Will I need to quarantine for my Caribbean holiday?

Q I have booked for Barbados in October. But I believe that even if you have two vaccinations and a negative PCR test, you still have to quarantine for two days at an approved hotel. Is this correct, and do you think this will change again by October?

City Fox

A For the last few months of 2020, when we were still allowed to travel abroad, there was a test-and-quick-quarantine arrangement for arrivals from the UK. Since 18 May 2021, new rules have taken effect – which are actually tougher for unvaccinated travellers than before. A PCR test taken within three days of arrival is required. (The authorities warn, incidentally: “The date of the test and not the date of the result is what will be assessed against the three-day time frame.”)

On arrival, vaccinated travellers get PCR tested. They then go into hotel quarantine (at their expense) until a negative test result is received, whereupon they are free. In contrast, unvaccinated visitors must go into quarantine for five days before another test. But October is five months away and much can change – in particular, I imagine people who have been vaccinated may be offered a faster test on arrival.

I’m interested in your decision to go to Barbados in October, though. There could well be some quite lively weather around that time. While I hate to rain on your parade, here’s a forecast for you: “Right in the middle of the rainy season, October is typically the rainiest month in Barbados. It’s also one of the most humid. Be ready to enjoy indoor activities until the showers pass.” Those are not my words – that is the actual advice from the Barbados.org website. But along with seven inches of rain in the average October, it also points out you can expect eight hours of sunshine.

Finally, in the unlikely event that you have been in South Africa, Brazil or India in the past three weeks, you will need to quarantine for a week and will need a negative test to be released. But again, that may change.

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Q We changed our planned two-week holiday in late June from Skiathos in Greece to Porto Santo in Portugal. But with more EU nations imposing quarantine for Brits because of Indian variant, could there be a realistic chance of Portugal following Germany, France and Austria?

James3473

A The Portuguese Atlantic island of Porto Santo is seeing far more interest among British holidaymakers than usual. This lovely island is the sister to Madeira. While Porto Santo lacks the spectacular volcanic terrain and rich heritage of Madeira (which you can visit on a side-trip), it has much better beaches and a laidback atmosphere. Since Portugal became a founder member of the green list two weeks ago, it has been promoted by Britain’s biggest holiday company, Tui, from Gatwick. I think it could be one of the unexpected hits of the summer.

In the past two weeks, of course, concern about the presence of the Indian variant of coronavirus in the UK has rippled across Europe; from today France imposes onerous restrictions on arrivals over the Channel. Over the weekend, Romania placed the UK on its red list – though vaccinated travellers are still valid.

I am not particularly concerned about Portugal changing its mind. At present the nation has a huge competitive advantage over the rest of the major European destinations, and I think that after last year’s disastrous season from the UK (when Portugal was effectively off-limits for all but a couple of weeks) there will be pressure to keep the nation open for Brits. Indeed I think travel there could become easier; once some Mediterranean nations get re-enlisted, I expect Portugal to ease its current insistence on a PCR test before departure from the UK.

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Q With travel restrictions changing so fast, what website or app do you recommend for keeping abreast of other countries’ rules about going on holiday?

Roger B

A Many people and organisations have done their best to come up with a workable solution that will allow you to access up-to-date information on what barriers (or easements) nations have in place for prospective visitors. The trouble is: since the coronavirus pandemic began, the world has seen a bewildering and fast-changing tangle of travel restrictions. A back-of-a-boarding-pass calculation shows that if you look at the 193 members of the United Nations, theoretically there could be more than 37,000 different country-to-country rule combinations. Some nations and territories (Germany and Jersey, for example) have specific rules about individual parts of other countries, and many now differentiate between travellers who have completed a course of vaccination and those who have not. So there is a boggling amount of complexity.

Probably the leading contender is the Timatic site of the International Air Transport Association (Iata), which has long helped airlines handle “normal” travel restrictions – typically, can a citizen of nation A visit nation B without a visa? The site iatatravelcentre.com/world.php allows the travelling public to click on an online world map to access details of up to 10 countries’ restrictions.

Yet as the organisation itself asserts: “Given the rapidly evolving nature of the international response to the Covid-19 outbreak Iata cannot guarantee its accuracy.” On Monday afternoon I checked the information for visitors to France, which indicated that travellers from the UK were welcome (subject to a PCR test). In fact, earlier that day the French government brought in a ban except for essential reasons.

So while Iata’s Timatic can be a helpful place to start, there is no substitute for up-to-date official guidance. I find searching online for the name of the country plus “London consulate travel restrictions” often leads straight to the latest rules; if not, then searching for the official tourism body can work. The Foreign Office also produces useful travel advice: search “FCDO” plus the name of the country.

Email your questions to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder