39.5 degrees at 5.30 this afternoon when we went to swim in the river. Too hot to think man!
Had a bit of that my end the last few days 40+ isn’t really bike riding weather 🙂
Would appreciate a couple of pointers as we are heading off to France this Friday.
We are two double vaccinated adults, plus an 8 and 5 year old. Driving via Eurotunnel to a house on Ile de Re.
I can't decide if it is too risky to leave the 72 h pre-UK entry test down to a pharmacy in France or try and book another. Will be returning to UK 5th September. Kids don't need this under 10 it seems.
I also need to book the 2 day post return tests (kids need this one as well). As the whole system is at breaking point it seems I might as well book the cheapest I can find as you just get told to get an NHS test if yours fails to arrive?
I travelled by Eurotunnel a couple of weeks ago.
I booked self administered lateral flow tests via Prenetics (the provider that Eurotunnel direct you to) for the 72h pre-UK entry tests, think they were £28 each. Their website is horrible though and finding the right thing was hard (and it's a dynamic site so I can't even link to what we picked).
I went for that approach for a few reasons - the people at Eurotunnel probably see a lot of Prenetics certificates so they'll be familiar with them, just doing the test wherever you're staying is easy and less hassle than booking and going to a pharmacy, but getting a test from a pharmacy was still a fallback option if Prenetics screwed up (didn't send tests, didn't send certificate after we'd uploaded results etc). In the end nobody looked at them, but I did have to upload the certificates to Eurotunnel so maybe they already had the info when we checked in and passed border control.
For the post arriving back in the UK tests I used Testing For All self administered tests as they seemed good value compared to most and could actually be bought, unlike any of the really super cheap PCR test listed.
Would appreciate a couple of pointers as we are heading off to France this Friday.
We are two double vaccinated adults, plus an 8 and 5 year old. Driving via Eurotunnel to a house on Ile de Re.
I can’t decide if it is too risky to leave the 72 h pre-UK entry test down to a pharmacy in France or try and book another. Will be returning to UK 5th September. Kids don’t need this under 10 it seems.
I also need to book the 2 day post return tests (kids need this one as well). As the whole system is at breaking point it seems I might as well book the cheapest I can find as you just get told to get an NHS test if yours fails to arrive?
Returned Saturday from a week in Morzine with my family.
A few tips from me.
Getting an Anti-Gen test in France to return home is pretty easy, most Pharmacies seem to offer a drop-in Service, it's a shame you have to pay for it now. They also have a map/list of providers so worst case, you can stop in Calais on the way home. That said there was a bit of a queue to get it, this was probably because France started to use it's Vaccine passport on the 8th meaning everyone who had been double jabbed needs to be tested every 15 days to access restaurants / bars etc, those people will likely be after another test around the weekend of the 21st and again the 4th of Sept, but you've got a 72 hour window (I think).
Getting into France on the tunnel was pretty hard going, the English side is a bit of a mess as everyone has to go through the same channel, everyone from the likes of us who had all the paperwork in place and uploaded to the Eurotunnel portal to the ones who just rocked up with a passport and a 'story', lots of people being turned away and told to complete paperwork with no real way of getting them out of the queue. It took 90 mins to clear the borders.
Returning was pretty easy, apart from one problem, you can't upload your documentation to the Eurotunnel portal from the phone app, or mobile site, annoyingly I had my laptop with me, but I forgot to do it until it was packed deep in the car. On the French side you're made to go into the Terminal, show all your paperwork to a bank of very polite Eurotunnel staff and then go through, Border 'Force' were lovely (complete opposite of what happened in June) because Eurotunnel did all the leg work, they did the usual passport stuff and we cleared in minutes and there was no queue. Lots of shouty Brits crying "I'll never visit France ever again!" like it's their fault that a) The UK has imposed complex rules and arguably pointless rules and b) they thought they could ignore them. Getting into the UK requires more paperwork and hassle than leaving.
Day 2 tests, yeah just find the cheapest you can find from the government approved list. I used Randox despite the bad press, I think they were £42 each. Best of luck trying to swab a 5 year old that doesn't want to do it...
Also, download the France Covid app, you can use it to scan in your UK vaccine certs, which is especially helpful if like me you live in Wales, because we don't have the vaccine app, but it meant I could use the French app at the border too! Without the App you won't be allowed in any Restaurants, bars, cafes, pools or the like and they WILL ask.
Also, I don't want to worry you, the REAL risk you have to assume is either of you catching Covid whilst you're away, even if you're jabbed. If that happens, which admittedly is a long shot, you'll be effectively stuck in France and you'll need to sort somewhere to stay at very short notice.
Thanks both, a lot of helpful info to digest!
I'll echo Pjay, (btw anyone who returned on the Saturday just gone, did you have a car full of Whyte bikes??)
However, randox would t let me select the cheaper test, they wanted 99 like the c19 people. Opted for boots in the end at 75quid each..
France started to use it’s Vaccine passport on the 8th meaning everyone who had been double jabbed needs to be tested every 15 days to access restaurants / bars etc, those people will likely be after another test around the weekend of the 21st and again the 4th of Sept, but you’ve got a 72 hour window (I think).
I don't think this is right, is it? Double jabbed people don't have to be tested. Non-jabbed people can use a test up to 48 hours old.
Anyway ...
before we left I was fretting that the tests adminstered at pharmacies would not be accepted at the UK border, so I spent a lot of time Google'ing for sensitivities of the various different tests, Turned out that the border people didn't look once at the test details.
Getting into France on the tunnel was pretty hard going, the English side is a bit of a mess as everyone has to go through the same channel, everyone from the likes of us who had all the paperwork in place and uploaded to the Eurotunnel portal to the ones who just rocked up with a passport and a ‘story’, lots of people being turned away and told to complete paperwork with no real way of getting them out of the queue. It took 90 mins to clear the borders.
For balance we had the easiest drive through I'd ever had.
It seems to me it's mostly smoothed out now.
Just show the papers at the Border and straight through.
You're right DrJ, once double vaccinated you don't need to test again here. To leave france/EU it's the third country's rules you have to respect.
Once in Morzine do I have to get a new test for my unvaccinated 13 year old every couple of days so she can join us in restaurants? What about outside seating?
Austria is a conundrum. On paper they appear to be rigid and inflexible sticklers for anti-COVID measures, in practice we’ve found them to not give a stuff. Nobody has scanned our vaccine certs, masks are gone (except in MPries, oddly), the GreenCheck app is not used anywhere we’ve been so far and aside from the odd bit of worn sticky tape on the ground, you’d never think COVID had existed.
Went to Portugal last week with the family.
Antigen test at Gatwick pre flight - 2 adults (not the kids)
20 people on Easyjet flight to Faro in August - bonkers
Lovely and hot on the Algarve (more mask wearing than the UK)
Antigen test 24 hrs before we left at local phamarcy in Algarve (35e) (2 adults not the kids)
Filled in all the forms pre departure from Faro
Easyjet staff checked all this
On arrival at Gatwick Border force just checked passports (nothing covid related)
Had pre-ordered Randox day 2 kits for the 4 of us. £50 each
Did these last night and dropped in Guilford at our nearest box.
Frankly all very easy - await the PCR results from Randox.
I wonder if anyone at Border force etc following up on the testing ????
@ElVino nobody has asked for anything for our 13 year old while we have been here. They do scan the app for adults though.
I don’t think this is right, is it? Double jabbed people don’t have to be tested. Non-jabbed people can use a test up to 48 hours old.
Anyway …
before we left I was fretting that the tests adminstered at pharmacies would not be accepted at the UK border, so I spent a lot of time Google’ing for sensitivities of the various different tests, Turned out that the border people didn’t look once at the test details.
Sorry, what I was trying to explain was:
France's requires a 'Health Pass' to access Bars, Restaurants etc, that's all people, not just tourists.
If you're double jabbed, you just scan your vaccine cert into the AntiCovid app and then show the QR code to get into places.
Only about 50% of French residents are fully vaccinated, which means the rest of them have to be tested every 15 days to keep their 'Health Pass' up to date, so when the rules came in on the 8th of August there was a huge demand from French residents to get tested that weekend, most of those people will need to test again about 2 weeks later (this weekend) to renew their pass so there will likely be about big spike in demand this weekend, and then again two weeks later, the weekend @Timmys is heading home.
Everyone entering the UK needs to be tested within 72 hours of arrival. So if I was Timmys I'd look to get my pre-travel test as close to the start of the 72 hour window as possible, in case demand out-strips supply, as it did in Morzine last weekend, and the pharmacy stops giving tests after a few hours because the queue is too long, to give a chance to try again the next day, just in case. When I went for the same test, in the same pharmacy in June, we were able to just stroll in.
As for all the "it's got to be 98% accurate stuff" yep, Border Force and Eurotunnel looked over it, but really as long as it's got a QR code they don't care. In fact, the SMS/E-Mail version, which you're supposed to have never arrived for us, but they took the paper version happily.
Just set my 14yr old daughter off on her trip to Russia this morning. 1st leg is the long rail trip to Euston.
I must admit that its been a huge stress for us (On top of worrying about her on the trip). The Visa (2 x trips to Edinburgh). The PCR tests (Boots cancelled their test 12hrs before it was due so we had to book elsewhere). The lateral flow tests. The paperwork (How many forms do i have to fill in declaring no political agendas and military experience). The cost (Visa £175. PCR Test £100).
This was for 1 person. No way would i be getting any benefit from a holiday for the whole family.
@pj - sorry to nitpick, but the rules are here:
https://www.gouvernement.fr/info-coronavirus/pass-sanitaire
Tests need to be under 72 hours old. Luckily they sorted the NHS QR codes so we don’t need to worry about that any more!
more and more pics populating the socials of folks by their hotel pools making me very jealous!
then a quick read through this thread makes me think its still not worth the hassle...?
more and more pics populating the socials of folks by their hotel pools making me very jealous!
then a quick read through this thread makes me think its still not worth the hassle…?
It's certainly a risk - it's a bit cheaper now if double jabbed and all the paperwork is in order, but if you do test positive before your return, you could be looking at weeks stuck in another country, which could be very expensive for a family for accomodation and additional testing, and with people with jobs to go back to etc. could also cause problems.
An Italian friend went back to see her parents in Lombardy - the first time in over a year - but now can't wait to get back to blighty as it's too hot.
I was tempted to do a last minute trip to Croatia but I think I will wait until next Spring now. Too much hassle - on top of a normal holiday, which is always hassle.
I know this is lame, but can someone tell me how the in-pharmacy process actually works in France. Do they watch you swab and then you come back 30 min later to get the results or do you hang around while the LF does its thing? Presumably they then issue you a document with the certified result? Basically my French is piss-poor, so the more I know what the process is ahead of time, the smoother it might be!
Also, does anyone know if there is somewhere I can look up current data of cases by location in France? ie. French equivalent of this.
I would say the whole process is very easy - dont let it put you off going abroad. I'm back to whiteroom bike holiday in a few weeks
@timmys In Portugal it wasn't even a pharmacy. Just a couple of blokes in an empty office block doing lateral flow tests..confirmed we were negative as I sat there. 2 minutes later a letter stating this. the whole thing is a sham frankly!
I know this is lame, but can someone tell me how the in-pharmacy process actually works in France. Do they watch you swab and then you come back 30 min later to get the results or do you hang around while the LF does its thing? Presumably they then issue you a document with the certified result? Basically my French is piss-poor, so the more I know what the process is ahead of time, the smoother it might be!
I think it varies between pharmacies. In Morzine you need to leave the pharmacy straight away (there's a lot of bodies about) but you can wait outside if you like, they send results via SMS, in June this came through within 20 mins, if you want a physical copy you can return in about an hour.
@pj – sorry to nitpick, but the rules are here:
https://www.gouvernement.fr/info-coronavirus/pass-sanitaire
Tests need to be under 72 hours old. Luckily they sorted the NHS QR codes so we don’t need to worry about that any more!
No wonder they were all so pissy about it, I'd read 15 days...
There were a few teething problems with the app on the first day, some of the cafes didn't recognise the NHS vaccine QRs, some did, the App, which for me was in English advised them to delete and re-install their app to force updates, but they all refused to accept the issue was their end, so very French, even when I switched my App into French so they could read it for themselves, they still told me it was my vaccine cert. Not that they turned us away. It was working perfectly by Day 2.
It's a nice solution, wouldn't work here, we've still got Thugs on the street protesting about lockdowns which have ended, they've be tearing the place apart crying about "two tier society".
Not them I'm completely embedded with French news / culture, but I get the impression they've got a pretty pragmatic approach to Covid now, they've accepted that being fully vaccinated is about as good as it's going to get for the time being. If you're fully jabbed, then life is pretty much normal, you don't need tests to travel, you can pretty much do as you please, yeah masks in shops, but with a much higher level of compliance then I've seen in the UK, if you're not, then take a free test every few days (I know now), it's done wonders for vaccine uptake.
I know this is lame, but can someone tell me how the in-pharmacy process actually works in France.
In Paris, at least, you give some info to the person in the pharmacy (name, address, dob, phone number) and then someone swabs you in the pharmacy or in a tent outside. Then you hang around outside to give them time. After about 15 min you get an SMS with a link to download your certificate but to get the test info you need the paper one which the pharmacy gives you. They write in the test details by hand.
That’s my experience anyway - may be different elsewhere.
P.s. the bit about the test details is probably just me being paranoid and obsessive. I suspect that the EU have the same requirements as UK in terms of sensitivity and wotnot but I can’t actually find a document that says that explicitly.
.
Ran into our first issue today. We went up the Hintertux Gletscher and tried to buy a hot chocolate at the top of Gketcherbahn1: no entry without 3G certificate! (vaccination, recovery from infection or recent PCR test). Austrian app won’t accept our certs. Fine here’s my NHS cert on their app, NEIN! Ok, here it is in the french app, NEIN! Ok here’s my printed out NHS cert (scans QR code), NEIN! Ok, please read the words: my name, moderna, vaccine 2, date.
“Ok it’s gut, willkommen.”
10 days in and get back in a fortnight absolutely no regrets about heading off to Spain and France. The worse thing so far was the sea crossing from Portsmouth to Santander which was super choppy and semi-isolating the kids before we headed.
It’s been around 40C in Ainsa for the past week and combined with me straining my MCL means I’ve been limited to the greens and easy blues with the kids and I’m not riding anything by myself which I usually would. The wife is heading off road riding at 7am and loving it. With the heat we’ve spent more time in rivers than we have riding been kayaking and canyoning (wouldn’t recommend with a knackered knee).
Got two more days here then head to France on Friday.
The testing is a bit of a pain but holidays like this are logistical nightmare anyhow so it’s just another thing to deal with. We’ve had to deal with much tricker situations on the last two hols.
We’ve got our details into the French app today and going getting lat flows for the older kids tomorrow. We will have spent about £600 on testing by the time we get home so about 10% of the total cost of the holiday which seems an OK premium to avoid spending three weeks in the rain in the UK.
Has anyone used this service for the pre-return testing ?
https://travel.livingcare.co.uk/product/virtual-lateral-flow-test/
Seems like you order the kit in advance, do the test yourself (I.e. unsupervised) and then send a picture to the testing company who then issue a certificate. As mentioned above, just seems like a sham...
Here's a handy link for travelers in France looking for a test centre nearby.
https://www.sante.fr/cf/centres-depistage-covid.html
We just got back from France. If you’re driving to a ferry I reckon it’s easy enough to get an antigen test as long as you’re prepared to get in in on route to the port. We’ve got a motorh9me so this was relatively easy. We got ours done in Caen the day before we came back. We used the french doctolib app which is used to book health appts and selected the antigen test and Caen area and it came up with a medical centre that we could book appts at on the Sunday. When we went t there we walked straight in at our time although we could have not booked and queued. Tests were done and results in 10 mins whilst you wait. We got a paper certificate signed and stamped which looked home made but did the job at the port. They didn’t charge us either which was nice.
We got our day 2 tests from assured screening they were £61 each and came yesterday afternoon.
We went out before the rules changed and gambled on them changing as we were there. The Ernest of our family live in Wales and came back the day before the quarantine rules changed. My m7m just finished her quarantine yesterday and 3 negative pcr tests. She said her mate went on holiday to Cornwall in a hotel and no testing, no masks, no quarantine despite rates isn uk being higher than in France!
The touscovid app in France works well. You need two phones to scan your nhs app qr into it. Most places are pretty keen asking for it but it worked every time and at the port.
The passenger locator form was fine. Like some we never got the follow up text or email from our test despite the guy inputting the data being sat in the room and reassuring us it would come in an hr! It didn’t matter though as it wasn’t asked for at the port as we had a physical copy.
My mum nearly didn’t ge5 home as her pcp test results didn’t come through until 3 mins before her plane departed despite everyone else in the groups coming through way before and the pm being done at the same time. I ended up asking the helpful lady at the airport who was on the ph9ne to the lab to get her to text a photo of the docs through and that worked as there was some email logjam at the lab. That was a bit of a pain but worked out ok.
Y cousins who came back at the same time as my mum got a call from nhs Wales on day 3 and said that as long as their day 2 test were negative the could end quarantine. My mum got a call from nhs Wales on day 4 and asked if she could end as my cousin was told that they could end ear
Y due to rule changes and they said no despite the same holiday, flights, tests etc. Seems crazy.
All in all it was worth going and we felt safer in France than back home tbh. On the way h9me from the port we stopped for food and a crammed fast food restaurant with doors shut and no masks on anyone in there was the polar opposite than in France with COVID app check and masks in public spaces.
Just a quick note for those thinking of coming out. Currently in the alps, headed out last minute. No hassles so far, much like any summer in the alps, a little quieter than normal. Definitely no hassle so far.
Thanks for the doctolib info. Appointments booked in the local pharmacy for 3rd Sept - glad I did as first available ones were from 31st Aug. Though possibly that's yer standard French "close for whole of August" thing rather them being booked to the hilt.
Another stupid question; the "Statement of Honour" for entering France - is that just to be completed by the adults? I think it is but can't see a crystal clear answer.
This is a handy guide
It's the French Consulate and gives up-to-date info for travellers from the UK heading to France.
predictably, the speculation about next weeks travel review seems to be restarting in the press.
Rumours of spain going back on the red list (or maybe amber watch list again) - I cant see it myself, as the numbers (case rates, variants etc) in spain are way better now than they were at the time of the last travel review 3 weeks ago, and it didnt go red then. But since when has logic prevailed with this government?
I personally don't see any list moment for the usual holiday places, barring perhaps the US. There's an argument for making some places green that are current amber, but why bother making it easier for people who haven't been jabbed to go on Hols, if your goal is for everyone to get their jabs?
Most places are reaching, or have reached the same sort of 'new normal' that we have.
I would personally like to see the end of testing for fully vaccinated people traveling to countries with good testing procedures in place, given how few tests are being sequenced for new variants, it seems very unlikely we'll discover a new variant coming out of another developed country before they do, but who knows which MPs have been offered a board seat with Randox when they leave Politics.
@Paul0 we are doing the same via the coop tonight to get into France from Spain for the two eldest. I’ll let you know how we get on. They are ridiculous as you can just extract the swab without doing the test to get the control line and send the photo to get the certificate.
They are ridiculous as you can just extract the swab without doing the test to get the control line and send the photo to get the certificate.
I had wondered, If you simply put the saline? fluid in the test would it give a result???
Transiting through Munich airport, self transfer. Going Scotland to Switzerland.
We've got the Swiss and French things in hand.
Do you need any German entry requirements or is it all "airside"?
They are ridiculous as you can just extract the swab without doing the test to get the control line and send the photo to get the certificate.
I had wondered, If you simply put the saline? fluid in the test would it give a result???
Probably, fairly easy to do a test-run to check...
I'm not condoning this by the way, seems ridiculous that the system is so open to abuse. Its a fair bet plenty of people will be though.... which is probably worth considering if you're concerned about covid and going to be sitting next to them on the plane...
Has anyone done the forms for travelling to France with unvaccinated kids between 12-18 years old? Travelling on the Eurotunnel on Friday night for a last minute trip to Morzine...
I'm double jabbed and have the evidence (and the French covid app), so I don't think I need anything else.
For the kids, they don't have to quarantine as they're travelling with me but they do need to have a negative PCR test less than 24 hours old (these are booked for tomorrow morning with a 3 hour turn-around). I believe *they* also need to complete a declaration of honour of not having been in contact with anyone with COVID for 14 days..
This *seems* to be the relevant form, BUT it seems to be geared around unvaccinated people who would have to isolate and have a test on arrival. Do I just get each child to complete this but NOT tick any of the final 3 boxes..?
@dc2.0 yes Kids need a statement of honour and the test can be left or PCR. We went LFT purely on cost. French boarder patrol asked to see test result but no statement. We had to upload that to the Eurotunnel website pre departure.
Also weather is suppose to get warmer again in Morzine this weekend but the Spartan Race is on so a few roads will be closed.
@dc2.0 I was confused by the form also, I thought about ticking the box to say they would take an Antigen test on arrival in France. Then just bringing one of the NHS LFT we have at home and getting my daughter to take it when we get to Morzine.
We are there from Saturday for a week.
We’ll, we made it to Morzine. Probably a bit late in the season to help anyone else but for the unvaccinated kids (12-18) I used the form I linked above but left the three final tick boxes blank. No problems getting here. No checking of pass in shops (including supermarket) but bars want to see the COVID app. All good. Anyone else out here this week apart from me and elvino?
