After what seems like an eternity of lockdowns and staycations, many of us are itching to get out and see the world again. Abi Millar asks the experts how travel is likely to open up in 2022 as the world tries to move to living with the virus, and looks at how you can travel safely.
2020 was a bad year for wannabe globetrotters. As stay at home orders were issued across the globe, and ‘lockdown’ entered the lexicon, we all had to get used to the fact we weren’t going anywhere any time fast. That gap year backpacking through South America, or even just the family holiday to Spain, would need to be put on ice.
Even as life has edged back towards normality, and restrictions on our social lives have eased, foreign travel has remained a complicated subject. On one hand, the vaccine rollout has been a huge success in many countries, meaning holidays abroad are no longer an absolute no-no. On the other hand, anyone wishing to travel in 2021 has had to navigate a confusing jumble of rules and restrictions.
In the UK, countries were placed on the ‘green’, ‘amber’ and ‘red’ lists, with the colours indicating the degree of restrictions on travel. The government came under flak for regularly changing the rules, not to mention moving countries from one list to another with very little notice.
Notably, travellers in green-list Portugal faced a frantic scramble to the airport when they heard it was moving to the amber list. The rule change meant they would face an unexpected ten-day quarantine on their return, plus the cost of two PCR tests. For many people biding their time back home, this became something of a cautionary tale and a real impediment to booking a foreign holiday.
Read the rest of this article in the Winter 2021/22 edition of Overseas
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