Here are the 12 countries and territories on the travel Green List

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• Robert says:

  8 May8 May 09:47

  Are we still allowed to leave quarantine for the purpose of leaving the UK? For example if you have 4 days in the UK before travelling on to another country.

  • Rob says:

    8 May8 May 11:35

    Yes

    • meta says:

      8 May8 May 14:32

      But you’d still need to pay for full 11 nights…

      • John says:

        8 May8 May 14:56

        They didn’t say they were coming from a red country – if they were it wouldn’t make any sense to transit the UK when there are other countries available to transit

        • meta says:

          8 May8 May 16:43

          They mentioned quarantine (red countries) which is different to self-isolation(amber countries).

• Vinz says:

  8 May8 May 10:39

  Just booked my holiday to Saint Helena in August, can’t wait!
  Said no one ever…

  • David says:

    8 May8 May 10:43

    Remember the list is not a ‘holiday list’ – it is about travel restrictions. Indeed that is probably why Grant Shapps focused on more practical destinations.

    And in specific response to your comment, actually yes – some people did. Plenty of people go on holiday to places they have family or historic ties too. Even in the days of it being a RMS sailing to get you there.

  • Gruntfuttock says:

    8 May8 May 14:17

    😂

• Vinz says:

  8 May8 May 10:43

  I really don’t understand these rules. What’s the point of being vaccinated if I have to go through the testing ordeal upon my return? And why is everything bloody expensive in the UK? Self-administered PCR test in the UK = at least £150. Private lab PCR test in Italy = €22. I mean…

  • TGLoyalty says:

    8 May8 May 10:56

    You’re behind the times. Random offer them for £60 of which £10 is vat.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      8 May8 May 10:57

      *Randox ffs

    • M says:

      8 May8 May 11:25

      You need two of those. So £120.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        8 May8 May 15:08

        Yes but OP is talking about the price of 1 PCR test not a kit.

  • Memesweeper says:

    8 May8 May 11:07

    ‘ What’s the point of being vaccinated’…

    To protect you and the community. Not to open up international leisure travel opportunities.

  • J says:

    8 May8 May 13:35

    @Vinz. Maybe wait until everyone has been offered at least the first jab before whinging. Bit like pushing your way through the queue at a gig and then complaining that you have to sit through the warm up act.

    • Lady London says:

      8 May8 May 13:37

      Brilliant 🙂 . TBH we’ve all done it.

  • Mike says:

    9 May9 May 05:35

    Because being vaccinated doesn’t stop you catching covid, it reduces the chances of catching it by a significant amount and drastically reduces the chance of dying. So if YOU choose to go on holiday and spend money on flights, hotels and expenses then YOU can budget for some testing. If that doesn’t appeal then wait until next year or go on holiday in the UK.

• Karl75 says:

  8 May8 May 11:00

  I have Portugal booked for two weeks time from Manchester. What is the situation regarding testing? I understand I’ll need to test before I fly, which I can do at the airport, but what about the return journey. I understand I can be tested on the day in Lisbon, but is that test then good for my arrival back in Manchester, or will I need to be tested again?

  • James Vickers says:

    8 May8 May 11:37

    You can do an antigen test in Portugal before you fly and then need PCR on day 2 after returning

    • Karl75 says:

      8 May8 May 11:49

      Thanks for your reply. I can’t find any information on this “Day 2” test.
      Do i do it at Manchester upon arrival, or at home? Is no test required at the airport? Sorry for the questions.

      • Karl75 says:

        8 May8 May 11:56

        Many thanks for this.

  • John says:

    8 May8 May 11:47

    Assuming you are an Englishman from Manchester, you are currently not allowed to enter mainland Portugal for non-essential purposes.

    • Karl75 says:

      8 May8 May 11:52

      This is after the 17th May.

      • John says:

        8 May8 May 12:24

        @Karl75: What I meant is that mainland Portugal currently does not allow non-essential travel for countries like the UK which are outside the EU as well as outside of Schengen.

        I haven’t heard any annoucement this will change soon. (Although formally, Portugal will need to renew existing restrictions–it’s been doing so regularly.)

        • Karl75 says:

          8 May8 May 12:32

          Well, there’s hundreds of thousands of people booking flights there on the basis that they can go on holiday. They want/need us to go on holiday there. That’s what the “Green list” is about.

        • AndyGWP says:

          8 May8 May 12:38

          @karl – I think you’ve misunderstood. Portugal don’t want you to go there on holiday (regardless of whether the U.K. have given it green status, Portugal have not reciprocated this)

        • Karl75 says:

          8 May8 May 12:43

          @AndyGWP. Their Minister for Tourism said, as recently as 3 days ago:

          “Asked if Portugal wanted to receive British visitors as well as those from other EU states, Marques said: “For sure. We are really pushing hard to open up to third countries like the UK.

          She added: “The British market is really important to all of Europe. We are ready to welcome you when you are ready to come.”

          This seems pretty explicit to me.

        • AndyGWP says:

          8 May8 May 14:00

          Understood Karl, but as things stand that’s just a minister expressing their wishes. Fingers crossed they can turn the situation around for you in the next two weeks tho 👍🏻

        • Track says:

          9 May9 May 06:05

          @Karl75 You are mixing up politician’s talk, especially from someone like minister for tourism with what’s on the ground.

          Whichever the tourism minister’s wishes are, Portugal will be subject to decisions from the EU. They are in Shengen zone and can’t just open borders unilaterally.

      • Track says:

        9 May9 May 06:00

        Don’t know what “Green List” is about but it is definitely not an invitation to travel by the receiving countries.

        Those are countries deemed ‘safer’ by the UK but it does not mean they will let you in.

        Australia and Singapore will not let you in, even if AU citizen you still have to secure a spot on a sparsely-seated plane.

  • gl says:

    8 May8 May 13:10

    In the same boat – could anyone recommend a provider for the pre-flight lateral flow test on the way back?

    • TGLoyalty says:

      8 May8 May 15:13

      You may be able to use 1 of your 2 weekly free lateral flow tests. I would wait for more info over the next couple weeks.

• Alex Sm says:

  8 May8 May 11:20

  I gambled with Gibraltar holiday in June booked back in December (after an HfP article btw!), and this calculation seems to be paying off. Booked as BA holidays package, I even managed to shave off £130 and get better flights last months. Now they added LCY flights with even better times, but not sure they will allow me to rebook again and the prices will probably be skyrocketing now…

• Scott says:

  8 May8 May 11:42

  “Low risk countries like the US” 😂😂😂 Sean Doyle is presumably a satirist in his spare time.

  Covid19 is a hellish illness and we are storing up trouble by opening borders to international travel again – until the whole population is vaccinated, and whole population coverage is achieved around the world, there will always be a high risk of having to reinstate lockdowns with international movements. PCR tests are highly limited in their sensitivity (ie false negatives are relatively common) and lateral flows are almost useless given very very high false negative rate. And it fundamentally relies upon a proper swab being taken, which isn’t a given when the patient is essentially paying for a negative result to get what they want. We need to be more like Australia and New Zealand and pursue a “zero covid” strategy rather than “however much we can accommodate in a hospital”, and whatever the unpublished acceptable death / disability rate is.

  Please think carefully about what you’ll tell friends and colleagues about your travels if / when the next lockdown starts….

  (I’m a long term GCH and love travelling for work and leisure – but it simply isn’t justifiable or safe at the moment)

  • Eric the Half a Bee says:

    8 May8 May 11:49

    Today’s Yellow Mattress award winner!

  • Chris says:

    8 May8 May 15:40

    Scott, as a gold card holder you’ll have previously flown enough miles to have taken more risk of death from a plane crash than the risk of dying from Covid, unless you’re old and decided against vaccination.

  • John says:

    8 May8 May 17:40

    The climate emergency far outweighs the risks of Covid-19 and that didn’t bother you one bit when you were out there destroying the world and especially targeting vulnerable BAME groups. The biggest victims of the climate emergency.

  • James says:

    8 May8 May 21:30

    There are 65% of the UK population who are similar bedwetters/ yellow mattress.

    They don’t seem to care about personal freedom.

    Me – last week I came out to our place abroad in the sunny sun to test my eyesight/ make it covid secure/ buy another couple of apartments

  • James says:

    8 May8 May 22:44

    It’s completely political. When you are trouncing the opposition, why would you risk changing things when people think you have had a good war?

    Boris is (at heart) one of the biggest advocates for personal freedom in UK Parliament – but he has gone for deceit/ popularity/ boosterism/ more lies/ getting reelected etc

    Plus all the other stuff such as staycation = money on hols stays in UK

  • James says:

    8 May8 May 22:58

    Plus this morning – purely on principle – I went for a 2 mile walk at 5am (so that nobody would report me/ and I wouldn’t actually speak to anybody either):

    – for my health
    – who are they to tell me to quarantine?
    – I had my second Pfizer vacc in March so I’m good

• Simon Cross says:

  8 May8 May 11:44

  Having been watching all potential destinations for several months I booked holidays to both Iceland and Israel earlier this year for July and September respectively plus 2 UK based trips and Guernsey / Sark. Everything fully refundable if needs be.

  Bizarely it is the “local” trips which are more at risk than the overseas ones….

  Guernsey / Sark has already been deferred once (because the hotel cannot open as it cannot get its normal staff due to Brexit) and one of the UK trips is still at risk as the archaelogical sites (in Orkney) may not be open.

  I recall that the Chinese have a saying “may you live in interesting times” – well we certainly do.

  • Char Char says:

    8 May8 May 12:17

    Don’t know about it being interesting, completely stupid I would say when you have Grant Shapps saying people are cheering themselves after having their vaccine….

  • Brian P says:

    8 May8 May 14:28

    “Guernsey / Sark has already been deferred once (because the hotel cannot open as it cannot get its normal staff due to Brexit) ”

    Guernsey never had free movement of people with the UK let alone the EU, so I’m not sue I fully understand this statement.

    • Memesweeper says:

      8 May8 May 15:48

      It’s always had free movement hasn’t it? What it doesn’t have a housing market that is attractive to most folks not born there.

      • John says:

        9 May9 May 08:25

        No, British citizens without a connection to Guernsey can only visit for 90 days every 12 months, and need approval to stay longer, work or own certain properties. The same is true for other citizens too but they need additional approval from the UK.

        There is no immigration control between Guernsey and the UK, but that is not the definition of free movement (when the UK was in the EU we had free movement with the EU as we didn’t need to apply for permission to move or work in an EU country, only register after arriving. Despite having free movement there were still immigration controls).

        • Jonny O says:

          9 May9 May 09:42

          Guernsey has strict quarantine requirement for all arriving passengers. And it is VERY strictly enforced, meaning the authorities WILL come to your door to check on you. This makes Guernsey impractical for holidays at present.

• AbuCordoba says:

  8 May8 May 12:12

  Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Im a British national currently in Oman with my wife and 2 small kids, we need to be back in the UK by the end of May, I had booked to go via Bodrum,Turkey and do 10 days there and then do further 10 days at home in the UK Isolation, however that’s no longer possible. Anyone in a similar predicament as I cannot use Qatar and Emirates and most European Countries are not open to me as I am in Oman.
  The hotel quarantine in the UK with two little kids is a no-go for us so any help would be really appreciated.

  • Travel Strong says:

    8 May8 May 14:00

    Have not looked into it in detail, but the overall concept is to target 10 days in an Amber country that will allow entry from Oman – so if Turkey is out you may have so look far afield – perhaps something such as mexico. Muscat > Cancun sounds like a nice 10 days! But any stopovers will have to be permitted, e.g. Frankfurt.. Do they allow transit from oman if heading out again? I do not know.

    • AbuCordoba says:

      9 May9 May 05:54

      Cancun does sound amazing! just getting there is not easy! I think from what I have read Greece and possibly Cyprus if they change the rules in the next few days and allow Oman to enter could be the best bet! (obviously hoping Portugal announce soon if we can come as that really would be the no.1 option). If all else fails I think we will do Bahrain

      • Tom says:

        9 May9 May 07:56

        I would be careful with Bahrain given the large spike in cases they are seeing at the moment. I wouldn’t be shocked if it slips onto the red list too.

  • blenz101 says:

    8 May8 May 14:05

    You should be able to make Egypt work, it remains amber so you should be able to swap Turkey out. Direct flights are still operating between Oman and Egypt and they are allowing UK passport holder in.

    Could all change between now and booking. The same issue with Turkey, UAE, and Maldives exists with Indians citizens using it as a route out of the country.

    • AbuCordoba says:

      9 May9 May 05:51

      My concern with Egypt is apparently the numbers are shooting up and they from people who have been do not take Covid seriously enough (ie no social distancing and many people not wearing masks) so for us that doesn’t work!

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    8 May8 May 15:37

    Is the hotel quarantine really not an option? The others sound like a massive pain in all honesty.

    • Rob says:

      8 May8 May 15:42

      It can’t be that hard to find a Green or Amber country to let you in, surely?

    • Blenz101 says:

      8 May8 May 16:25

      No direct flights anyway so going to need to change. May as well do that somewhere pleasant. The original choice of Bodrum makes me think this was the plan vs. waiting it out in Istanbul.

      Minimum £2400 to stay in Hounslow guarded by G4S and not allowed out. Looks pretty easy to get a 5* all inclusive in Sharm El Sheikh for 10 nights for well under £1k less where the family would enjoy relative freedom.

      Only issue is if Egypt (or anywhere else the poster chooses to wait) moves to red list during the quarantine period you are back to the start.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        8 May8 May 23:30

        As the next review is in 3 weeks unless there is an immediate issue with a significant outbreak I suspect it would be safe.

    • AbuCordoba says:

      9 May9 May 05:53

      With 2 little kids it really is our very last resort again from accounts of people who have gone through it, its less than ideal as the rooms often given are standard rooms and so space is really limited for 11 days.

  • kitten says:

    8 May8 May 18:53

    wasnt someone today mentioning bulgaria or croatia to spend 10 (make it 12) days on the way back? guessing LH via FRA if no direct.

  • GeorgeJ says:

    8 May8 May 19:02

    AbuCordoba, I dont think you should rule out transit in Istanbul, Doha or Dubai, it only costs an extra red day and may give a better choice of destinations than Muscat (since the ten days in an Amber destination start when you get there). As you say most of Europe is out but try non EU such as Belgrade or other North Africa (Marrakesh, Tunisian resorts) if you find Cairo unappealing.
    Personally I would also look at Ukraine (Kiew) but I know that wouldn’t appeal to all!

    • AbuCordoba says:

      9 May9 May 05:59

      Yep we will fly via Doha to Greece as the most likely and then do our 10 days or if we go to Portugal we will have to fly Emirates to Lisbon from what I can tell that’s our best options! Kiev is interesting never been and not sure what to expect from it! North Africa is a good shout but according to some reports they are still not letting foreigners in!

      • Alex M says:

        9 May9 May 12:55

        You’ll love Kiev – great food, cases falling, on the way to UK (unlike Mexico) hopefully the weather is good now… Any questions – let me know.

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