Is Travelling to Spain Worth the Risk?

Like many UK citizens, I had a holiday booked to Spain ready for this summer. When the news about Coronavirus unfolded at the beginning of the year, I had my doubts about whether or not the holiday would go ahead but our flights were never cancelled so we believed the holiday to be set in stone. Until five days ago when the UK government announced that we would have to go into a fourteen day quarantine upon returning home and the very next day, our flights were cancelled.

On 25th July, it was announced that people travelling from Spain would have to self-quarantine for fourteen days. Prior to this, we were able to travel to the holiday hotspot without having to self-quarantine on return but that changed after a spike in coronavirus cases in Spain. Leading the increase of cases, Aragon, Catalonia and its capital Barcelona are at the heart of it all with 10,134 new cases in the last two weeks after a nationwide lockdown was lifted.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended the government’s decision to impose a fourteen day quarantine upon return when he said that there were signs of a second wave of the virus in Europe. Regardless of Johnson’s warnings prior to this, travellers were adamant on going through with their holiday in Spain as they took to the skies. However, an effective travel ban was placed on Spain over the weekend due to the spike, throwing many holiday plans into chaos. The government has advised travel to Spain to only be under essential circumstances and if anyone decides to book a holiday to Spain then they are unlikely to be covered by travel insurance which, in my opinion, is not a risk worth taking.

Although holiday cancellations are a devastating disaster, I would personally much rather plan to go next year and have a much better time with the absence of the paranoia I was guaranteed to have felt if I had gone through with my holiday. I realise that many people may not have the same view as me but a fourteen day quarantine was not an option for me as I am going straight to university so I would have only had a week to buy stuff for accommodation and see everyone; it simply would not have worked.

Instead, we are utilising the two weeks we would have spent in Spain to go on other trips. For example, during the first week we have decided to go on a boat in York and for the second week, we are visiting Edinburgh. Although it isn’t the same as a hot, relaxing holiday in Spain, it will still be a nice family trip. At the end of the day, a holiday, no matter where it is located is bound to be enjoyable because it is about what you make it. There is always a silver lining, you just have to look for it.