Well, we’ve gone and done it. We’ve booked a holiday. For 12 April. For those who are unaware, 12 April is the current planned date for various lockdown restrictions being eased in England. Non-essential shops will be allowed to open. Outdoor attractions such as zoos and theme parks will be allowed to open. Hairdressers and beauty salons will be allowed to open. Public buildings such as libraries will be allowed to open. Outdoor hospitality will be allowed, so beer gardens and cafés with outdoor seating areas will be all go. But most importantly, overnight stays in self-contained accommodation will also be allowed.

Like most people, I waited with bated breath for the government’s ‘Covid roadmap’ announcement. Of course, lots of it was relevant to me, but one thing I was really interested in was how the proposed lifting of restrictions was going to affect our holiday plans. We already had four holidays booked for this year, three of them carried over after being postponed last year – and that didn’t even include our main summer holiday. Would we be able to go on any of them? Well, after the announcement, we did at least have some answers. Unless things don’t go as well as they are hoped, and depending on the situation in other countries of course, we should be able to go to Mexico in October as planned. Again, as long as things go according to the government’s plan, we should be able to go on our booked camping holiday in Dorset at the end of May, albeit with a few restrictions still in place. We were (are?) hoping to go to Corfu in the summer, after cancelling last year, but we’re not willing to book anything yet; the roadmap suggests that all restrictions will have been eased by then, but that may not be the case in other countries, even if everything is going well here. Another issue is vaccinations – the government’s aim is to have given every adult in the UK their first vaccine by July, but will we have had our second one? Greece is one country that is talking about vaccination passports to allow entry – will one vaccine be sufficient? (And even if it is, will we still feel safe to travel?) What about children, who won’t have been vaccinated? There are still a lot of questions to be answered before we even consider booking anything abroad – however, because Greece (or abroad in general) isn’t a definite ‘no’, we also don’t want to book something in the UK and then wish that we hadn’t because it turns out we could have gone somewhere further afield (and warmer!).

However, one thing we did find out for certain was that our trips to the Netherlands and Portugal were off. The government announced that the earliest date at which international travel might start again would be 17 May – a week or so after our planned trip to Sintra in Portugal to celebrate my husband’s impending ‘big’ birthday. It also meant that we wouldn’t be able to go to Center Parcs in Holland for Easter, which was pretty much what we had expected to be fair. Cancelling wasn’t entirely a straightforward affair, as the resort is currently open (unlike last year, when the park was closed) and we weren’t quite sure where we stood. However, one email later and they have agreed to cancel the holiday and we are awaiting a voucher for the value of what we paid, to be booked again at a later date. Portugal has been simpler – we booked in October last year, knowing that there was a strong likelihood that we wouldn’t be able to go and would have to cancel. Therefore, the hotel wasn’t actually paid for yet and could be cancelled for free up to 24 hours before arrival. The British Airways flights were booked at a time when it was clearly stated that we could rebook or get a travel voucher if we chose to cancel. Accordingly, I cancelled the flights and was sent a voucher for the value the next day. While BA effectively still has our money, this can at least be used to pay for or be put towards flights in the future, so we’re not really out of pocket.

Still, while we won’t be able to travel abroad until at least 17 May, and won’t be able to stay in a hotel even in the UK until the same date, the important thing is that overnight stays in self-catering accommodation will (hopefully) be allowed from 12 April. This is the Monday of the second week of the school Easter holidays and my husband already had the week booked off work for our ill-fated Center Parcs trip. It would be silly not to take advantage, right?!

For those without children and/or with flexible jobs, this probably sounds a bit mad. Why book a holiday on the very first day that lockdown restrictions are eased? Why not book something for May or at least later in April? Why not at least wait a bit before booking? After all, there’s a very real chance that things won’t go according to the government’s plan and the date will be put back a bit – it certainly wouldn’t be the first time. The trouble is, as parents of school-age children, we are very restricted as to when we can go (at least, we are if we take the children with us!). Monday 12 April is the beginning of the last week of the Easter holidays, so it is the only time when we’d be able to go anywhere before the end of May. Basically, it’s a case of book for then or don’t bother booking at all. Also, although my husband’s work holidays aren’t set in stone, they are restricted to when other people in his (virtual) office aren’t off work, which can make school holidays difficult. Having already booked that week off work, it may well be that cancelling it would be pointless, as he wouldn’t be able to book a convenient time off later in the year to ‘replace’ it. And what’s the point of having the week off work and spending it in your house (where you already spend a hell of a lot of time at the moment) when you could be on holiday?!

Of course, we still wouldn’t have booked it unless it was cancellable, and that is absolutely key with booking any holidays in the foreseeable future. This particular holiday can be cancelled for free up until two weeks beforehand, after which the refund decreases incrementally as you get closer to the date of the holiday. We are crossing fingers that if there are likely to be any changes or delays to the government’s planned relaxing date, we’ll know by that point. I am ASSUMING, but I have to say that it’s not clear from everything I’ve read so far, that if things change and overnight stays are not allowed, the property will have to cancel the booking rather than us, and we will be entitled to a refund, or at the very least the opportunity to change dates. However – and this is important to look out for – we will NOT be covered if we have to cancel due to having to self-isolate (or, to be fair, for any other reason). When we booked accommodation last year, there was clear guidance around refunds for any Covid-related cancellations, including becoming ill yourself or having to self-isolate (at least with the company that we were and are using). This year that has changed: there is a clear note on the website stating that the property’s cancellation rules (which vary across properties) apply even if your reservation is affected by Covid-19. As I said, I’m assuming that when the cancellation is made by the property owners rather than yourself this is a different situation, but I am not certain. Either way, we are aware that we are taking a risk in terms of cancellation at our end, but we are crossing our fingers. This is one reason why it is important not only to have travel insurance but also to check how it is impacted by the current pandemic; some policies may have exclusions on any cancellations, medical treatment, etc. that are due to Covid, so don’t rely on it covering you.

It’s also important to remember that the concept of a refund is subject to different interpretations. Obviously the ideal situation is a straightforward refund, where the money is paid back into your account, which is what happened when Travel Republic cancelled our holiday to Corfu last year. More common is a refund in the form of a voucher or credit note – this is what happened with BA, as was clearly stated when we booked. This is also what happened with Center Parcs both times, including the first time when the holiday was cancelled by them rather than us, as the resort was closed. My gut feeling is that we should have been entitled to a refund in this situation, where they cancelled the holiday rather than us, although I am not sure what the legal requirements are, particularly when the holiday is booked direct with a company/property in another country. It didn’t bother us, however, as we were happy to use the voucher and book again in the future. Our email also states that if you don’t use the voucher before it expires (it has an expiry date of a year), you will be refunded your money a month later – so you do get a refund, but you just have to wait for it! The campsite for the holiday that we booked last May also gave us a credit note for our (admittedly small) deposit, which we used to rebook for this year. Again, I’m not sure of the legality of this, given that they were closed and cancelled the booking themselves but still made it clear that refunds wouldn’t be given but, again, we didn’t mind reusing our deposit for another year. One point to bear in mind here is that the travel industry has taken a massive battering, and everyone involved, from small B&Bs to airlines and large travel agents, has lost a lot of money because of the pandemic. If we are able to help a little by accepting a credit note rather than a refund, then we are happy to do so – after all, we are bound to use them for future holidays. And that’s what it really comes down to when deciding to book – if your only refund option is a credit note/voucher, would you be able to use it? That may be easier for something general like flights but not so much for a specific cottage booked as a pandemic getaway. Do you need the money or are you happy to leave it ‘in the care’ of’ the holiday company? Would that actually be a good way of making sure future holidays are paid for without ‘accidentally’ spending the money? Or would you rather have the money in your pocket, perhaps because your situation has changed and things are tighter or because you would rather book somewhere/something else? These are all things to consider if you are thinking about booking a holiday at the moment. But if you are able to cancel close to your departure date and/or you would be happy to accept a credit note – or even better, like our hotel in Portugal, you don’t even have to pay until the last minute so won’t lose anything by cancelling – then there’s no real reason why it isn’t worth crossing your fingers and booking things right now, according to the government’s roadmap.

Of course, there is also a whole other issue around whether we should be booking holidays that has nothing to do with refunds: is it safe? This is a question I clearly can’t answer and one that people will have their own ideas about. I could argue that if something is ‘allowed’ then it should be at least relatively safe, but just because you are allowed to do something doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea – something that could be argued in many contexts! I think the second surge in Coronavirus cases in the UK as restrictions eased is a clear indication of this. We may have been allowed to go to restaurants – ‘eat out to help out’, anyone? – but was it safe? Was it a good idea to get on a plane and fly to Spain just because we were allowed to? Were our children safe going back to school because the government had deemed it okay? We will, of course, all have our own valid opinions on such questions. There will be plenty of people who had a whale of a time going out last summer while sticking to the guidelines and, as far as they know, didn’t catch the virus. A large part of me wishes I’d just bitten the bullet, crossed my fingers and left the country for a break last summer, especially when I see other people who did so and don’t regret it. All of that said, the rise in cases as restrictions were eased demonstrate that we can’t be complacent. Hopefully we will be in a different situation this time around, as more and more of us are vaccinated. But booking holidays simply because we’re allowed to may not necessarily be a good idea!

And yes, I know I’ve just done exactly that. But the other issue when it comes to safety is the type of holiday we’re talking about. If we were legally allowed to fly to the Caribbean right now, I wouldn’t do it (much as I’d like to!). If we were allowed to stay in a hotel, I don’t think I would either. The key with the self-contained accommodation that we’ll be allowed to book as from 12 April (hopefully!) is that it is SELF-CONTAINED. This means that you will not be sharing facilities with anyone else. There is no need to even come into contact with anyone else. And this, as far as I’m concerned, is a pretty safe way to holiday. There will be a very minimal contact risk with the surfaces in the cottage, apartment or anywhere else you might be staying, but as long as the property has been cleaned thoroughly, this risk is very low. Other than that, your risks are potentially no lower than if you stayed at home. Self-catering accommodation means that you don’t have to go out to eat – not that you’d be allowed to in April anyway! Yes, you might get a takeaway, but then you might do so if you stayed at home. Your daily activities can be as ‘safe’ as you want them to be. You may simply want to stay inside, in surroundings that are different from your own four walls. You may fancy going to a theme park or a wildlife park or having a game of crazy golf, but there is no obligation to do so – plus they may be the sort of things that you’d do if you stayed at home too. You may simply go for walks, just as you’d do at home but with some different views to look at. Many arguments could potentially be made about staying in a hotel (Where do you eat? What about all the shared areas?) but staying on your own in self-catering accommodation is about as safe as you can get right now.

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Our three holidays last year (not including pre-Covid times!) were self-catering. The first, in a yurt on the Norfolks Broads (Pandemic travel: A yurt in Norfolk), wouldn’t be allowed this April, as it involved using shared washing and toilet facilities, but the cottages we hired in Yorkshire in August and Devon in October provided pretty much the same sort of holiday that we’ll be having in April, in a cottage in a different part of Devon. A key change this time is the closure of indoor hospitality; although it should be possible to have a meal or a drink in a pub garden, the pub itself will be out of bounds (except, perhaps, for the toilets? Not sure where we stand on that!). This isn’t an issue for us – much as we love going out to eat, and much as this is one of the main focuses of our holidays during non-Covid times, it’s not something that we’d feel comfortable with at the moment anyway. Unlike many people, we didn’t feel comfortable with it last summer either. We ate inside a couple of times – once during the day when it was raining and we didn’t really have much option, and once in the evening when we were desperate to treat ourselves and researched our restaurant carefully, ensuring that it had lots of space and was taking sensible precautions. The rest of the time we ate at ‘home’, had picnics, ate outside at cafés and pubs or had a takeaway – all of which also should be an option in April. However, if eating in restaurants or going to the pub is a vital part of your vacation and it wouldn’t feel like a proper holiday without it, you may want to hold off on booking anything too soon. In fact, you may not even want to book for too soon after 17 May (the next planned date for easing restrictions), just in case things change. One reason why we cancelled last year’s holiday to Mexico early (although it turns out that we wouldn’t have been able to go in the end anyway!) was that we knew it wouldn’t be the same. It was a long way to go and a lot of money to spend, and we wanted to enjoy everything that Mexico and the resort had to offer. We didn’t want to get there and find out that the attractions were closed, only one restaurant was open and you had to wear masks on the beach – that wouldn’t have been the sort of holiday we wanted or had paid for! So, if you are thinking of booking something now, it’s important to consider whether you’d still want to go if certain things weren’t open or available, or whether you’d rather save your money and annual leave for a time when everything is on the metaphorical menu!

So, should we be booking holidays yet? There are plenty of people out there (particularly those in the travel industry!) encouraging us to do so, while plenty of others are urging caution. At the end of the day it is obviously a personal decision, but there are a few things to bear in mind. Would you be able to cancel if the situation changed? Would you be happy to accept a credit note rather than a refund? Would your insurance cover you for Covid-related changes? Would you feel safe in the type of accommodation that you are considering? Would you still be willing to go if restrictions meant that certain things weren’t available? If it’s a ‘yes’ to all those questions, then it’s a no-brainer – what have you got to lose?! I can’t answer ‘yes’ to all those questions for some of the holidays that we’re considering this year, so I’m hanging fire on those. When it comes to holidays abroad, the possible need for vaccinations is still one unanswered question, for a start. But when it comes to a cancellable cottage in Devon, where we barely need to see another person if we don’t want to, it’s a resounding yes. April holiday, here we come!