Anyone going to Spain or Greece?

[DollyParton2]

We are due to go to Menorca next Friday. If it goes Amber Plus we are preparing for it but still going to suck it up and go despite massive extra cost of testing us all etc. What are your thoughts on what categories these countries will go too? Read 1 front page today (i newspaper) that says Whitehall sources are even considering turning SpainRed...
Just praying this doesn’t happen as there’s no way we could do that and would loose £1000s in our cancelled villas too. Just keen to hear others thoughts and what you suspect will happen.

We've booked menorca for end of August, I can cancel at this stage without losing too much, which I'm thinking of doing.
I don't want the risk of it turning red whole we're out there and then having to pay to quarantine in a hotel in the UK.
Plus there's a risk of testing positive out there and being sent to a quarantine hotel.

Spain does seem to be plateauing now though, huge fingers crossed.

I don't know what will happen, but it does seem like it's Beta variant places that always get the most restrictions and Beta is present in both countries. You can see the map here: gis.ecdc.europa.eu/portal/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/25b6e879c076412aaa9ae7adb78d3241. Spain was quite high for Beta recently, a problem they solved by doing less genome testing... worth bearing in mind that the cases are picked up anyway by the UK testing travellers.

I wouldn't travel abroad right now, but if I was determined to then I'd go for Iceland, Croatia, Slovenia or Slovakia. (Presuming double jabbed and ok with Amber restrictions.) Or Ireland of course, it's hard to imagine UK would ever try to close the border.

There’s hope!!

www.google.com/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/29/exclusive-spain-holidaymakers-set-escape-quarantine-beta-variant/amp/

🤞🤞🤞

Spain would never go red and if it did all operators fly their guests home before then so hotel fees won’t be an issue unless booked all separely

I wouldn’t advise anyone booking independently with current cases

I’ve just been Ibiza and it was fabulous

Probably still go while wishing we booked earlier in the school holidays.

I would be amazed if Spain went Red. There isnt enough capacity to Hotel quarantine all that return from there.

@wormshuffled

I would be amazed if Spain went Red. There isnt enough capacity to Hotel quarantine all that return from there.

I agree. Spain won't go red anyway and yes, there's not enough room in the quarantine hotels!

You’re giving me all serious hope!! ❤️

Can I just ask, for the antigen tests (both outbound and coming home), do we need to:

a) just use our stash of NHS lateral flow tests
b) buy from somewhere specific
c) get them carried out at specific fixed locations

Sorry, bit dimwitted but I can't seem to find a conclusive answer.

Must say, slightly rattled by recent news that Greece are considering further restrictions to UK travellers.....

Antigen can’t be nhs as you need an actual fit to fly letter with result etc

Uk can’t use antigen to enter Spain as high risk

It must be pcr for outbound

On gov site it makes point of referring to annex K which says antigen no good for uk

See attached

Thanks :)

@eggman007 I found the covid hub on the TUI website really clear.

Thanks, I think I might be piecing it together. The Covid Testing Network seems quite helpful too:

www.covid19-testing.org/travel-testing?gclid=CjwKCAjwxo6IBhBKEiwAXSYBs-CpN-xiE8SA57Utfr_i3jAh3WIlgZdwH129dqJ6WgtIua4n-2OvQxoCmpIQAvD_BwE

Antigen is not accepted by Spain.

We came back from Majorca a few days ago. I was very stressed beforehand about all the things that could go wrong. But once we had made it to the hotel room I completely relaxed and we spent 10 blissful days on the beach, in the pool and at some lovely restaurants.

It was well worth all the stress.

Antigen accepted by Greece. Only needed if not vaccinated.

You order online (about £40) and then test at home within 48 hrs of travel. Upload photo if result and apparently they email you a certificate within about half an hour.

Haven’t done it yet but am going to (for an under 18) in the next few days. It sounds simple enough though and the test has arrived already.

The same on way back but a couple of days before travel

Was meant to be going to Spain next week but it's just been cancelled. Make of that what you will

Were due to fly to Gran Canaria on Wednesday. My OH is from there and we are staying with his family. We haven't seen them in over 2 years now. Keeping everything crossed it all goes well, our daughter misses her Spanish family so much and I know OH is desperate to see his parents and siblings.

@Throwntothewolves

Was meant to be going to Spain next week but it's just been cancelled. Make of that what you will

That's interesting. Tui have just moved our holiday to Spain ( Gran Canaria) ... it's all so confusing

Have they give you reason why it's been moved/cancelled?

We were meant to be travelling to Italy but due to their quarantine rules they aren't travelling there.
The offered us a number of Spanish resorts as an alternative.

Lots of holidays are being cancelled where flights aren’t full in hope of people joining other flights on other dates - it’s avout condensing people onto fewer flights rather than any hint travel is becoming harder

Beanosaurus and The Devils we were meant to be flying with Jet 2, they cancelled the flight. From a but of further investigation it looks like they've cancelled that route from our local airport during August, I guess they're not getting the bookings they hoped for