Do you think our holiday to Italy will be cancelled?

[EmmaGrundyForPM]

We have a walking holiday booked at the end of June/beginning of July. Obviously I want this virus to be cleared up as soon as possible and dh is still optimistic that Italy will be over the worst by then and will.lift travel restrictions.

However, sincr booking I have developed back problems. I was seeing a physio but obviously that's now stopped. At the moment it's so painful I can't even walk.to the end of the road and I'm really worried that i won't be able to do high altitude walking with a rucksack.

As I say, I don't want this virus to drag on but part of me thinks that Italy won't have lifted the travel bans by end of June and our holiday will be cancelled anyway. What do you think the chances are?

I doubt travel will go back to normal for sometime. We have a holiday booked in this country for mid June and a trip to Canada in September and I fully expect not to go on either. Have you had to pay the full balance on the Italy trip? I will not be paying the balance on either of ours as I think until there is a cure or vaccine for this awful virus I would rather not take the risk of travelling on planes etc. Our agents and Centre Parcs have said no full balances need to be paid until we know the situation nearer the time.

Apart from that don't go on a walking holiday with a bad back. Can you do exercises at home to help with that? I certainly would not go in your situation unless you have a dramatic improvement by then. How does your DH think you could do a high altitude walking holiday if you can't walk normally without pain now? June is only two months away. Have you booked through an agent or independently?

Why would you even want to in these times?

It won't be happening op.

No one knows, regardless of how much of an authority posters on this site seem to think they are on the matter

Italy may well have relaxed their measures much more than us by this point but I would highly doubt they will be accepting UK tourists as they are further ahead in this than we are!

The Foreign Office has advised against all overseas travel indefinitely. I'd use that to see if I could get a refund. Plus the the EU is advocating that all airlines refund cancelled flights.

Then key issue isn’t whether things will have improved sufficiently in Italy, but whether they have improved here.

Even if Italy is back to normal by then; the UK is less likely to be. Italy may be back to some form of normality but require restrictions on travel to and from the UK.

Look at the Independent online Simon Calders column for Covid travel advice for forthcoming trips - timings etc. He is always v informed and balanced.

Who knows, it's more than 2 months away. Why cancel it now, it will make no difference - wait and see. Things may be very different then and as your husband is really keen to go, it will be better for his morale if you just wait and see.

Hi everyone
thanks for all the replies. I dont think we can just cancel the holiday without claiming through insurance on the grounds of my back. We have flights to the US booked for early May and cant get our money back on those yet as the official travel restrictions in the US are currently until the end of April so BA say we can only have a voucher not a refund. We are hanging on for the cancellation to get our money back.

The holiday is complicated because we have booked our own flights, then we have booked the walking bit with a British company, then we have booked 6 days of cycling with an Italian company. I'm ok with cycling bizarrely, and our luggage is being transferred every day for us.

I'm quite worried that the Italian cycling company might not survive this. I don't get the comment about not burdening Italy whilst it is recovering, If the holiday did go ahead then our money would be supporting the small hotels and B&Bs we are booked into.

But what if you were ill OP when you are there? This virus is still going to be around until a vaccine is sorted and most people have the vaccine.

If the travel restrictions are lifted, they will probably be replaced by a mandatory 14 day quarantine as is currently being seen in Asia

This was my train of thought too @VenusOfWillendorf. I think my concern around any international travel for the foreseeable is that quarantine requirements might make travel for non-essential reasons unviable.

If you’re required to quarantine for 14 days that’s basically the limit of a lot of people’s annual leave, I certainly couldn’t justify a month off work for two weeks abroad even if they allowed it.

Banned until September.

It’s 8 weeks away. Do you really think life in Italy and the UK will be back to normal in 8 weeks? Normal enough for you to go on a walking holiday with a bad back and possibly needing medical attention for that and/or a resurgence of infection rates?

There is a significant proportion of the population that believes other people need to curtail their freedoms to make space for them in hospital should they fall ill. That they belong inside the curve, and others should isolate so they don’t need to go to hospital. Doctors and nurses and hospital janitors and administrative staff etc are being worked to the bone. In Italy they are suffering traumas unknown outside wartime, that nobody has trained for or wants, from dealing with horrifying death rates for what is basically the flu. If COVID admissions rates have fallen back entirely with zero chance of coming back within 8 weeks, do you really think you needing medical treatment, quite possibly in a hospital, for a walking and cycling holiday, is reasonable or desirable or necessary or justifiable for anyone other than YOU?

I have an Italian holiday booked for the same period and I think it's a out 50:50 at the moment! I am already in Italy though so it's not foreign travel.
God even if restrictions were lifted and your back improved dont you think Italy just will need time to recover from its own onslaught. I think Italy will need tourists back as soon as feasibly possible tbh!

I would hang on and let it be cancelled, that way youu will definitely get your money back. No way will travel ban be lifted by then

I love when people make jokes like this.

You have two hopes and Bob Hope has left the building.

You can't cancel because of your back yet as the insurers will need proof that your back will still be an issue at the time of your holiday. I would imagine getting any kind of doctors note at the moment would be hard, but getting one at any time for 3 months time would likely be impossible unless it's something that requires an op.

We are also due to travel to Italy in early July and I'm assuming we're not going. We're waiting for the airline/hotel to cancel so we can get a refund. If by any chance restrictions are lifted we will consider our options closer to the time. I wouldn't do anything yet.

I would cancel because of your back regardless of the position of the foreign office at that time.

My holiday is booked for end of August, it’s to the USA so I’m not particularly confident it will go ahead but Virgin are unwilling to defer the final payment date which is due next month so I don’t know whether to pay it or not!

I’m torn between peals of laughter and “not a snowball’s chance in hell”.

If the travel restrictions are lifted, they will probably be replaced by a mandatory 14 day quarantine as is currently being seen in Asia

This. So unless you can afford to go for a month (and then potentially come back to another 14 day quarantine here) it won't be worth holidaying outside the UK.

@cologne4711 I never considered having to quarantine coming back but you’re right, it’d be daft not to.

B) it hasn't been cancelled already!

I have flights booked to Italy early in May and they haven't been cancelled. So why would they be cancelling a June/July flight already? (Im not going obvs before anyone jumps on this)

The Foreign Office has not advised "no overseas travel indefinitely" it's said o we the next 30 days. Because nobody knows as others have said.

The issue with Italian tourism will largely depend on where those tourists are coming in from. With the shitshow that the UK govt is calling its measures, I can't see any Brits being allowed in any time soon. But the end of June/beginning of July is almost 3 months away.

I have a group of Italian students booked to go to the UK mid July. As of now, the trip is still on. The flights haven't been cancelled (and thus refunded) because, like the FCO and everything else, nobody knows, so everything is on a couple of weeks rolling decision making process.

If you want to cancel OP, you might stand a chance with your back problem.