Itching to book a holiday mid July!

[Alfaix]

Just want some sunshine! DH won’t let me book. Both adults already fully vaccinated but we have DS9.
Where do we think is a safe bet?

Safe bet would be anywhere in the UK ....... not what you want to hear!!

We have UK breaks booked. We stayed here last year. We are hoping to go somewhere sunny if possible. UK holidays aren’t relaxing.

Why can't you book? We've got Canaries booked for July and Dubai in October. All fully refundable in the event Covid restrictions prevent travel. Also have kids, one under 11. From what I've read it looks like only over 11s will need negative tests to travel. Worst case scenario younger ones will need testing too but certainly not a reason to not go!

Portugal looks like a safe bet at the moment. I have Florida booked for August, but who knows if that will happen?

DH says we need to wait. I think we should book and take advantage of cheaper deals. EasyJet seem to have a good cancellation policy.

I'd probably side with your husband. I think booking a holiday at the moment is like gambling. No harm in doing it if you can afford to lose some or all of the money.

I had three holidays booked last year got refunded on all three with no hassle .
Have one booked for June probably won’t happen but know I will get refunded.
As soon as they say it’s ok to travel prices will shoot up .
Book now .

@StarcourtMall

Portugal looks like a safe bet at the moment. I have Florida booked for August, but who knows if that will happen?

We have a holiday to Florida that we need to re book and I'm desperate to book for the end of August, I nearly did it after a few wines last night... If you look on the CDC website they have a huge amount of people vaccinated and all over 16's are eligible for the vaccine now I think. I know it's not just vaccination data that is taken into account but I'm really hopeful Biden will open the borders by the end of June ish, and then hopefully they will be on our green list!

Our money is sat with TUI as never requested a refund last year but their booking t+c's seem quite good, interestingly they have been updated this week and they mention 'green list', 'green watchlist', 'amber list' and 'red list' so I assume they have received some information from the government re the traffic light system, I'm assuming the green watchlist means the government will give a period of warning that a country may be about to live to amber.

God i want to as well! We have a holiday rolled over from last year but its to a place that's pretty bad with covid now and I think it would be better to reschedule that to 2022 (we can do that) and book something sunny.

I've got my first jab this weekend and second a couple of days before the kids break up from school for the summer. (Dh has had 1st jab and second well before that)

Malta and Greece are my plans.

I feel like you, desperate to book a holiday, but I think it is better to wait - just assume you know you're going & get planning!

For various reasons we'd really like to do a California road trip this summer if we're allowed. Now that things are starting to look hopeful, I have contacted a couple of travel agents, but I think it would be madness to book yet. It's the cost of the PCR tests that I want more clarification on.

If we can't go to America, but we can go to Europe, then I'd just book somewhere like Majorca about 2 days before we want to go. I think there will be vacancies because literally every single person I've talked to about holidays has booked Cornwall this year & none of them are planning to cancel if they can go abroad. Also, with Mediterranean Islands like Majorca, their main income is tourism, so they have tons of hotels all over the place - I can't see how it would get booked up.

Gosh, I am so excited at the thought of being able to do a proper holiday!

@Alfaix

DH says we need to wait. I think we should book and take advantage of cheaper deals. EasyJet seem to have a good cancellation policy.

Easyjet have a shit cancellation policy if it's the same one they had in October and you have to change your flights at the last minute. Our initial flights to Sicily were £40 each (£160 in total for four). Italy was added to the UK's quarantine list two days before we were due to travel so I rang Easyjet to change the flights. It was something like £29 each per leg to change the tickets, plus any change in price, which meant that even changing the flights to somewhere as unexotic as Belfast would've ended up costing us about £600 in total. Suffice it to say that we didn't bother! It's okay if a) the flights are very cheap and/or b) you don't mind losing the money if you can't go.

Having said that OP, I'd book a package to Portugal or Malta or somewhere that's looking good and if you can't go, you can move it. The prices WILL go up for those 'green list' countries as soon as the list is published.

I’d be interested to know when companies people are booking with who have a reliable cancellation policy. I’d be very happy to book now for August if I knew I could get my money back in the event that the government stopped travel to that country.

@CoolShoeshine these are TUI's t's and c's

I’m desperate to go anywhere that isn’t the U.K. right now.
We’ve got Palma booked for half term and I thought we’d be definitely going if it’s on the green list but now DP isn’t feeling comfortable about it. It’s fair enough because he’s self employed and would lose significant income if he became ill or had to isolate but I haven’t had any time off work since last summer, I’m about to start a new job where I’ll start with no holiday allowance and I just really needed those few days in the sun.

I had a look for U.K. alternatives last night but even the dreary looking basic hotels are £££ and I refuse to stay anywhere that isn’t nicer than my own house.

@FizzyPink - is there someone else who could go with you on DPs place? Failing that, I'd go by myself...

I didn't realise amber with tui means you can rebook but can't cancel and refund - I can't have another spring of not knowing what'll happen with a holiday - we've moved from last year to this year and I was hoping to cancel if Greece end up amber

We've just moved our July holiday to next year. I had a little cry but in the grand scheme of things I think it's the right thing to do. Can't be arsed with the what ifs.

The 'what ifs' are such a pain ! I'm thinking as well that while we are waiting to find out what's happening all the good local holidays will be sold out

We have a week booked off work in early August and are waiting till the week before to see where we can go to, if anywhere. I normally book a long time in advance but seem sensible to wait this time if there are going to be different rules for different countries.

I’m looking at Madeira. That should hopefully be green list.

I’m not booking because of the “what ifs”.

What if you get a positive test the day before you travel?
What if you get a positive test on arrival?
What if the country you are going to suddenly gets a surge and you have to go to the quarantine hotel when you return to the UK?

@PinchingShoe

I’m not booking because of the “what ifs”.

What if you get a positive test the day before you travel?
What if you get a positive test on arrival?
What if the country you are going to suddenly gets a surge and you have to go to the quarantine hotel when you return to the UK?

We've rolled over our Greece holiday (again) to 2022 for all those reasons. I was gutted but I wouldn't have been able to relax for a minute even if it is on the green list.

Managed to book a week in Suffolk for about £500. Did it a couple of weeks ago as we figured if we waited and Greece is amber we'd have no chance of getting anything over here. I just hope the weather is better than my one week's leave last year (at home) when it rained all week). Still bitter!