Viewing 40 posts - 1,561 through 1,600 (of 1,715 total)
  • Realistically, EU holidaying by late summer?
  • ocrider
    Full Member

    Here’s a handy link for travelers in France looking for a test centre nearby.

    https://www.sante.fr/cf/centres-depistage-covid.html

    burko73
    Full Member

    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.

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    steveh
    Full Member

    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.

    timmys
    Full Member

    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.

    P-Jay
    Free Member
    julians
    Free Member

    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?

    P-Jay
    Free Member

    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.

    Stainypants
    Full Member

    @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.

    mrmo
    Free Member

    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???

    matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    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”?

    paul0
    Free Member

    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…

    dc2.0
    Full Member

    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..?
    https://www.interieur.gouv.fr/content/download/128926/1028128/file/04-08-2021-engagement-sur-l-honneur-orange-version-anglaise.docx

    leonthepro
    Free Member

    @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.

    ElVino
    Full Member

    @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.

    dc2.0
    Full Member

    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?

    leonthepro
    Free Member

    We are here for another week and it was noticeably quieter today on the hill. Next to no queues for lift and on mountain restaurants where quiet too.

    hot_fiat
    Full Member

    We are here for another week and it was noticeably quieter today on the hill. Next to no queues for lift and on mountain restaurants where quiet too.

    Changeover day. Same here in Austria.

    We’re off to Speyer in Germany today. It’s been brilliant so far: well worth the apparent hassle, which, apart from the stress of pre-departure testing hasn’t been in evidence.

    mrmo
    Free Member

    Last full day in verbier, heading back tomorrow, definitely getting quieter. Lift network starts to shut down next week. And the main lift will be off soon so a replacement can be finished. The testing is a pointless hassle, but it has been worth it to get away.

    DrJ
    Full Member

    A new question – has anyone been to Greece and filled out their stupid PLF form for the household?

    It only gives space for the “main” person to provide their vaccination information. Any idea what to do about the others?

    sadexpunk
    Full Member

    ooh, trying to remember this now, we’re just back the other week, and altho we’re both vaccinated im sure id seen a question about what to do if both you and your wife have a different vaccination status.

    you havent said that thats the case, but anyway i believe theyre only interested in the extensive details of main traveller, and other members of your group would just show their documents (PCR, vaccination proof etc) at check-in.

    DrJ
    Full Member

    Thanks – we’re both vaccinated, and in fact on the same days! I guess we will just take all our documents. We followed the instructions so I’m not sure what else I can do!

    I do hate the “email at midnight” thing – what if there’s a problem? There’s no time to sort it!! An extra stress for travel 🙁

    sadexpunk
    Full Member

    I do hate the “email at midnight” thing – what if there’s a problem? There’s no time to sort it!! An extra stress for travel 🙁

    i dont think thats ‘a thing’ now, we got ours almost immediately after sending it off a week or two prior, and i read reports on tripadvisor that this seemed to be the case for most people.
    https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g503710-i9517-k13630563-Plf-Hersonissos_Crete.html

    am i single-handedly slowly removing all of your holiday stress doc? do you feel more relaxed now? 😀

    mrmo
    Free Member

    So… Next year, does anyone think it is going to be different to travel abroad to this year. Same paperwork?

    dogbone
    Full Member

    Any Day 2 PCRs cheaper than £40? At this stage I no longer care if they turn up. I just need the reference number for paperwork.

    https://nwp-online.co.uk/home/p/covid-19-day-2-pcr-testing-package-for-fully-vaccinated-travellers

    DrJ
    Full Member

    am i single-handedly slowly removing all of your holiday stress doc? do you feel more relaxed now? 😀

    Haha yes, like a nice back rub 🙂

    hot_fiat
    Full Member

    Germany is being ever so slightly German. In a marked contrast to everywhere else we’ve been so far, the Germans are being downright awkward and obtuse. You have to use a mask, except they would really like you to use a FFP2. Thankfully we have these with us as they’re just nicer than surgical ones. You have to check in everywhere with a QR code, except because they’re federal in outlook, not everywhere is using the central CoronaWarn app for this. So, depending on the venue you might have to use some random app that you don’t have. We’re meant to be going to the Technical Museum in Speyer tomorrow, but we’ve just received an email from them:

    Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

    You will receive this information mail because you have reserved a museum visit to the Technik Museum Speyer for one of the coming days at the mail address andy.duff@zebin.co.uk.

    We would like to inform you that according to the latest Corona regulation of the state of Rheinland-Pfalz, the so-called 3G rule for visiting the museum will apply from Monday, August 23, 2021, because the incidence in Speyer is over 35. Then we need one of the following documents from all museum visitors:

    Proof of a negative Covid-19 test (maximum 24 hours old), no self-test
    Proof of a Covid-19 vaccination (14 days after the last vaccination)
    Proof of Covid-19 recovery, not older than six months

    Excluded from this and regarded as a tested person (asymptomatic person):
    Children who have not yet reached the age of six or have not yet started school
    Pupils from a primary school, a special needs education, a school based on the primary school or a vocational school. If we need to confirm the status pupil/student we will check the student ID.
    In addition to the Technik Museum Speyer, the 3G regulation also applies to the IMAX Dome cinema and indoor catering (for outdoor catering you need an entrance ticket for the Technik Museum Speyer). Please bring the relevant proof documents with you and keep them to hand in the entrance area of ​​the museum to ensure quick processing at the museum ticket office.

    We look forward to your visit to the museum,
    Your museum team

    So we’re trying to discombobulate what it means for our kids who are 3, 6 & 7. At best we’ll have to prove they’re at school, at worst I think they’ll have to be lat flowed tomorrow by some bod. We thought it might be a bad translation, but my wife’s read through the German version and it’s equally unclear.

    johnny
    Full Member

    For @drj and anyone else planning a trip to Greece:

    I’m just back from a 2 week trip to Paros and the coast near Athens. It’s been great, Greek people are very conscientious about masks, etc. Living a generally outdoor life helps. Greek authorities were thorough and sympathetic to deal with, though as we flew back, we were asked by our check in, for a receipt with price paid for our 2 day tests in the UK. (on top of the 72 hour test, vaccination certs, and proof of booked 2 day tests) I can’t see how the cost of tests is of any relevance to boating a flight home, but might be something to consider.

    mattyfez
    Full Member

    Looking at the gov website for day 2 PCR tests – I’m confused, it doesn’t seem to specify if the day 2 test needs to be PCR or lateral flow any more..

    https://www.gov.uk/guidance/red-amber-and-green-list-rules-for-entering-england#amber-list-rules

    Any thoughts?

    Edukator
    Free Member

    I reckon it’s only school kids in school groups who don’t need a test, Hot Fiat, but other kids six and over do. I’d be interested to read the German version to see if it’s clearer.

    P-Jay
    Free Member

    So… Next year, does anyone think it is going to be different to travel abroad to this year. Same paperwork?

    Who knows really, Covid really is the gift that keeps on giving… when we postponed our 2020 Holiday until 2021, we never imagined at home that we’d need vaccine passports, tests, forms etc 14 months later. It’s almost ironic, but if we just travelled in August 2020, despite advice not too, it would have been easier and cheaper than this year.

    My personally opinion is that travel to developed countries with robust vaccine programmes like ours will be easier, the rest of the world, quite sensibly IMHO seems to have accepted that whilst there are no binary Safe/Unsafe way of doing things, being fully vaccinated is really as good as it’s going to get for the moment, so unless half the cabinet have shares / lucrative board seats at Randox to look after, most, if not all the testing requirements will soon be dropped, because, what’s the point? They’re not sequencing the test (by and large) looking for new strains, and as New Zealand are sadly learning at the moment, unless you’re not willing to let a single soul on your Island nation, not just tourists, but anyone, you can’t keep out new strains forever.

    I suspect, within months, travel between the UK and the EU will be largely hassle free, as long as you’ve had your jabs. We might still have to have our teens tested, but I think even that will cease. The Airlines and Ferry operators will put in place systems to make that easy, if they don’t have them already, Eurotunnel at least have a pretty slick system and if they could share those details with the border agencies it’ll go back to pretty much drive-on, drive-off again, Brexit will be the bigger barrier.

    The US and other non-EU countries will probably be the same soon enough, other more exotic / less developed places will need lots of paperwork etc, but they do anyway.

    The biggest hassle I can see for summer 2022 will be booster jabs. The US and EU I think will insist on them, effectively making everyone’s current vaccines useless for travel, at the moment England are saying they’re only going to offer boosters for the over-50s and vulnerable, the Tories will want to make a quid (or million) from it for their mates so I can see people in England needing to buy their boosters (meaning millions wont). I’m not sure if Wales have said it publicly, but the Wife’s side-hustle working in the Vaccine Centre in Cardiff ended at the weekend as they’ve effectively completed it now, but they’re starting again in 3-4 weeks on Boosters, and it will follow the same roll-out plan as before and they’ll be offering boosters to everyone, it’ll be roughly 6-8 months from the date of your second jab.

    hot_fiat
    Full Member

    I reckon it’s only school kids in school groups who don’t need a test, Hot Fiat, but other kids six and over do. I’d be interested to read the German version to see if it’s clearer.

    That’s what we thought too, but the gate staff were only interested in my and my wife’s certs then waived us straight through to the cash desk. Seems they’ve changed the rules today, again. What the email and website said last night:

    Davon ausgenommen und als getestete Person angesehen sind (asymptomatische Person):
    Kinder die das sechste Lebensjahr noch nicht vollendet haben oder noch nicht eingeschult sind
    Schüler*innen einer Grundschule, eines sonderpädagogischen Bildungs- und Beratungszentrums, einer auf der Grundschule aufbauenden Schule oder einer beruflichen Schule, wobei die Glaubhaftmachung in der Regel durch ein entsprechendes Ausweisdokument (z.B. den Schülerausweis) zu erfolgen hat.

    And what it now says:

    Ausgenommen hiervon sind:
    Kinder bis einschließlich 14 Jahren
    Schülerinnen und Schüler

    Checkins are definitely haphazard here and really, really rare. Scanned a QR code tonight that made both our phones Corona-Warn apps die.

    Edukator
    Free Member

    In German the difference between school kids and kids is clearer, but happily they now accept any kids up to 14 without a pass.

    Here in France if you’re going to a place that requires the pass sanitaire it will be checked IME, no exceptions so far. Such is the demand for security staff that some places are now employing strips of wind just out of school to do the checking.

    We use paper copies of the QR codes.

    antennae
    Free Member

    New Zealand are sadly learning at the moment, unless you’re not willing to let a single soul on your Island nation, not just tourists, but anyone, you can’t keep out new strains forever

    Just wanted to add that “stay isolated forever” is very much not the plan here in NZ, and the government wants the opportunity to vaccinate everyone in the population before gradually opening up the border in 2022:

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/449010/covid-19-risk-based-border-to-open-from-early-2022-pm-jacinda-ardern

    aphex_2k
    Free Member

    2022 was our “6 monnths in Europe” trip we’ve been planning with our kids using my long-service leave. We can’t leave Australia at the moment and as to when we can? Who knows. Heaps of Aussies abroad that can’t get home or stuck in places around the world. I don’t wanna be “that guy” who’s stuck abroad with no income and no clear plan, sat in a hotel in quarantine.

    I’ve just checked and everywhere is “do not travel” from Australia. Both me and the misso have had 2x jabs I’m just waiting for the “kids need a jab” health advice.

    We’ve gone from camper-vanning round Europe to a month or so in Air BNB’s around Europe, to…well maybe nothing. Don’t really know how to feel about it all.

    Either way it’s pretty crap.

    mrmo
    Free Member

    Well I made it back to the U.K., border farce up to expectations. Delays, surliness, etc.

    dogbone
    Full Member

    Still struggling to find Antigen tests here in the Basque Country. Local pharmacies do them but you don’t get an official confirmation of the results. In other parts of Spain you do. Option one seems to be Bilbao airport (about 45mins away) and a test centre there. About €40 each.

    hot_fiat
    Full Member

    Arrived in the Netherlands, where they’ve clearly given up. Receptionist at our hotel said tersely said: “For your information, you don’t need a mask here anymore!”

    Beer, pizza and arrangement of day 2 tests tonight <sigh> a cursory glance at the gov website suggest it’s still as full of the £20 testing shysters as it was before the recent cull. Efteling tomorrow, beach the day after then home on the ferry to Hull on Thursday night. It’s been an epic trip so far.

    iolo
    Free Member

    Anyone want to come to Austria I am an official guide (city waking, history, bike, whatever). I am also an official tester so any antigen tests you need will be done by me for free. Here´s my website
    I am doing a lot of work on the Danube region in Austria

    hot_fiat
    Full Member

    So, every single provider of day2 tests appears to be absolute scum worthy of catapulting into the sun along with all their offspring just be sure you eradicate the gene pool. None appear to allow you to add multiple bookings to one cart and the common thread among them all is that the tests might be £20 to £50 – if you drive to Kent last week, before you set off, while wearing a gimp suit to pick them up, but then shipping both ways is £25 PER TEST!

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