On the 4th October at 4am travel rules will again change for people leaving and entering the UK. There will no longer be red, amber and green list – just one red list with travel form the other countries all having the same rules. IF when you travel after the 4th October you are fully vaccinated by an approved vaccine and 14 days have passed since you had the second dose, then you will now follow the new guidelines. These rules also apply to those under the age of 18 and resident in the UK or one of the listed countries or territories with approved vaccination programmes or if you are taking part in a UK or USA vaccine trial. You will have to book and pay for a day 2 COVID-19 test which needs to be taken after arrival in England. You will also have to complete your passenger locator form – any time in the 48 hours before you arrive in England – so the address you’re staying at is known and take a COVID-19 test on or before day 2 after you arrive in England. If you are fully vaccinated you will no longer be required to take a pre departure test an 8 days test or quarantine at home for 10 days after your arrival to the UK. The rules if travelling from a red country are a lot stricter, so you need to keep that in mind before booking your trip.
If you have booked a holiday abroad this year or next you need to consider what you are going to do about food. It may be that you choose to go all inclusive where your meals are all included in the price you pay, but if you chose half board or self catering then you may need to do a bit of research to see what options you have. The last thing you want when you are on holiday is to end up wasting your time and money eating at a place that is awful and worse still if it makes you ill. Have a good look on the internet before you go to check for local places that have reviews.
It is often a good idea to speak to the locals working in or near to your resort. Ask them for their recommendations of where is best to eat. Social media sites such as Facebook can be useful too as there are often local groups which you can join and ask for advice on where the best restaurants are.
If you need to be careful with your money, then have a look online and see if you can find the menu to view what sort of prices they charge and what selection of food they have on offer.
With the rules changing for the double vaccinated in the UK, it is likely that businesses that have put foreign travel on hold for a while may soon be able to start again. Although some business trips to certain locations have been allowed, the rules regarding isolation and costs etc has meant that for many businesses it simply wasn’t feasible. As the UK starts to lift some of the lockdown restrictions and the rules regarding isolation if you have received both does of the vaccine is changing, it is likely that the travel industry will slowly start to open up again. Because there is going to be a high demand for flights and accommodation you may expect to see an increase in prices. As many businesses meetings have had to take place over Zoom or other video conferencing software, it could be that some businesses no longer feel the need to travel abroad as much as they used to and are happy with their new way of working.
If you are asked to travel for your business, then be sure that you check up on what is needed to travel and also upon your return. If you do have to isolate you should not be made to take this as holiday, it should instead be classed as working time.
If you have to travel for work, you may be used to living in and out of a suitcase, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways in which you can make the experience more enjoyable and easier. Firstly, make sure that when booking a hotel that you stay close to the venue or places you need to visit. This will allow you to cut down on travel time when you are there and give you more free time to see the sights or simply have a lie in. Ensure you do your research too. If it is a place you haven’t been to before, make sure you know where it is and how to get there.
Try and be organised and have your outfits prepared. If they need ironing or steam cleaning you may be able to request this at the hotel to save you time on finding a place to do it for you.
Try and travel light, after a few trips you will probably start to figure out what you do and do not use. Try to avoid taking unnecessary items as this will just be more for you to carry.
Ask the hotel for a wake-up call and even to prebook you a taxi if you need one to go to a meeting.
At present the government has banned all but essential travel. Essential travel can be a little bit flexible as what one person may class as essential, another may not. If for example you are needed to travel for urgent medical care then this would be essential however if it was for cosmetic surgery which does not need to be done straight away then this may be seen as non essential.
When it comes to business trips, at the moment most are being classed as non essential. If the meeting can be done over a Zoom call or postponed until a later date then this should be done. Anyone who go’s abroad and is found to have gone for a non essential reason can be fined up to five thousand pounds. They will also have to stay in an isolation holiday which cost another £1200-£1500 pounds on top of the fine. For many, it is simply not worth the risk. Most businesses are finding that they can adapt very quickly and that they don’t always need to have face to face meetings with all their clients to enable them to do their job correctly, sometimes a video call will suffice.
Although this has been discussed for a little while and many of us have known it was coming, isolation hotels will be launched very soon. Due to the spread of Covid and the government wanting to try and ensure no other variants are being bought in to the country, they have decided to make everyone arriving in the UK from a number of countries isolate in a specialist hotel. Anyone arriving from these red listed countries will need to isolate in a designated hotel for ten days and not only that but will have to pay in the region of £1750 per adult for the duration. There are currently 16 hotels on board and more may be set up if needed. This is a huge amount of money and will add an additional £3500 to the cost of a holiday for two adults. Most people simply will not be able to afford this and therefore will choose not to travel.
There are massive fines for those that do not follow the rules of isolating in these hotels and even the possibility of a jail sentence of up to 10 years. There are over thirty countries in the list at the moment, but this can change as and when needed so it is likely more will be added.
The Prime minister has now confirmed that there will be a number of quarantine hotels opening up across the country. Anyone that is returning from one of the 30 listed countries so far, will have to stay in quarantine in a designated hotel as part of measures to try and stop the spread of Covid. Not only will you have to stay in one of these hotels for 10 days you may also have to pay to stay there. It may cost up to £1500 for your stay in a hotel which will include meals served to the room and security on the doors. This which certainly put many people off going abroad this year as this can very easy double the cost of your holiday if not more. You may also not be able to get an additional 10 days off work, so it is unlikely your holiday will be authorised by your company.
These hotels or isolation facilities are already been used in many parts of the world, but are they a step too far?
The government say the reasons they are having to take these steps is because when people are asked to isolate or quarantine, not everyone is doing so. For this reason they felt the need to enforce it to protect the health and wellbeing of others.
If you have to travel for work you may of found that many of your trips abroad have been put on hold this year. There have been times when all but essential travel has been stopped and even when travel did start to open it, it was advisable not to go unless you really had to. So many people and businesses are hoping that next year will start to show signs of improvement and we may get part way back to some sort of normality.
If you have a trip that you have been putting off then you may consider rebooking it for 2021. Ideally toward Easter time is going to give you the best chance of being able to go as it is likely that we will enter another sort of lockdown in the new year.
When travelling for business, try to reduce the contact you have with people. Try and conduct some discussions out doors if possible and use a large room of having a conference so people can spread out. You need to be prepared that you may have to self isolate upon your return to the UK and even upon your arrival to your destination. This can add a huge amount of time on to your trip, so if a video call will suffice, then it may still be better to do that it at all possible.
In the UK we do not tend to haggle much on the price of goods and services although in many other countries across the world this is common practice. Many of us have had to cancel or put our holidays on hold this year due to lockdown. You may find that you have had some of your holiday refunded but not the rest meaning you don’t have as much money to book again. So can you barter on a holiday to get it for a cheaper price? The answer is yes you can although not all travel agents will be flexible on prices. Many will shop around and find you a cheaper price if you are willing to change the date you travel by a few days but they may not then reduce the price further. You may have more luck with independent travel agents who may have more control over the discount they can offer although they will often not have as much profit to be able to play with as some of the larger companies.
You need to find a good price online that you can use as a comparison for haggling with. Be sure to find out exactly what is included in the price such as luggage allowance and transfers. Once you have this you can then go in to a travel agent and see if they can beat the price you have been quoted online.
With so many summer holidays being cancelled or delayed, we are likely to see an increase in holidays over the winter this year and going in to next year. If you want to go somewhere hot then you may find that there are only a certain number of countries that you can go to in the winter months that will still have the temperatures you are looking for.
The southern hemisphere is usually hotter at this time of year so places such as Australia, South America and the Caribbean should be top of your list. These places are all quite a distance from the UK so you can expect longer flight times and also more expensive holiday costs. They do offer beautiful beaches, plenty to do and often quite predictable weather though.
Many places in the Caribbean cost between £1500 and £3000 per person for one week. These types of holidays are certainly not cheap, but if you can wait and book last minute you may be able to grab yourself a bargain, although if there is such a high demand this year, you may find that there are not many bargains around.
You will need to keep up to date with the latest advice from the UK foreign office to ensure that the place you wish to go to is allowing tourists from the UK and if there is any isolation rules in place upon your return.