Should we risk a trip to France this week?

Simon Calder answers your questions on the latest Covid travel conundrums as well as the best sunset he has ever seen

French connection: Caen in Normandy (Brittany Ferries)

Q We’re supposed to be on an 8am ferry to Caen on Thursday, 5 August, travelling to our holiday home and to visit family, for two weeks. Rumours abound regarding France’s status next week – even that it’s going on the red list. This terrifies us, especially as we’ll have our two dogs with us.

We simply can’t imagine what would happen at Portsmouth ferry terminal if red status is applied on our return. What happens to our dogs, car and belongings? We’re considering delaying our trip, what’s your advice please?

Sue T

A The decisions that have been made by ministers on international travel to the UK have been so weird that absolutely nothing can be ruled out – one reason why people like you are filled with apprehension rather than much-deserved anticipation at the prospects of a trip to France.

However, in your position I would look forward to the trip because I think the chances of the UK government making life even worse for British holidaymakers to Europe are vanishingly low.

Bear in mind that France finds itself in a specially created category of its own, “amber plus,” entirely because of a meeting between the prime minister and the health secretary on 16 July. Even vaccinated travellers are required to self-isolate after a journey from France. We now know that the mandatory quarantine rule is due to the presence of the Beta variant on the island of Réunion, 5,800 miles from Paris – which, bizarrely, is still regular amber and therefore an excellent place to “launder” the effects of a trip to France.

All of this is deeply and embarrassingly irrational, to the extent that the Office for National Statistics has lost patience and publicly ticked off the Joint Biosecurity Centre over the decision, writing: “It is the collective responsibility of all of government to ensure transparency of data and analysis.”

Ministers are finally being held to account over what appear to be arbitrary decisions, which gives me hope – as I wrote here on Monday evening – that the “amber plus” status will be lifted in Thursday’s announcement on the next “traffic light” category changes. You should get confirmation on the day you arrive in France.

The chances of France being moved to the red list during the peak month of August, are zero: the hotel quarantine system simply could not cope. So please don’t defer your trip.

The sun sets over the mosques and minarets of Khiva (Simon Calder)

Q Where was the best sunset you have ever seen?

J Middleton

A I shall reach back to the 20th century for both the most magnificent. The first was in 1986 (and at the moment it is not able to be replicated). I had paid £150 to fly on Concorde from London Heathrow to New York as a courier in the olden days. This was in the olden days before email when time-sensitive documents had to be checked in under a passenger’s name, opening up supersonic travel to cheapskates.

Once on board, the courier was treated exactly the same as every other traveller, with unlimited champagne and cigars, and in those wonderful pre-9/11 days given the opportunity to visit the flight deck to meet the two pilots and the flight engineer (this was not a low-cost operation).

I was on the evening departure from Heathrow, which meant that I had the extraordinary experience of watching the sunset approach from the flight deck. Since we were flying faster than the rotation of the earth, we were actually catching up with the sun. Add to that the 60,000ft altitude, way higher than any conventional plane, and you could see this all happening against the curvature of the Earth.

Back on ground level, though, the greatest sunset I ever saw was a decade earlier on my very first trip to Spain in 1976. At Granada I looked across not directly at the sunset but at the way it played on the Alhambra – bringing this astonishing palace to life, and opening my eyes to the wonders that the world.

This century, the best so far was in 2017 in the Uzbek city of Khiva – sitting on the roof of my B&B watching the sunset over the mosques and minarets of an astonishing testament to the creativity of humanity.

Covid-related eventualities aren’t necessarily covered with basic insurance (Simon Calder)

Q My sister and I are heading for France next week – our first trip since the coronavirus pandemic began. We are both in our seventies and have pre-existing medical conditions.

We have travel insurance provided by our credit cards, though I understand they have limited cover. Do we need to take out additional travel insurance to cover us for unexpected Covid-related eventualities?

Name supplied

A You are right to have concerns about “free” travel insurance provided by card companies. They generally do not cover older travellers with pre-existing medical conditions. But you are going to a country with good medical services, and where the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) and its post-Brexit successor, the GHIC, are still valid, providing emergency health care in public hospitals on the same basis as for local people.

So long as you are fully aware of the limitations of EHIC and GHIC cover (you will forego benefits such as air ambulance rescue), and are prepared to shoulder other risks, it is perfectly rational to decide not to take out additional travel insurance.

Just ensure you have the financial resources to support yourselves in the unlikely event that you test positive before returning to the UK and are obliged to self-isolate in France.

I hope the travel gods go with you.

Email your questions to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder