How can you go on holiday to France?

[loveandroses]

I really want to book a holiday in France for next Summer. We haven't gone abroad since covid started. But it seems that 12 year olds and older need a "pass sanitaire" to go just about anywhere in France. As far as I can tell no British child can get one of those as you would have to be jabbed twice which isn't being offered here.

How can you have a family holiday in France now?

You can’t unless you get them tested multiple times throughput the week, which will be expensive and lots of hassle. I’m going to have to cancel

I'm having the same dilemma- need to rebook a France holiday that was cancelled this year but without a pass sanitaire DS15 won't be able to access some places ☹️ I'm hoping things might change by next August but not sure they will.

I'm sure by next year, things will be different, yet again. Why not either leave it until spring or book now & get good insurance?!

I wouldn't book right now in that situation

but either vaccine availability or advice in Fance might change before next summer

so it might be possible to book later

It’s pretty pointless getting them vaccinated as they won’t be classed as fully. So unless that changes we are going to wait

It’s the same in Italy and Greece as well!

Insurance is a good idea but I don't know if anyone offers insurance against the rules staying as they are now?

Thank you for this thread. We were just about to pay a deposit on a holiday in France and had no idea about this. We have children of the relevant age.

Yup, about to cancel Canada (skiing) for the same reason we have a 14yo and a 17yo here. It's depressing, we have Greece booked for August [fingers crossed]

We went this summer and it was great. My 13yo had to take a lft before we went and we just showed the result of that in the absence of the pass sanitaire.

Just back from a holiday in France last week and we didn't get asked to show a pass once. But then we were self catering and basically just going in supermarkets and a couple of times sitting outside in cafés. If you wanted to go to restaurants/museums etc it might be different. I suspect you might well find it to be a non-issue but of course it's probably not a risk worth taking unless you're willing to be flexible last minute about what establishments you frequent/mostly self cater

We are booked with Eurocamp and I heard that you have to show to get in pool. Not sure if that’s true or not ?

You have to show pass at Disney land Paris to get into the parks

The pass requirement in France for teens doesn’t come in until 30th September

Just back from Paris. They asked for our pass sanitaire everywhere, and some restaurants even checked our passes when eating outside. The French app TousAntiCovid is excellent and you can save all test results/vaccine passes onto it.

If you have a Covid test, you automatically get sent a green EU pass valid for 48 hours; this will be the only way to gain indoor access etc unless they manage to sort equivalisation for the respective teenage vaccines. So potentially you might need 2 or more depending on what activities you plan. There’s a set fee of €25 per antigen test in pharmacies.

We had nhs certificate pdf, eu passes for the test we'd had done the day before, but were still denied access to Slovenia restaurants and castles.

Can you leave it until next year to book? Things can change a lot in terms of covid and requirements - next year we could be offering two doses to children (good if you/your DC want them) or have a vaccine resistant variant (hopefully not) - these and other factors could make a large difference to what we can all do.

As others have said, you just need to do LFTs.
Most EU countries have pop up testing areas.

@Etherealhedgehog

Just back from a holiday in France last week and we didn't get asked to show a pass once. But then we were self catering and basically just going in supermarkets and a couple of times sitting outside in cafés. If you wanted to go to restaurants/museums etc it might be different. I suspect you might well find it to be a non-issue but of course it's probably not a risk worth taking unless you're willing to be flexible last minute about what establishments you frequent/mostly self cater

@Etherealhedgehog were you not asked for a pass when sitting outside cafes??? Because you should have been… this isn’t the norm- you need a pass for any kind of restaurant service inside or outside seating. We live here & so far always been asked. Some shopping centres, fairs, jumble sales etc also pass obligatory.

You can obtain a pass sanitaire by having negative PCR or antigen tests; these you can get easily at walk in or pharmacy but they aren’t free. To have a continuously valid pass sanitaire without vaccine you need to essentially do a negative test every 48hrs. Xo

@sjxoxo we were not. Though I think we only did that twice (plus indoor cafes in the airport). Also never asked in shops, though perhaps that's more normal. Perhaps compliance varies by region? Where we were staying was a bit out of the way but in a broadly touristy region. I just assumed most businesses weren't actually bothering!

This is so shit for teens

My dh wanted to take my son sking next year
Missed out before and it's his fave thing in the world. Looks like that's too much hassle AGAIN

@Etherealhedgehog shops no unless they have Capacity of over 50 people. it differs by region a bit for shopping centres etc but restaurants it’s universal. I’m surprised as here everywhere asks you even outdoor markets! Fines for not compliance are huge. X

We have cancelled our trip. With 2 dcs aged 12-16 and singly vaccinated it wouldn't have been anywhere near worth the hassle for a short trip. Tests would have cost almost £600 alone as they will only accept an antigen done 24 hours prior to flight. And not a self administered one so £99 each just for that bit near us!

The thought of someone testing positive out there and what that would mean for us all well and truly put me off.

Won't book again until this has all changed significantly or we double vaccinate that age group.