Anyone risking booking a foreign holiday

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Daddy Ireland

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Am I mad to be even thinking about it this year ? End of Aug early Sep France by air or ferry.
Anyone take the plunge ?
 
Probably not but I haven't completed discounted it yet. Usually go to campsites in France, so besides the pool, there's tons of space for social distancing. May near somewhere near the beach but the Atlantic is VERY cold
 
I’m not. I don’t want to get stuck in an endless cycle of refunds/vouchers if there’s a second wave. Equally I don’t want to have to leave the money on the table if the destination ends up being open but we don’t feel comfortable travelling for whatever reason. So it’s a ‘wait and see’ from me.
 
I have an apartment reserved for end of September/early October in Spain. Thankfully I did not book the flights.

While I would love to go as this was our second trip to the same apartment block in the same area. We were going for a week to see if we had finally found the location, where we might spend a month or two at a time over the winter.

I am not sure if we want to travel now. I would like to hear back from those people who do make the first trips before I commit. We have until mid July to cancel or pay the balance outstanding. I expect to cancel. At the moment we are still waiting on Ryanair to refund for flights not taken in April and May and for a French hotel to refund for a stay not taken in May.

I finally got a refund from the ESB for a credit bill when I switched providers months ago. I am getting refunds from Laya and I am seeking a refund from Aviva for car insurance. It's tiring. So I think that we will skip 2020 and review again in 2021.
 
I have to travel long haul for business and will admit to being apprehensive about it. Maybe a successful mission will bolster my confidence but for the moment I’m not going to travel abroad on holiday. There’s still too much uncertainty. It feels like we’re abandoning caution too fast.
 
I'm taking a wait and see approach. Wouldn't.mind chancing Bulgaria in September
 
SBarrett said:
Probably not but I haven't completed discounted it yet. Usually go to campsites in France, so besides the pool, there's tons of space for social distancing. May near somewhere near the beach but the Atlantic is VERY cold
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Campsites is exactly what I had in mind. Social distancing as you say is easy enough. It's the flights/airports that bothers me really.
 
Were not this year, postponed ours to next year for Netherlands. Booked into centreparcs, longford, though so the kids can have some kid of getaway
 
Have a week in Kerry booked for August. Might do a city break or the Canaries Nov or Dec but it will be booked late.
 
Sunday Times has calculated that an average of 74% of Ryanair seats have been booked on flights Dublin to Alicante, 50% of seats to Lanzarote and 42% of seats to Barcelona for first week of July. High enough %'s.
 
Daddy Ireland said:
Sunday Times has calculated that an average of 74% of Ryanair seats have been booked on flights Dublin to Alicante, 50% of seats to Lanzarote and 42% of seats to Barcelona for first week of July. High enough %'s.
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There's an cold bitter wind blowing here today and yesterday, Spain is looking very tempting in spite of Corona. :)
 
Have ditched my overseas travel plans this year.

May have to write off what I've paid out, still uncertain if I can rebook for 2021 or get refund.

Expect to do touring / hiking holiday in Ireland this year.
 
Booked end of October and looking forward to it. Unless or course, there is another large outbreak or something. I can be sensible and use my common sense in a sunny Country as easily as I can here. So I don't see the difference between a hotel or self catering break here or abroad. Not like Ireland is safer than a lot of the tourist Countries.

Also I priced a holiday home in Ireland for a week in September back in April. It was €700 but they wanted payment in full and wouldn't take a deposit so I wasn't willing to risk it. I contacted them last week. The house for the same week is now €1300. Have a look at hotel prices for later in the year. Irish Tourism is going to do what it does best. Charge ridiculous prices while bleating to the Government looking for VAT reductions etc. Airlines will be offering sales to get people flying again. Foreign Tourism will offer deals to get people to visit again. You won't see that from Irish Tourism. Obviously I won't risk my family's health but with all things being equal, a week or two abroad will still offer significantly better value than a holiday here.
 
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In normal circumstances, I'd be packing my stuff for 2 months in Spain now. Although no instance of Covid-19 was recorded in the resort, I'm still not going for the following reasons:-
1. Confined situation in the aircraft, more hand contact with objects at the departure airport, passengers from other countries at the airport of arrival + additional contact with more objects, confined space of shuttle bus and obvious concerns.
2. The resort has holidaymakers from Madrid and Barcelona (both Covid-19 hotspots) = more concern.
3. The resort has holidaymakers from countries which treated Covid-19 with less restrictions than us.
4. Fear of Next Wave of Covid-19 could be a tsunami.

Already most airlines have cancelled flights from the UK to Spain until 15th July and possible that later dates will be cancelled too. (Airlines usually know more than us!).

Perhaps it will be October (at earliest) for us this year.
 
They practically doubled the cost of renting a house for a week:eek: and no guarantee of hot weather. I agree with Sunny, I would take the first plane out of the country before I would pay those exorbitant prices for one week house rental.
 
I was looking yesterday at flights in November this year for 3 people.
They are gone up by €600.
Qatar airway have the same route and date for €700 cheaper but we opted for a travel credit as we couldn't get a cash refund.
I don't think I'll be pay another €600 on top of the couple of thousand I've all ready left with them.
 
My son has a holiday in Spain booked for July 6th. He has free cancellation on the hotel until the end of June. Aer Lingus have not cancelled his flight . As of now people are advised against non essential travel. He only has an option to change the flight but Aer Lingus have not updated their system to see flights for next summer. He would gladly take a voucher but as of now he has not been offered one. It would only suit him to travel then. Hopefully in the next week or two it might become clearer. Has anyone got advice as what is his best option, thanks.
 
My son received an email saying his flight time had been changed from afternoon to the morning and to ring them, Aer Lingus, to discuss. After an hour waiting to be answered he was offered a voucher or refund because it was changed by more than a few hours. He opted for a refund and was told that it would be in his bank account in 4 or 5 working days. All this took only about ten mins. He is very happy about this.
 
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