Dear Reader,

TENSION mounts on Thursday evenings at Escape as we wait to hear which countries have been taken off or (more rarely) put on the travel corridor list.

This week, it was cheerio Cyprus and hello to, well, nowhere.

It’s becoming something of a pantomime (also mainly banned this year, as it happens) but without the laughs.

Come to think of it, there’s not always a lot of logic to panto plots — and some of us have felt for months that no great logic has been applied to the Government’s travel strategy. Or co-ordination, for that matter.

Switzerland has lifted its requirement for UK travellers to quarantine upon arrival there — but you’ll need to squirrel away for a couple of weeks on returning here from there.

Admittedly, the Swiss rate of infection is disturbingly high but, as the Office For National Statistics points out, the infection rate among those who travelled abroad in the past 30 days was almost the same as for those of us who stayed in Britain.

All is not lost, t hough, as next week, the Prime Minister is due to consider some of the proposals on testing that have been discussed by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps’s taskforce.

What’s paramount is that the quarantine period should be reduced from 14 to seven days for those who test negative on arrival back in the UK. This will go some way in encouraging people to book holidays.

A week’s break abroad followed by a further week at home could become a new normal.

No self-isolation at all is needed if you go to the Maldives, which we feature as our cover story this week, with some truly tempting reductions. And for those who need more reassurance about travelling in these tricky times, we’ve rounded up some clever — and unusual — travel accessories on Page 59.

My favourite is the Vermeer ‘Girl With A Pearl Earring’ backpack (pictured) — a reminder that it will take more than the dastardly Mr Covid to destroy our sense of humour.