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!

@LH1987

If the government orders you to quarantine then you will have to do so, work will be forced to put you on some kind of sick leave. They could just do statutory sick pay but I would be almost entirely sure the NHS would do full sick pay.

I say go on holiday, all you can do is follow the rules and guidelines the government are giving and at the minute there is no travel restrictions.

You can't access sick pay for quarantine, almost all workplaces have said this, sure the NHS won't allow that.

Read your contract before you make this decision.

You can not get SSP for quarantine.

@KingFredsTache I totally agree, and it's really hard to see happening all around me. Often followed by people refusing to do other things that don't suit them because its not what they want to do e.g. risk working.

@labyrinthloafer, apologies, thanks for the correction!

You’ve selectively quoted. The poster went on to say that you can do those things in a safer way. Which is true. Why can’t people exercise any common sense?

Because on MN you are told you can’t use your own common sense about what is safe, because you aren’t qualified to do so and should only be following the advice of experts. When you say you are following government advice, you are then told that’s not good enough and you should be doing things in a safer way - which turns out to be whatever the poster has decided is safe according to what suits them and their family, and anyone else who makes different decisions to them is literally putting everyone’s lives at risk.

jas I would love to know how on earth we would ever catch Covid, and you are literally making this up as you go along.

We drove straight down no stops to a cottage in the middle of nowhere. We took all the food and everything with us, we sat on empty beaches with no one else, we had picnics with no one but the birds - we swam in a pool that was private and saw no one else at all! Touching nothing and no one in the entire week we were there, and although the lovely restaurants were doing a bustling trade we did not eat in one!
We had no contact at all with anyone from the NW or anywhere else in the entire time that we were there! SO the idea that we could catch Covid is really ridiculous in the extreme. We are 100% certain that it is impossible to catch anything, much less covid!!

The same can not be said for the multiple contacts of an airport, plane, transit buses, hotels and/or Eurostar terminal for goodness sake.

squid but every time you make a wrong and ill informed decision about your holiday other people could pay with their lives, that is a fact, and that is the problem with this.

People will definitely judge you.

It is not difficult to understand why people are getting so upset with those that seemingly could not care less about the vulnerable, and put their week on the beach before the lives of others, because it is not just you that is taking the risk sadly, it is everyone you come into contact with for up to two whole weeks. So people may well judge you, they may feel you are playing Russian roulette with other peoples' lives.

I am not sure I would see a friend of mine in the same light put it that way.

We drove straight down no stops to a cottage in the middle of nowhere. We took all the food and everything with us, we sat on empty beaches with no one else, we had picnics with no one but the birds - we swam in a pool that was private and saw no one else at all! Touching nothing and no one in the entire week we were there, and although the lovely restaurants were doing a bustling trade we did not eat in one!

Oh... A couple of pages ago you said:

Can I say we have had the most wonderful week in Cornwall, we saw seals at close range, had beautiful weather, stunning beaches and great restaurants by the sea.

Were the restaurants just nice to look at then?

Also, what if someone had needed a piss on the way there or back? What if you had broken down? What if you had run out of milk? What if you had become ill and had to go to the local hospital? What if another human had set foot on all these 'empty beaches' and you had laid eyes on them? What if you gave Covid to the seals?!

Selfish or whaaaaaat!!!!

I am laughing king because we stopped for a pee stop, but it was a natural pee stop in the open countryside.

We saw seals in the sea on an evening walk, and yes all the restaurants were most definitely open, but we haven't been to one just yet. It did however make for the most heavenly scene of normality!

Had one of us fallen ill we would have gone straight home - 2hour drive simples!

So yay, it was pretty darn great, and I managed it all without putting my family at risk. So I can not understand why anyone would choose a germ riddled plane/train and airport over what was an amazing holiday personally but each to their own.

We are driving but on the continent. Don’t see how that’s much different to going to Cornwall - though better weather and less crowded. Ferry with car and cabin driving staying in our bubble self catering. Going to rural Germany. Judge away.

It's also fairly quick to drive back from France using the tunnel if someone gets sick for anyone living in the SE. I can't see it's that different than traipsing down to Cornwall.

squid but every time you make a wrong and ill informed decision about your holiday other people could pay with their lives, that is a fact, and that is the problem with this.

I am following all the government guidelines, I am not doing anything illegal, I am complying with all the rules and regulations. So who are you to tell me I am wrong and ill informed? That’s your personal opinion.

Oh and I haven’t been anywhere near a plane or airport and neither has the OP....

It did however make for the most heavenly scene of normality!

Yes..... yes, I'm sure it did

Did you not feel the need to go in there and tell off all the customers for being so selfish doing something as reckless as eating in a restaurant though?

If the government orders you to quarantine then you will have to do so, work will be forced to put you on some kind of sick leave

Depends on your work place:
I'm not back to school til September, so have another 4 weeks once home.
Dd doesn't start university until end of September.
Dh can work from home. He did throughout lockdown and his office is still only having them in 50% of the time and rest is wfh. Staff can choose to wfh anyway so long as their fees are okay and they're meeting their targets when doing so.

So whilst quarantine would be a pain in terms of not seeing family for a while longer it is totally possible for us to do if need be. We'd obviously rather not have to.

The same can not be said for the multiple contacts of an airport, plane, transit buses, hotels and/or Eurostar terminal for goodness sake.

Let's face it, if I'd said I was on holiday using a train or bus, but with SD and a mask, and eaten at some quiet restaurants and walked round some quiet towns and visited the odd quiet tourist attraction, again with precautions BUT said it was in England few people would have an issue. But because it's in France some people feel the risk suddenly jumps hugely.

Which just isn't necessarily the case. At Eurostar check in and waiting to board everyone was spaced out more than 2m, everyone wore masks. On the train everyone was spaced out in households and with masks.

Walking down a pavement in England is not really any safer than a pavement in France.

A restaurant in France is no more risk than in England.

Infact, as said numerous times, France seems to have more precautions in place throughout and with greater levels of compliance. Hand sanitisers are everywhere, even randomly in streets. Masks are worn by pretty much everyone - there seems to be far less people who can't wear them. Even children are wearing them generally. Staff in shops and restaurants wear them here. Social distancing is happening though it's 1m officially but usually easy to be much further apart.

I've taken a lot of precautions due to my own personal vulnerability to Covid but I can't live my life hidden away waiting for a vaccine that may never come. I've already lost 4 close family members in the past few months, three during lockdown. I need to start getting in with life, but with precautions and safety measures in place where I can.

If I'm safe enough to go to school with limited safety precautions in September I'm safe enough to have a holiday with make precautions in place.

I don't see it as a risk of covid, but a risk of having to quarantine when you haven't factored the 2 weeks in.

@Aragog , use of public transport in England is at 30% of usual capacity. That is partly because many many people are avoiding public transport. So they, and I would think that taking a bus, coach or train to a holiday destination in the UK is risky tbh.

As others have said though, a major issue for many is the risk of local lockdowns or quarantine. Even worse when you look at the threads where people are saying they will refuse to quarantine.

I agree - the quarantine is probably the biggest risk for most people. It's a pain that they are just shutting whole countries rather than being selecting over regions. But it is what it is.
I'd have not risked going away mid August personally as I wouldn't have time to quarantine before school restarted.

But the fact that it is 30% down also means it's actually then less risky for those who are using it - as everyone is spaced out in masks.

Seriously any train I've used it's been spotlessly clean and really well spaced out, and well ventilated too.

@Aragog I disagree that local or regional rules in Spain would work. I'm thinking back to Italy, and the issues a regional quarantine caused. Spanish nationals and tourists would just navigate away from problem areas towards other areas.... Everyone was quick to criticise Italy for their partial lockdown, and the UK for being too slow to lockdown and allowing air travel. Now decision makers have learned from each other's mistakes and are making 'slightly' better decisions- by they are still criticised.

Fair enough but it seems somewhat unfair to say that even the islands should be subject to quarantine when their rates are low. Lower than in England in many areas.

Other countries are saying such things at present - advising their country's residents to not go to given regions in Spain, for example but not putting restrictions in place for other regions such as the islands. I guess it's just different approaches.

It's irrelevant for me anyway right now as I am willing and able to quarantine if I need to. The holiday will still have been worth it as it's been a great get away as a family.

And don't forget that we, in England, are only likely to have local lockdowns now. Full country wide lockdowns here are now much less likely according to the government.

@Aragog way way way too risky for me. Not something I would contemplate, and thank goodness I'm lucky enough to have use of a car.

It's a blessing that some of us are risk averse to balance out those who aren't. I'm not sure the balance is sufficient to give schools a chance to return, and isolated people a chance of getting heir lives back this year though which is such a shame.

Yes and it’s a blessing we have people like Aragog who are willing to enable those schools to open, in working conditions that most people in offices would simply refuse to accept.

Yes and it’s a blessing we have people like Aragog who are willing to enable those schools to open, in working conditions that most people in offices would simply refuse to accept.

Exactly! Thank goodness we do have some people who aren't 'risk averse' otherwise we would never get this country going ever again.

Why do some people have to be so nasty?

@madbirdlady22 Yes as i said earlier, its not all about you is it? or maybe it is lol!

Just because YOU acted responsibly doesn't mean everyone else visiting the tourist areas of the UK will do so.

I like going to Mallorca, i don't go to the fleshpots of the south and stick to riding my bicycle,with my partner, in the north of the island, yet despite being "responsible" i can't go..... yet you encourage us all to visit Cornwall etc You do not have a say how others may behave whilst here do you?
(i have seen some very irresponsible behavior by tourists, not least leaving all their shite on the beaches)

You are just a massive hypocrite!