Island holidays

The latest crucial travel updates were fed to us by a series of Tweets from the Transport Minister, Grant Shapps. No press conference, nothing.  Even the Northern Ireland and Scottish governments posted their updates before England found out what was happening.

So, where can you now go on holiday? The expansion of the green list, although not actually aligned with the FCDO advice, did include mostly island destinations, all of which have long been favourites with the British Holidaymaker. It's a step in the right direction.

All changes will come into effect from 4am Wednesday 30 June and apply to travellers entering England from the relevant country. To make it easy, I've only included those destinations that will let us in without silly amounts of quarantine on arrival, or whose international borders are actually open, or you don't have to travel through a red destination to get to it.

Moving to the Green list

Antigua & Barbuda

Balearic Islands (Majorca, Menorca, Ibiza & Formentera)

Barbados

British Virgin Islands

Grenada *48 hour quarantine

Madeira

Malta

Turks & Caicos

These destinations will be in addition to Iceland and Gibraltar where we can also travel to.

Israel & Jerusalem will be heading to the green watchlist - likely to go to amber or red soon.

The following countries are heading on to the red list - Dominican Republic, Haiti, Tunisia, Uganda, Eritrea

Everything else remains on the amber list.

If you are double vaccinated, entry requirements to some of these green destinations will be easier, eg Iceland where from 1 July, you no longer need to isolate on arrival.

Don't be fooled into thinking that travel will be easy this summer - it won't. There will still be entry and testing requirements, online forms to be completed. The other positive but vague news item in the Twitter feed confirmed that double vaccinated travellers will not have to quarantine when returning from a country on the amber list.

As ever, I'm here for questions, advice and help with your travel plans. Demand for the Balearics, Malta, Madeira and those Caribbean islands moving to green will be strong, and prices will increase, so don't leave it too late if you're desperate for some sun.  Any destination on the green list, can of course be moved to amber or red without warning, but I'm really hoping that doesn't happen as we move through the rest of the summer.

Are you ready to pack your bags?  Get in touch if you are.