AIBU to consider booking a holiday abroad for august?

[HippoNamedBooBooButt]

What do you all think? Have any of you booked a holiday abroad for this year? We are looking at Jet2 holidays and have to pay a minimal deposit. By the end of may when we have to pay the full amount could we be be in a better position to know if it will go ahead? Just feel like I need something to look forward to, but just don't know if I should do it.

Well @Angrymum22, if travel abroad is allowed just like it was to some places in summer 2020 people will make their choice and decide whether it is worth it which ever restrictions are in place. All very worthy sneering about people travelling to 'the costas' but some of us have had to continue jobs during this pandemic which mean going into households in communities in which covid-19 restrictions have never registered. That is how the virus spreads rapidly in the UK. We locked down too late first time, then Rishi told everyone to eat out and help out and get back to the office, Boris told everyone to mix at xmas despite the new infectious strain and then send kids back to school for one day. In contrast I went to Italy last summer and everyone just followed covid restrictions, including at airports. Not the same coming back to the UK .

We’re booking South of France but only if fully refundable

Would be happy to isolate at home on return but not in hotel!

@Ibizafun

Would be happy to isolate at home on return but not in hotel!

Think the hotels are for red countries

Not the basic holiday place

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/04/cyprus-will-allow-vaccinated-british-tourists-from-1-may

@Angrymum22

I suppose if people are prepared to quarantine in hotels on their return then overseas travel would be ok. It will certainly be a massive boost for any hotel chains involved. God now they’ve lost so much money over the last 12 mnths. I doubt many people would be willing to shell out for the cost of quarantine though. Perhaps vaccinated adult travel will be ok but since under 16yr olds are not able to have the vaccine yet it may be very limiting. It would only take one child to pick up a new resistant strain in August and return to school in September to put us back into status covidus again just in time for another lockdown Christmas. So many billions of pounds invested in a vaccination programme and keeping the country afloat, totally wasted so that some 7 yr old can go to the Costas this summer. I really do wonder what the combined brain cell of all these posters is thinking of.

But following your logic re “new strains” - presumably. On one should ever go abroad for fear of a “new strain”

It's not so much our country it's what is open over there. Quarintineing when you come back. Not worth it in my opinion.

Cyprus will accept anyone from the UK who has been fully vaccinated from.May this year. According to some news outlets this morning.

And will the UK accept travellers returning from Cyprus without tests and/or quarantine. That is the question.

No holiday for anyone with kids then!

It won’t be just whether a country like Cyprus accepting U.K. holiday makers who have had their vaccinations but whether the U.K. will impose an conditions when you return. I imagine arrangements will be on a country by country basis.

I think the UK government has a very difficult decision to make about if they should allow fully vaccinated to travel versus non vaccinated. After all at the minute, it's not as if most of us have a choice if we're vaccinated or not.
Fair enough in a few months time when all adults should have had their second dose, but I think it could be divisive to introduce such a thing in May and is likely to make rest of population much less likely to follow any rules in place at that time.

@AnyFucker

And will the UK accept travellers returning from Cyprus without tests and/or quarantine. That is the question.

Well that is omitted! I won't be going away on my holiday (that was booked in September 2019 for last year which is now for this August) if there are conditions on my return. I have until May to decide.

And don’t forget, what does “vaccinated”? Is it that you can travel with just the first vaccination or will you have to have had both. And what does it mean for children? There won’t be answers to this questions for a few months yet.

willstarttomorrow I am a critical worker in the NHS, I’ve also worked throughout this pandemic. The last thing I intend to do is gloat about a fancy holiday I’ve managed to bag. We can’t stop people travelling but for many, if a vaccination passport is required to leave the country, nobody under 50 will be fully vaccinated by the summer months. They are just moving into the 50-59 yr olds then will concentrate on delivering second vaccine to all over 50s before starting first vaccines for under 50s.
You have obviously been living through a different 12 mnths to the one I have.

@Angrymum22 by my calculation anyone vaccinated in the next 9 weeks will have second vaccine by the end of July. People over 55 are currently getting appointments, the supplies are going to dramatically increase in the next week or so. I'd say there's a good chance that lots of people under 50 will be fully vaccinated by the summer. They aren't planning to stop giving first doses while they do second doses, they're planning to double capacity to continue through the groups at the same pace.

We have last year's trip to Greece rolled over to this July. Both of us will have had both jabs by then (no DC).

Feeling quietly optimistic.

Also got a trip booked to Ireland in August. Not ruled it out yet but don't know how keen they will be to have us!

I booked with Jet2 last Sunday for last week in August and it has already gone up £100 when I looked tonight

We too have august booked, but it’s moved from last year. Who knows?

Question for people intent on traveling this summer: what will you do if you test positive before flying back? You won’t be able to fly. Where will you stay? How will you self-isolate? What about your job?

@Angrymum22

I'm under 50. I have no health conditions. Had first vaccine over two weeks ago. Should have second middle of may.

My area has got to my age group already.

I won't be the only one who is under 50, no health conditions and who will have both vaccines before the summer.

Have booked Greek islands for October, obviously feeling massively optimistic but who knows?? Just needed something to look forward too!

@SunscreenCentral

Question for people intent on traveling this summer: what will you do if you test positive before flying back? You won’t be able to fly. Where will you stay? How will you self-isolate? What about your job?

Very good question(s).

In our case it would be okay actually. Would be a bit of a ballache but it would be do-able.

We know nothing is certain but the dream that we assumed was dead a few weeks ago still has a pulse...

@SunscreenCentral

Question for people intent on traveling this summer: what will you do if you test positive before flying back? You won’t be able to fly. Where will you stay? How will you self-isolate? What about your job?

I guess it'll be the same as getting ill at the end of a holiday, pita but it happens, I'm assuming that dh and I will have been vaccinated and most adults in our destination will have and that will mean the risks are low and no higher than getting covid in the UK. I'd expect travel insurance to be expensive but covering this, I wouldn't travel to the US without really good insurance! My booking can be moved if risk this summer is still too high.

I'd also say that even UK holidays this year do need to consider this, I know of a couple who got covid while on holiday in Cornwall last summer, they had to extend their stay in the cottage they were hiring and isolate there for an extra fortnight.

There are just over 1 million who have had their second vaccination and 20million who have had their first vaccination and will have to be revaccinated in the next 3 months. These are the overwhelming majority who are at higher risk. Although they are ramping things up the provision is limited by the staffing of centres. If you look at the vaccination figures the rate has been pretty level for the last month. Supplies are steady but to get the 60% of adults not classified as high risk ie the under 50s the rate of vaccination will need to double over the next 3 mnths to accommodate those due their second vaccine alongside those having their first. The government is committed to providing the second dose within 10-12 weeks so anyone expecting their first dose will be fitted in when there are spare appointments.
In summery the rate of first doses will slow but the rate of second doses will increase. This was always going to happen when they decided to extend the time between doses.
I have an appointment in a couple of weeks for my second dose. The centre I attended was working full capacity on the day I went and everyone of us attended that day will have had an appointment to reattend on the same day for our second dose. So the centre I attended will only have a handful of appointments each day for first doses.
The vaccination centres are operated with staff who are volunteering their days off to be vaccinators. They are generally nurses, doctors and other HCPs who do one or two sessions a week, NHS have not been training any further staff than they recruited back in December. So don’t expect a massive increase in capacity just because they have reached their initial target of vaccinating the over 50s.
I’m not trying to be difficult but the government have learned some hard lessons about human behaviour throughout this pandemic. Rapid vaccination of those who will most likely want to travel during the summer months is not a great idea. Slowing down vaccination and then introducing vaccination passports may well protect us from a third wave arising in September.
I am not a big fan of control or doom mongering but having seen my teenage DC go through hell and back over the last 12 months (GCSE yr) I am praying (even as an agnostic) that stupidity and selfishness does not undo the amazing work the vaccine roll out has achieved.