I am not giving up my 2020 holidays just yet.....

smallblueplanet

zagfles said:

lady1964 said:

We made it to Rhodes, arrived yesterday for 9 nights. Glorious weather, so far impressed with what we’ve seen. If the FCO see fit to remove Rhodes from the exemption list, so be it 😀

We've just booked - £300 for 2 of us to a top rated hotel...don't care if it gets removed from the exemption list while we're away, don't mind self isolating when we get back as work from home anyway. Just as long as they don't do it in the next 4 days before we go!

Where did you book to go and who with, that sounds a good deal?

Ngozi

I did Slovenia at start of September, Slovakia the week before it was added to the list and now looking at revisitng Greece, probably climb Mt. Olympus and hang round in Litochoro (sp).

Apart from the Greek Islands, any additions to the quarantine list has been on a Thursday. So plan your get-aways for a week, Sunday-Friday and just book it the Thursday night/Friday before.

holidaysforme

Could anyone tell me the time on Thursday when the FCO release which countries have been taken off/ put on the naughty/ good list? 
I’m trying to plan a weekend to Poland fri- mon. Lots of cheap Ryanair flights At the moment. The plan would be (next Thursday to book a Friday flight after.- hopefully Poland remains on the green list. Thanks 

Ballard

This isn't meant as even vaguely critical of anyone but what are the drivers in wanting to go abroad in the present situation? From my perspective I love going abroad. It's the thing that I look forward to more than anything the whole year and I really enjoy travelling through a country rather than going to one place and staying there for the duration. That's the level of enjoyment I get from it.

As soon as it became clear that this was a very serious pandemic I stopped all thoughts of trips overseas (fortunately I was still in the planning stage of this year's main break so hadn't spent any money). I even enjoy flying in normal times but the thought of 10 hours on a plane at the moment doesn't exactly excite me. Being socially distanced upon arrival would mean that bars/restaurants wouldn't be the same atmosphere as normal either. I could be forced to self isolate upon my return too.

Part of my concern is that I travel a little off the beaten track so there would be uncertainty with local lockdowns to consider. Civil unrest in Colombia last year lead to local curfews which was inconvenient for a couple of days (although not terrible). The thought of being curfewed for a couple of weeks doesn't exactly excite me.

I reiterate that this isn't meant as a slight on anyone who is planning/has travelled recently. I'm just interested in people's views.

ginger_chocolate

Ballard said:

This isn't meant as even vaguely critical of anyone but what are the drivers in wanting to go abroad in the present situation? From my perspective I love going abroad. It's the thing that I look forward to more than anything the whole year and I really enjoy travelling through a country rather than going to one place and staying there for the duration. That's the level of enjoyment I get from it.

As soon as it became clear that this was a very serious pandemic I stopped all thoughts of trips overseas (fortunately I was still in the planning stage of this year's main break so hadn't spent any money). I even enjoy flying in normal times but the thought of 10 hours on a plane at the moment doesn't exactly excite me. Being socially distanced upon arrival would mean that bars/restaurants wouldn't be the same atmosphere as normal either. I could be forced to self isolate upon my return too.

Part of my concern is that I travel a little off the beaten track so there would be uncertainty with local lockdowns to consider. Civil unrest in Colombia last year lead to local curfews which was inconvenient for a couple of days (although not terrible). The thought of being curfewed for a couple of weeks doesn't exactly excite me.

I reiterate that this isn't meant as a slight on anyone who is planning/has travelled recently. I'm just interested in people's views.

 Travel is the main source of joy in my life so although I'll do it more cautiously than usual and will stick within the law, not doing it at all makes me really quite miserable - so I'm keen to do it as soon as I can and I'm willing to take a bit of calculated risk to do it. The summer has actually been OK - being able to get out and about within the UK made things more bearable, but the thought of the long winter months stuck in my house is just incredibly depressing.

Ballard

ginger_chocolate said:

Ballard said:

This isn't meant as even vaguely critical of anyone but what are the drivers in wanting to go abroad in the present situation? From my perspective I love going abroad. It's the thing that I look forward to more than anything the whole year and I really enjoy travelling through a country rather than going to one place and staying there for the duration. That's the level of enjoyment I get from it.

As soon as it became clear that this was a very serious pandemic I stopped all thoughts of trips overseas (fortunately I was still in the planning stage of this year's main break so hadn't spent any money). I even enjoy flying in normal times but the thought of 10 hours on a plane at the moment doesn't exactly excite me. Being socially distanced upon arrival would mean that bars/restaurants wouldn't be the same atmosphere as normal either. I could be forced to self isolate upon my return too.

Part of my concern is that I travel a little off the beaten track so there would be uncertainty with local lockdowns to consider. Civil unrest in Colombia last year lead to local curfews which was inconvenient for a couple of days (although not terrible). The thought of being curfewed for a couple of weeks doesn't exactly excite me.

I reiterate that this isn't meant as a slight on anyone who is planning/has travelled recently. I'm just interested in people's views.

 Travel is the main source of joy in my life so although I'll do it more cautiously than usual and will stick within the law, not doing it at all makes me really quite miserable - so I'm keen to do it as soon as I can and I'm willing to take a bit of calculated risk to do it. The summer has actually been OK - being able to get out and about within the UK made things more bearable, but the thought of the long winter months stuck in my house is just incredibly depressing.

I can certainly understand this and I hope that it goes well for you. I’m actually surprised at how easily I’ve accepted not travelling. I am moving house soon (first time in 30 years) so maybe that’s taking the attention. 

Ngozi

Ballard said:

This isn't meant as even vaguely critical of anyone but what are the drivers in wanting to go abroad in the present situation? From my perspective I love going abroad. It's the thing that I look forward to more than anything the whole year and I really enjoy travelling through a country rather than going to one place and staying there for the duration. That's the level of enjoyment I get from it.

As soon as it became clear that this was a very serious pandemic I stopped all thoughts of trips overseas (fortunately I was still in the planning stage of this year's main break so hadn't spent any money). I even enjoy flying in normal times but the thought of 10 hours on a plane at the moment doesn't exactly excite me. Being socially distanced upon arrival would mean that bars/restaurants wouldn't be the same atmosphere as normal either. I could be forced to self isolate upon my return too.

Part of my concern is that I travel a little off the beaten track so there would be uncertainty with local lockdowns to consider. Civil unrest in Colombia last year lead to local curfews which was inconvenient for a couple of days (although not terrible). The thought of being curfewed for a couple of weeks doesn't exactly excite me.

I reiterate that this isn't meant as a slight on anyone who is planning/has travelled recently. I'm just interested in people's views.

Like yourself, I travel a lot of the beaten path and staying in one place for a week is not my idea of fun.
Beyond travelling, something else I love to do is hiking and mountaineering and something i've always wanted to do is tick off all the highest peaks in Europe.

So why this pandemic has stifled my love to travel somewhat, I didn't want to be someone who moaned during lock-down that we couldn't do anything and then come out of lock-down and not do anything beyond going to the pub (my 3rd love). So I made a point to start "collecting peaks" in Europe.

So why 2020 may of been a bit pants, I can look back on it and say I was lucky enough to have travelled India and Sri Lanka before the lockdown, visited friends in Belgium twice, once before lock-down and once after it was lifted before Belgium's infection rate went silly, did an alpine mountaineering course in France and summited peaks in France, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and potentially Greece, though unlikely on the latter, we'll see what tonight brings but their over 20 per 100k.

Ngozi

holidaysforme said:

Could anyone tell me the time on Thursday when the FCO release which countries have been taken off/ put on the naughty/ good list? 
I’m trying to plan a weekend to Poland fri- mon. Lots of cheap Ryanair flights At the moment. The plan would be (next Thursday to book a Friday flight after.- hopefully Poland remains on the green list. Thanks 

Usually between 5 and 5.30pm.
Rubbish time, don't know why they can't do the announcement in the morning.
I'm waiting to see if Greece get added later today, technically they should but you never know. Taken from The Telegraph;

Which country will be removed from the 'green list' next?

Ireland (47.3), Sweden (29.7), Lithuania (26.1), Poland (24.4), Greece (20.5) and Italy (20) are the countries on the green list with the highest case rates, so appear the most likely to face the chop.

However, other factors come into play such as a country's population size, the number of Britons who visit, and other measures introduced to stop the spread of the virus.

holidaysforme

I fear Poland is for the chop!! Yeah rubbish time to announce it. Surely they know much earlier than early evening! 

Ngozi

holidaysforme said:

I fear Poland is for the chop!! Yeah rubbish time to announce it. Surely they know much earlier than early evening! 

Afraid so;
TRAVEL CORRIDOR UPDATE: The latest data indicates we need to remove Turkey, Poland, and Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba from the #TravelCorridor list this week. This means if you arrive from these destinations from 4am Saturday 3 October, you will need to self-isolate.