Dear Reader
HELLO Portugal — and farewell Croatia, Austria and Trinidad and Tobago. It’s all change again on the travel quarantine merry-goround, which will make sure that the summer of 2020 goes down as one of the most topsy-turvy ever.
No one should be surprised that Croatia has been bumped off the list — as the weekly Covid-19 cases have jumped from 10.4 per 100,000 on August 12 to 27.4 on August 19. When we sent a writer there in June, she reported that social distancing and other health measures were rudimentary at best.
It’s good news for Portugal — our cover story — where 2.1 million of us visit each year. That won’t happen in 2020, but the lifting of quarantine restrictions should make for a Portuguese Indian summer. I’ve been in the Algarve in October and needed to slap on the factor 30.
Meanwhile, the Government finally has made some positive noises about testing at airports as a means of avoiding blanket selfisolating rules. Some of us have been banging this particular drum for months. And, yesterday, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said ministers are examining the possibility of ‘regional corridors’ which could allow travel to certain islands within a country. The infection rate for Corsica, for example, is significantly lower than in other parts of France.
Speaking of which, a friend returned from mainland France on Wednesday by ferry and, while on board, registered his details on the Government website.
He was told at Calais to present his QR code at Dover, but there was no one there to scan it. He will stay at home for 14 days because he’s a law-abiding fellow, but there’s no way anyone will check up on him.
In Britain, demand for campsites, hotels and self-catering cottages has rocketed. Pitchup.com, a camping website, reports a 116 per cent increase in bookings compared with last year; English Heritage says families are flocking to its sites and, as we report on page 59, spas, pictured, are in big demand. Some of the spa treatments on offer nowadays require an open mind, but crazy days mean crazy ways.