Green list countries announced: Spain's Balearic Islands, Malta & Barbados added
Holidays have proved a complex topic for longer than most of us care to think about over the past year and a half. Today the latest green list countries were announced.
Green list countries were revealed today as the Government issued a fresh update on UK travel.
The destinations added to the green list from 4am on 30 June are:
- Europe: The Balearic Islands (which include Ibiza, Menorca, Majorca and Formentera), Malta and Madeira
- Caribbean: Antigua, Barbados, Barbuda, Dominica and Grenada
- UK overseas territories: Anguilla and Montserrat, Bermuda, British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Pitcairn, and Turks and Caicos Islands.
Israel and Jerusalem were also added to the green watchlist, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said on Twitter.
The red list also expanded today with Dominican Republic, Eritrea, Haiti, Mongolia, Tunisia and Uganda all added.
Green list countries come with limited travel restrictions. Quarantine is not required but you do need to take a Covid test on or before day two after you arrive.
As for the amber list, arriving back from these nations requires travellers to take a COVID-19 test, book and pay for day two and day right COVID-19 travel tests – to be taken after arrival in England, and complete a passenger locator form.
Meanwhile, anyone who travels to a red list must take a COVID-19 test, book a quarantine hotel package, including two COVID-19 tests, and complete a passenger locator form.
Rory Boland, Which? Travel Editor, commented on the changes to the traffic light system: “The addition of Malta to the green list, and a handful of holiday destinations like Madeira and the Balearic Islands to the green watchlist, will be welcomed by holidaymakers and industry alike, but travellers still need to be extremely cautious about booking trips this summer, even to green list destinations.
"Countries can be downgraded quickly and with little warning, as we saw with Portugal, while several European countries have introduced quarantine requirements for UK residents.
“Restrictions around international travel are changing regularly and when they do, the cost to holidaymakers is significant. Most providers will not pay refunds if a country is moved from green to amber, and ‘free’ amendments are often anything but, with many companies requiring significant notice of any changes and bookings for new dates usually costing hundreds of pounds. Travel insurance is also unlikely to pay out in these circumstances.
“It is only advisable to book if you are able to do 14 days quarantine, can be flexible about destination and dates, and book with a provider that guarantees refunds in the event of traffic light changes or quarantine requirements.”
The latest traffic light system update comes as travel bosses call for double jabbed travellers to be exempt from quarantine.
"I think that the whole double jab process is offering the real prospect of opening up to travel, and we'll be setting out a bit more later on," he told Reuters.
A Department for Transport spokesman said today further details on this would be set out next month, reported the BBC.
Not all of Europe is happy about any further opening up of travel in the UK, however.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has suggested all EU countries make British travellers quarantine on arrival to slow the spread of the Delta variant.
She told Germany's parliament: "In our country, if you come from Great Britain, you have to go into quarantine - and that's not the case in every European country, and that's what I would like to see."
Currently, Britons can travel to Greece, Spain and Portugal without having to quarantine at their destination. Italy requires a quarantine of five days and a negative Covis test while France is permitting full-vaccinated visitors to enter without self-isolating.
