Dear Reader,
THIS should be one of the busiest days of the year for travel. Airports would normally be heaving but, instead, no one knows for sure what’s around the corner — not even the Prime Minister, who presumably receives briefings every few hours about where’s safe and where’s best to be avoided.
Making key decisions — such as the one seven days ago that all those returning from Spain must self-isolate for 14 days — is not an enviable task, but a little more consistency would not go amiss.
Madeira and the Azores, for example, are deemed to be safe destinations for tourists, and yet anyone returning from these far-flung Portuguese islands must go into quarantine on their return to Britain.
Poor old Portugal. You wonder what the country — which traditionally welcomes more than two million Britons each year — has done to deserve such treatment, especially when it has lower infection rates per population than Belgium, Monaco and Andorra.
Every day at Escape we receive an unprecedented number of letters and emails from readers seeking advice. We respond to as many as possible, but when it comes to advising about the future, the honest answer is that we don’t have all the answers. No one does.
Where we feel on more solid ground is reflected in this week’s cover story. Seldom have our great cities been so inviting.
Not everything is open, but many high streets are unusually quiet; cathedrals have regained their tranquillity; and museums and art galleries are without their normal queues.
There’s good news, too, for those planning to go further afield, such as to St Lucia (above), with some great deals if you book well ahead, as we report on Pages 60 and 61.
A lot of people have written off overseas travel for now, but we expect high demand for winter sun next season.
Apparently, tandem bicycles are already in high demand — and so we sent our man to try one in the Yorkshire Dales. His account on Page 64 might just inspire you to give it a go. Just make sure you’re belting out Harry Dacre’s classic Daisy Bell from 1892.