I don't know what to do about our holiday to Greece!!

[Plantsandwine]

I have booked flights with Ryanair to Greece with my husband and two toddlers. We booked it last summer assuming everything would be fine by now.
I have looked at the guidance and it says it is not illegal but you shouldn't go... I am so confused by this.
We are both teachers so we can both isolate as it is summer holidays. I am so confused if we are allowed to go, and if we should. My husband has had both vaccines and I have just had one if that makes any difference. We desperately want a holiday and are happy to isolate on arrival back to the UK.

I would definitely go as long as it was on amber lost so you can isolate at home. If it is a red country i wouldn't want to isolate in the hotels.

Its not illegal, just guidance, which everyone can make their own decision about.

It separate bit arbitrary that some of the smaller Greek islands are not on the list and it’s really hard to reconcile the Amber list ‘rule’ with that FCO advice.

To me, FCO are saying that certain Greek islands are in effect ‘green’. That’s how I would interpret this.

*seems a bit arbitrary

Why would you assume everything would be okay by now?

Because back last summer things looked a million times better and few of us thought this year would be problematic. Apart from all the MN virologists and epidemiologists who of course knew better.

To the pp with Easyjet flights - they are booking over a year ahead so we were able to change ours to next year [again] easily and for free.

Have you factored in the cost of the PCR tests? I think they are £100+ per test and you need them on the way out and return.

Ryanair will allow you to change the date of your flights. Due to the date you’re due to travel you may even avoid admin fees but would need to pay the difference between the price of you old and new flights. I think you can only change the date to another time up to 31 December 2021 though so that may not actually help you.

Presumably if there is FCO advice against travel then any travel insurance would be invalid.

Wouldn't want to venture abroad in a pandemic to a country with rising cases with 2x toddlers and no travel insurance.....and I'm a teacher with kids who also needs a break.

StCharlotte, the only issue with our flights is that we have already changed them once from France to Greece in February when the latest French wave began. I’m not sure that another change is permitted unless the flight is cancelled. It definitely popped up with an on screen warning that no further change was permitted. I think this policy might’ve changed though due to traffic light system.

@SoStrange

Essentially there is a two tier amber list - those where the FCDO advises against non essential travel and those where it doesn’t .

In either case, 10 (or 5 days, with test to release) quarantine is required

I would hold on and keep check data sources. As there is a reduction in foreign travel airlines, including Ryanair, are consolidating flights. We had one booked for last April and got a full refund as they moved our departure day. We couldn't have gone as our accommodation had closed down and hadn't expected to get our money back.

Reviews of the travel list are taking place every 3 weeks, but you will have to factor in the testing in any case.

Just go, enjoy your holiday and isolate at home when you get back. No one is stopping you. I will be doing exactly that next month. The government can stick their "advice".

@TimeForLunch my thoughts exactly! They promised normality and vaccinations the way to freedom and yet here we are having more restrictions imposed upon us for a variant that so far isn’t translating into hospitalisations or deaths and when will it ever end if they can pull the variant card out of their arses every holiday period?

What would happen if it moves onto red list while you are out there? Would you have to do hotel quarantine or would that only apply to new travellers?

If you can hold on, you may as well.
We had our 2020 holiday moved to 2021 but have now cancelled that one as we didn't want to gamble on being moved to green list before we paid that balance and then possibly shunted back to Amber just as what has happened with Portugal.

MissGendered, you can monitor Covid cases in advance and assess the risk of moving onto a red list, surely? I’d be shocked if an unexpected and sufficiently large increase in Covid in the ‘holiday country’ occurred within our two week ‘holiday window’ tbh. There seems to be some warning before going red. I don’t think that would happen unless there was a well documented situation of cases in Greece drastically increasing before we left.

@MyrtlethePurpleTurtle thanks for that explanation . Is there a list of not so Amber , Amber destinations, I wonder?!

www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/spain

Ooh canaries would be on that list!

Come on op you know you shouldn’t go on holiday to an amber list country
The airlines know they shouldn’t flying holiday flights
Michael o Leary has just said on bbc breakfast they’ll move flights so you shouldn’t lose them

Sympathies OP. We have an annual family holiday in Crete, didn't go last year and after a huge amount of back and forth cancelled this year too. DH wanted to go; I thought the stress of covid/airport admin and risk of needing to quarantine here or there wasn't worth it, plus I'm pregnant which made me more risk-averse. We're off to Wales instead .

I'm very much "we're in the middle of a pandemic, just bloody stay put unless it's a family emergency" but I understand that people are fed up and want either a break or absolute clarity from our government, and I don't think the "amber list" system provides the latter, personally.

Bottom line : don't go.

Bottom line: wait and see.

You’re definitely allowed to go to an amber country for holidays. If you weren’t, the government would have made it illegal like it was a few weeks ago.
The official line is that you ‘shouldn’t’, just like you ‘shouldn’t smoke’ or ‘shouldn’t drink more than x units a day’. That doesn’t make it illegal.
If the government didn’t want people to go on holiday to amber countries they should have made it an offence to do so.
If the FCO doesn’t advise against ‘all but essential travel’, then it’s fine as long as you’re prepared for the possibility of it going red while you’re there.

If you can afford the multitude of tests and can do the isolation then I'd just go.

The whole thing is so fucking boring.

My DH hasn't seen any of his family since mid 2019. I've not seen him since last year. We're hoping to see family in the summer holidays but it's looking less and less likely - he can't do home isolation so we need green.

@SoStrange

Another teacher, here. We’ve got a holiday to Greece booked. We will be going unless it incurs a fine. We booked it several months ago on a flexible basis. We have factored in possible quarantine/ start of term issue.

I think easyJet will allow us to move our booking to another time or location if pushed but I’d rather stick to my original booking as we have fantastic accommodation booked.

There was a fantastic post on another thread that echoes my views about the government’s ever shifting promises on getting back to normal/ reinstating foreign travel, within the context of the inevitable appearance of more and more new Covid variants.

@SoStrange - have you a link to that other post please? This is where my thinking is at too, so I'd be interested in reading it.

We can afford the pcr tests (at a push) and can isolate. We have no problem with isolating at home for 10 days. @Bessica1970 my thoughts exactly... if you definitely shouldn't go it should be a green and red list.
@SoStrange glad to know it isn't just me who wants to go still. It has been such a long year, and I need a break!! We can easily isolate when we get back and it isn't illegal.