LONDON, 10 May 2021: On the back of a successful vaccine rollout, the UK will reopen leisure travel to green light countries, starting 17 May with no quarantine or restrictions when UK travellers return home.
Red and amber listed countries are still off-limits to all
but essential travel with strict quarantine or stay home measures applying when
UK travellers return to their homeland.
The three colour-coded lists, green, amber and red, were
issued by the UK’s Department for Transport on 7 May. Leisure travel is allowed
only to the green list countries. In Asia, only Brunei and Singapore figure on
the green list.
UK arrivals can avoid Government hotel quarantine bills by stopping off in Turkey
Some returning from red-list nations are interrupting their journey to stay in Istanbul, and pay a fraction of the cost for hotel accommodation
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Some UK citizens are avoiding entering hotel quarantine by taking a holiday in Turkey before heading home.
Travel companies are marketing “quarantine packages” to British nationals flying to the UK from red-list countries, particularly Pakistan, with a 10-day detour via Turkey.
One travel agency told
Read More
Other operators suggest passengers should “have a vacation” in Turkey, which does not impose quarantine on most travellers and is not on the UK’s red list, before making the onward journey to Britain.
Travellers arriving from red-list countries are required to pay £1,750 ($2,430) to isolate in a UK hotel for 10 days.
Hotel quarantine only applies if the traveller has been in a red list country in the past 10 days.
BBC News
By Sue Mitchell
image captionIstanbul in Turkey is under a lockdown but foreign tourists are exempt
UK travellers returning from red list countries are flying home via Turkey to avoid hefty hotel quarantine fees.
Passengers are breaking their journey in Istanbul, and staying in hotels there for a fraction of the cost they would have to pay in Britain.
Travellers from countries on the red list would otherwise face bills of up to £1,750-per-person to isolate in a hotel if they flew to the UK directly.
Those using the route must still quarantine at home once back in the UK.