Anyone feeling bold enough?

We carried our touring trip to Southern Ireland over from last year it’s in September. I hope we can go really looking forward to the beautiful scenery and the lovely people there.

We had a booking for March, which I'd booked a year ago.
Tui said we could either cancel it or change it to any other holiday on their website up to October 2022. We've chosen a different destination for August next year. I had to phone as there will be another child to add to the booking by then and I couldn't do that online.
Very good system.

Ellianne

Yes, I agree, sadly France, the homeland of Louis Pasteur, ironically, is looking unlikely.

I think elsewhere on GN the issue of France having lo2 rates of flu vaccines also came up - a sort of general vaccine hesitancy although probably we’ll have a better idea when their roll out becomes reality. I was talking to my friend in Marseille on Sunday and she’s just fed up. They still have the 6pm curfew but can meet up more than we can and in each other’s homes as long as they socially distance. She said in her area only health and social care workers and care home residents are getting the vaccine but as no idea how many. She’s 68 and there is no news at all. She also said there are real regional variations.

I'm counting my blessings that I live in Anglesey, a holiday destination, a short walk to a long sandy beach, have a nice big garden that needs tending and will enjoy my summer without taking any risks.
I fully intend to carry on with my hands, face, space routine. I will meet family and friends in small numbers in the garden when permitted.
I would like to support local businesses such as restaurants and cafes but will wait and see how the infection rates are in June. We have just heard there is a big outbreak at Bangor Hospital with 49 new cases.
Baby steps for me.

DD3 has booked a cottage near the beach at Whitstable for a week in August (they live on a beach in Devon!). We hope to discover Kent with visits to Canterbury, Rochester and the far east coast. We can cancel/postpone foc if necessary. I’m desperate to book a flight to Sydney to see DD2 as soon as the Aus Govt give the go ahead. 2022 hopefully. Any later and I’ll be past it ?

I've just had an idea. What about GN UK house swaps?
Your Gaff in Anglesey sounds good Laura and I know there's plenty of cushions to make it cosy!
Do you accept dogs please?

For us, if we book a holiday, it will be in the UK I think to be on the safe side. Next year we plan to visit our new grandchild if the borders all open up again.
We plan a cottage holiday or may go to a Warner’s break if they’re open again.

I hope to venture to the Peak district as my daughter and baby grandson live there. I wouldn't feel safe going abroad as we don't know what variants may be there that we could bring back to the UK.

esspee Holidays in the UK are so expensive because the agencies the holiday properties are listed with insist on taking up to 20% of the rental for themselves.
We bought a seaside holiday home at the end of last year with the view of renting it out to holiday makers this year but we will definitely be marketing it ourselves. 20% is just too greedy in my book.

We do have a little one bed cottage attached Ellianne, haven't rented it out before, at the moment I use the sitting room part as my art studio as it's light with a nice view of the sea. We do like dogs although sadly we don't have one ourselves at the moment.
The derelict cottage next door (not too close) has just been sold so I imagine there'll be some noisy building work going on this summer, not conducive to a happy holiday.
However I suppose if any gran wanted to just cover the cleaning and electricity costs and put up with building noise?
I wouldn't want to house swap my main house, too much personal stuff.

Talking of holidays and vaccines, I feel a bit sorry for all the hoteliers who can't have guests until May 17th. If they could open up AFTER Easter it would only be the older vaccinated generation who would be staying in them anyway. The Warners resorts, for example, and Eastbourne seafront, would be safe enough places for 7 peaceful weeks until everything else opened up.

Ref our booking for France - have also booked Filey and NYorks too. Hedging my bets ?

Booked today!!!
Cottage in North Yorkshire in April.
Walking and great food.
Cannot wait.

We’d booked a UK seaside cottage to sleep 14 of us for a family break last Easter. We re-booked for this Easter and I have just re-booked again for Easter 2022, jumping in quickly before someone else scoops up the holiday week.

DGS1 was 6 when I originally booked. He’ll be 9 if we get there next year. And we’ll have a two year old DGS6 with us, who was just a gleam in his parents’ eye when we arranged the trip.

I plan to spend a bit of time tomorrow seeing what’s available later this year for DH and myself. We won’t be venturing abroad this year, but there’s plenty of places in this country that we haven’t seen yet.

Aveline

There's all sorts of interesting holidays to be had in UK. I'm not interested in lying on a beach baking all day. Lots of lovely city breaks I've always wanted to get round to. Maybe this year we'll make it to York for example.
Last summer we had a long weekend in StAndrews and really enjoyed that. We stay in decent hotels which employ staff on UK wages and have themselves to pay UK taxes and rates. They're expensive thus pushing up costs.

Travelling abroad for a holiday does not always mean lying on a beach. I never do but I long to return to Italy or france or somewhere else in Europe I love seeing other cultures, and I’d like to see my son again, last seen over two years ago in Sydney.

Small consolation Lucca but you can have a game of tennis on 29th March

Already booked for end May and July has been booked ages ago Suspected demand would be high
Will carry on booking as and when for August and Autumn breaks have wasted enough time stuck at home

We've got a holiday to India booked for June, postponed from last year. There is a glimmer of hope that we might get there - we will both have had 2 doses of vaccine by then and infection numbers have been falling dramatically in India but for now the borders are still closed. If they reopen I would be happy to go.

Not keen to book anything anywhere anytime soon, but that’s me, will have to meet DH halfway and agree to book a UK break. Yes Lucca our overseas children, that would be something else!

Don't forget the cost of 2 X PCR tests for every traveller on days 2 & 8 after returning to the UK. £120 per test.

I too live in a holiday spot, we have house swapped before when we needed a place to stay for a month in Sydney and prices were prohibitive. That went well so wouldn't rule out doing again.
Usually go abroad for holidays with a couple of short UK breaks but more than happy to stay in UK this year. There are lots of lovely places, some we have not yet visited and others we love to return to.
And yes, last month we booked a holiday property in Norfolk for late August with a cancellation policy. Big enough for us, both AC and all GC so fingers crossed all goes to plan. Think we all deserve a holiday after this past year and long to see all my GC together one more.

My mistake. £210 for both tests, administered on days 2 & 8.

DD in Thailand reckons they will start to allow tourists with vaccine passports in September. I'll be at the front of the queue, especially as Thailand's Covid record is infinitely better than ours. Visiting DS in the US any time this year might be a bit more challenging.......

I have Easter off work, but the cost to return to the UK to see family is huge, once the mandatory covid tests are included.

Take a test 3 days before flying to the UK. £160
Test on day 2 in the UK. £105
Test on day 8 in the UK. £105
Test 3 days before flying out of the UK. £160

Total cost £510 JUST for covid tests.

We have a cottage booked in Northumberland in early August, but we booked it before Christmas. Properties were booking up very fast for this year even then.