Travel Corridor to South Africa

[Bathroom12345]

Does anyone think there is going to be a travel corridor anytime soon to South Africa. Their rates are 12 times less than ours. I have already had one holiday of a lifetime cancelled and its now booked for mid Jan 21. Dont mind getting a PCR test of course.

Its coming into their summer with the peak being Jan/Feb.

Your guess is as good as mine..a completely no quarantine travel corridor ? Maybe 50/50 at best?

ATM the UK government seem remarkably reluctant to allow tests on entering the UK to replace a need for quarantine, although there's signs the mindset might slowly be changing.

Hope I'm wrong and you get your holiday.

I’m hoping there is as I want to book a holiday in South Africa and a few places are already booked for the dates I want. I might just take the risk and book it

The borders are open in South Africa so as king as there is a flight running you can go. You need a negative covid test result from the last 72 hours and will have to quarantine on your return to the UK. THe detail is on gov.uk.

The borders are open in South Africa so as king as there is a flight running you can go.

There was certainly enough demand to justify some passenger flights between LHR-JNB and also I believe CPT in October but AFAIK they've stopped again due to the current UK ban on international holiday travel....

I cannot get insurance as I am 60 and Battleface wont cover me for travel against Foreign Office advice.

I think the quarantine will reduce but what a mess re the testing. We have become bogged down with tests, mass testing, PCR tests, spit tests being offered through one of the Heathrow hotels (I understand most countries dont accept it so its a waste of time and money!).

The quarantine is a complete joke and apparently 90% of people arent following it and making up their own rules. A friend was contacted by the Tracing people who told her if she didnt have anyone to buy food or couldnt get a delivery slot she was allowed out to get food although 'they would prefer her not to'. So she did...

coming back from Spain I sat in front of a group of lads who certainly werent going to do any quarantine. In fact they hadnt even filled in the forms and were only planning to at Heathrow.

We did fill in the forms and long winded they were too. Needless to say no one checked we had done so and no one called us. The young lads just went straight through in front of us.

So, we can have all rules on rules and no real checks and it ends up like this.

New countries have just been announced and there are some countries and islands I have not heard of! No SA but Rwanda, Israel and Sri Lanka.... There is still time of course and as SA is now in their summer and some hope around I am praying that they put SA on in the next few weeks. Not for my holiday because that can be changed but for the conservation side of things. The tourist industry is trashed there and it would give such a boost to the economy.

New countries have just been announced and there are some countries and islands I have not heard of!

Yep, a few newbies on the "exempt from inbound quarantine" list, which is good news, but until 2nd Dec, at the earliest, there sadly is still the ban on none essential outbound travel from the UK for Brits...

It's kind of difficult to see how anybody (from potential holiday makers through to the airlines) can plan anything until there is some clarification of when/if that ban will be lifted and how likely it is to be reimposed at short notice..

I have found CV19 insurance plus cover to travel currently on the FO list. High Risk Voyager will cover up to age 69. £110 for the two of us age 60 and 56.

I know we will still need to quarantine on the way back but we are planning to take the Test and Release test.

That is assuming that the UK government dont add anything meaningful on the corridors before we go!

Virgin are offering free CV19 cover providing you book a flight with them but you cannot go to FO countries on the list so pretty pointless insurance and something that people might well miss!

I hope you get to go @Bathroom12345 we were there last dec / jan and it’s such an amazing place. Fingers crossed for the vaccine(s).

As long as things dont change for the worse, ie total travel ban to SA (which I dont think will happen) we will be going. Or even worse the UK locks us all down again mid Jan and airports are closed. If that is the case we will move the date forward. We cannot be locked down forever!

My trigger point was struggling to find cover for CV19 whilst we were on holiday. Plenty of insurance if we were going to Europe but struggled with SA. Found Campbell Irvine who said we could travel to SA but there would be NO CV19 cover whilst we were there.

We are self catering and will be having meals outside as the weather is so great in Jan. Went a few years ago at the same time and tbh - I just need to get away.

Book with Emirates/Etihad and fly via UAE. Both offer free, universal covid insurance.

I am in SA Bathroom so ask away if I can assist at all.

We are expecting a 2nd wave, and there is talk of another lockdown being put into place for the Eastern Cape, Garden Route and Western Cape as the numbers are rising very rapidly in these areas.

Even many locals are not going to be doing the usual travelling over our long holidays which are coming up now, and we are all just waiting to see really and it is a bit concerning.

You will need a negative test to enter, flights are a bit more expensive now that they were, but this is due to less flights. Domestic flights are running again now, you wont need a test for one of these flights. They too are quite pricey compared to normal pricing.

If people do go away, January will still be busy as the schools are going back later than normal next year, so February would be better from a less busy and more available point of view. It is the hottest month too, so just to keep in mind depending on what you wish to do and how well you cope with the heat.

I am also just about to book flights to SA in Feb next year. Tbh, am assuming will need to quarantine on return to UK so am factoring that in to my timings. As you say, biggest fear is another lockdown which stops us travelling at all!

Apologies I cross posted with you regarding the insurance. I am not sure on that side of things, sorry.

I have just double checked and our schools return on the 27th January. If that helps at all with your planning as peak season would usually include school holidays.

They are having a very extended holiday as my dd has already finished for this year......

I recognise that I need to quarantine on the way back. Will take this new Test and Release when I return so hopefully it wont be 14 days quarantine!

Thanks Isthismylifenow. It is worrying re 2nd waves. But honestly our UK government is making such a dogs dinner of lockdowns it cannot be any worse than this!

I guess I need to keep as is until after Xmas and then see where we are.

Isthis - what do you think the lockdown would be? We are planning a few days in Cape Town then driving along the Garden Route and then to the Winelands. We have been before btw.

It really is a shit time isnt it for us all.

Yes it's been the worst year all around.

We aren't sure yet and there are rumours of a 'family meeting' being held soon, that's a president address... So I will update you if anything is announced. The rumours if they can be believed are that some areas may go back to level 3. We had quite a few versions of level 3 so again it's hard to say. It will most probably include the curfew back to 10pm at night, it is midnight now on level one. We also did have a ban on alcohol sales and tobacco during level 4, and that was reinstated in level 3, but off site purchases, ie bottle stores only open certain days but restaurants could sell until 9pm.

There was a ban on provincial travel too, you had to have a permit to be able to travel to another province, but in honesty I'm not sure they will reinstate that now, there has been such a blow to the tourism industry.

So noone really knows just yet, but I'll be happy to update here.

It's truly been such a blow to the economy so I do think they are going to have to weigh up all the factors.

Thank you for the update. I am so sorry. Its been horrible for all hasnt it. My DF caught CV19, lots of underlying health conditions but he not only survived but had little in the way of symptons! Late 80's

He was tested as he was leaving hospital for something completely unrelated so sometimes there is good news.

Please please do update me by PM if more convienent.

We are not late night owls so a curfew to 10pm would be fine for us. Of course if places are closed that is something else. Also if they banned alcohol.... what a shame with the lovely SA wine around us.

Sorry to hear of your DF, but also pleased to hear that he had what sounds like a mild case.

The alcohol ban has had such an awful knock on our wine industry as there was no local sales at all for months. Only exports so I was encouraging anyone I knew overseas to buy one of our wines if they could.

I will contact you by PM so that you kept updated with what and how its all going down here. 3000 cases reported yesterday and most of those are in the Eastern Cape. Which is very worrying as it the start of the Garden Route.