Ready to cry over holiday and changing lists

[Indoctro]

Honestly I'm at my wits end with country traffic lights

I need to book a holiday abroad although I very much don't want to

My husband works abroad normally month away month home since covid he been having to do 3 months away 3 weeks home that's been taking its toll on our two young boys (5/7)

Now the country he is in has made a rule he can't be in UK 14 days prior to returning which means he can only get home for 4 days so unless I take kids abroad with him for 2 weeks he will only see them 4 days in 6 months

We literally were away to book Majorca today but they changed it yesterday and although I'm fully vaccinated I'm terrified of being abroad and the country we in goes to red and being stuck in a hotel in UK for 10 days with two kids on return - won't affect my husband as he will be flying off to work

I honestly don't know what to do, now I'm think Madeira or Croatia but again I'm panicking incase they change

Actually feel like crying and just want to be going to the cottage we had booked only 1.5 hours from our house, this was meant to be our holiday till the UK got red listed by the country he works

It's all such a mess and my kids are crying constantly for their dad

Croatia has steady covid cases over the last month or so (and low numbers) so seems like a relatively safe option in terms of the chances of it suddenly going Red.

@Thisisworsethananticpated

Yeah I think I will have to and hope for the best

My husband says worst case he can fly us all from the country we in to another green country if there was risk going red

Yeah I will avoid Majorca now

I think Madeira , Croatia or Bulgaria and hope for the best

Vaccine was meant to be our way out , the goal posts have been moved. It's depressing.

[quote Geamhradh]@BillieSpain, thanks Billie for the update. Looks like my Seville-Granada-Cordoba triangle will have to wait again.
Hope everything goes ok for you over there.[/quote]
Oh no! Poor you.

But yes definitely wait. For a start the masks in the 40 degree heat aren't nice.

Things have suddenly escalated and we are also on a curfew (and they won't serve alcohol after 8pm )

(Valencia)

@Aposterhasnoname

I’d be utterly astounded if they put a popular holiday destination on the red list without at least some notice, they simply don’t have enough hotel rooms to put all the holiday makers who’d be caught up in it in. I’d go to Majorca but book with someone like TUI and be prepared to come back early if necessary.

Yes this. Are you in England OP? Because maybe Scotland would, but I really can’t see Boris being brave enough to do this, plus the logistical impossibly of adding thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of families into the hotel quarantine system all at once.

It’s terrible that the ONLY country they have banned is the UK
Soul destroying actually

But I’d be brave and just do it

I’m assuming he is fairly well paid and can buffer any major issues
He bloody well should be working there !

@BillieSpain do you mean rising cases in UK will mean that Spain put restrictions on UK residents entering Spain; or that rising cases in Spain will mean that UK may move Spain from Amber country?

@MrsArchchancellorRidcully

I agree with a op. Dc need to see their dad. What about Malta? Over 12s need vaccinating but you get don't do your dc are perfect ages. It's very unlikely to go red as currently fully green and most have been fully vaxxed.

I won't consider Malta as my 5 year old won't do a pcr, it was horrific when he had to get one, screaming the place down and pinned down to try and do it,

Not putting him through that unnecessarily. So Malta isn't a option for us and my husband agrees .

@Thisisworsethananticpated yeah he will be able to pay to fly us where ever we needed to go if something happened and pay for accommodation again if we got stuck abroad

I think I will just need to stuck it up and go and hope for the best.

Definitely soul destroying for him , last thing he wants to do is get on a plane and go abroad when he never home. He just wants to sit in his garden and enjoy the sun there and pop to a cottage up the road for 3 nights like we had planned. Only ones looking forward to holiday is the kids but they no idea about the stresses of it all obviously. They just delighted to be going on a plane .

It’s horrific
Can he change work ? I’m assuming he is either oil and gas , military or aid work

It cannot be he can’t see his family ever
It’s inhumane

Honestly OP, if I were you I would book another UK trip, I think there will be so many changes in the days/weeks to come, even UK breaks may be affected who knows. Goal posts are constantly changing. But at least you won’t have so much stress to deal with. As long as the boys spend time with Dad, I don’t expect they will care. Good luck.

It does sound like you need to meet up. If he used to do month on month off, why is he now only getting 3 weeks off after 3 months work? If he had longer off then he'd be able to come home and then go to an interim country alone for two weeks before returning?

Ignoring that point, your options for a green country are limited (Gibraltar, Malta or Iceland in Europe) unless you include the green watchlist. And if Malta is out, that further reduces it.

I agree with pp, that I don't think some of the major European destinations will be moved to red. I would take that risk, and be prepared to pay a lot to change flights on the small chance it's announced where you go moves to red. There are some excellent data bods on the Coronavirus board - you could always start a different thread asking for help on working out which Amber country has the most stable or decreasing rates.

(Haven't looked into entry requirements of any of these countries).

I would have stuck to the UK this year, the rules change too much.

The government can't give any security for travel because they don't have a crystal ball, and any promises would be blind empty ones anyway. I mean, they've made plenty of them in the past - no social distancing after last Oct/nov, the plans over Christmas, kids going back in January, but it's just pointless. The only real thing the government can say, is that they will keep everything under review.

You poor things. I feel for you, him and the kids.

Burma ? Bloody hell. I hope he can get back to the UK ASAP (and stay there)

[quote shinynewapple21]@BillieSpain do you mean rising cases in UK will mean that Spain put restrictions on UK residents entering Spain; or that rising cases in Spain will mean that UK may move Spain from Amber country? [/quote]
Sorry to not be clear, I mean cases here in Spain are posing a big problem suddenly and we are not all vaccinated by any means.. Not cases in the UK. I think Spain would be possibly removed from Amber, yes.

But obviously I don't know. But also do bear in mind with the masks, heat and curfew, it's not all roses.

Book with an operator

They fly you back in the days before it turns red

Tui is flying all their Cuba passengers back today before rule change Monday

Spain won’t go red

Red is more about variants than cases and Spain are sequencing

It’s not really about cases - look at Cyprus which is almost double Spain and amber

All the red areas are either not sequencing so open to variants or they are backdoors to those areas eg Turkey

I agree with previous PP - book a country that isn’t too popular with Brits. Ie they haven’t had two weeks of Covid-ridden tourists arriving, sending their infection levels shooting up. Balearics are a no go - I reckon they will be red soon.

Just had a quick look at the green list: Malta always seems to stay firmly green and it’s meant to be lovely there.
Or hedge your bets and go with one of the ones that have just gone green - Croatia or Bulgaria.

Worst case they will move to Amber in which case as you’re double jabbed you won’t need to isolate anyway.

Definitely go - sounds like your family all needs to be together.

There are only 50.000 red hotel rooms

There’s hundreds of thousands going balaerics alone so no capacity at all

Balaerica are much lower than Spain cases

No chance of going red they’d just bring you home

If it's first 2 weeks of August hopefully not too much will change on the travel list as it's meant to be reviewed every 3 weeks with changes coming in the following Monday so that looks like Aug 5th/6th with changes coming in on 9th.

Therefore if you pick somewhere Green now for one week you should be ok.

Can you send the kids to their Dad's alone? I know it's not ideal but they might not have to quarantine and you can pick them up and drop them off at the airport.

Random but would Gibraltar be green as they uk territory or Jersey 🇯🇪?
I thin they both green and fully jabbed.

Jersey doesn't work for DCs as they have to isolate

@EmbarrassingMama

Can you send the kids to their Dad's alone? I know it's not ideal but they might not have to quarantine and you can pick them up and drop them off at the airport.

The dad is working in Burma, definitely not the place to send a 5 and 7 year old for a holiday right now...

OP I think you mentioned Croatia and that sounds the best option imo.