Oh bollocks, I'm really nervous about my holiday now!

[stopitkenneth]

We're due to head to a French campsite in four weeks (driving all the way). We've cancelled two holidays due to COVID, Malta at Easter and Mellorca now. We decided a couple of weeks ago that we'd try for France as quarantine had lifted and I was able to get comprehensive insurance.
But now I'm really worried about needing to quarantine when we get back!

I know, I know, booking anything now was optimistic and a bit stupid. But we really REALLY want to get away (I'm frontline NHS,I need a bloody holiday). And it's hard to see how rates in France could be worse than what we've got here.

At no point have my workplace says that we shouldn't be booking holidays abroad. So if I do have to quarantine on my return, then I'm hoping they'll either support me to work from home, or I'm happy to take the two weeks unpaid. I'm hoping that because I booked it during the time that there was no quarantine, they can't come down hard on me. But I'm now really worried.
Argh!

Just out of interest why does needing a holiday equate to going overseas? Wouldn’t a holiday in the UK have been a holiday?

I looked at all the uk rates and those on Spanish islands and decided that I was safer there. In our area SD has gone, kids and young adults ignore everything as do a huge % adults - including those with key worker kids in school.
Majorca looked a safer option that our own area tbh

I'll be keeping everything tightly crossed for you OP and all the other people in a similar situation. People really really need a holiday now!

I’d be more worried about rising rates of the virus in France and potentially catching it than having to quarantine.

Where I live people can't go on holiday abroad, so they are holidaying at home. Why can't you do the same?

Why should she be limited to just the UK? Anyway she's already booked abroad.... Europe is a lot cheaper than the UK from the bit of holiday research I've done and for a lot of people experiencing a different culture, food, weather etc is what makes it a holiday for them. Different strokes and all that

And it's hard to see how rates in France could be worse than what we've got here

So because there’s more chance of you taking it with you than catching it over there it’s all good?

Honestly people have no common sense.

DS just had a great holiday in Italy and DD is having another as we speak. It should be fine.

Why should she be limited to just the UK?

Um, let me think ..... Oh I know, because we are in the midst of a worldwide pandemic and should all be doing all we can to minimize the risk of catching and transmitting a virus maybe? Also, expecting a workplace to put up with someone returning from a holiday then having to take further time off to quarantine is ridiculous - especially if someone else has to cover their job.

By that logic I shouldn't even leave my house then! If I travel to a different part of the UK I'm contributing to the risk of catching and spreading it in exactly the same way as crossing the channel....

Well to travel abroad you need to gather in large groups for flights and hotels, swimming pools and bars.

The risk is much higher.

@eaglejulesk

Why should she be limited to just the UK?

Um, let me think ..... Oh I know, because we are in the midst of a worldwide pandemic and should all be doing all we can to minimize the risk of catching and transmitting a virus maybe? Also, expecting a workplace to put up with someone returning from a holiday then having to take further time off to quarantine is ridiculous - especially if someone else has to cover their job.

This

Oh, didn't realise that hotels, bars and swimming pools are so different here. My bad.

Where I live people can't go on holiday abroad, so they are holidaying at home. Why can't you do the same?

Where do you live? While I won't go abroad this summer, the UK is pretty shit so can understand the desire to escape.

@bombaychef

I looked at all the uk rates and those on Spanish islands and decided that I was safer there. In our area SD has gone, kids and young adults ignore everything as do a huge % adults - including those with key worker kids in school. Majorca looked a safer option that our own area tbh

The logic of this 🤯

I'm in Australia and our borders are closed, most likely until mid 2021 and I totally understand, and agree with it.

I just can't comprehend this, flying to another country during a pandemic is surely madness.

What if they go into lockdown while you're there?

@SwedishEdith - I live in NZ, and it's winter - a lot of people head somewhere warmer to escape the cold but they can't this year. I can understand why people might want to leave the UK, but as everywhere close also still has CV why would they?

@ReefTeeth - I'm in NZ and feel the same

In fairness, from what I've seen, hotels and resorts abroad have implemented far more precautions and are rigidly imposing them than anything that has been done so far at home.

Hope you get your holiday OP! I spoke to Spanish friends this evening and whilst they agree the situation in the localised hotspots is cause for concern, the vast majority of the country is functioning normally (or as normal as can be in these strange times)

I wonder when the time comes whether it will be discovered that an awful lot of the new cases along the Costas were imported from places like the UK where restrictions have been much less severely enforced.

silkroad eaglejulesk

Because it rains in England ..... all of the time ....incessantly. We go on holiday to get week of warmth and sunshine.

I'm not worried about there being a higher risk of catching it there than here. It's the summer holidays. Wherever I am, be it staying at home and going on day trips, going on holiday to, say, Blackpool or Bognor, or being in France, I will be going out and about with the DCs (following all SD guidance of course). I'm not staying locked in for the summer.

I'm not flying, I'll be driving all the way there and back. Yes I'll go to service stations, as I would if I was driving for more than a couple of hours within the uk.

I don't want to come across as all "I'm going abroad because I can!" But I really don't think being at a campsite in France is that different to being at a campsite in the UK right now. Apart from the quarantine risk!

@ReefTeeth

OP is driving

@Disillusioned11

silkroad eaglejulesk

Because it rains in England ..... all of the time ....incessantly. We go on holiday to get week of warmth and sunshine.

It depends where you are in the UK. I live in East Anglia and it doesn't rain very often at all.

Just go.

The risk that you could be caught up in quarantine - either on arrival at destination or it be a requirement on return has been omnipresent for some time.

I have huge sympathy for those who booked holidays before the early days of March. But those who did so recently chose to take the risk

The most read story on the Beeb website at the moment is this

Spain drives fears of European 'second wave

and it seems there have been rises in Spain, France and Germany and some countries beyond Europe. It's important that those outbreaks do not spread, so unsurpring that a number of countries are have imposed quarantine regimes on travellers from Spain and some others

[quote Somethingkindaoooo]@ReefTeeth

OP is driving[/quote]
I was quoting bombaychef who I'm sure wasn't intending to drive to the Spanish island they were referring to.