Anyone else thinking of rearranging their summer holiday?

[TravellingSpoon]

I swing between thinking it will be okay by August and thinking we are never going to be able to go.

We have one in Aug, rearranged from last Aug. I was optimistic but this last week or so I am now less so. Probably is we can’t cancel without losing the £800 deposit which was paid and therefore can’t book anywhere in the UK. Catch 22 so just have to wait it out.

I have booked but very likely be in tiers and ours will probably be higher tier so....
What a shit, shit life this is

We’ve not booked anything. We usually go away during all the school holidays on little jaunts. Dh comes with us during February half term, October half term and two weeks in the summer. We also go places once a month somewhere in the UK.

We have a UK break booked end of July so am hopeful that will happen. Abroad would have been lovely as haven't been away for a few years now but I'll just book something last minute if everything is ok by then. If the summer brings lower infection rates anyway, there might be some travel corridors again without the need for quarantine. But it all depends on the various strains. August is still 8 months away.

I've not booked anywhere for the summer. First time ever it's not booked by now,

We do have a visit to Scotland booked for May half term, which was originally booked for last year. But I'm not even convinced that will happen this year.

First class problems and all that (and yes, I do have lots of,other more pressing things I ought to worry about) but I do find not having booked holidays to look forward somewhat depressing. We normally have a number of holidays to look forward too as it's the thing we like to do.

Wales in Aug, England in Sept.

I had such longwinded hassle getting refunds in 2020 (had to go through my credit card company in the end) I’m not booking a foreign holiday until I’m 100% it’ll go ahead. The companies who were poor at refunding in 2020 shot themselves in the foot imo because wary customers will not use them in 2021.

we're planning to book a UK cottage holiday soon. the T&Cs for the place we're eyeing up mean that we'll get a refund if we can't travel due to restrictions. Last summer we left booking a UK holiday until travel was allowed, and found that everything was booked up - we ended up just with a long weekend as that's all we could get.

If international travel restrictions lift sufficiently to allow quarantine free travel, which I am not optimistic about, we'll try to get a short notice short break somewhere less popular, probably Germany.

It took us 6months and lots of time and energy last year to get refunds for our flights, which were booked with Lufthansa via Expedia - each kept insisting it was the other's responsibility, and each were pushing vouchers very hard. That's put me off booking anything expensive, and although we normally book our own flights and accommodation I'd be more likely to book a package in the current climate.

U.K. in August, pretty confident it’ll be fine.

The dilemma I have is that we have flights booked to the USA in August. At the moment, it's more than five months away and if the vaccination programme progresses on schedule everything could be really different by then and we may just get to go (we're US citizens, so we have the 'right' to travel there).

But do I book a fully refundable week in the UK now as a backup, just in case we don't get to go and while the selection of holiday cottages is still good? I'm worried that if we wait it out until the US holiday becomes impossible/the airline cancels the flights, we may not be able to find anything suitable. WWYD?

We booked for UK last year (after having to cancel Asia) on July 4th or so when announcement was made for last week of July and didn't have issues with availability. We got an apartment on the coast with its own swimming pool in a castle in Devon.

If you have a certain place in mind or don't book until a few weeks after announcement or have a very limited budget you would have had more problems. It's probably worth looking now and waiting and monitoring availability, if you are flexible think its fine to wait but act as soon as announcement made. If you are not flexible you may be better booking now but check t&cs very carefully for refunds and think of all possible scenarios.

Yup.

Cancelled Canary Islands and booked the Lake District.

Did the same last year (swapped Greece for Wales) and managed to have a wonderful break.

So hoping a similar swap means we actually get a summer holiday.

We booked UK (Wales) for September - I would have preferred to book May but it just seemed too soon. I'm fairly confident about Wales in September. Would love to go abroad but not sure of the prospect given risk of importing variants etc.

Also planning on using our camper van for short breaks instead of the various festivals we had planned.

We rent our our campervan and it already has quite a few bookings for the summer, i think this is going to be the year of the staycation.

I no way would book anything abroad this year as whenever a new variant emerges , suddenly there will be ten days in a hotel on return to UK

@ferretface

We booked UK (Wales) for September - I would have preferred to book May but it just seemed too soon. I'm fairly confident about Wales in September. Would love to go abroad but not sure of the prospect given risk of importing variants etc.

Also planning on using our camper van for short breaks instead of the various festivals we had planned.

We rent our our campervan and it already has quite a few bookings for the summer, i think this is going to be the year of the staycation.

Totally ! I live in Cornwall and it’s gonna be insanely busy I am sure

We have not booked anything for 2021. Pinning hopes on big holiday for 2022

I'm not in the UK but am not booking either.

Everything is so, so up in the air. If things look rosy at the last minute, well, we'll see what the hell is available at the last minute and just go with the flow. I have given up trying to predict or plan things!

Made a decision this weekend and cancelled Croatia, booked Cornwall break for August.

We ended up talking about this last night (in the context of reduced vaccine doses being delivered by AZ and (separately) further extension of lockdowns announced from Cabinet, leading to a general "when will it all end" moan). And agreed that it is looking more unlikely that we will actually get away as we planned in the summer. So we will likely be back down to visit family (2.5 hours away) and also to get away in this country (probably making use of a family holiday house) as we all need a break.

Last year, we had a long weekend (St Patrick's weekend) in the holiday house, an overnight in DMIL's house in July, and a week in the holiday house in summer - literally they were the only times we were away from our house and the only leave either DH or I took. So we know we need to take more than that this year, however we manage it.