The reason most people don’t know is because it isn’t much use so far.
Well, it probably isn’t needed. Croatia accepts the NHS paper card… it will be interesting whether Greece will also. Currently, however, these countries aren’t getting bulk UK tourism anyway because the airlines aren’t flying.
This is a funny sort of messaging, given that a significant % of the test providers are not delivering:
Due to the blatent profiteering and late delivery (and frequent non-delivery of the pre-return tests) by the test provider business, I am pretty sure there is zero enforcement of this stuff, in England at least. The only thing likely to be enforced is the pre-return test and that is enforced by the airlines, forcing many to spend loads of money abroad so they can fly back. The media here has AFAICT pretty well totally ignored this aspect, which is the worst part of it.
I have been unable to find the QR code spec for the vaccine status.
That is presumably intentional…
I was looking at Slovenia’s vaccination card requirements yesterday and noticed that they require a ‘unique identifier’ like a national ID number or insurance number. I guess they aren’t interested in US tourists, that may be illegal in the US and certainly isn’t common practice.
The reason was to investigate riding my motorcycle to Croatia from Germany and back. It’s possible including entry into Germany from the US as family of a German, now with no quarantine. But I think the cross border hassles are still too much for me to plan a trip beyond Austria.
Personally, I wouldn’t plan any trips of the sort you are thinking of. At the moment things are changing regularly. The UK have around 90% India variant. France 80% UK variant, and there is still the original, the South African, the Brazilian etc variants around. Who knows what will happen next? And how the governments will react. Yes, particularly in the UK the vaccine programme is going really well but look at the trouble @Peter goes to just for a 1 day tour on his own in his own aircraft coming into close contact with few or no other people. And even he makes allowances for one of the Governments changing the rules or somebody interpreting them differently on that one day. From the US you could be stuck here for months.
Understood, thanks.
My wife has an important (happy) reason to be in Germany later this year, a new arrival in the family, so that is the main reason for my EU travel musings. My wife’s family has a second house in Austria, so that’s on my mind. Otherwise I am holding deposits in Corsica (one of my favorite places anywhere) for 2022.
If I were to get ‘stuck’ as a result of European border issues I would leave the bike in that location and buy an airline ticket from there, let’s say from Zagreb, directly home to the US.
Thanks again for the input.
look at the trouble @Peter goes to just for a 1 day tour on his own in his own aircraft coming into close contact with few or no other people
I think you meant 1 week 
One cannot plan firmly for a trip months ahead, but I think former Yugoslavia is not going to be a problem – at least not do something crazy suddenly. The problems are with governments which have complex domestic political interests to massage concurrently, and are not too bothered about tourism (as in foreign visitors).
Much concern in the political circles here in the UK about the current trend, due almost entirely to the Indian variant which has been spreading in certain spots and is now appearing outside them. The scientists are extrapolating the current trend (my arrow) and ignoring the fact that once it starts to hit the vaccinated parts of the country (basically everywhere except where it has been growing fast recently) it will tail off, but we are likely to get an extended lockdown, no travel concessions, and no recognition of vaccination status which is a huge political hot potato anyway in the UK…
From here
From here
OTOH is the UK is doing a huge amount of testing. The Indian variant will be everywhere in Europe already anyway – basically everywhere where there are Indian communities (they are heavy travellers to India). It is believed to be 1.6x more infectious than the previous ones, so can’t be stopped by any reasonable measures, so this is now a straight battle between it and the vaccination programme.
I have a feeling that if UK pilots want to travel abroad they need to do it ASAP, although there is the 5 day (7+ day in reality, with the test delays) quarantine on return.
I would not want to do an airline trip anywhere, due to the difficulties with the pre-return test.
Just heard the Indian version is also 2x more likely to land you in hospital… None of this is a problem for vaccinated people, however, but the UK will happily destroy its economy in the name of equality and solidarity
75% of the population hereabouts has had at least one vaccination shot, infection rate very low, and most (but not all) of the government imposed restrictions are now gone. It’ll be interesting to see the response of local businesses. They have some remaining discretion in relation to masks etc, and in a competitive environment so do their customers.
Interesting…
Here in the UK we are locked down for another month, because nobody wants to stick their neck out on the above mentioned “dodgy extrapolation”, and to be fair the govt would be slaughtered by the opposition (which now includes all the “anti any use of vacc status for anything whatever” crowd) if any significant numbers (say a few k) died. Even if the few k were mostly hard anti-vaccers who were entitled+offered but refused (or were “advised” not to by their “community leaders”).
It will be interesting what happens elsewhere with the Indian variant, which is everywhere now but at a low level currently. The US should be fine because of the vaccination progress.
And I reckon the UK would be fine too despite the variant getting a head start here via the huge numbers arriving at the very peak of the Indian crisis.
The most frustrating thing is the completely stupid and idiotic “return from travel abroad” test regime. Practically, for the 5 day release option (read: 7 days at best) you have four tests, cost ~£340/person minimum AFAICT, and the pre-return test is the most dodgy of them. I reckon 90% of the test vendors are basically criminals, who were doing shark loans last year and welding together cars the year before Anybody doubting this, read the reviews.
The result: UK holiday accommodation is almost gone. The UK never had much capacity for tourism, due to sh1tty wx
Silvaire wrote:
It’ll be interesting to see the response of local businesses.
And the responses from the local consumers.
In Germany most shops, restaurants, etc. are open again, but esp. in restaurants the customers do not come back as expected. Most restaurants are actually pretty empty. Many owners I know are now scared that people actually got used to staying at home and shopping online and it takes a long time until activity gets back to normal (if at all)
