Will young people be able to go on holiday this summer?

Simon Calder answers your questions on vaccine passports, European flights and more

Cyprus is opening up for British tourists in May (Getty/iStock)

Q We constantly hear about vaccine passports, which my husband, aged 69, will get before me (he’s had his first Covid jab). I’m 42 so will get mine in the next phase. Fingers crossed, we’ll both be able to get vaccine passports by the summer. We’ve seen the news about Cyprus opening up. But we have a 13-year-old daughter. How will she be able to travel with us when these passports are introduced?

Name supplied

A The remarkable amount of coverage that Cyprus gained on Friday showed the potential appetite for a Mediterranean getaway and the hunger for an internationally recognised certificate of your vaccination status.

The island became the first traditional holiday destination to provide a date, 1 May, and a condition – both jabs – for travellers from the UK. But I spoke to the deputy tourism minister on Friday afternoon and learnt there was quite a lot more to the Cypriot plan than just a “Have jab? Can travel” regime.

Savvas Perdios told me that his hope was that the whole of the UK would be on the island’s “green list” this summer – signifying minimal risk to the local population – at which point all British travellers would be welcomed in without formality, regardless of vaccination status. Which is just as well, because there are no vaccine passports at present.

While airlines, holiday companies and national governments have agreed for ages that globally recognised certificates of vaccination status will be necessary for a successful relaunch of international travel, there has been very little coordination. Were you to decide to go to Cyprus and avail of the vaccine fast track, at present you would have to request a letter from your doctor – which is probably the last thing that GPs need right now.

Your daughter, meanwhile, will certainly be allowed to travel. Whatever the destination, though, she might need to test in advance and/or on arrival. Under-12s get a free pass to Cyprus, but teenagers do not.

At this stage I would not fret about the likely strings attached to your next family holiday. Everything is changing fast in the world of travel, and I am increasingly confident that the view of British travellers will change from the “sick men and women of Europe” to “the girls and boys of summer” as the vaccine programme continues to improve the outlook.

Will a Barcelona break soon be on the cards? (Getty/iStock)

Q I live in south Wales. When might we be able to drive to Spain?

John R

A The answer depends on decisions that will be made in Cardiff, London, Madrid and possibly Paris.

On 12 March, the first minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, is due to update the path to unlocking the nation. He may include plans for allowing travel across the border into England, which I imagine will be the first frontier on your journey (the alternative via Ireland and France looks convoluted and even more complex).

I anticipate this will be no earlier than 29 March. The reason I picked that date is because England will relax the stay-at-home rule on that day. It may be that other UK nations, possibly including Wales, do the same – though if last year’s reopening is anything to go by, it may be some weeks after that.

Getting out of the UK will have to wait until mid-May. This week, the transport secretary reiterated that there will be no international travel from the UK before 17 May. Even when outbound travel is allowed, the extremely onerous restrictions on returning to the UK will need to be eased – unless you are prepared to take a Covid test in the three days before travel and pay £210 for two further tests on days two and eight after your arrival – not forgetting 10 days of self-isolation.

I predict that these stipulations will be eased – probably to a single pre-departure test – for some nations by 17 May. But whether they include Spain (and France, if that is your preferred route) depends on the trajectory of infection numbers and “variants of concern”. Furthermore, Spain will need to be open to British tourists without undue pre-conditions. And if France is on your route, the government in Paris must lift its current ban on arrivals from the UK, and make the frontier with Spain tolerable.

My best guess when all this might line up: mid-June, plus or minus a month.

The US is not on the banned list, but differing rules make it complicated (Getty)

Q Could a person flying from Miami to London Heathrow with a final destination in Glasgow connect on an internal flight and self-isolate in Scotland or do they need to quarantine in London? Asking for someone else who could potentially be travelling on business in the next week or two.

Roslyn H

A Your question illustrates the confusion of current quarantine rules in England and Scotland. The Scottish government insists that all direct arrivals from outside the UK and Ireland must go into hotel quarantine at Aberdeen, Edinburgh or Glasgow – at a price of £1,750 for 11 nights.

In contrast, “managed quarantine” in a hotel in England applies only for arrivals from the 33 “red list” countries – including Portugal, the UAE, South Africa and Brazil, but not the United States.

Before this measure was introduced on 15 February, Scottish ministers asked their counterparts in England to arrange for people heading for Scotland to be identified at the airport of arrival and escorted into hotel quarantine. This request was ignored. Instead, anyone landing in England whose final destination is in Scotland will simply need to self-isolate at home.

As a result, the vast majority of travellers heading to Scotland are routing themselves via England to avoid the high cost and discomfort of hotel quarantine.

It is yet another example of the unintended consequences flowing from ill-thought-out quarantine rules. England’s red list regulations mean passengers from the UAE are barred from the many direct flights from Abu Dhabi and Dubai to the UK, and instead must take more convoluted journeys via Istanbul, Paris or Dublin. Scotland’s blanket hotel quarantine policy diverts travellers via England.

In the case of your friend, they are technically allowed to take the Tube into central London and a train from there to Glasgow. But a much lower-risk version is to change planes at Heathrow.

On arrival in Scotland, they must go directly to their quarantine location for 10 full days and take Covid tests on days two and eight.

Cape Town is normally a great escape at this time of year (Getty)

Q My wife and I are considering a holiday in South Africa at this time next year. As we will use Avios, this popular destination makes early booking necessary. Can you give us an idea of what the flight will look like, as 11 hours-plus wearing a mask and with only a spartan service would be too much for us.

Ron D

A Early March in South Africa is blissful. The summer heat has abated, the (usual) holiday crowds have thinned and the autumn is glorious. So it makes a great escape – which is why demand is so strong for seats on the British Airways flights to Johannesburg and, more particularly, Cape Town. BA is currently selling tickets on both routes for early next year, which is a good sign, though there is sadly no sign of the short-lived nonstop link with Durban – one of many routes to have been axed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Your enquiry is well-timed because British Airways generally puts seats on offer 355 days before departure, and the handful open to people booking with Avios frequent-flyer points are normally snapped up fast.

Neither you nor I know what restrictions may apply for long-haul flights a year from now. Personally, I believe measures designed to reduce the risk of coronavirus spreading will largely have been lifted by then, with Covid rates across the world much lower, and a combination of vaccine and testing certification allowing far more freedom to travel than we currently have. I predict masks will no longer be obligatory onboard planes – though they may still be needed when passing through crowded airports.

Regarding “spartan service”: I’m not sure that we will return to the good old days of 2019 in terms of the inflight offering. The airlines have been so hard hit financially that they will be looking to cut costs wherever possible. But I am sure it will be perfectly bearable.

My only suggestion: as you say that the current requirements would be “too much for us”, you might want to wait until very shortly before departure. In my experience, Avios seats often suddenly become available at a few days’ notice. If that doesn’t happen then you will be able to buy good-value cash tickets on an excellent carrier such as Ethiopian Airlines via Addis Ababa. That would be my preferred strategy.