(This post was written in August 2021 and it is written from the perspective of a British resident, American passport holder traveling abroad. Double check what the rules are for your country of residence and passport before traveling. I hope this is helpful – but note that the rules are always changing!)
Back in early January, during what seemed like the world’s longest winter, my husband suggested we plan a trip to Southern France. Through the cold days of lockdown, he determined the best locations for beaches, medieval towns, and food (St. Tropez, the hills of Grasse, and Nice) to get the most out of the sun soaked French Riviera. We booked a few hotels we could easily cancel, booked some flights on Easy Jet with vouchers that we knew could be refunded, and well, I kind of forgot about it, or at least didn’t think we’d actually be able to get on the plane there with international travel banned, and a complex quarantine to follow.
With travel bans, the “traffic light system”, and quarantining back home in the UK with two small kids all very real issues, we lucked out this summer and were able to go on not one but two European Holidays. Part of this was timing – with our daughter in nursery school we had to adhere to the school summer holiday schedule, which means no travel until the end of July at the earliest. This proved to be beneficial as by the time we were able to travel, Croatia was on the Green list, and France had moved into the Amber list a few days before we left, which crucially meant we did not have to quarantine 5 days upon returning back to the UK.
Honestly, to book international travel right now, it’s best to have a strong stomach, and make sure everything you book can be pushed back or refunded if needed (we love Hotels.com for booking refundable hotel rooms). Below are my thoughts on some of the other things that we have found to be helpful when navigating the ever changing world of travel these days.
Traveling abroad should not be intimidating, but it’s not as simple as it once was and you do need to educate yourself about the local laws, and take the time to do your paperwork. I know not everyone wants to deal with this, but we found that it was at most, about an hours worth of hassle to enjoy the holiday.
Woo Hoo! We made it to France!
Before you go
Check with the local government’s website to ensure you have everything you need to travel every day in the 3 days leading up to travel – things change, and quickly.. I ended up needed to have proof of a negative covid test in addition to my proof of vaccination before traveling to Croatia, they had just changed the rules a day before. Easy Jet has a really helpful site to help with this, but note that it is only available for those countries where Easy Jet fly (mostly Europe).
Even if you don’t need a Covid test to enter your destination, it is worthwhile to take a test before departure as a precaution given the highly contagious Delta variant and come up with a backup plan if you do end up test positive while on holiday!
Local Customs
While Croatia was very relaxed about wearing masks (I saw very few masks on, with the exception of indoor shopping, it was similar to the UK) in France, and specifically certain areas on the French Riviera, we found it was much more strict. For example, in France as of now you need to have proof of vaccination to dine at a restaurant, and on a few occasions saw people being turned around out of the restaurant if they did not have their pass. At one B&B we stayed at, the owner had to turn away guests for not having proof of vaccination. It is really easy to download the Anti Covid App and upload your proof of vaccination. We also noticed in many small villages mask wearing is essential (likely due to the older populations) as well as in the whole of Monaco you must wear a mask outdoors. You also must wear a surgical mask while on airplanes to France, no cloth masks allowed. In fact, I noticed that if I wanted to “fit in” and seem more French, pretty much all of the French people wear disposable surgical masks, and there is not a cloth mask in sight.
Tests going back to the UK
We used both Medicspot and Collinson for our pre-departure testing to return back to the UK. We ordered the tests ahead of our travels, packed them, and took them in the hotel room teh day before our departure. Of the two, I liked Collinson best because you have someone on the phone walking you through the testing process, and we got our results very quickly, within the hour. It is best to book these tests 2-3 weeks before travel, and choose a morning time so you don’t have to rush back to your hotel to take the test. I know that you can take tests at a physical location as well, but you don’t want to be spending time driving around looking for a pharmacy that has availability on your vacation. These online Covid tests will take you a half hour tops.
Booking your day 2 (and day 8 if needed) tests
Again, it’s best to book early to ensure that the tests arrive on time. From the day you arrive back in the UK, you are on day zero, and you can order the tests to arrive at your home on day one. As these are government mandated tests you do need to take one, or be prepared to be hit with a hefty fine! We used Querd for our day 2 tests – since we are fully vaccinated we don’t need to take the day 8 tests when returning from an Amber list country. Though, now we have 4 day 8 test packets… anyone know what we can do with them?
I’ll follow up with posts about our trips this summer – but wanted to share the process of how we were able to go abroad for those who are curious too.
