On 26 July, the government removed Spain from its ‘travel corridors’ exemption list, just 16 days after the list was put in place.
This means all passengers travelling from Spain to England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will have to self-isolate for 14 days on arrival. This includes passengers arriving from both the Spanish mainland and its islands – the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) also updated its advice to advise against all but essential travel to mainland Spain. Its update did not include the Balearic Islands or the Canary Islands.
Whether you’re in Spain at the moment, have a holiday booked or are considering travelling to Spain and its islands, here’s what you need to know.
Now that Spain has been removed from the government’s travel corridors list, all passengers arriving into the UK from the Spanish mainland or its islands will have to self-isolate on arrival.
You must fill in a public health passenger locator form before your arrival into the UK and then remain at the address you provide on this for 14 days. This can be:
You should not have visitors, unless they are providing essential care, and the only friends and family you can have contact with are those you travelled with or the people you are staying with.
You should not leave this address for work, shopping or other reasons and, in England, you must only exercise in your home or garden.
There are limited circumstances which allow you to leave your accommodation in England, including attending a funeral of a family member or someone you live with, for urgent medical assistance and to get basic necessities if you can’t have these delivered.
If you don’t self-isolate in England, you could be fined £1,000, which could increase to £3,200 if you don’t provide an accurate or up-to-date contact detail declaration.
Find out more here.
The government rules regarding self-isolation cover both the Spanish mainland and its islands. However, the FCO is only advising against all but essential travel to mainland Spain, not the Balearic Islands of Majorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera, or the Canary Islands of Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera, El Hierro and La Graciosa.
It says this is because its travel advice is based on “the risk to the individual traveller” and Covid-19 infection rates are lower in the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands than the mainland, where there have been increases of cases in regions including Catalonia, Aragon and Navarra.
It says that Public Health England (PHE) will continue to monitor the situation in the Balearic and Canary Islands closely, so travellers should check the FCO advice regularly.
You can see the FCO advice for Spain here.
The FCO is not advising holidaymakers already in Spain to leave prematurely.
It says: “Travellers should follow the advice of the local authorities on how best to protect themselves and others, including any measures that they bring in to control the virus.
“If you are returning from Spain (including from the Balearics and Canaries) you will be required to self-isolate on your return to the UK, but the FCO is not advising you to cut short your visit.”
It adds that you should contact your tour operator or airline if you have questions about your return journey – but be aware that there may be delays in response times due to a high volume of queries.
If you are due to return to work after your break or have any other commitments that require you to leave your house, it’s worth talking to your employer and anyone else impacted by your self-isolation as soon as possible.
In its announcement on the changes, the government says that it is “urging employers to be understanding of those returning from Spain who now will need to self-isolate.”
While the FCO travel advice is in place, package holidays to mainland Spain should be cancelled by the operator.
Always wait until your operator cancels rather than cancelling yourself.
If this happens, you are legally entitled to a refund. You may be offered travel vouchers, a change of holiday or a Refund Credit Note in place of a cash refund, so decide whether you are happy with any of these options.
Under the EU Package Travel Directive, a refund should be paid within 14 days – however, due to the unusually high volume of cancellations at the moment, this may not happen so ask your travel provider about its expected time-frame.
Holidays to the Spanish islands are more complicated as the FCO isn’t advising against travel.
TUI, as an example, has cancelled all holidays to mainland Spain up to and including 9 August but those wishing to travel to the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands will be able to travel as planned from 27 July.
It offers flexibility for those not wishing to travel, too, saying: “Customers due to travel to all areas of Spain between 27th July and Sunday 9th August will be able to cancel or amend holidays and will be able to receive a full refund or the option to rebook their holiday with a booking incentive. We will proactively contact all these customers. Customers with holidays from 10th August will be updated on Friday 31st July.”
easyJet holidays has said that it will cancel holidays to mainland Spain, the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands when it restarts operations on 1 August.
Matt Callaghan of easyJet holidays says: “We’ve contacted affected customers already and will process a refund for them which will be available very shortly should they wish to book another holiday.
“We also have a very flexible approach for customers with existing bookings who are feeling unsure about travelling and will support with free changes to their booking up to 28 days before departure and wherever we can in other circumstances.”
Jet2 is still running holidays to the Spanish islands, saying:
“We are also continuing to operate flights to our destinations in the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands as scheduled. Because the FCO travel advice to these destinations remains unchanged, our usual terms and conditions apply.”
It is also, confusingly, still running holidays to four areas in mainland Spain. In an update on its site, it says: “We are still operating flights to four destinations in mainland Spain (Almeria, Alicante, Malaga and Murcia), which are open and are located away from areas which have been impacted by increased cases of Covid-19.
“In light of the updated advice from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), we are providing customers travelling to these four destinations with a number of options including continuing with their travel as planned, a refund credit note, a fee free amendment, or a refund.”
Be aware if you travel to mainland Spain while the FCO advice is in place, your travel insurance is highly likely to be invalid. And, of course, you will be obliged to self-isolate on your return.
Flights are likely to continue running and, unless your airline cancels your flight, you are not automatically entitled to a refund.
As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, some airlines have introduced more flexible policies, though. As an example, if you booked direct with easyJet and your flight is more than 14 days away, you can transfer to any other flight with no change fee, although you will have to pay any difference in fare.
For flights in the coming days, easyJet says: “We plan to operate our full schedule in the coming days. Customers who no longer wish to travel can transfer their flights without a change fee or receive a voucher for the value of the booking.
“Should any flights be cancelled for later in August customers will be notified and informed of their options which includes transferring to an alternative flight free of charge, receiving a voucher or applying for a refund via a webform on our dedicated Covid Help Hub at easyJet.com.”
It is, therefore, worth checking your airline’s latest policy if you wish to cancel or move your flight.
With hotels and other accommodation, you’ll have to check the policy of the company you booked with as a refund isn’t guaranteed. It’s worth contacting your accommodation to see if there is any flexibility over and above this too as some may allow you to change the dates of your booking or claim vouchers.
Again, some more flexible booking policies have been introduced as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Hilton, as an example, introduced a Flexibility for the Future policy that allows customers to change or cancel future bookings up to 24 hours before arrival, if they were booked on and between March 12 and August 31, 2020. Find out more here.
Can I claim on my travel insurance?
If you can’t claim a refund for your flights or hotel, or any other aspects of travel you have paid for such as car hire, you may be able to make a claim on your travel insurance.
However, this is most likely to be possible if you bought your insurance and booked your holiday before the start of the coronavirus pandemic in mid March. The majority of policies bought since then have exclusions relating to the pandemic.
If in doubt, you should contact your insurer for clarification.
If you wish to cancel a holiday that is still running, and the FCO isn’t advising against travel, you are not automatically entitled to a refund. You are also unlikely to be able to claim anything back on your travel insurance as this is known as ‘disinclination to travel’, which is not an accepted reason for a claim.
It’s worth checking how flexible the policy is with your travel company, though, as a number of policies have been introduced as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The terms and conditions of some popular travel companies are listed below.
TUI
As mentioned above, TUI is offering flexibility for those with holidays booked to the Spanish islands.
It says: “Customers due to travel to all areas of Spain between 27th July and Sunday 9th August will be able to cancel or amend holidays and will be able to receive a full refund or the option to rebook their holiday with a booking incentive.”
If you have a holiday booked from 10 August, you will be updated on 31 July.
See TUI’s dedicated coronavirus page here.
British Airways – flights
BA says that its flights will operate as normal but, if you no longer wish to travel, it will allow you to claim a voucher for future travel. Find out more here.
British Airways – holidays
BA introduced a ‘book with confidence’ commitment, giving customers options to change booking dates and destinations, or even cancel a holiday completely.
For bookings made from 3 March until 31 August, for journeys due to be completed by 30 April 2021, BA will allow you to change your dates and destinations without paying a change fee – but you will need to pay any difference in price.
If you wish to cancel a holiday during the same date range, it will allow you to cancel your booking and you will receive a voucher to the same value for a future booking.
Different terms and conditions apply for other dates. Find out more here.
easyJet flights
As mentioned above, easyJet is allowing customers to change flights without a change fee for all flights more than 14 days away – but you will have to pay any fare difference.
Customers with flights booked to Spain in the coming days and weeks who no longer wish to travel can transfer flights without a change fee or receive a voucher for the value of the booking.
Customers with flights to Spain later in August will be informed of their options.
Find out more here.
easyJet holidays
easyJet holidays has cancelled upcoming Spanish holidays. Find out more here.
Ryanair
Ryanair introduced a new policy on 10 June saying that any customers who booked from then for travel in July and August will be able to move flights without a change fee to travel until 31 December 2020. The date change will only apply to the route you have already booked, though. On 17 July, this was extended to include September flights too.
If you’d like to change the date on any other flight that is still running, you’ll have to pay the normal change fee.
Find out more here.
If you travel to mainland Spain while the FCO advises against it, your travel insurance is likely to be invalid and you’ll have to pay your own costs if something went wrong.
You’ll be able to use your European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) to benefit from free or cheap medical treatment (on the same terms as a local).
This arrangement will be in place until 31 December, when Britain comes to the end of the Brexit transition process.
The decision by the government to change its travel advice for Spain, and the speed at which the decision was made, may worry you if you’ve got a holiday booked.
The government points out that, if there are increases in coronavirus cases in other holiday destinations, this may happen to other countries too.
A government spokesperson said: “Protecting public health is our absolute priority and we have taken this decision to limit any potential spread to the UK.
“We’ve always been clear that we would act immediately to remove a country where necessary. Both our list of quarantine exemptions and the FCO travel advice are being updated to reflect these latest risk assessments.”
This page will be updated as more information becomes available
I’ve been a journalist for more than 15 years, writing for national newspapers and editing websites and magazines. I love helping readers to save money and make better
I’ve been a journalist for more than 15 years, writing for national newspapers and editing websites and magazines. I love helping readers to save money and make better informed financial decisions, whether it’s avoiding rip-offs or choosing the best insurance for them.