To be irritated by people wanting a foreign holiday this summer?

[Irishterrier]

I know some people have family abroad and that is different.

However I know several people who either have second homes abroad or just fancy some sun, and I feel annoyed by them agitating about wanting to go abroad this summer.

AIBU to think they're being selfish?

@Jellybabiesforbreakfast

When I see how much people are trying to charge for a week this summer in a fairly grubby property anywhere near the coast with few amenities and a 9am checkout, I'm not overcome with the urge to support UK businesses.

Exactly! And the extortionate 'cleaning' fees.

I have a house in Italy which I bought with most of my pension pot after I had breast cancer. I am desperate to get out there. I was due to go in March 2019 but COVID hit Since then it has been on and off here and Italy is a no go area at the moment. It’s not a ‘must have a foreign holiday’ scenario. I want to see if my house is still okay. Whether the freezer has packed up, electricity is still on etc. When my savings run out I will sell this house to live on the proceeds. So we are not all being prima donnas who can’t live without visiting an all inclusive complex in the sun!! Although I was unlucky to get cancer I do realise I was lucky enough to have some money put by to take a risk !

It’s interesting that you think people are selfish for wanting to go abroad whilst simultaneously announcing that you’ve got a UK holiday booked. What’s the difference? You’re either trying to contain or not.

@mermaid, it is ridiculous. Our holiday in the UK has doubled in price since we booked it. There’s no way I would pay that! On the other hand, no one is forced to pay inflated prices.

I think its a bit bonkers, though can obviously see why people want to.

I think it's more that I don't agree with UK govt sanctioning international travel. We are more likely to get new variants and then its back to square one (esp if vaccines don't deal with variants).

I suspect the govt is being leaned on by business travel community though? Or are they allowed to travel already to green/amber countries? Problem is, people are freely admitting going to and from red countries via these green ones...(BBC news article on web the other day).

I am mainly happy with easing of restrictions as they are now, but I do think foreign travel this summer is a step too far, too fast. I hope I am proved wrong - but suspect we are going to pay for it in the coming autumn/winter.

It’s selfish because you are only thinking of your own pleasure and not the well-being of your fellow countrymen/women. No doubt we will all be in lockdown again come the autumn when all the variants the holiday makers have brought back cause the Covid death rate to once again rise.
I may be a pessimist but I hope I’m proved wrong.

'Abroad' isn't very different from the UK in terms of spread of disease.

Some places have low infection rates, some very high. If live in a low infection place and want to go to a high infection place, you should think carefully about how necessary that it.

Obviously, there are more rules around 'abroad', because its easier to make those rules.

But if you live in, say, Camden, which has about 12 cases per 100000 people, and you want to go to Derry with 99, you may think twice. I'd be less worried about Portugal with about 33 cases per 100000 at the moment.

If you choose to go to a highly infected area and potentially bring it back to your less infected home, you should think twice and at the least quarantine.

This

@bossyrossy

It’s selfish because you are only thinking of your own pleasure and not the well-being of your fellow countrymen/women. No doubt we will all be in lockdown again come the autumn when all the variants the holiday makers have brought back cause the Covid death rate to once again rise. I may be a pessimist but I hope I’m proved wrong.

The government knows people won't comply with another lockdown. This is going nowhere. It'll be endemic. The scare and doom mongering is ridiculous. The variants are going to happen anyway.

It’s selfish because you are only thinking of your own pleasure and not the well-being of your fellow countrymen/women.

You could apply that logic to almost all non-necessary activities:

• Eating out in a pub garden.
• Taking your children to the zoo/an amusement park.
• Going to the beach.
• Grabbing a takeaway coffee on your daily walk.
• Going swimming/to the gym (not strictly necessary when you can walk/run outside).
• Shopping in non-essential shops or in the non-essential aisles of a supermarket.
• Going shopping at all if you can get a home delivery slot.

In fact, you could extend that argument even further to argue that all non-essential purchases or activities are selfish and "thinking only of our own pleasure".

@Jellybabiesforbreakfast

It’s selfish because you are only thinking of your own pleasure and not the well-being of your fellow countrymen/women.

You could apply that logic to almost all non-necessary activities:

• Eating out in a pub garden.
• Taking your children to the zoo/an amusement park.
• Going to the beach.
• Grabbing a takeaway coffee on your daily walk.
• Going swimming/to the gym (not strictly necessary when you can walk/run outside).
• Shopping in non-essential shops or in the non-essential aisles of a supermarket.
• Going shopping at all if you can get a home delivery slot.

In fact, you could extend that argument even further to argue that all non-essential purchases or activities are selfish and "thinking only of our own pleasure".

Oh we definitely don't want to go back to that again.

I remember the threads of the dark days when getting something delivered or wanting to use milk and bread (instead of cheese and potatoes) was enough to brand you as a selfish Ted Bundy on a spree.

@bossyrossy

It’s selfish because you are only thinking of your own pleasure and not the well-being of your fellow countrymen/women. No doubt we will all be in lockdown again come the autumn when all the variants the holiday makers have brought back cause the Covid death rate to once again rise. I may be a pessimist but I hope I’m proved wrong.

Dear God. Do you not think people have been through enough.?

I don't think it's selfish.
If people are prepared to put up with possible travel hassle and restrictions at their destination then good luck to them.
I'd prefer to wait until going on holiday is simpler and more relaxing.

Oh god, the word 'selfish' needs to be struck from the language! It's so overused, esp on MN!

everyone is selfish. Absolutely everyone in the world thinks about themselves and their loved ones before anyone else. That's how it is, how it always was.

OP I could call you selfish for sitting in your house, not going anywhere, not spending money Don't you know that there are hundreds of thousands of people in this country (and millions worldwide) whose entire living depends on Aviation, travel, tourism? How selfish are you to refuse to spend some of your money on their flights/food/drinks/ accommodation?

I live in an area which has been massively hit by the grounding of flights. Huge swathes of the population here have lost jobs, lost their houses, lost everything, with the closure of the International Airport here.

It's desperate. We need to get the Aviation and travel business up and going again.

I honestly don’t get people like you! So we have a new virus that isn’t going to be in the slightest risk to most people. We shut down for over a year miss a year of our lives which can be ridiculously short as it is we vaccinate everyone who is at risk and far more and still you want us to hide away? The funny thing is people like you are happy to bend the rules if it suits you but when people want to do things that aren’t that important to you you get on your high horse! YABVU!!!

YABU - how long are we meant to lock ourselves away for!

The old and vulnerable have been vaccinated for gods sake, let people live.

I can understand why people want to - I do too, buy commonsense (and some personal circumstances) mean a lovely holiday abroad will have to wait until next year.

I also cannot be doing with the hassle of crowded airports and packed delayed flights.

@BloodyTinaNextdoorAgain, well, I'd hope that within the next few years most of the world's population will have been vaccinated. I can see India, with rampant infections and a poor reporting system, being a hotbed of new variants in the near future. And it's okay to say, 'Oh, but that's in India and I'm only going to Greece...' But we know now just how fast a virus can move once it gets its skates on.

@Irishterrier

I'm amazed at the entitlement of some of the answers. And the assumptions!

People saying they 'need' a fortnight in the sun truly shock me.

I have had a horrendously shit time through Covid. I'm not terrified of Covid at all, funnily enough, and am vaccinated. I usually go abroad three times a year and could afford a foreign holiday this summer. Indeed I would love one.

But I've booked a pretty rubbish UK self catering holiday because there was not much left and because I think now is not the time time go abroad to largely unvaccinated countries.

I'm enjoying reading people's angry posts though.

Oh, you're just a shit stirrer? Fair enough.

I think now is not the time time go abroad to largely unvaccinated countries.

I'm not going to go abroad to a largely unvaccinated country. We'll be vaccinated, we'll get in our car, drive to a sunnier place, comply with all local covid rules, then come home. Just as risky as going to Cornwall, but sunnier.

First world problem - but no more irritating than all the people moaning about not seeing family and nit-picking over rules.

I don’t think it’s selfish, people have different priorities. I don’t get the obsession with foreign holidays normally though

@Finfintytint

I understand why people are wanting to get away. It’s not for me this year. I couldn’t be arsed with restrictions, testing, possible quarantine, etc. That’s not relaxing enough for me but if people want to put themselves through that, then fine, crack on.

I’m with you I don’t think that everything is completely clear and safe just yet and another lockdown can be just around the corner. Who knows. Exactly that: I don’t want to go through the stress and hassle of having to cego after travel agents, worry about having my money back - again - or not, or if I will have to pay £2000 on the way back home. I will sit in my garden this year. Although I am dying to be in a sunnier place too. Just can’t be arsed with the whole thing …

if i hear someone saying ," i need to go abroad for my mental heath " i will scream

I don’t get the obsession with foreign holidays normally though

Why call it an obsession? The UK is a small, rainy country. Getting out of it occasionally to experience other cultures, see other sights, speak other languages and enjoy a bit of sunshine seems like a pretty natural thing to want and enjoy. I go abroad maybe once every few years. I'd love to go more often. Planning to backpack around Germany by train with the dc next summer!