Breaking Travel News - Red list countries down to 7 from 54

The latest changes to travel restrictions are explained here..

Red List Countries reduced

Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, has announced a massive reduction in the Red list which opens up most of the world bar 7 countries for holidaymakers.

Thailand, Mexico, South Africa are three of the more prominent countries that people from England can now travel to without the need to quarantine in a hotel at their own expense, these changes come into effect on Monday 11 October 2021.

From Monday only the following countries will be on the Red List:

• Peru
• Ecuador
• Colombia
• Panama
• Dominican Republic
• Haiti
• Venezuela

All other countries are now in the "rest of the world" category which doesn't require you to quarantine in a hotel.

How the entry rules to England & Wales now stand

With all the back and forth in regulations, here we'll try to bullet point as simply as possible what the current rules are:

• If returning from the 7 red list countries - you must pre-book a hotel quarantine at your own expense
• If returning from "the rest of the world" AND fully vaccinated you now only need to test on 2 day after arrival - PCR test before returning to the UK is NOT required
• Eligible travellers fully vaccinated outside of the UK, will now be treated the same as returning UK residents - day 2 test only
• Those not fully vaccinated and those not from an eligible country will still need to take (a) PCR test 72 hours before arrival to the UK; (b) day 2 & day 8 test or day 2 and day 5 test to release; (c) 10 days self isolation.

Good news on the horizon

From a Travel Industry perspective, the best part of the announcement was that from later this October the requirement for a PCR test on day 2 will be scrapped to allow people to take a much much cheaper lateral flow test instead, the best price for a private lateral flow test we have found is £4.99 as opposed to £60 and upwards for a PCR test.

The transport secretary has said that he would like this change to be in place before people return from half-term breaks.

These countries are on the eligible list for parity in entry rules

*Table courtesy of www.gov.uk

Summary

There will be a massive debate on whether these moves are right or wrong, however, let's not forget that travel restrictions have kept apart families and friends for varying amounts of time during these past 18 months, so from the perspective of reuniting loved one's and thereby adding that added cheer, we welcome the latest rules.

From an industry perspective slashing the list of countries that cannot be travelled to and decimating the cost of travelling in terms of testing requirements, gives us hope of saving industry jobs and a clear strong light at the end of the tunnel.

Update 15 October 2021

Breaking News....15 October 2021

From October 24, 2021, the requirement for a PCR test to avoid quarantine will be dropped for arrivals from non-red list countries for those who are fully vaccinated, instead, a much cheaper lateral flow test can be taken on day 2 after arrival.

Eligible travellers are those fully vaccinated in over 100 countries including, India, Pakistan, Brazil, Ghana, Turkey all of whom can now take the cheaper and faster lateral flow test to be exempt from quarantine.  Interestingly it is planned that these can also be taken at test centres in arrival halls of UK airports, please do remember NHS lateral flow tests are not to be used for this purpose - only private vendors should be used.

The cheapest lateral flow test from a government-approved vendor that we have found is £1.25, click here to visit the official list of vendors.