Does my US pre-departure Covid test have to be supervised on video?

Q The US authorities demand a pre-departure test. Is it true that they will only accept a “home” test result if it has been done under video supervision of a clinician? Or is it OK to provide a test result that has been authorised on the basis of uploaded photographic evidence of a test cartridge?

Dunc

A I can understand you asking this question. The UK is in the odd position of having allowed travellers to provide “proof” of a negative Covid-19 test on the basis of a photo showing themselves holding a lateral flow device with a negative result. Not only is self-testing not nearly so effective at identifying coronavirus infection as a professionally administered test, this option is also open to fraud. That is why the US health regulator, the Centres for Disease Control (CDC), allows self-testing only when it is supervised “live” by a professional online.

“The testing procedure must include a telehealth service affiliated with the manufacturer of the test that provides real-time supervision remotely through an audio and video connection,” the CDC stipulates.

There is a limited window for testing before a flight to the US: it must happen on the day of departure or the previous day. So I urge anyone flying to America to book a proper test, ideally at the airport. Your airline will probably have a discount deal that will take the cost down to about £30.

While video-supervised self-tests are often cheaper, the additional hassle and stress (“Will I be able to take the test and get the certificate in time?”) mean a proper, medically administered test is worth the extra.

open image in gallery

Q We are taking your advice from last year and spending the first week of April in Gibraltar. We want to take day trips into Andalucia by bus or train, rather than renting a car. But reaching the town of Ronda is defeating us. What do you recommend?

Neil T

A Gibraltar is an excellent base for exploring the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula (and, incidentally, the southernmost part of Continental Europe). But every journey into Andalucia begins with a walk (or bus, or taxi) across Gibraltar airport’s runway along Winston Churchill Avenue to the Spanish frontier. On the other side, the border town of La Linea has a busy bus station about 10 minutes’ walk from the border post. From here there are frequent fast and comfortable buses around the Bay of Gibraltar to the port of Algeciras and along the coast to Marbella and Malaga.

Algeciras has a daily train direct to Ronda, but very early in the day. Instead, take the Alsa bus running beside the Mediterranean towards Malaga – but only as far as the town of San Pedro Alcantara, which takes just over an hour. Drink a coffee in the bus station while you wait for the bus on the spectacular ride inland to Ronda – again, taking about an hour.

You could return the same way; or, if you can, wait until 7pm for the sole daily train from Ronda to Algeciras, which leaves at 7pm and takes 90 minutes. (Sunset in Algeciras in early April is at 8.45pm.) Then pick up a bus back to La Linea and walk back across the border.

An additional day trip or two I recommend: the lovely town of Tarifa, southernmost in Continental Europe, with a fine beach and a community of kitesurfers; and, if you are prepared for a long day, the spectacular city of Cadiz. For both of these, Algeciras is the best hub.

open image in gallery

Q Will I ever see nonstop flights from my local airport, Manchester, to Tokyo?

Name supplied

A I fear not – though it partly depends how you define “ever”; if I can reduce that timescale to just the 2020s, I think it is unlikely. Manchester has built up an impressive network of long-haul flights, but those heading east tend to be to countries with strong cultural ties – such as India and Pakistan. Manchester also has a big Chinese community, as does nearby Liverpool, and before the pandemic there were links from Manchester to Hong Kong and Bejing, as well as Singapore.

However, there is no similarly large Japanese community in northwest England. There is some business demand for the route, and in theory, someone could come up with a plan that might see a long-range Airbus 321 deployed on the 6,000-mile link. But a narrow-bodied plane on an 11- or 12-hour flight might not prove popular for business travellers, especially when rivals have state-of-the-art wide-bodied aircraft such as the Airbus A350.

In normal times, the obvious way to get from Manchester to Tokyo is on Finnair with a transfer in Helsinki. It adds barely 100 miles to the direct flight distance. Timings, at least outbound, are human-friendly – departing Manchester around 10am and getting to the excellent Haneda airport, very close to central Tokyo, before 9am the next day. Other Japanese options on Finnair, with very similar timings, include Osaka and Nagoya, with those excellent A350s.

The Finnish capital has a wide range of other links to east Asian cities in China and Korea – at least in normal times. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the resulting airspace bans, mean that normal services are either suspended or taking circuitous routes. Between Helsinki and Tokyo, that requires a four-hour extension to the trip with a meandering journey over Arctic Canada and Alaska.

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