2 February 6, 2022The Sunday Times
Travel
Travel
T
LETTER OF THE WEEK
The best room service I’ve
had was at the Lowell in New
York (“My love affair with
room service”, last week). We arrived at
the hotel in the early evening, showered
and put on the fluffiest bathrobes. The
wood-burning fireplace was lit and it was
dark outside. Then the restaurant on the
ground floor delivered the most perfect
steak and fries with creamed spinach
and a fine red burgundy, followed by
cheesecake. We dined while watching the
snow fall outside — never to be forgotten.
Jake, via thetimes.co.ukI’m not usually a fan of room service,
but I identify with the sense of slight
embarrassment that you are puttingYOUR
VIEWSquite a number of people to quite a bit of
trouble. Great piece, Stig Abell — we need
stuff like this to cheer us up.
Chris Walker, via thetimes.co.ukConsidering the oppressive Covid rules
and facemasks required for air travel, I
would rather have a couple of nights at
the Connaught in London than a week in
the south of France — the same price,
and you’ll be treated like a king.
Shiresquaffer, via thetimes.co.ukUNJABBED IN PARADISE
Any thought for the people at your
destination who might never have had
the chance of being vaccinated (“To
Jamaica, unjabbed”, last week) and rely
on tourists not bringing in a disease that
could put them in need of an ICU bed,
which also probably does not exist?
Rb891677, via thetimes.co.ukI’m struggling to think of anything less
“ethical” than travelling unvaccinated tomany years ago in a plant-filled restaurant
overlooking the Mediterranean and have
never forgotten it.
Sue Bee, via thetimes.co.ukOne thing that you might not associate
with Italy is a good steak — one of the best
steaks I have ever had was in Florence,
not too far from the famed Ponte Vecchio.
John O’Connor, via thetimes.co.ukSNOW BUSINESS
Northern Tuscany and the Garfagnana
are wonderful (“The red-run city break”,
last week). Lucca is a gem, and the
villages above Bagni di Lucca, on the way
to Abetone, are fabulous — the journey
time is around two hours, though.
GiantHaystacks, via thetimes.co.ukMAGIC BUS
I was lucky enough to visit all these
sites a few years ago (“Hop on: the bus
that takes you all the way around
Pompeii”, last week). I travelled with an
old friend and we were the only visitors.BIG
SHOT
Creature
comforts
HOPPING DISTRICT
Congratulations
to Emma Simmons,
whose shot of
rabbit street art in
Porto is this week’s
winner of our Big
Shot competition,
in association with
the adventure
cruise specialist
Hurtigruten
Expeditions
(020 3553 9842,
hurtigruten.co.uk).
She receives a
£250 John Lewis
voucher and
makes the shortlist
for the main prizes,
which include a
northern lights
expedition cruise.
Upload shots at
thesundaytimes.
co.uk/thebigshot
or enter on
Instagram: tag us
@TimesTravel and
use the hashtag
#STBigShotTerms & conditions This
week’s competition closes
at 11.59pm on Wednesday.
UK & ROI residents aged
18+ only. Full T&Cs apply:
see thesundaytimes.co.uk/
travelphotocompFor expert guides
to your favourite
destinations, plus
the latest travel
news and the best
trips and deals to
book now, see our
dedicated travel
website the
times.co.uk/travela lower-income country in the middle of
a pandemic, thus massively increasing the
risk of being admitted to hospital at a time
when health services are struggling.
Robert Campbell, via thetimes.co.ukFab writing and I really admire the way
you have respectfully navigated a
disagreement with your partner — bodes
well for a long and happy marriage! Like
you I’m massively pro-vaccine but respect
the views and autonomy of others. Most
sensible article I’ve read in ages and
you’ve made me want to book a holiday.
Chen T, via thetimes.co.ukDo let us know where you and your
unvaccinated husband end up going
next — so we can go somewhere else.
Sure ’Tis Meself, via thetimes.co.ukSTRICTLY PASTA
I agree with Giovanni Pernice about the
food in Italy (“Focus on Italy”, last week).
I remember eating pasta alla Sophia LorenJULIA BUCKLEY
MASKS ON A PLANE —
WHERE DO YOU STAND?
beneath noses or wrapped around
necks like an Elizabethan ruff. Only about
half the passengers wear them properly.
Then there are the extended periods
spent eating and drinking — airline meal
portions have shrunk over the past few
years, but it’s still possible to make
them last an hour or so.
But should it matter anyway?
Fitted with Hepa filters,
which capture at least 99.95
per cent of airborne nasties,
the air in planes is arguably
fresher than that in the
Alps, plus most passengers
have been tested and jabbed.
Given the above, I’m
starting to question the logic
of wearing masks on planes,
particularly when several airlines and
some countries still insist on the masks
that are disposable strips of non-
recyclable polypropylene — many of
which end up in rivers or drifting along
streets like apocalyptic tumbleweed.
My fear is that airlines will doggedly
stick to these requirements simply
because they don’t want to be the first to
drop them. Paralysed by a lack of global
consensus, we could end up with a
situation similar to the hand-luggage ban
on liquids of more than 100ml — which
no longer makes much sense, but seems
too ingrained ever to be ditched.
All along, the inability of countries to
agree on universal regulations has led to
confusion and frustration, with travellers
navigating wildly varying requirements
each time they cross a border.
More importantly, I worry that a focus
on face coverings detracts from the bigger
issue: whether non-vaccinated passengers
should be travelling with as much ease as
the vaccinated or exempt. Some countries
have already banned unvaccinated
visitors unless they are medically exempt
or can prove recent recovery from Covid.
Although controversial, it’s a move that
will do more to protect overstretched
health services and reduce the spread of
variants than demanding that passengers
— begrudgingly, half-heartedly — mask up.How do you feel about masks on planes?
Email us at [email protected]I now live in Italy, where masks are
required everywhere. Personally, I think
that wearing them outside is excessive,
but I do so because if there’s even just
a microscopic chance it might keep
someone else safe, that’s OK. It keeps
us moving too — in the UK I shielded;
in Italy I travel most weeks. Not
on BA, though — its cabin crew
were unmasked for half my
last flight.
By now we’re all
entrenched in our
positions, so I won’t appeal
to your ethics; instead, I’ll
try your love of holidays. If
masking up on board stops
you being carted off to
“hospitel”, won’t you do it? Don’t
you see that destinations are more likely
to let us in if there’s less chance of Covid
spreading en route? If it protects the
travel industry — lower fares, specialist
tour operators — is that worth it?
For sure, there’s a discussion to be
had about the type of masks required
— I wear N95s on planes. But if a couple
more years of this saves a lifetime of
holidays, count me in.SARAH MARSHALL
S
ix months ago I was in a queue for a
flight at Heathrow, surrounded by
Japanese tourists in hazmat suits,
plastic visors and ski goggles — more ET
than T5. It all seemed a little excessive for
a hop to Helsinki, but that was the world
we lived in back then.
Fortunately, airlines require passengers
to wear masks only as a precaution these
days. But the news that in-flight face
coverings could be with us for years to
come is starting to feel as though it
belongs in a Spielberg sci-fi fantasy.
Don’t get me wrong, in general I’m
a supporter of covering up in confined
spaces. But on planes this seems like
nothing more than a token exercise.
Although everyone diligently obeys the
rules while boarding, after take-off I’ve
seen masks worn on chins, hoveringL
ike many in the travel industry, I
lost my job in 2020. I’m lucky — I
found another. But two years into
the pandemic, travel is still on its knees.
And one of the reasons for this is that
people don’t feel safe yet.
A Which? survey last week showed
that not all those who have flown during
the pandemic feel airlines are adequately
implementing Covid measures — British
Airways (BA) received a 76 per cent
rating, while just 60 per cent thought
that Ryanair was doing enough.
Wearing masks on planes while travel
is in the doldrums? It’s a no-brainer.
Nobody loves masking up, yet anti-
maskers are the minority. A poll
launched by The Times on Monday is
58 per cent in favour of in-flight masking,
and a recent YouGov poll found that
67 per cent of people were in favour
of masks on planes for years to come.
A friend who is a flight attendant
says that it gets people back into the air;
a pilot believes that anything less
protective than an N95 mask is theatre,
but approves if it gives the public
confidence to travel.
Are masks on planes theatre? (I
almost hope so after the fanfare over
high-efficiency particulate air, or Hepa,
filters.) Of course you take them off to
eat and drink, but we’re old hands at
viral loads now — I’d rather have
someone with Covid breathe at me just
while they’re eating their in-flight
meal than for the entire time
it takes to cross the Atlantic.
I’m especially vulnerable to Covid
because of disability. And there are a
greater number of us than you’d think;
more than a third of the UK population
has a form of disability, so a significant
chunk of the population are at risk.
Don’t fly, you say? My GP said similar
when I mooted a work trip to Italy in
March 2020. But people like me want
to travel as much as everyone else, and
we have just as much right to do so.
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