Hi All
Got back yesterday from our 5 night stay in Majorca, and thought I'd update on how it all went.
It was me and DH (fully vaxxed), and 2 teens (not vaxxed). When we booked, we needed to get PCR tests for the kids no more than 48 hours before arrival in Spain. We used Zava, which cost £60 each with a discount code from Easyjet. Because of our flight times, and drop off points being closed on a Sunday, I drove them to the lab which had an open drop off on a Sunday, they did their tests in the car park, and I handed them to a technician. That was at 11;15am, and we had results back at 15:30 same day - excellent relief.
We could then complete our Spanish passenger locator forms, which I then uploaded to my Apple wallet, and shared with each traveller, so everyone had it on their phones.
In Spain, our locator forms were scanned, and they asked to see evidence of my double vax, no-one else needed to show anything. There weren't any particular hold-ups, the plane was about half full, it was all very straightforward.
We stayed in Palma the whole time, and I noticed that many people were wearing masks all the time, not just indoors, but walking around the streets too. I did double check whether we needed to do this, and we didn't, but if we were amongst lots of people, I did tend to just slip it on as a courtesy. And we wore masks indoors always. We ate outside for every meal (except at hotel breakfast), as that felt a bit safer to us.
Once we were in Palma, I ordered our Day 2 tests to arrive while we were away (I ordered these on Wednesday, and they've still not arrived in UK on Monday - our day 2 is tomorrow...). Our hotel also had a small medical team come to the lobby 3 times a week to do the lateral flow return to UK tests (these were nostril only - so much more pleasant than gagging when doing the throat!), and had a fixed fee of €30 each. We all had these done the day before we flew home, and had results back within 10 mins.
With results in hand, I completed our UK passenger locator form, we had to show this and our negative LFTs on check in for our flight home, but not again (nothing to show when we landed in UK). Flight home was about 2/3 to 3/4 full.
Because we're double vaxxed or under 18, no quarantine required. Not sure what we'll do if our day 2 tests don't arrive in time, I'm inclined to just do them when they eventually arrive back, but I don't feel I'm particularly putting the country at risk TBH.
The travel was all totally worth it - the worst bit was the pre-travel tests for the teens, I wouldn't do any planning for the holiday in case I jinxed it and we couldn't go. But finally being abroad, mixing with loads of EU citizens felt fantastic, we properly relaxed, and it was amazing!