Travelling to India

[Peanutbuttermummy]

We are due to travel to India in 10 days. Planning on visiting Goa & Mumbai and our trip is for 4 weeks. We are in our 30s and travelling with DC who is 4. As things stand today, I am not sure if we should go. I am more worried about being stuck in quarantine there and then catching it from others in quarantine! There's no travel advice against India from FCO at the moment, so not sure if we will get a refund if we cancel. We can potentially postpone but don't know until when? Is anyone else flying to India? Are you planning to go or are you cancelling? Thanks

Outbreaks of fevers and plagues are common in India - there are already containment procedures in place and from what I understand it’s currently better contained than a lot of other countries. If you will be in Mumbai and Goa you should be ok - stay away from street food, salads, and be careful with your water as you wouldn’t want covid with a gastro bug.

Be careful and with water anyway. Only buy Aquafina/Kinley/bisleri or other reputed brands of water bottles.

India has today revoked visas for anyone from Germany, Spain and France. It seems highly likely that they'll expand this to more countries and the UK will be included before long. We're due to go in 2.5 weeks and I'm beginning to resign myself to the fact that it won't happen.

Having said that, if the flight is going and our visas don't get revoked, we are going. The chances of that happening just seem to get smaller every day.

Thanks everyone
@GrumpyHoonMain are you speaking from experience of the containment procedures in India? Have you recently travelled there or are a frequent traveller? I am not sure how the quality of care will be in case we are stuck there? So if you can give an idea it’ll be great. Just trying to imagine what will happen in case of all possibilities really. Thanks @Janice88 too...we’ll definitely be more careful about food and drinking water! That goes without saying 😊
@rallytog1 I read it in the news too. Looks like they are doing this when the no. Of cases crosses 1,000 or so for a country. You are right, we might be there in about 2 weeks. So, are you not worried about travelling there if they don't cancel UK visa by the time your travel dates? Are you travelling alone, with children or just adults? If you don't mind me asking...
Don't know what will happen if we manage to fly out and the situation in UK worsens... arhhh my head is about to explode...this was supposed to be a relaxing holiday!!!

GrumpyHoonMain are you speaking from experience of the containment procedures in India? Have you recently travelled there or are a frequent traveller? I am not sure how the quality of care will be in case we are stuck there? So if you can give an idea it’ll be great. Just trying to imagine what will happen in case of all possibilities really?

The quality of care you receive will probably depend where you are when / if you get stuck. In Mumbai there won’t be a problem - even the governmental hospitals there (ie the non-private ones) are excellent and there is good access to GPs pharmacies and consultants. Goa is not as good but if you stay in a resort then they will have a link to a local hospital and a doctor. South Goa doesn’t have many pharmacies but resort staff can obtain stuff for you if needed.

In terms of containment India tends to be really good, common sense (they have learned from thr bubonic plague outbreak 20 years ago). But do be prepared to be asked for ID and travel insurance docs everywhere - take a credit card too as often treatment cannot not begin until payment or part payment is processed (even if it’s a critical case).

@Peanutbuttermummy currently I don't think the risk is any higher there than it is here, so yes we would go. It is us and 2 young DCs. We have well connected family there, so I wouldn't be worried about being quarantined or being stuck there for a while. However if we didn't, then I might be less relaxed about going!

Thanks for the info @GrumpyHoonMain
It's a lot to consider at the moment
@rallytog1 you are right...risk is probably higher here...but I am more concerned about the travel part as we will not know where the fellow passengers are coming from or if they are infected. So I think higher change on the flight and airport. It's good that you have family there and if you are able to self quarantine if needed. We have family too and we're planning on visiting them. But some of them are over 70 and in the vulnerable category so don't want to pass it on to them in case we catch it while travelling. Also, we won't have anywhere to self quarantine! I think we are leaning more towards postponing... but will wait until the last minute possible!

We are supposed to be travelling at Easter too, two primary school children and 3 adults, one with mild asthma. My parents are due to fly this weekend ahead of us. I strongly suspect the visas will be revoked as the UK cases are continuing to rise. If they aren’t, we are still planning to travel. We have a week visiting Delhi, Agra and northern India and spend another week with family.

Hi everyone
@rallytog1 @Mummydoctor
India has suspended all tourist Visa’s and OCIs until April 15th.
Decision is made for us now!
Not sure what to do with the flights...we have a number of domestic flight bookings to cancel / reschedule 🤦‍♀️
m.timesofindia.com/india/coronavirus-india-suspends-all-tourist-visas-till-april-15/articleshow/74582786.cms

Yes

I guess at least we get a couple of weeks' notice. Better than finding out on the way to the airport or being denied entry on arrival.

I know we'll get the cost of the flights back but I'm going to have to do a lot of unpicking of other travel and accommodation costs. Our insurance company have helpfully said they won't reimburse accommodation unless FCO advise against all but essential travel

I am so upset by this today. We are going to lose thousands as our insurance company have also said policies don’t cover this. Our airline say we can change our flights but we’ve still lost over 3k

We're set to lose quite a bit too. I'm going to try to negotiate with hotels to change our bookings but not holding out much hope.

We just have to hope the FCO change their advice at some point soon.

So disappointing, but also not a surprise.
We booked almost everything through Trailfinders so will speak to them tomorrow about what they can do first before approaching travel insurance.