Lake District, but yes it's Tier 3 - as is the whole of Lancashire (apart from Manchester)

Still find it all confusing!!

a high risk area

Yes. 0.008% or less of the population having Covid is a "high" risk indeed.

I find it amazing that in the middle of a pandemic people are still being so selfish! I find the 'we need a break' posters breathtaking! We could all do with a break! I've worked really hard the whole time! I would love to go away for a few days but you know what, I won't risk myself or other people!
The more you all move around the country then longer this all goes on for! Look what happened when the students went back.
So yes I will judge people who go away, and say to you all, please respect other people and do not go away.

I find it amazing that in the middle of a pandemic people are still being so selfish! I find the 'we need a break' posters breathtaking! We could all do with a break! I've worked really hard the whole time! I would love to go away for a few days but you know what, I won't risk myself or other people!
The more you all move around the country then longer this all goes on for! Look what happened when the students went back.
So yes I will judge people who go away, and say to you all, please respect other people and do not go away.

100% this. I’m a university tutor who is Shielded working in one Tier 3 area and living in another Tier 3 with a whole family of HCPs. We are all at breaking point. We need a break, we really really do but it’s bloody selfish to do so and, if we survive this, holidays can wait. Our intensive care beds in three local hospitals are all full at the moment, the majority of beds taken up by Covid sufferers. Yet people are still coming here on city breaks to my university area and country breaks in my hometown and vicinity.

100% this. I’m a university tutor who is Shielded working in one Tier 3 area and living in another Tier 3 with a whole family of HCPs. We are all at breaking point. We need a break, we really really do but it’s bloody selfish to do so and, if we survive this, holidays can wait. Our intensive care beds in three local hospitals are all full at the moment, the majority of beds taken up by Covid sufferers. Yet people are still coming here on city breaks to my university area and country breaks in my hometown and vicinity.

The chances you won’t survive this are tiny

Families going away to self-catered cottages are rather different to hundreds of 18 year olds living next to one another in halls where they share catering and likely bathroom facilities. As are hotels.

@SuperCaliFragalistic

I would much rather go on my holiday than see my family at Christmas!

grin

And all those people going from T1 areas to T1 holiday destinations but wrapping themselves in a self catering bubble - what about the economy of the place you are visiting? Don’t you want to support the hospitality industry and jobs so they’re there next time you visit? Have a couple of meals out, go for a coffee and cake - save jobs!!

Before anyone takes the hump the above doesn’t apply to those who never dine out on holiday.

Here we go with the "you're SOOOOOO selfish" nonsense.

We are all adults. We should all be able to assess risk. Decamping a family from one area to another for a week, self-catering, walking on beaches or in forests or just chilling out watching a movie in a house which is different to your own is zero risk.

And let's not start with the nonsense scenarios of people having road accidents or some other weird event which would wipe out the local infrastructure. Utter nonsense.

The people who can't assess risk are the ones referring to 0.008% of people having covid as "high risk".

"Families going away to self-catered cottages are rather different to hundreds of 18 year olds living next to one another in halls where they share catering and likely bathroom facilities. As are hotels."

I agree. One is essential, one is not.

We are going as long as rules allow. We live in a T1 area and have booked a self catering cottage in Cornwall. We plan to cook mostly for ourselves , go on nice long walks or just sit and look out over the water ( probably wrapped in a blanket!) from the terrace. Board games with the kids in the evenings. I am just so desperate to get away from the house but we will still be keeping ourselves pretty isolated. Still convinced an announcement this week will lead to our plans being cancelled.

Who are you to decide what's essential, @slidingdrawers? A break away from the norm may very well be essential to some families. Similarly, leaving home for Uni may not be essential for students, they have made a choice.

And this also implies that it's only "essential" travel which is allowed, which is not the case.

@slidingdrawers

"Families going away to self-catered cottages are rather different to hundreds of 18 year olds living next to one another in halls where they share catering and likely bathroom facilities. As are hotels."

I agree. One is essential, one is not.

There is actually no need for the 18 year olds to be in halls doing their degrees remotely. They could have stayed at home but many were promised face to face teaching which now has largely disappeared.

So arguably neither is necessary if you want to play that game.

@LittleBearPad What about HCP or biomedical degrees. Are you suggesting they learn remotely?

@RaspberryCoulis

Who are you to decide what's essential, *@slidingdrawers*? A break away from the norm may very well be essential to some families. Similarly, leaving home for Uni may not be essential for students, they have made a choice.

And this also implies that it's only "essential" travel which is allowed, which is not the case.

I'm not the one to decide. I'm making the case that there is a difference between education (essential) and leisure (non essential).

Yes but in same county right on the beach

Go and have a break, test your eyesight on the journey

@LittleBearPad

100% this. I’m a university tutor who is Shielded working in one Tier 3 area and living in another Tier 3 with a whole family of HCPs. We are all at breaking point. We need a break, we really really do but it’s bloody selfish to do so and, if we survive this, holidays can wait. Our intensive care beds in three local hospitals are all full at the moment, the majority of beds taken up by Covid sufferers. Yet people are still coming here on city breaks to my university area and country breaks in my hometown and vicinity.

The chances you won’t survive this are tiny

Families going away to self-catered cottages are rather different to hundreds of 18 year olds living next to one another in halls where they share catering and likely bathroom facilities. As are hotels.

That’s not what my health team have said. I’ve had pneumonia from the common cold twice and have had to avoid crowds and limit social contact every winter for the past nine years. I’ve been told my chances of surviving ventilation are low given the comorbidities I have and my chances of needing a ventilator if I do get Covid is high due to neutropenia. The we was referring to one of my parents who is even higher risk than me due to being in heart failure, diabetic, asian, over seventy and having damaged lungs from lung disease. Some of us genuinely are unlikely to survive Covid, that’s why we’ve been told as much.

[quote slidingdrawers]@LittleBearPad What about HCP or biomedical degrees. Are you suggesting they learn remotely?[/quote]
yup, that's it. Every single one of the students in halls is studying a science based degree. Not one has taken the decision to move into halls to study anything else.

If you want to go down that road, higher education isn't essential. You don't have to go to Uni at all. You don't have to move away, you can commute to your nearest one. Or do Open University. Or defer for a couple of years.

"Leisure" on the other hand, or getting away for a few days for a change of scene might be what keeps someone mentally well through the winter.

We are adults, we make our own choices. Nobody's suggesting everyone decamps to Nottingham or Liverpool and spends their entire week snogging everyone they come across and licking all the surfaces. But a week by the sea or in the country in a self-catering place? Crack on - zero risk and it will do you the world of good.

Just wanted to say I'm sorry you and your family are going through such an awful time NameChange84.

I've booked a couple of nights away (T1 to T1) with my partner. He's lost his dad recently and is struggling, we both are really, and felt a change of scene could help. We'll obviously follow all the restrictions. I don't think we'll cancel unless the guidelines change.

@RaspberryCoulis two thirds all all undergraduates are already part way through their degrees. The decision to intermit has consequences for them and their institution. In terms of the first years, the decision to move to halls and sign contracts was made well before the current reality of mainly remote teaching, though arguably this should've been foresaw.

I entirely agree a holiday is vital for health. I just strongly believe it's not essential when we are dealing with a pandemic.

We live in a Tier 2 area and are going to a Tier 1 area in a self catered cottage. We don’t stop on the motorway and if we need to stop we stop off the motorway in a public space like a playing fields for a walk. We use gloves and a mask when pumping petrol.

There are 3 of us, myself, DD and DH. We won’t be breaking any rules when there. We are allowed to go indoors to pubs as one household but we won’t be and haven’t once this entire pandemic because we think outdoors is safer. We will go to pubs for table service outdoors. I can’t see how we can be any safer, in terms of risk to ourselves and to others. I feel like this holiday will actually help peoples livelihoods - the person who owns the cottage who has already had a massive reduction in intake. Pubs that have had throughout massively reduced. I genuinely wouldn’t go if I thought this was in any way harming anyone, but all I can see are the positives to the economy and that comes down to much needed income to support people’s lives

@middleager

How depressing that the tier hierarchy is bringing out such division.

Agree. It's all getting a bit tense.