What it’s like to be on holiday when a new quarantine rule is announced

"Чтобы жить счастливо, я должен быть в согласии с миром. А это ведь и значит «быть счастливым»." Людвиг Витгенштейн

What its like to be on holiday when a new quarantine rule is announced

Spanish villa

Sophie Knight

SPAIN


Sophie Knight, Condé Nast Traveller digital picture editor

Where were you?

‘Spain. I was staying in a family member’s villa in a village 40 minutes from Alicante airport – essentially, in the middle of nowhere.’

How did you hear about the new quarantine rule?

‘We were all lazing around the pool and my dad had a pop-up notification from BBC News. We thought he was joking.’

Did you have an inkling that this might happen before you booked your holiday?

‘Honestly, no we didn’t. Thinking back maybe we were naive but this was the first of the updated UK quarantine rules, and the government had been telling us it was fine to go to Spain only the week before.’

Did you consider cancellation policies when you booked?

‘We booked our flights using Ryanair travel vouchers that we’d been given from a previous cancelled flight. The flights were £70 return, so it seemed worth taking the risk for a two-week holiday. In the future I’d make sure I can get a refund from the airline as the 14-day quarantine back in the UK has not been fun.’

How did it affect you?


‘I’ve been living on my own, so it’s been lonely not seeing anyone. Apart from that, it hasn’t impacted my life greatly. I had to visit the shops to buy groceries on the day I got home as there wasn’t anything in the house and I don’t have friends nearby. I’m lucky that I can work from home so my income hasn’t been affected. I’ve watched a whole lot of TV and stared out the window. It’s frustrating more than anything, as I didn’t have any symptoms for the whole two weeks. The person it affected the most was my sister – she had a trip planned and a driving test booked during the quarantine. My brother also had to fly home a few days early to be able to go to work on site.’

What its like to be on holiday when a new quarantine rule is announced

Spanish villa

Sophie Knight

How was your journey home?


‘My flight from Alicante was empty, whereas the flight out there had been full. There were about 40 people on the flight to London, which meant we all had a few rows to ourselves. I landed at Luton at 10.30pm, got a train to Victoria and then the Tube back to my house. The plane journey was actually the safest part of the trip: you even have to push the buzzer to get escorted to the toilet. Upon landing there weren’t any checks at the airport.’

How did it make you feel?

‘Frustrated – I was staying in a remote location that was much safer than central London. We weren’t given any time to get home to avoid quarantining.’

What tips would you give to anyone who finds themselves in the same position?

‘Make sure you can get your money back if you decide not to go and keep an eye on the rise in coronavirus infection rates in the country you’re planning on visiting, so you can predict where will go on “the list” next. I guess it’s weighing up if you think being on holiday is worth quarantining for – as well as adhering extremely strictly to social-distancing rules while you’re there. I wouldn’t go to a destination where you know you have to quarantine, but if the rules come in while I’m away I wouldn’t rush back.’

FRANCE

Grace Stanners, 26, beauty PR


John Matthews, 29, IT sales manager


Where were you?

Grace: ‘We were in the South of France visiting my parents at their house, about an hour’s drive inland from Nice in Aix-en-Provence. We’ve spent summers there for the past 10 years and thought it was a safe place to visit in the current climate.’

What its like to be on holiday when a new quarantine rule is announced

Aix en Provence

Getty Images

How did you hear about the new quarantine rule?


Grace: ‘We all found out quite suddenly on Thursday night. We were having a family meal with two of our friends who had flown out. One by one, all of us started to receive messages from people at home, starting with my partner John, who was called by his boss asking him to try and get home before the restrictions came into force. It was around 10pm and the message was quite clear: “Get yourself home.” When we found out, we had about 18 hours left before the quarantine rules would change – but as we had driven from London, our journey was 12 hours, so it was clear that unless we set off the following morning at 4am, we wouldn’t make it back in time.’

Did you have an inkling that this might happen before you booked your holiday?

Grace: ‘There was a lot of speculation that France was going to be placed on the quarantine list, but as it is easy for me to work from home, I left the decision with John and we then took that risk. We were perhaps slightly naive, feeling that travelling to a destination we had visited before there wouldn’t be an issue getting back in time. I think we honestly believed that we would have more time to be able to return.’

What its like to be on holiday when a new quarantine rule is announced

Aix en Provence

Getty Images

Did you consider cancellation policies when you booked?



John: ‘We drove – something we hadn’t done before, as the journey is so long and Grace doesn’t drive – so it was a decision I didn’t take lightly. Grace’s father is in his 70s and we agreed that we would drive continuously so as not to come into contact with anyone. We packed the car full of snacks and only used bathrooms in small villages where we could minimise our contact with people.’

How did it affect you?

Grace: ‘The hard thing to imagine is that France felt like a safe haven. Masks were not recommended – they were absolutely compulsory. We’d been used to spending time in London, visiting shops and seeing perhaps a third of the customers not wearing masks and not being reprimanded in any way. When we arrived in Aix-en-Provence, it was clear that masks were part of daily life – people who failed to put them on before entering shops were immediately told they had to leave, without exception. Even large open-air events such as vide-reniers (antiques markets) were full of visitors wearing PPE, with stewards patrolling the area making sure that everyone was adhering to the rules.’


How was your journey home?

John: ‘It was long and painful. We’d worked out that we couldn’t make it back in time to beat the quarantine and therefore took the decision to start the drive the following day. The queue at Calais was phenomenal – we’d booked a flexible ticket and were pleased to have done so as it took more than four hours to get through and onto the ferry. Once in, there was a mass of people trying to flood through, and once more it was clear that it was down to the individual to decide whether to wear a mask or not. The whole thing felt unnerving – we had spent time witnessing France’s very strict PPE rules and now saw how quickly it filtered away on the way back to the UK.’

How did it make you feel?

John: ‘I think it was compounded by the fact that I realised I was going to struggle working from home. I work in tech, a field where it would be expected I could feasibly work remotely, but the majority of my job is face-to-face meetings with the team and making sure that orders are signed in person. I’d confirmed with my boss that I was going to have to self-quarantine for two weeks, and it was decided that I’d have to rely on other colleagues to push through the orders that I was going to work on from home. A holiday feels luxurious in this climate and I felt like I had impacted the team.’

What tips would you give to anyone who finds themselves in the same position?

Grace: ‘Try not to worry about work-related ramifications. We understood the risks involved, and we also explained to our respective line managers that we’d taken this decision because we weren’t sure when we could take our next holiday. With the possibility of a second lockdown looming in London (and other parts of the UK already facing it), we had to stress that this was perhaps our only time this year to try and have something resembling a holiday abroad.’


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