Self catering holiday this week

[Olsihabi]

We were supposed to be going on a self- catering holiday today for a "big" birthday - just me, DP and the dog. We can't decide whether to go or not. Neither of us have any symptoms, have both been working at home all week (I work at home all the time anyway) and have not been mixing with other people.

Where we are going is pretty rural, we'd keep to ourselves and just go for walks at a remote beach. We have enough food to take to last the week and then won't have any reason to go to areas with lots of people. Is there any difference between doing all this at home and somewhere else? There hasn't been anyone staying in the cottage where we're going all this week, and the official word from the cottage company is that they are happy for people to continue with their holidays.

Do we go or stay at home?

*we live

Following on from my post I wanted to add that we’ve got a holiday in the Lakes booked but we aren’t going.

My holiday isn’t more important than other people’s lives

So stay at home and enjoy your family time wherever you are already reached my limits with DC

Non essential travel has been advised against by the government. This is non essential. Save lives, stay home.

STAY HOME.

It doesn't matter that you feel fine right now.
It doesn't matter that you have all of your supplies already.
If one gets sick whilst you are there, then you'll be stuck away from home and the other will have to self-isolate - which means not going anywhere even for food. How long will your supplies last then? If you need medical attention then you will be putting more strain on the NHS in that area.

Italy has ended up in such a bad situation - and Spain not far behind - because of this situation; people travelled to holiday homes and rentals and took the virus with them.

STAY HOME.

No! Think of the impact you might have on already stretched and patchy resources in a rural area. Sorry!

It isn’t just about whether you have symptoms or not, you have no idea whether or not you’re incubating it.

If you go to the cottage then the next people also decide to you’re potentially infecting them. We need to behave as if we’re already infected.

I really understand the appeal but things are not normal anymore and everything should be treated with the utmost caution. If we all do that we can pick up our lives again quicker.

Oh and the holiday company are more than happy for you to go because they are only worried about keeping cash coming in. Which I understand, but this is a global bloody pandemic and people are dying - so in this instance profit needs to take a backseat.

Given the type of holiday you describe, I would go if I’d self-isolated for 7-14 days beforehand so I was sure I didn’t have the virus. I would also thoroughly clean the cottage on arrival and departure.

I live rurally in a beautiful place, and normally we are very welcoming of visitors and tourists, but now we are just praying people stay away and not come here. Yes it’s beautiful and remote, but please don’t come until this is over, and then we will welcome you again with open arms.

It's so stupid and irresponsible to go, but also to advise the OP to go and risk other people's lives as well as their own, for a fucking holiday.

Please don't go. I'm in a rural community. We have less infrastructure, less shops, more elderly and certainly not enough hospital beds. Ambulances can take hours. Locals are fearful of people descending upon us thinking it safe. The advice is crystal clear and it applies to you too.

I can completely see your logic.

But, we have been asked to not travel unless it's essential.

As soon as one person travels, others think it's ok and it escalates.

There are doctors and nurses begging people not to go out.

Please everyone just stay at home. If we do this it will be over more quickly!

Cornwall doesn't want you. People are getting very angry about it and it honestly isn't safe. We are very underpoliced here and I have heard of patrols going around the holiday cottages to check they are empty, plus vandalising cars.

I live in a coastal town and apparently 600 holiday makers arrived in our town in coaches this week! I'm so shocked that anyone thought that was a responsible thing to do.

And now they are here...they've brought their germs, and most likely most of them are actually elderly too. Apart from the risk of spreading the virus, if large numbers of them are ill while here how will they be looked after?

I am really hoping the hoards do not arrive for the Easter holidays. But it seems there are many people who think they are the exception, and think that they have justifications for why they shouldn't follow the advice. It's just totally out of control. Very worrying.

It's nowhere Cornwall. When I said rural I probably didn't explain very well - it's in the south east, in a rural area just outside some big towns near the coast.

So are you going?

Probably not as we both feel anxious about it.

@Olsihabi it doesn’t really matter where it is, you can’t guarantee that you won’t spread anything unknowingly.

I’ve seen reports of intubation being longer than 14 days, couple that with its survival on surfaces you don’t know if you’ve contracted it recently (we all get post for example).

Just no. Please stop trying to convince yourself it’s okay when it’s not.

Holidays are not essential travel. I understand the disappointment (have also cancelled mine). I wish that the government would instruct holiday accom owners/ businesses please to cancel their customers' bookings. The lovely places that we look forward to visiting and enjoying will still be there after this crisis has passed.

Well if you're still a "probably not" not a "definitely not" after reading all this, I give up. Fuck sake.

Sorry, it’s not essential. Stay home.

OP - when my country was in the early stages (like you are now in the UK) of the CV, I thought about driving the 6 hours to see this out by staying with my parents.
But, there would have been the risk that I would have unknowingly taken the virus to a different part of the country (like what happened in Italy) and that we would have been stuck there if one of me or the kids had got the virus.
Then I saw that the poor rural people in France were begging parisiens not to leave Paris and infect them. The Pariesiens were ignoring their pleas.
Personally, i would take the hit on this one and not go. I know it's gutting (I could have gone on a 40th birthday to Las Vegas before things got really bad - thank god I didn't because it would have been a nightmare. Oh and I've likely lost quite a lot of money because I prob won't be refunded) but it's not fair to go.

I would in all honesty you're still social distancing

@maddy68.
But that's precisely the attitude which has spread the virus to all the rural/holiday-maker areas in Italy!
It's like that game:

• I am a reasonable person by still going on holiday because I will practice reasonable measures.
• You are still going on holiday because it's only you and what difference will that make.
• They are irresponsible bastards by going on holiday and spreading this pandemic all over.

I was due to go to Cornwall next week. With a lot of reluctance I have accepted it ain't happening. We have to learn from Italy, where a lot of people decamped to second homes when the schools shut. That was one of the reasons the virus spread so widely. I love love love Cornwall and for that reason decided I'd go at a later date when this has died down.

I admit initially I was one of the "it's just flu" brigade and thought there was a lot of overreaction but I now know I was wrong. You maybe symptomless but still infectious. You maybe in the incubation phase and develop symptoms down there.

Why do you think the advice doesn't apply to you?