The Sunday Times Travel - UK (2021-11-14)

2 November 14, 2021The Sunday Times

Travel

T

In the spirit of sharing travel horror

stories (“Our writers share their worst

travel tales”, last week)... Backpacking in

China in 1988 was relatively free and easy,

allowing me to sample the delights of Jim’s

Peace Café in Dali, in the southwest of the

country. My most prized possession was a

Swiss army knife, which I kept in a leather

pouch on my belt. One night, answering a

call of nature at Jim’s squat toilet, disaster

struck — the leather pouch slid off my belt

and fell into the toilet. I couldn’t possibly

survive without my indispensable knife

and decided there was nothing else for it

— I struck a match and deftly retrieved it

from its resting place down the hole.

Thirty-three years later I’m still married

to the Yorkshire lass I met in Chengdu,

and I still have the knife — although she

won’t eat fruit that I’ve peeled with it.

Rick Blaine via thetimes.co.uk

Foolishly, I once left a folder containing

my passport, airline tickets, credit cards,

travellers cheques and cash in the back of

a taxi in the northern Bangkok suburb of

Nonthaburi. Luckily I was visiting a friend

who is a monk. He made some calls and,

via an announcement on a local radio

station, the driver brought the folder to

the temple. I got the whole lot back; it was

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clear that he hadn’t opened the folder.

I gave him a substantial reward, and the

monk gave him amulets and blessings

for his extraordinary honesty.

Quizzical via thetimes.co.uk

I stayed in a small hotel near Mount

Elbrus in Russia, and the tour guides

carried guns in case we encountered

bears on our trek. One night they came

into the bar with a two-litre bottle of

locally made vodka each. We went to bed,

only to be woken up by gunfire — when we

looked out of the window the guides were

very drunk and randomly firing their

guns. We spent the night sleeping by the

wall underneath the window, in case a

stray shot came through the glass.

Johnny C via thetimes.co.uk

CLARKSON IN ZANZIBAR

Like Jeremy Clarkson (“Africa’s sweet

spot”, last week), I loved my time in

Zanzibar. Unlike poor Jeremy, who

returned home with an upset tummy,

I happily came home wearing an

engagement ring on my finger — it is 21

years since my husband proposed to me

on Zanzibar’s white sandy shoreline.

Reading this article made me long to

return to the island; until we can travel

freely again, I will instead indulge in

some enjoyable reminiscing.

Alison Roberts, Somerset

Jeremy Clarkson’s article brought back

many memories of visiting Zanzibar in

1997. We stayed at the Serena Hotel in

J

ust when everyone had begun

to rejoice that “travel was back

on!”, it goes back off again. Or at

least that’s the threat that hangs

over our single-jabbed 12 to

17-year-olds — and their families — as

winter approaches. Caught between the

UK’s cautious one-jab approach to

vaccinating the young and more urgent

programmes elsewhere, parents are

facing an obstacle course of

regulations that will

complicate and even derail

holiday plans.

The latest bump in

the road comes from

Austria. On Monday,

thanks to rising

infection rates, the

country announced it

was accelerating the

implementation of its

five-step Covid plan and

introducing a “2G rule”. This

won’t change the requirements for entry

— once-jabbed and unvaccinated children

aged 11 and over will still be welcome with

their fully vaccinated parents after

showing a negative test result (or proof of

Covid recovery, though the UK has no

formal system for this for under-16s).

The trouble starts once they’re in. For

entry to all kinds of communal indoor

settings they’ll need to prove that they’re

either double-jabbed or have recovered

from Covid. It will no longer be possible

simply to show a negative test result. If

they can’t show one of those two proofs,

then hotels, restaurants and cable cars

will all be off limits. It’s going to make the

average family ski holiday a considerable

challenge.

A big collective groan has gone up

from the local tourist industry, and the

Austrian National Tourist Office is in

urgent talks with government officials to

find a solution. In the meantime parents

of British teens with December holidays

booked are, not surprisingly, anxious.

The tour operator Inghams runs one

of the biggest ski holiday programmes in

Austria, and in cases like this it allows

customers to change their holiday date

and/or destination free of charge up to

28 days before departure. But its first

SEAN

NEWSOM

holidays start on December 13. The clock

doesn’t have long to tick.

Visitors to Austria are not the only ones

fretting. Skiers with family holidays

booked in France and Italy are waking up

to the fact that their single-jabbed teens

won’t automatically qualify for a vaccine

passport. Instead they’ll have to earn the

right to one by testing regularly once

they’re in their resorts.

In France they’ll have to get a new

negative PCR or antigen test every

72 hours, or else they won’t be able to

eat in restaurants or use other communal

spaces. In Italy they’ll need to take a

PCR test every 72 hours or an antigen test

every 48 hours, and the restrictions are

even tighter. They’ll need a vaccine

passport to access ski lifts as well as

restaurants. Next week a new

ruling may also require the

passports for ski lessons

and ski rental centres.

Are people right to

be worried? Set in the

context of Austria’s 2G

rule the outlook does

seem bleak, and the

rules for Germany and

Canada are even tighter.

At least the ski resorts are

mobilising. France, especially,

is seeing a flurry of activity as

winter approaches, with many big-name

resorts confirming that they are setting up

testing centres dedicated to serving those

nationalities that don’t have double-

jabbed teens. Val Thorens, Méribel,

Les Menuires and Val d’Isère have all

confirmed they will be running their

own facilities to supplement the work of

local pharmacies.

In Madonna di Campiglio in Italy, one

British operator, Enchanted Holidays, is

working with the local mayor and tourist

office to reopen a defunct pharmacy in

town and staff it with nurses from a

nearby medical centre. It is also planning

to co-ordinate the late arrival of its clients’

kids at ski school after they’ve received

their antigen test results. Most regions and

countries are publishing lists of all Covid-

testing facilities near their resorts.

In the meantime those with children

aged 16-17 will be hoping the government

will soon ask their teens to come forward

for a second dose. However, at the time of

writing the official wording is still vague:

“The timing of a second dose for these 16

and 17-year-olds will be confirmed later.”

Those families with 12 to 15-year-olds

who haven’t yet booked a holiday might

also want to consider Switzerland, where

under-16s are exempt from Covid passport

regulations. Thanks to the power of the

Swiss franc it can be an expensive

destination, but with skiing finally back on

the menu after nearly two years, that may

be a price they’re prepared to pay.

Are you grappling with teenage travel

restrictions? Let us know at travel@sunday-

times.co.uk for your chance to win £

towards a hotel stay

HOLIDAYS

ARE STILL

TRICKY

FOR TEENS

Parents face an obstacle

course of regulations that

could derail travel plans

In the

know

Don’t get caught

out this winter.

See page 13 for our

country-by country

guide

Banca do Antfer

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