Looking forward to travel but what about costs of covid tests?

JamoLew

Sea_Shell said:

I wouldn't want the stress, either end, of waiting for a test result before I (or anyone in my party) could fly out, or fly home!!

Agreed - plus the very long queues at the airports.

You dont even know if you will get the facilities you think you might be getting at the resort as well

Would love a foreign holiday to get some sun and relax, but all that hassle - no thanks

k3lvc

silvercar said:

Hopefully there will be places, with high vaccination rates that can open up to travel corridors. Gibraltar has nearly vaccinated 100% of the population, Seychelles and Maldives aren’t far behind.

You can probably add Israel to the list but none of them are exactly your standard holiday destinations available to the masses nor with significant numbers of direct flights (one of the pre-requisites for a travel corridor)

twopenny

Silvercar the Maldives is one of my choosen trips. But the dive boat I go on has staff from several Asian countries (As I believe do the resort islands) on the con side but does have largely uk visitors which is the Pro side. . The facilities should you test positive (which is possible after vaccination) are no fun. Then there's the booking of a new flight, maybe interim hotel and where a flight may transit through resulting in isolation on return. Then add the price of all the testing.

I think we have a long convulated way of getting this all sorted out before we can feel secure about trips again.

Hopefully once the opportunity is there governments can quickly get all the ducks in a row when travel is feesible again. I have a feeling this will happen suddenly after all our waiting. Vaccination passports are already in the pipeline with some countries but not universally agreed.

Then we have the added problem that they are currently investigating. Vaccination. can you bring back the varients? Hands, luggage etc if not ourselves.

silvercar

We went to the Maldives in December. At that time we only needed one PCR test before departure. All resort islands have to have rooms set aside to isolate guests who develop covid. Hopefully, now being vaccinated, the chances of needing transfer to the Malé facilities are much reduced, of course if you are holidaying on a dive boat, you would need to be isolating somewhere else, even if you asymptotic.

silvercar

k3lvc said:

silvercar said:

Hopefully there will be places, with high vaccination rates that can open up to travel corridors. Gibraltar has nearly vaccinated 100% of the population, Seychelles and Maldives aren’t far behind.

You can probably add Israel to the list but none of them are exactly your standard holiday destinations available to the masses nor with significant numbers of direct flights (one of the pre-requisites for a travel corridor)

BA, easyJet and Jet2 fly to Israel, Gibraltar is also well served. Seychelles and Maldives are obviously a more expensive destination, but they do have direct flights with BA, plus Sri Lankan fly to the Maldives. Not sure if Virgin also offer direct flights.
As a destination falls into a more expensive category, the costs of tests becomes less significant.

CKhalvashi

silvercar said:

k3lvc said:

silvercar said:

Hopefully there will be places, with high vaccination rates that can open up to travel corridors. Gibraltar has nearly vaccinated 100% of the population, Seychelles and Maldives aren’t far behind.

You can probably add Israel to the list but none of them are exactly your standard holiday destinations available to the masses nor with significant numbers of direct flights (one of the pre-requisites for a travel corridor)

BA, easyJet and Jet2 fly to Israel, Gibraltar is also well served. Seychelles and Maldives are obviously a more expensive destination, but they do have direct flights with BA, plus Sri Lankan fly to the Maldives. Not sure if Virgin also offer direct flights.
As a destination falls into a more expensive category, the costs of tests becomes less significant.

Wizz are present in both of the former too from their base at Luton.

I generally travel on 'diaspora routes' into Eastern Europe, both for business and pleasure, and can think off the top of my head of 2 countries where there is an inclination with top level government to have reciprocal travel arrangements in place for this summer that are easy and cheap to access, but not in the general mind of the British traveller.

Both have access to beautiful beaches and amazing history, have direct flights from the UK, and 1 currently has some marketing support on offer both for their own businesses to expand into the UK, and for both domestic and international tour operators targeting UK tourists to that country, the other I'm not sure. Both have currently infection rates at similar levels to the UK with easy access to testing, and unlike the UK, both are trending downwards in general infection levels on a 2 week basis, not the flawed 1 week basis that the British government is using.

photome

Headline in the Times today doesnt make good reading, travel ban extended to July, with a £5000 fine for those who break the rules/law, make of that what you will

Pollycat

photome said:

Headline in the Times today doesnt make good reading, travel ban extended to July, with a £5000 fine for those who break the rules/law, make of that what you will

They seem to be reporting it as fact:

Overseas travel ban extended until July due to third wave fears

Holidays will be banned until the end of June with people who try to leave the country facing £5,000 fines as ministers tighten border restrictions.

zagfles

silvercar said:

k3lvc said:

silvercar said:

Hopefully there will be places, with high vaccination rates that can open up to travel corridors. Gibraltar has nearly vaccinated 100% of the population, Seychelles and Maldives aren’t far behind.

You can probably add Israel to the list but none of them are exactly your standard holiday destinations available to the masses nor with significant numbers of direct flights (one of the pre-requisites for a travel corridor)

BA, easyJet and Jet2 fly to Israel, Gibraltar is also well served. Seychelles and Maldives are obviously a more expensive destination, but they do have direct flights with BA, plus Sri Lankan fly to the Maldives. Not sure if Virgin also offer direct flights.
As a destination falls into a more expensive category, the costs of tests becomes less significant.

But the potential loss from disruption/spoiled holiday becomes more significant.

sheramber

The  law just passed applies until 31 June but this can be reviewed earlier and changed in appropriate.
Whether it will be changed to earlier or later is the unknown.
 But until it is changed it  lasts until 3 1June.