Travelling During A Pandemic // What It’s Really Like To Go Abroad

So yesterday I got back from my first holiday abroad since February due to the current global pandemic, and being in lockdown for a few months.

2020 has been a really crazy year, especially when it comes to going on holiday. I’ve lost quite a bit of money due to cancelled flights, hotels and trains, but I knew as soon as I could, I’d be on a plane out of the UK.

I wanted to write this post today as I think it’s important to let people know what to expect when going abroad when we are still very much in the height of the pandemic, but also to put people’s minds at risk if they do want a trip away.

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Before the holiday

Depending on what country you go to, everywhere will have different restrictions. I would say unless you have a reason to visit a country where you have to self isolate when you arrive, or are planning on spending a significant amount of time there, it’s probably not worth it.

We had originally booked to go to Ibiza, but once Spain was taken off the UK travel corridor list, we started to look elsewhere. The problem at the moment is that things can change by the day so it’s definitely worth being as flexible as possible. We settled on Croatia as that had quite low cases compared to other places, but like we realised when we were there, that can all change in an instance.

I wasn’t worried about going abroad, as I had read numerous things online about how airlines were taking extra precautions to make sure that the planes were as sanitary as possible and were putting the customers first.

When you enter a country as well, you will most likely have to fill in a form to say how long you are staying, where you are staying and an emergency contact (although this wasn’t checked at the airport in our case) and when returning to the UK, you’ll have to do something similar.

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Booking the flight

If you book with some airlines and your flight is cancelled or you can no longer visit the destination without having to isolate on return, a few of them are offering you the option to change the destination and/or dates to give you a bit more flexibility. Unfortunately, we held on to the last minute to see if the situation in Spain changed, which meant that we were outside of the 7-day window which many do not make you aware of until you read the t’s and c’s, so bear that one in mind.

We also struggled with getting a flight back to Manchester airport so had planned to fly back to Birmingham instead. Croatia is served by Jet2, TUI and EasyJet, but all either had a flight on a day that we couldn’t make or were full. You might find at the moment that this will happen more and more because people may book more than one return date just to be on the safe side.

If you want to fly to another country on your way back to the UK (we had looked at going to Italy for a few days) make sure you read about the entry requirements of that country from the country you are coming from, and whether you would need to self isolate, as this could throw a spanner in the works. And as I write this, you have to quarantine for two weeks on arrival into Italy from Croatia, so it’s definitely worth noting that things may be different than to the UK.

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The airport experience

From what I’d seen from other people sharing on Instagram, I kind of knew what to expect in the airport. You had to wear your masks at all times, and it was a lot quieter than usual.  A lot of the restaurants and shops still remained closed but I didn’t feel unsafe at any point and everyone took it seriously.

One thing to note is that because it’s a quiet period at the moment, you are no longer called to your gate and may find that it changes from ‘Go to gate’ to ‘Last call’ very quickly as there are fewer people to board, so keep your eye on the boards!

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On the plane

One of the things that I wasn’t sure about before we got on the flight was whether we would have seats on every row empty to adhere to social distancing, but this wasn’t the case, and our flight was full both on the way out there and back.

You have to wear a mask for the full duration of your flight, which can feel quite uncomfortable at times, but safety first, and it didn’t really bother me too much.

The food and drink service resumed as normal, although I believe there was a limited menu from what I remember.

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When you land

Every country has different rules at the moment, so definitely check out their government website to see whether you need to wear a mask or do anything differently to the UK. Croatia was similar in the fact that you had to wear them in taxis and shops, and a few people wore them out and about.

When we arrived in Dubrovnik Old Town, there were signs everywhere asking people to keep their distance (although this didn’t really happen) and every restaurant had hand sanitiser. The city itself still felt bustling and at times you forgot what was actually going on.

I think in most places (because of the narrow back streets) having the tables 1-2m apart wasn’t really doable, but most waiters wore masks and cleaned them down before you sat there.

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I hope this post has answered some of your questions and gave you an overall view of what going away at the moment might be like. If anything it’s sparked my wanderlust once again, but as we all know, things can change very quickly and you have to try and be as open to change as possible.