When will the US open up to tourism from the UK?

Q What are the chances of the US opening up to UK residents by 1 October? And if “laundering” before entry to the US, where would you recommend? Finally, does your vaccine status and type of vaccine matter to the US on arrival, or is it just that you have to have come from one of their acceptable countries?

Alfaman 159

A In the past 48 hours I have asked a number of travel industry chief executives the very important question about when the current presidential proclamation banning arrivals from the UK might be lifted. Their answers and predictions range from “September” to “no idea”.

While infection rates are high in the US, they are even higher (10 per cent above) in the UK. Apart from that unfortunate figure, the main problem now appears to be two-fold: inertia (once draconian rules are imposed, they can be slow to remove), combined with an unwillingness in Washington DC to complicate the difficult domestic situation at a time when the Delta variant is running wild across America, especially in the key tourism state of Florida.

If you need to get to America by 1 October, you will need to prepare in good time. The obvious place to launder your UK status by staying for two weeks outside the UK is still Mexico, because it is relatively easy to reach, low-cost, and close to America. It is also on the UK’s red list, so any stay in the US would need to be for at least 10 days in order to launder your Mexican status from the British perspective.

At present, the US does not have vaccination requirements for arrivals, as far as I know.

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Q Do you think Covid testing before returning to the UK will ever end for the fully vaccinated? It makes it impossible for us to return to holidaying abroad with our autistic teenager.

It is too big a risk to take that, despite all being fully vaccinated, one of us tests positive. He wouldn’t cope with 10 days isolation in a strange hotel room. It’s been another upsetting school summer holiday at home for him as he absolutely loves going on aeroplanes and being abroad. We could go away in the October school break, but we’re not holding out much hope.

Name supplied

A Your son’s dismal summer is a reminder of the emotional toll that the UK’s current severe testing requirements can take. The government seems very keen on travel restrictions, despite the stress and upset they can cause.

I believe they are more onerous regulations than those of any other European country. As you know, travellers aged 11 or over from all overseas countries except Ireland must take a “test to fly” before boarding a plane (or ferry, or train) to the UK. Should this test prove positive, you cannot travel back to the UK and must immediately notify the health authorities of the country you are in and follow their instructions – typically to spend 10 to 14 days in a quarantine hotel.

This rules out a lot of foreign travel for anyone who would find it impossible to go through that experience, whether for emotional or logistical reasons. I think the post-arrival PCR test will be eased before the more understandable test before travel – the one that is of concern to your family. Yet I can offer a solution that would allow you to take a four-day break with no such risk.

The UK government allows the test-to-fly to be taken on the day of the journey, or, crucially, on any of the three preceding days. Therefore, you can take a morning flight from an airport with testing facilities (just allow an extra hour before departure for a quick and cheap lateral flow test). In the highly unlikely event that one test is positive, you simply don’t board the plane. But assuming it is negative, you are guaranteed to be allowed aboard a flight to the UK on day four – even a late evening departure, which will permit you to maximise your time on holiday.

The other option is simply to holiday in Ireland – the one foreign destination where no testing or quarantine is required for fully vaccinated travellers from the UK. All you need do is complete a simple online passenger locator form for the Republic before departure. No further bureaucracy required.

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Q Could Spain go on the “red list” at the next review?

Emma L-G

A Many readers have asked exactly this question: is it possible that the favourite destination for British holidaymakers could be moved to the high-risk register when the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, announces the next “traffic light” review, expected on 25 August?

The concern is understandable: August still has two more weeks to run, with many people planning trips to Spain. You will recall the 78 hours’ warning given to British holidaymakers in Mexico to leave before red-list status took effect – or face mandatory hotel quarantine on their return. And news stories have been appearing like the one that started: “Fears rose today that Spain could be forced onto the the UK’s quarantine red list …”.

I am concerned about the stress and upset that you and others are feeling. The technical answer to your question is yes, because the government has said that any country, territory or region can be added to the red list at any time. The next traffic-light review is expected to take effect at 4am on Sunday 29 August.

In reality, though, I cannot see any circumstances in which this might happen over the August bank holiday, with hundreds of thousands of people booked to fly home after the deadline. Partly this is simple logistics: the hotel quarantine system is designed to cope with around 1,000 arrivals a day from locations such as Turkey, Pakistan, South Africa and Brazil. Putting Spain on the red list would involve a 10- or 20-fold increase at the very least, and is simply unfeasible.

Equally importantly, there should be no need. The Covid data expert Tim White said last night: “The Beta variant of coronavirus looks no longer to be a threat in Spain, and there is no way the country can go on the red list because of variants. With cases of Covid-19 dropping too, there’s no reason to downgrade Spain in my opinion.”

The same, incidentally, applies for Portugal and Greece, I believe. Enjoy your holiday.

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