Looking to plan your post-lockdown trip? Read these tips first!
Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus in 2020, leisure travel has been seriously impacted. For the time being at least, gone are the days where you could book months in advance with confidence that your trip would go ahead, or pop to Europe for a weekend without concerning yourself with travel corridors and PCR tests. Currently, leisure travel is not permitted within or internationally from the UK. However, it may be possible currently if you live in another part of the World and hopefully later this year for UK residents.
To travel post 2020 is more complex, but it is certainly not impossible. Last year, myself and Ryan successfully travelled to Sicily in August and to Santorini and Athens in October. Both trips were taken within government guidelines and we had a fantastic time!
Here are my tips for travelling in a post-Covid world:
BE INSURED
It is inadvisable to travel uninsured at any time, but now it is even more essential that you 1) have travel insurance and 2) are fully clued up on what it covers. Have a conversation with your insurance provider to clarify if you are not sure.
Ideally you want a provider who will cover the cost of cancelling your trip last minute if either you test positive, or if you are required to self-isolate after being notified of being in close contact with another Covid positive person. Last year we heard many unfortunate stories of people getting ready for their holidays and having to change the dates a day before they were due to jet off after one of them unexpectedly tested positive.
BE AWARE OF RULES, AT HOME AND ABROAD
Before any foreign travel, make sure you have thoroughly read up on, understood and are ready to comply with whatever Covid restrictions may be in place. This process may also help you determine where you wish to travel, given there is currently such a discrepancy in Covid restrictions around the World at the moment.
For example, we have taken the decision not to travel to any country that requires a test on arrival. Given false positive/false negatives are possible with PCR testing, and it is recognised that a large number of Covid cases are asymptomatic, returning a positive test and needing to quarantine in a foreign country is not a risk we wish to take. We would, of course, never travel if we had any symptoms, but if we were to unexpectedly test positive for Covid we would want this to be in our own country where we could quarantine at home.
Make sure you know what documentation you are required to complete prior to travel, and on return to your home country, including being clued up on how far in advance this needs to be done.
Be prepared to keep up with government guidelines in your destination and at home while you are away. Restrictions can change with little notice and any person wanting to travel in this post-Covid era needs to be prepared to quarantine on return at home, or in a hotel, if rules were to suddenly change.
FLEXIBILE BOOKING
This is THE most important factor when deciding to book any trips right now. It is certainly not the time to be chancing a non-refundable stay, no matter how enticing the deal may be! In the UK the travel landscape is constantly changing. Hotel quarantines have now been introduced. Currently this is for a specified list of countries, but there is no guarantee whether these will still be in force in the Summer, or if the list may have been expanded.
Hotels:
Last year some hotels and Airbnb were incredibly generous and refunded some non-refundable bookings we had for a planned Argentina and Chile trip in late March 2020. We were so grateful, and if we do manage to make it over to that part of the World at some point in the future we would absolutely aim to stay in those place. However, now we are a year into the pandemic this generosity is unlikely to continue. Businesses need to survive and therefore the cancellation flexibility option you select when booking will likely be final. Therefore, if you must book well in advance – be cautious. Some hotels are now offering cancellation flexibility with a full refund if you cancel up to the date of your expected check-in. Though you can expect to pay a premium for this kind of offer, you can have full confidence that you won’t have to spend hours on the phone chasing a refund or speaking to your insurance if your trip cannot go ahead as expected.
Flights: Many airlines are now offering flexible tickets. Be mindful of how long you have before your expected departure date to change or cancel your ticket if need be. Set yourself a calendar reminder. Book late if you can - passenger numbers versus 2019 are still massively reduced so, unless you are looking to travel during the peak school Summer holiday period, you probably won’t find demand for routes pushing prices up.
Given the school holiday period is always oversubscribed, if you have to travel during this time, I would personally first find the destination with the cheapest flights available and then book the seats on the flight only (I would add your luggage and any extras that ramp up the ticket price nearer the time) and then go down the free to cancel hotel route.
Tour Packages: If you are booking a package with a tour provider, triple check their terms and conditions of booking. Many companies are now offering cancellation/change of date flexibility, often displayed on the front page of their websites. This can include flexibility such as the option to cancel or rebook within 30 days of departure date. If you book a trip with this kind of cancellation policy, be sure to immediately set a calendar reminder on at least the final day you have cancellation flexibility.
With some tour operators you may only be entitled to a refund if they cancel the trip (likely this will be due to government imposing a lockdown) and your only option may be changing your dates. This may be okay with you but do be aware that an additional cost may be involved for the new dates. Last year a lot of people were complaining that moving their booking out to the equivalent dates a year later was almost double the price! So be wary of jumping on any advertised ‘money off’ deals as you may find yourself paying more if they cannot come to fruition when you initially planned.
If you can’t be flexible, BOOK LAST MINUTE
No-one knows what doors vaccination may open for travellers in the future – though some places like the Seychelles have already indicated they will welcome passengers, restriction-free, who are fully vaccinated. At least until then, testing is likely to be the key to unlocking foreign travel.
There is both a cost and a risk associated with testing. Many travel companies only offer the opportunity to cancel your booking or change the dates within, on average, 7 days up to 30 days before departure. Given the majority of countries require a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours of departure, an unexpected positive Covid result could wreck havoc on your travel plans and finances. Even if you have insurance, claiming can be a long and painful process and there is likely an excess to pay.
I am hoping that travel companies will adapt and perhaps cancellation flexibility up to 24 hours prior to departure will become common place. Until then, my advice, would be to plan your trip- decide on the destination, find the flight departure you want to take and your planned accommodation. (If you are travelling to a country that requires accommodation and flight information passenger forms filling in early, do this with your projected trip plans, but do not part with any money on booking until you have your negative test results!)
Book your tests for within the 72 hour window of your planned flight. Take your tests, then as soon as you have confirmation that your results have come back negative, get that flight and hotel booked!! Though this approach may mean not booking until perhaps even the day before you wish to travel, which can make people a little nervous. However, it does give you absolute confidence that you will be able to take your trip. You generally do not need to worry about lack of supply of accommodation at the moment – tourism is down globally and probably will be for the foreseeable until confidence returns to the travel industry. What this means is you won’t struggle to find good accommodation and there may even be last minute deals to be had. This really worked for us when we travelled to Santorini in October. Testing for travellers from the UK was not mandatory at the time and so we booked our hotel just a couple of days before we were due to travel. We were already pleased with our choice as it was about a third of the usual room price. On arrival, the hotel upgraded us to the honeymoon suite, it was like a dream!
