Travel - would you go?

almostthere said:
I see that the Government is to promote Staycation holidays this year. They are talking about scraping last years tax back scheme or whatever it was called, for a more user friendly scheme this season.

There have been the usual travel journalists promoting Irish holidays etc.

I would love to see one of these journalists or any journalist make a list of 10 hotels and price a holiday in mid August at today's prices and then price the same stay when the Government's new scheme is revealed.
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Nothing to stop you doing it yourself.
 
almostthere said:
I see that the Government is to promote Staycation holidays this year. They are talking about scraping last years tax back scheme or whatever it was called, for a more user friendly scheme this season.

There have been the usual travel journalists promoting Irish holidays etc.

I would love to see one of these journalists or any journalist make a list of 10 hotels and price a holiday in mid August at today's prices and then price the same stay when the Government's new scheme is revealed.
Click to expand...

I don’t know anyone that availed of that scheme last year. IIRC it didn’t start ‘til August and we were back in lockdown by October.

I’d say mid-August prices will be unaffected anyway because from what I hear, on radio and anecdotally, every hotel is booked solid.

Anyway, a “staycation” is a stay at home vacation. If they are to incentivise it I’d assume it won’t be accommodation based. Rather dining, entry fees, etc.
 
Paul O Mahoney said:
www.bloomberg.com

EU May Allow Vaccinated U.S. Tourists This Summer, NYT Says

The European Union plans to open its doors this summer to U.S. tourists who’ve been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, the New York Times reported, citing the head of the bloc’s executive body.
www.bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com

If this were to happen it will probably be both ways.
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I might be wrong, but I assume EU countries rely a lot more on US tourist dollars than the US relies on European tourists.
 
EasilyAmused said:
Anyway, a “staycation” is a stay at home vacation. If they are to incentivise it I’d assume it won’t be accommodation based. Rather dining, entry fees, etc.
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Doesn't attract me to be honest - and any scheme won't compensate at least for myself for the typical August weather here in Ireland, etc etc ....

www.rte.ie

Ryanair may cancel Irish routes over quarantine

Ryanair has said it is considering cancelling a number of Irish routes as a result of the mandatory hotel quarantine system.
www.rte.ie www.rte.ie
thats an interesting move

And India still isn't yet on the hotel quarantine list?
 
Merowig said:
www.rte.ie

Ryanair may cancel Irish routes over quarantine

Ryanair has said it is considering cancelling a number of Irish routes as a result of the mandatory hotel quarantine system.
www.rte.ie www.rte.ie
thats an interesting move

And India still isn't yet on the hotel quarantine list?
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Dunno about elsewhere but RyanAir won’t be operating out of Cork this year. The airport is closed completely for four months anyway.

I think the hotel quarantine is updated just once a week. I assume India will be added the next time.
They celebrated defeating the virus a few weeks ago. Things changed fast. There’s a new variant found too which has been detected in Ireland.
 
Has anybody looked into travelling somewhere with an antigen test rather than the expensive PCR test?
From this link, Poland, Sweden, Lithuania, Croatia, Slovenia and Bulgaria all accept it.
I imagine it would have to be certified by a professional rather than done at home - how much would this cost?
 
alwaysonit said:
Has anybody looked into travelling somewhere with an antigen test rather than the expensive PCR test?
From this link, Poland, Sweden, Lithuania, Croatia, Slovenia and Bulgaria all accept it.
I imagine it would have to be certified by a professional rather than done at home - how much would this cost?
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The accuracy of some of the antigen tests in non-trained hands is down around 50%, but both are offered in Dublin airport. Antigen testing is €89 versus PCR at €129.
 
A test would definitely need to a carried out by a professional.

Randox Galway now have express PCR (results next morning) at €89 and Antigen for €49 (one hour results).

I am due to travel to Poland this Summer and they accept antigen. From what I can see online, a negative antigen test completed within 48 hours of departure also means that you do not need to self isolate at all upon entry to Poland (some great cities and resorts that make for a great and reasonably priced holiday).

Its amazing really when you compare that approach to our own.
 
Feria50 said:
Its amazing really when you compare that approach to our own.
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Poland’s Covid deaths per million is 1,860. This is very high, even worse then the USA.
They have a land border with Czechia (third highest death rate worldwide) and are very close to Hungary (worse death rate).

Ours is not perfect, but Poland could have save many lives by following our approach (fewer than 1,000 dpm).
 
@alwaysonit that's good that you can go to those destinations with an antigen test but you still have to get by the guards at Dublin airport, maybe they will be gone by June ? I also see the electric picnic promoter is planning on going ahead with this year's festival combined with antigen testing after the successful trial concert in Liverpool last week
 
@EasilyAmused To be fair I am thinking about the here and now rather than passed mistakes & lessons.

If it was possible to get metrics say from December 1st 2020 to today I expect the results might be different. Every country has changed their pandemic management approach on several occasions since March 2020 so there is no point comparing past performance (I don't mean that in a flippant way).

Sticking purely with Poland, their current incidence rate is higher than ours but has been falling for the past few weeks. The wave we experienced in January simply took a little longer to travel across the rest of Europe.

Staying with the hear and now, Poland has exactly the same % of vaccinations administered as we do and in an Irish context we know that this has had a huge impact on death rate and hospitalistations.

Anyway I simply think our approach to travel is overkill at present from a risk/reward perspective but its only when we look back in future will we know the answer
 
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Feria50 said:
To be fair I am thinking about the here and now rather than passed mistakes & lessons.

If it was possible to get metrics say from December 1st 2020 to today I expect the results might be different.
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12 months ago Czechia was the poster boy of Europe.
Now they’ve the third worst DPM worldwide.
 
@joe sod hopefully the first week of June but time will tell. If its simply rolled on for another period of time again without any 'roadmap' then I know I'll be booking via Belfast so that I can have certainty.
 
@EasilyAmused ok but I am talking about right now in Ireland where over 35% of the adult population (comprised mainly of the most elderly and vulnerable) have received a vaccine and comparing us to Poland where the vaccination rate is similar. BTW Spain is in excess of 40% and Germany I think has hit 50%.

Given the way the roll-out is speeding up across Europe I dont think an arbitary €2k fine for travelling to an airport is fair given that you will need a negative test of one type or another before departure and again before arrival back.

Covid will continue to circulate and we typically have in the region of 500 cases a day despite the travel restictions that are in place. This might increase with the current reopening and might also increase with reduced international travel restrictions but its the hospitalisations and death rate that matter.

Just to be clear I am not advocating in anyway for the removal of travel restictions altogether. I just feel that given the point we have reached, our restictions are particularly onerous in the context of EU travel
 
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