So how many of us are actually going (hopefully)

[BAJ]

The Times are reporting this morning that quarantine free travel for the double jabbed will start on 26th July for UK citizens. This would be fantastic news and long overdue.

Hope so, that would certainly make it a more realistic prospect for those who are willing and able to go but can’t at present owing to the quarantine period.

[BAJ]

TUI are now showing holidays, mainly from Manchester and Newcastle, with an odd Gatwick one. The first Stansted one is August 30th...We like the security of a package holiday, but it seems we may have to start looking at independent travel.

Karen, I understand what you mean about the security of a package holiday, especially in these uncertain times. We book whichever works out best for us and are quite comfortable going independent. Most of the  owners will roll any deposit over if you can’t go, I paid deposit for Anatoli for a holiday that should have happened in July last year, rolled it to May this year and now rolled to next May. Plus you get your pick of accommodation. As for flights, that’s a double edged sword, paid for at time of booking and only refunded if they cancel the flight. However worth checking current airline policies as they all seem to be offering some degree of flexibility to change bookings.
Worth looking at if it’s something you can do, some bargain flights about at the moment. What’s your preferred departure airport, I’ve sadly been keeping an eye on which flights are actually arriving in Corfu at present.

[Jimbo]

For us it is really inconvenient to go DIY - although we have done it. Only TUI fly from Doncaster, which is a massively more convenient airport for us - it's 50 minute drive, all on good roads or motorways. Leeds-Bradford is horrible to get to, and a much less pleasant airport all round. Manchester involves driving across the M62 - which is inclined to congestion and road-works, and probably needs a hotel overnight as well.

Tomorrow we should have been on the 07:00 plane from Doncaster for three weeks at Nafsika. The dreadfully cold weather in our part of the UK makes it all the more painful. How nice it would have been to drive through the dawn with the car heating on and fly away to 30^o and a beach. Miserable year. Let's hope things pick up before long. Want a Mythos. Now.

[BAJ]

Totally understand that, East Mids is 20 mins away for us so much easier to fly from. Fingers crossed Jimbo that TUI flights start from Doncaster and you can get a September holiday perhaps.

[Jimbo]

TUI are showing flights from Donny from July 23rd. We've got a September booking, but who knows what the situation will be?

East Midlands is not too bad from Hull - but there are the vagaries of the M1 to cope with. We flew from there once - stayed in a nice little hotel the night before. Early morning there was a fox running about in the field we could see from our bedroom window. Small airports are so much nicer an experience unless you want fifty duty free shops. Donny rarely has more than three flights' worth of people in the big departure/gate area, which has runway views. Very few delays, a two-minute taxi from the gate to the runway rather than about twenty minutes at Gatwick or Manchester. There are usually two or three TUI planes based there - so the crew are fresh and cheerful, and it's only about two hours fifty minutes to Corfu. Not much shopping: one place flogging perfume etc, a Smiths and a Wetherspoons. I flew a lot in my main working life, and frankly you can keep big airports. My main hates were Schiphol (huge walk to get to a gate), Detroit (vast and unpleasant, with the rudest staff anywhere) and Gatwick (crowded and basically horrible). Same goes for Heathrow - though I did have a good time the day after Terminal Four opened flying BA to the Caribbean - there was nobody there but the maybe twenty people on the flight. Gillie's first ever flight was with me from Luton. It was a night flight, and the fruit-machine in the departure hut (it really was, then) got stuck on a winning position and kept spewing out money. We had so many coins I suspect they had to take on more fuel.

Greek island airports are getting a bit flash, and nowhere near as much fun as they used to be. Remember the days when the Rep's instructions were "Check in, then climb through that hole in the fence and get a drink at the taverna just up the hill. When you see your plane land it's time to go through departures."

I do hope the regional airports can survive this awful period. People who only fly from London airports or Manchester don't know what they're missing. 

[Karen]

Thank you BAJ. We go from Stansted, it is 50 minutes away, Gatwick is at least 3hours, which makes it a long journey home for us and not the easiest place to get to.

[Karen]

Love that Jim..We went from Luton when it was like that!

[BAJ]

Thank you BAJ. We go from Stansted, it is 50 minutes away, Gatwick is at least 3hours, which makes it a long journey home for us and not the easiest place to get to.

Bad news at present then Karen, in the last week there have been a total of zero flights arrive in Corfu from Stansted.  Not even any from Luton.

[Karen]

Bad news at present then Karen, in the last week there have been a total of zero flights arrive in Corfu from Stansted.  Not even any from Luton.

I know, I don't understand why..supply and demand, I guess..

[BAJ]

Jet2 have just updated their site that they expect the next traffic light review to be on 15th July, so have extended their cancelled flights up to and including 18th July pending the review.

[Dupnica]

Flying home this evening.I've had a wonderful time,met up with old friends and made some new ones. It was worth all the hassle. Forget all the hoops you have to jump through and come if you can.I haven't seen a newspaper or watched  the news for two weeks and I haven't missed all that gloom and doom that is fed to us daily.

[BAJ]

Flying home this evening.I've had a wonderful time,met up with old friends and made some new ones. It was worth all the hassle. Forget all the hoops you have to jump through and come if you can.I haven't seen a newspaper or watched  the news for two weeks and I haven't missed all that gloom and doom that is fed to us daily.

Brilliant, enjoy your last day. where did you stay?

[Dupnica]

Limani, behind the Church.

[Evertonendo]

The Times are reporting this morning that quarantine free travel for the double jabbed will start on 26th July for UK citizens. This would be fantastic news and long overdue.

I hope thats true would be lovely to get away x

[BAJ]

Bad news at present then Karen, in the last week there have been a total of zero flights arrive in Corfu from Stansted.  Not even any from Luton.

Karen, I have to amend the above, a Ryan air flight arrived from Stansted this evening!