BRITISH holidaymakers in their thousands have booked flights to Portugal.
After Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced our initial ‘green list’ countries for foreign escapes, here’s the latest on the coastal favourite.
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Is Portugal on the green list?
Portugal is among 12 countries and territories on the quarantine-free green travel list.
The ban on overseas leisure travel will be lifted for people in England and Wales from Monday, May 17.
Portugal is one of the few European destinations to make the green list due to low Covid cases, with just a few hundred new daily cases.
Countries have been placed on a green, amber or red list depending on the risk they pose to the UK.
This means you won’t have to quarantine, and will only need:
- A negative test taken before returning to the UK
- A PCR test on day two of your return
Here are some of the best Portugal holiday deals, from £131pp.
Just 26 per cent of the Portuguese population has been given the first jab of the vaccine, compared to the UK’s 68 per cent.
However, the country reported 436 new cases yesterday, May 13, and one death.
Last week it also reported no new daily Covid deaths over 24 hours, the first time since August.
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What are the travel restrictions for Portugal?
Portugal has today, May 14, confirmed it will reopen its borders to UK tourists from Monday May 17.
But holidaymakers will need a negative Covid test to enter.
The welcome announcement follows concern that tens of thousands of trips booked would have to be cancelled.
The uncertainty was caused by Portugal’s ministers deciding on Thursday to continue its current level of coronavirus lockdown restrictions until May 30 at the earliest.
But tourist body Visit Portugal said the minister of state for foreign affairs has done a U-turn.
Officials have confirmed that UK tourists who have had a negative PCR test within the previous 72 hours will be welcomed from Monday.
Holiday firms have experienced huge demand for trips to Portugal since the government confirmed holidaymakers from England will not be required to self-isolate on their return from visits to the country.
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The island of Madeira is already welcoming vaccinated tourists back and is offering free PCR tests.
EasyJet has added 105,000 extra seat to its flights serving green-tier destinations, while Tui plans to use aircraft which normally operate long-haul routes to accommodate the surge of people booked to fly to Portugal.
Paul Charles, chief executive of travel consultancy The PC Agency, said: “It’s green for go from Monday.
“Overseas travel will restart as scheduled in the Prime Minister’s road map and well done to Portugal for making it happen.
“Travel can be done safely and responsibly.”
But Simon Cooper, chief executive of online travel agent On the Beach, said the confusing situation “illustrates precisely why now is not the time to encourage new holiday bookings for this summer”.
The company stopped selling summer holidays on Wednesday due to a lack of “certainty or clarity” in relation to travel rules.
Thousands of British football fans are hoping to travel to the Portuguese city of Porto for the all-English Champions League final between Manchester City and Chelsea on May 29.
Uefa previously confirmed that 6,000 tickets would be made available to each of the finalists, with the final capacity limit at the Estadio do Dragao still to be fixed.
Only Portugal, Gibraltar and Israel are the short-haul destinations on the green list. It also includes Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, Iceland and the Faroe Islands and the Falklands.
Other destinations have already said they want Brits back – both Spain and Cyprus will welcome vaccinated Brits from June, while Portugal will restart tourism from mid-May.
Greece is already welcoming vaccinated Brits, and will allow tourists to use their NHS vaccine cards as proof.
