Who's been to Spain in the last couple of weeks?

[thunderonlyhappenswhen]

Due to go mid may and getting the Covid requirements nerves ! Both myself and dp fully vaccinated and travelling with a 7 year old.
Am I right in thinking we no longer need to do anything other than show our proof of vaccinations ?? And 7 year old is exempt from any testing/vaccinations ? Wondering if we still need to do a spth form..

We live here and as far as I’m aware it’s just vaccination cert for you and your partner

7 year old - nothing needed.
Adults- NHS Covid pass with QR code.

Brilliant, thanks. Almost like normal then

Just back from Majorca. We did the spth thing and they scanned that qr code when we came in. The queues were pretty long at the airport and not particularly well organised or signposted.

Whereabouts in Spain are you going @thunderonlyhappenswhen ? I flew in this month and had to complete the Passenger Locator form for Spain prior to arrival and present the code to be scanned. There was also chaos at the airport I flew into as they were x-ray scanning every item of luggage and handbags, before you could exit customs control, that was for everybody irrespective of nationality, one X-Ray Scanner, plane load of people, the wait time was horrendous. Any food item was seized, bars of chocolate that were fully sealed, anything and everything and being dumped.

@emotionsecho flying into Malaga. Where was that ? Confused now as on the jet2 guide it says for Spain only fully vaccinated have to do it now but don't want to get caught out 😕😕

Flew into Reus Airport in the Catalonia region it is the airport for Salou/PortAventura. Had to do the Passenger Locator Form they may dump it before you go but keep checking the requirements for arrival in Spain.

Malaga may not be being anal about what is in luggage, everyone (including the Spanish) were completely taken by surprise by the idiocy at the airport come back and update us if they are/are not! Not a great way to welcome tourists into the country who you want because they spend money I got the feeling the majority would go somewhere else rather than go through that again. I wasn't too far from the front of the queue and it took me an hour to get through the Covid check and X-Ray thing so the ones at the back will have been there for well over two hours by the time they cleared it, longer than they had been on the plane! There was NO information available that they would be doing this if people had known they'd have probably eaten their Twix Bars on the plane!

I'm flying to gran Canaria in the next couple weeks and I'm the same about coming paperwork anxiety! From what I gather we only need the digital covid passport and no locator form, but I've read somewhere that entry to the canaries might need their own locator form?? Does such a thing exist or am I looking at older information?

I've flown to Spain several times in the last month. Last time on Monday, the new rules were already in place.

If you have a valid vaccination pass you do NOT need the SpTH form anymore, just the pass. When you land in Spain, one of the following will happen:

a) You all walk through the 'checkpoint' but nobody checks all the documents. You may be pulled aside for a random check. This is what happened on my most recent flight, 1 in maybe 20 people would be stopped.
b) There will be two separate queues - blue for SpTH form holders, orange for vaccination pass holders. You go through the orange and they might check your passes.
c) Everybody goes through the same queue and gets checked for some kind of document. Vaccine pass only will be fine. If it weren't, they'll have paper forms there for you to fill in.

What @emotionsecho describes is nothing to do with Covid, but most likely the result of an extensive police / border control operation that was happening at that airport on that day, for some reason. That is not how arrivals into Spanish airports are being processed now, never have been. It's just unlucky if you fly in on such a day, but very unlikely as well and could happen in any airport, in any country.

We have just arrived (Arricefe), no PLF and they are only checking random covid pass QR codes. Not everyone is checked. Really quick and luggage off straight away.

Hi Op! Reluctant expert on Spanish travel regs here (who is regretting her life choices, if we're honest).

You are correct. Digital vaccine certs for you and DH, nothing for DC under 12. No SPTH you lucky things!

This has been the case since the first week of April.

Just to note, next review is 30th April so they may change / relax again before you travel

@ChatterMonkey The Canaries don't have separate rules, no SPTH form is required if you have digital vaccine certs. Some operators / advice pages have been slow to update their info.

I am aware the luggage scanning prior to leaving the airport had nothing to do with Covid, however, everyone was being checked regarding Covid even though the form said there were blue and orange queues there weren't everyone was put in the same queue for the Covid bit and everyone was checked.

The luggage check was purely to do with food as I said ANY food item was taken off people, people were having to open their cases and have them checked. It was chaos, they had set aside a tiny area and it was log jammed and no-one could leave until they'd passed through it.

We are there now. Not shown anyone anything covid related at any point. Lots of masks still round Marbella.

I flew into Italy on Palm Sunday and it was the same. Everyone's hold luggage scanned before you went out into Arrivals.
I presumed it was an enforcement of the post Brexit regulations about what you can take into an EU country from the UK as the internal flight that arrived when we did didn't do it.

This is off the spth website. Are our vaccinations an eu equivalent ?

Did you fly into Malaga I take it ?

☺️👍🏻

What's the food thing all about?

The NHS certificate is an EU equivalent. We flew into Alicante on the 11th and we did have to show the NHS covid pass leaving the airport, but no other forms. It was surprisingly easy.
They are still wearing masks though, our bus away from the airport pulled over at the side of the road for the driver to yell at a guy to put his mask on and it's a requirement in shops etc.

What ate the rules re face masks in Spain please? Are fabric masks OK?

Paper or material masks are ok in Spain ( this was mainland Spain)
They are strict on it all though.

Thank you. I wish they'd just say "uk vaccination proof is acceptable" or something along those lines rather than making you question everything with!

Also regarding masks there is so much conflicting stuff out there as it was only this morning I was reading how Spain have now dropped masks for all indoor settings apart from care homes, hospitals etc

We weren't sure so took disposables but there did seem to be quite a lot of local folk with fabric ones.

That's right, right now masks are only required on public transport (they're very strict about it) and healthcare settings, including pharmacies. I've been to shops, supermarkets, theatres this week and 90% of people still wear them, but it's not enforced anymore. Nobody challenged me when I didn't have one off.

The UK pass is equivalent, yes. No, they can't just list every single country that's accepted separately, because we have almost 200 countries in the world, they can't specify about them all.