Green list

[Lulu1919]

South Sandwich Islands sound fun.....

[astuz]

I've just checked the gov.uk website for Portugal and on there it's saying that Portugal is only allowing essential travel into the country, and only for residents?? Is the Portuguese government going to change that imminently or something?

[MirandaBlu]

It was a masssive anticlimax, but that may have been more to do with the press than with the government. ANY opening is a good sign, and I think some of this is helpful not to people IN the UK wanting to go on holiday, but for people abroad wanting to return to the UK. But maybe now that we've established SOME free travel, we'll eventally expand to more.

[KitKat1985]

In reality most of the green list isn't going to be that accessible to people still. In fact I think Portugal and Gibraltar and the only two countries that don't really have any entry requirements. You can access Iceland and Israel only if you are vaccinated, and it's not clear how you will prove this yet since the vaccine passport scheme isn't really set up yet, and I'm not sure that merely showing a handwritten vaccine card or an app on your phone is going to 'cut it'.

Many of the countries on the green list require mandatory quarantine on arrival (e.g, Falklands and Brunei) and 3 of the named countries still aren't accepting UK tourists at all (Australia, New Zealand and Singapore).

Personally I think a lot of people will be put off visiting even Portugal and Gibraltar over concerns over insurance costs, accessing approved PCR tests abroad, and concerns that if the country moves to the Amber list whilst you are abroad you could get caught out and then have to quarantine at home for 10 days on return, which is going to be impractical for a lot of people.

[Ylvamoon]

Most countries on that list are impossible to get to... or they are simply not your average summer sun tourist destination.

[bubblebubblebubbletrouble]

Don't really understand the point of putting Australia on there. Their own citizens are struggling to get back in let alone tourists....
I think it was so that their list wasn't even smaller and more ridiculous but they could still say they were sticking to the road map.

[jakeyboy1]

Barbados was tipped for green and is in better shape than most cannot understand it.

Guess I'm cancelling Italy in July - watch it all open up as soon as I do!!

[astuz]

It was a massive anti-climax. I was really hoping the US would be on the green list, and maybe the Balearics.

I suppose there's time yet before the summer holidays.

[Ifailed]

South Sandwich Islands sound fun.....

You could just go to Sandwich, in Kent.

[Zodlebud]

@Hairbrush123 because the green list will only have countries with very low levels of Covid and a high proportion of population vaccinated. It’s not a list of holiday destinations but countries that meet the strict criteria.

I think we were all hoping for a nice list of sunny places in the Med but I would give it a miss for another year if it meant that the U.K. can go fully back to normal again.

I, bizarrely, have a trip booked to Singapore in July (a trip shifted from last summer and originally booked in November 2019!). I almost certainly won’t be going as there will be a requirement that you have had both jabs and then two to three weeks wait afterwards. We will have had our first but not the second.

[Hairbrush123]

Might be blatantly obvious but why add countries that 99% of the population can't access without a connection somewhere? I can understand Australia and New Zealand but not Sandwich Islands. Here's hoping more countries are on the list in the next review!

[1983Roxy]

I am booked abroad in August, let's see if it comes off.