# Portugal holiday makers.... OOPS .



## Dave7 (8 Jun 2021)

I understand that some people feel they simply MUST get away for a holiday.
We had a fab holiday in Alvor and would love to go back......same hotel, same room even, but there is no way we will do it until (if) Covid is completely under control.
I find it difficult to have sympathy for those people affected when the possibilty was so obvious.
I wonder if they could have even been insured ?


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## Sharky (8 Jun 2021)

We've got a nice little place where we will be this Summer. Just about 260 miles north of Paris.


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## dodgy (8 Jun 2021)

This story is full of accounts of how awful it was and the resulting grave inconveniences. If only they had seen it coming, eh?
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/portugal-amber-travel-list-holiday-b1860800.html


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## matticus (8 Jun 2021)

There is enough spite and schadenfreude in the world.
<ignores thread>


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## Milkfloat (8 Jun 2021)

Whilst I have no intention of booking anything this year, I do have some sympathy with those that did. The vaccine rollout has been going well and rates were pretty low in both countries. In addition, the government has not exactly been clear with travel advice and plans especially when people started booking holidays a while ago. It would have been simpler and safer to just ban non-essential foreign travel for everyone.


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## Tenkaykev (8 Jun 2021)

I was looking at the Flightradar App yesterday ( Hurn Airport is about six miles away and it’s interesting to see what air traffic is doing) A couple of day’s ago I noticed several flights from different airports heading to Faro, all in a line as it where once over the Channel. I wondered why they were all heading there.


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## CanucksTraveller (8 Jun 2021)

I've got some sympathy for those that traveled, people do want to get away after the last year and I understand that. But the virus is still around, still changing, the Government's travel advice policy is a mess, so there are known risks to travelling overseas right now, and it's not like this change in country advice has never happened before. 

When you travel in these times, if you have any sense, you simply have to be spending a few minutes on a basic assessment of worst case scenario... "What if it changes and I have to come back? Could I even get back earlier? Or could I afford the time at home to do the quarantine? Or maybe I can afford the costs of the 5 day test to release?" Weigh those up, and if the answer is that you can't afford to quarantine, change plans etc, then you really shouldn't be going beyond Brighton. If you can live with the risks then go, but these are things you should be considering before you take the risk. 

For those who weighed up all the potential problems and decided they could absorb the challenges, I've got respect, you tried, it went a bit awry, but you thought about it and you've got a plan B. To the other ones moaning about the queues at the airport, or the lack of customer support that comes with that 40 quid Ryanair ticket, I've got less sympathy for... not _none_, but certainly less. 

Oh, and travel insurance. Buy it, and make sure it covers costs brought on due to Covid travel advice, it costs next to nothing compared to the holiday.


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## lazybloke (8 Jun 2021)

Interesting quote from the Independent article that @dodgy linked to: "_We wondered what we would do; when we would get home; how we would do the school run. Our kids were waiting for our return_".

If so worried about your young children, why go on holiday without them?


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## vickster (8 Jun 2021)

I can think of a gazillion reasons not to go on holiday with young children...or any children. i wouldn’t go during half term though obviously !


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## fossyant (8 Jun 2021)

Just a shame the Government didn't shut down India as fast, but then again, they all came home via indirect routes. The whole policy is a mess, and I'd not trust it. Can't even guarantee you'll be able to keep travelling into Wales - there are all sorts of noises in the Welsh press about us 'English'.  Just not worth the hassle flying many thousands of miles then Boris and his chums changing the rules, when infections over there are better than here ?


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## byegad (8 Jun 2021)

BBC R4 were interviewing people who had returned from Portugal in the in the early hours today.

There were several bemoaning their fate, one blaming the UK government and one, at the end, who was very understanding of the need to change travel advice according to perceived threat.

I for one wouldn't dream of going abroad at the moment but I'd be the last guy on Radio 4 today saying I understood why the 'traffic light' changed if I did.


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## a.twiddler (8 Jun 2021)

Wasn't the message "essential travel only" and "just because you can, doesn't mean you should"? God knows, the government have shown plenty of ineptitude over the past year but I don't think you can really blame them this time. 

Any of the destinations could have had their status changed at any time and travellers would (should) have been aware of that. There are those who realised this and on the balance of probabilities decided it was a risk worth taking and there are those who just felt they were entitled and went anyway. It's not exactly a surprise. It's been tough for everyone since the restrictions began. 

I do have sympathy for Portuguese tourism and the travel industry having hopes raised and then snatched away again but in a continuously changing situation these things are likely to happen.


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## Milkfloat (8 Jun 2021)

a.twiddler said:


> Wasn't the message "essential travel only" and "just because you can, doesn't mean you should"? God knows, the government have shown plenty of ineptitude over the past year but I don't think you can really blame them this time.


I think that depended on which minister spoke at a particular time, the messages were very confused, conflicting and continually changed.


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## Drago (8 Jun 2021)

There is a worldwide pandemic, the worst in over a century.

They knew the risks, but went anyway.

They gambled, they lost.

Sympathy quotioent = zero.


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## postman (8 Jun 2021)

I am at a loss to understand how holiday makers have rushed home when para cyclists have an event beginning in Portugal tomorrow for five days.How does that work.


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## Dave7 (9 Jun 2021)

postman said:


> I am at a loss to understand how holiday makers have rushed home when para cyclists have an event beginning in Portugal tomorrow for five days.How does that work.


Bit of a guess but eg a family of 4 with a fixed 1 week break from work/school.....they have to calculate what they can potentially lose if they must isolate Vs cost of an early Easyjet flight home.
The cyclists, on the other hand, may calculate what they stand to gain if they stay Vs self isolation.
Like you I tried to work out "WHY".


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## vickster (9 Jun 2021)

postman said:


> I am at a loss to understand how holiday makers have rushed home when para cyclists have an event beginning in Portugal tomorrow for five days.How does that work.


The travel rules have always been different for elite athletes taking part in competition


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## Ming the Merciless (9 Jun 2021)

Sharky said:


> We've got a nice little place where we will be this Summer. Just about 260 miles north of Paris.



Sangatte holiday camp?


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## Ming the Merciless (9 Jun 2021)

a.twiddler said:


> Wasn't the message "essential travel only" and "just because you can, doesn't mean you should"? God knows, the government have shown plenty of ineptitude over the past year but I don't think you can really blame them this time.



The problem is that the rules / regulations were quite clear and any travel to any country is allowed with certain test and quarantine conditions depending on if the country was consider green, amber or red.

Then ministers waded in with “Well we didn’t mean that“ and trying to twist things which weren’t ambiguous at all…till they waded in.

Reminds me of Little Britain with “Yes, but no, maybe, no, yes..” type responses. Plus of course we have the sketch with “The computer says no”


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## Sharky (9 Jun 2021)

Ming the Merciless said:


> Sangatte holiday camp?


A few miles from Gravesend


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## Dwn (9 Jun 2021)

I suppose like most of us, I’d love to go on a foreign holiday this summer, and totally understand why people took the risk of going to Portugal. It’s easy to say that they knew the risks and shouldn’t moan about it - and that is largely true. I’m sure in their rational moments, the people who complained understand that they took a risk that didn’t pay off and it’s their personal responsibility.

However, the news journalists probably caught them at their worst moments - unless you’re lucky enough to be going business or first, airline travel is often a frustrating and unpleasant business at the best of times; much worse right now. So, people being interviewed were probably just venting. 

I do think that government travel advice has been confusing and open to interpretation. It might have been unpopular, but perhaps better to have bitten the bullet and banned all non-essential travel. Certainty has its virtues.


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## lazybloke (10 Jun 2021)

Dwn said:


> I suppose like most of us, I’d love to go on a foreign holiday this summer.....


What, like Michael Gove taking his son on a crowded plane to a stadium where thousands of people would be bellowingfor 90 minutes? In other words: take an unvaccinated person somewhere almost guaranteed to expose them to an aerosol of virus particles. 

I'm not fan of MG, but I hope he and his son won't regret that trip. 

You'd think he'd have learned to be more careful after contracting Swine flu in the _last _pandemic.


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## mustang1 (10 Jun 2021)

Milkfloat said:


> Whilst I have no intention of booking anything this year, I do have some sympathy with those that did. The vaccine rollout has been going well and rates were pretty low in both countries. In addition, the government has not exactly been clear with travel advice and plans especially when people started booking holidays a while ago. It would have been simpler and safer to just ban non-essential foreign travel for everyone.


I didnt look much into the news but wasn't that govt thing a traffic light system:
red - stay away
yellow - stay away if you can, risky if you book a holiday though
green - yeah go for it

Judging by the way some car drivers are, they probably think
red - go ahead
yellow - go mellow
green - your speed shouldn't be mean


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