Would you recommend booking a holiday for the end of August?

TK Lemon

Mr Lemon and I have a week booked off work from the 22nd August - 29th August (Sat-Sat).

If we book now and should a cancellation occur or further restrictions be put in place, would we be covered by insurance or are we booking at our own risk?

Would you expect this to be over by August or should we put off travel for the rest of the year.

We are deciding between Helsinki or St. Petersburg.

woodchuck

Nobody can predict the future. Before making a decision though, look carefully at the terms and conditions of your travel insurance and the cancellation policies of the accommodation and anything else you're booking. If you book fully refundable accommodation, you'll probably be fine on that end. It's the flights I'd be worried about, so it just depends on whether or not you can afford to take the hit there if things don't go back to normal or a second wave hits.

I'm due to get married in mid September and we're pretty resigned to the fact that our honeymoon will need to be in Ireland (if the wedding and honeymoon go ahead at all). Even if things are relatively back to normal by then, I'd be worried about it kicking off again and we could risk being stuck abroad, scrambling to get a ridiculously overpriced flight home. At least in Ireland, you just have to hop in the car and you're home in a few hours.

TK Lemon

Fingers crossed you’ll have a fantastic wedding and your honeymoon all going to plan.

It is hard to say if it’s okay to book anything, or just wait and try and find something cheap closer to the time.

We’ve said that we may have a week in Ireland somewhere if it comes to it.

Blub123

with respect of insurance, 2 aspects to check -
1) if you purchased annual insurance prior to the outbreak then you should have cover providing the insurer has not put a subsequent proviso on the policy that any hols booked after a certain date (date after the start of the pandemic) would not be covered if cancelled due to the inability to travel because of the pandemic.

2) any newly purchased holiday insurance will have an exclusion built in.

Yamanoto

I think most all travel insurance products have long had pandemic listed as an exclusion in their T&C's

Technocentral

Id say sometime mid 2021 if/when a vaccine has being safely implemented for all not just vulnerable groups is when relatively normal holiday flights may take place, before that happens is to risk the whole thing kicking off again.

woodchuck

I'd also be concerned that they could introduce a rule where you have to self isolate for 14 days after travelling from another country...