Anyone else got a holiday booked to Portugal?

[JollyRogerandDiane]

We have!

Not sure what to do having seen the news this morning. We had been hoping we might be able to go. Does this news give us the right to cancel?

We do. Supposed to be going on 2nd Aug. Not sure if the situation will change in the coming weeks, but we are waiting for a decision from Tui on either 10th or 11th July.

We do too for the first week in August. I was feeling quite hopeful but this morning's news doesn't look promising.

We booked our own flights and private accommodation, we do have travel insurance, I think the issue will be losing our deposit on the accommodation and cancellation frees on the flights. Not sure if those are covered. I still really want to go .

I thought Portugal was amber and amber does not need the 14 day quarantine.

On BBC they put Portugual as red...have to admit that I thought Portugal was the same as Spain in terms of covid 🙈.

The government flip flops that much that come August you could be ok?? ...

We do, 20th July. Had really been hoping to be able to go. We have a private villa so happy with the level of risk. Insurance will still cover us for emergency medical costs if FCO advice doesn't change but nothing else. Our insurance will cover cancellation costs if they aren't refunded by airline/villa company.

ilikewinter the issue is the rise in cases they've had in Lisbon. But algarve has hardly been affected which is where most tourists will go so it is frustrating.

We are meant to be flying out at the end of July. We would still go but I think it is starting to look unlikely.

We have a villa booked in the Algarve in July and are still planning to go. The only difference the current news makes is that we'll have to quarantine for 2 weeks when we get back. Both working from home and kids on school holidays do not a huge problem.

timeforlunch where do you stand with insurance? We're happy to quarantine but worried about insurance.

Oh - that is a shame - yesterday Portugal was showing as Amber. The issue is not only the rise of cases around Lisbon, but also that in the Algarve, some local idiots held a party for 100 people - and as a result there were an extra 150 people confirmed with the virus. If Portugal had not bothered to do the testing, then most of them would never have known they had the virus and therefore the results would be low. There are only just over 600 people in the Algarve (with a population of over 450,000) who have had the virus since the beginning, with 15 people having died.

The fact that Portugal never had the high peak, means that we will be trundling along with around 50-300 cases a day for a while yet. The plan here was to avoid a huge peak and for many people to die. This has worked. Now the plan has meant that the business owners here are going to go under - everyone had been holding onto having visitors here July and August.

Also, don't forget we have had hairdressers etc open since May, restaurants etc open since the beginning of June, shopping centres open - and STILL we have not had the big rise experienced by other countries when they started to come out of lockdown.

It is really unfair.

@usernotfound0000 we have an annual policy but do need to check the terms. It wouldn't be a deal breaker though.

You can fly to Spain and hire a car

It sounds like things will be flexible over the next few weeks . We're hoping to go in September- not booked so could go anywhere, but would rather go to Portugal if possible.

When I say flexible- I mean they'll flip and flop according to cases.

I'm hoping it might change but we only have 3 weeks before we go. We're going with friends so we all need to be in agreement if we're going regardless of an air bridge.

I suppose this is the risk of having holidays this year, that things will change on a regular basis.

We are supposed to be going at the end of July not for a typical holiday but to visit my MIL. I'm really gutted by this news. I know DH will still want to go (he's very worried about his elderly mother and won't accept not seeing her) then we'll have to quarentine for 2 weeks of the kids summer holiday. It sucks! I know there's been a rise of cases in the Algarve and Lisbon but the numbers in Portugal are still tiny compared to UK. They've had about 1500 deaths and I'm pretty sure their daily rise in cases is lower than UK. It seems unfair.

We've had the call to say our holiday is cancelled today. I feel slightly relieved actually as I was apprehensive about the whole flying thing.

Our flight has just been cancelled.

@chillandrelax when were you going and who is your flight with? We are Ryanair (sigh) and they have said they will fly regardless.

Flying with easyJet on the 22nd July. Although return flight isn't cancelled yet.

What’s the rule on wearing masks and where whilst travelling ?
Having worn one for all of 5 mins whilst dropping mother to hospital clinic yesterday, I felt I was suffocating, and got very hot very quickly