Spain opens to Brit holidaymakers from today as France hints at tougher rules

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British holidaymakers can visit 18 European countries on the ‘amber list’ without having to quarantine upon arrival, it emerged today – as tourists faced fresh confusion after Spain welcomed Britons despite being on the UK Government’s ‘amber list’, while France  prepares to impose tougher restrictions on travellers. 

Passengers returning to Britain from amber list countries must stay at home for ten days and take a PCR test on days two and eight – as well as a lateral flow test before the return flight. They can also pay for ‘Test to Release’ on day five to end self-isolation early. 

However, these restrictions were not deterring UK tourists from travelling to Spain this morning after Madrid let in Britons without any requirement for quarantine upon arrival, but ministers have again urged sunseekers not to head to the popular destination.

Meanwhile, French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has suggested his country will go the other way and impose tighter controls on visitors from the UK due to fears over the Indian variant. 

Mr Le Drian also swiped at Britain’s past ‘failures’ to control the virus in the latest barb as EU leaders face criticism over their lockdowns and vaccine rollout.    

The confusing picture will leave would-be travellers scratching their heads over whether and where to go on foreign holidays this summer.

It came as British travellers arrived at Malaga Airport today on a Ryanair flight from London Luton, while back in the UK there were queues at check-in at Heathrow Airport as Britons prepared to go abroad. 

Portugal is currently the only major tourist destination on England’s ‘green list’, meaning people can go without the need to quarantine on return.

But Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has hinted the roster could be expanded imminently amid pressure for France, Spain, Italy and Greece to be added.

And after fines for non-essential travel were scrapped, thousands of people have been defying the government’s advice and heading for ‘amber list’ countries anyway. 

They need to isolate at home for up to 10 days as well as getting tested, but do not have to stay at quarantine hotels.

Today, the first British holidaymakers to jet to the Costa del Sol spoke of their joy at Spain’s long-awaited decision to lift its UK tourist ban.

Families and couples who had gone months without a foreign holiday touched down to shorts and T-shirt weather at Malaga Airport with temperatures nearing 75F (24C). 

Several passengers on Ryanair flight FR7784 from London Luton, which arrived ten minutes after schedule at just before 11am, had been refused permission to board earlier planes due to reach Malaga before Spain’s near five-month-long Covid veto on British tourists was removed at midnight.

But any worries they had about a new setback were eased as they sailed through customs and walked into bright sunshine outside the arrivals terminal.

Vicky Ashton, 52, who had travelled to Malaga from her home in Derby with husband Tony, 61, and her parents, said: ‘It feels fantastic to be here.

‘I’m staying for 10 days. I’d rather not have to quarantine obviously when I get back home but it’s a price I’m willing to pay. We’re so happy to be able to be travelling again. I’ve got a holiday home in Marbella and am looking to buy another with relatives.

‘I think Boris Johnson should put Spain on the green list as soon as possible. I wasn’t worried about the British government advising against travel to Spain because it’s an amber list country at the moment.

‘We knew we were going to feel totally safe here because of the outdoor life and the fact the rules during lockdown have been very strict in Spain and people have respected them.

‘We were refused permission to board a Ryanair flight on Friday from the East Midlands even though we had a solicitor’s letter saying that we had a valid reason to come to Spain because I was looking to buy another property here.

‘There were other people on this morning’s flight who had been stopped from getting on the same plane.’

Vicky’s developer father John Blount, 77, travelling with wife Elaine, 75, added: ‘I’ve been coming to Spain for 40 years and this is my first trip here since last October. It’s been a long eight months.

‘We tried to get on two Ryanair flights on Friday, one from East Midlands airport and another from Birmingham but were turned away even thought the second one would have seen us landing in Portugal and having to drive across the border.

‘We booked today’s flight hours after the Spanish announced they were opening up to British holidaymakers. It feels wonderful being back.’

Sarah Dickinson, 22, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, travelling with her 28-year-old boyfriend Jake Dougherty, said: ‘Jake’s got a friend who lives in Puerto Banus and he’s got a one-way ticket because he wants to stay around and look for work but I’m here on holiday for a week and am then going back home.

‘This is my first foreign holiday for eight months. I want to soak up the sunshine, hit the beach and generally have a good time. I’ll deal with the quarantine when I get back to the UK. It wasn’t going to stop me coming here and enjoying myself.’

Mother-of-two Jenna Davies, 35, from Loughborough, Leicestershire, who jetted to Spain with mother-in-law Lynne Brooks, 68, added: ‘I’ve got a place in Marbella I haven’t been able to visit for months.

‘I had to quarantine after my last visit here at Christmas and I’m only here till Friday so I’ll have to self-isolate again. But I’ve got two young daughters I look after at home so it doesn’t affect me too much.

‘Being able to get here today has been a godsend. I tried to fly last Friday before I heard Spain was lifting its ban on UK holidaymakers and got turned back at the airport even though I had a solicitor’s appointment. 

‘I was told I couldn’t get on the plane because I didn’t have an official government form. I’ve got some tidying up to do why I’m here but I’m going to make sure I enjoy the sun as much as I can.

‘The flight here was a lot busier than I thought it would be so it just goes to show how much people want to travel abroad. I hope the British government puts Spain on the green list soon.   

‘I wasn’t concerned I’d be more at risk here by coming. At least the green light will remove the obligation to quarantine when people get back.

‘I have to get tested tomorrow or Wednesday which is going to be €56 (£44) and the day two and day eight tests I have to take when I get back will set me back about £160 so there’s a cost to coming.

‘But putting Spain on green instead of amber is obviously going to help.’

Janean Holbrook, 50, from Norwich, travelling with husband Rory, 58, said: ‘We’ve been desperate to come because we’ve got a holiday place in Fuengirola that suffered flood damage.

‘We’ve had to entrust people with keys we don’t really know and haven’t been able to supervise the repair work. We’ve got a new kitchen and new walls we haven’t properly seen yet.

‘We tried to come out last night but they wouldn’t let us on because the flight was touching down before midnight so we ended up having to rebook and get a taxi to Luton Airport. Luckily there were no problems on this one.’

Stacy Edwards, 35, who owns Scubies bar in Fuengirola Marina a short drive along the coast, said: ‘We’re hoping things are going to pick up now they’re letting British holidaymakers in.

‘It’s not going to be the flood of people there’d be if Spain gets on the green list but anything that makes it possible for tourists to come back if they want to has got to be positive.

‘It’s been a nightmare year for business. Our clientele was traditionally mostly British but with the holidaymakers gone, we’ve been serving more Spaniards as well as Scandinavians.

Stacy’s mother Jayne Williams, from Wrexham, north Wales, who had popped into the bar for a coffee, added: ‘Spain is safe and I want Boris Johnson to put it on the UK’s green list now.

‘It’s what’s going to make the real difference to the number of Brits who come here because all the tests they have to do pushes up the price of their holiday.

‘The talk among the bars here is that it won’t happen till July but I’m crossing my fingers it’s sooner.’

Sue Charlton, the Doncaster-born manageress of The Magpie Bar which is also in Fuengirola Marina, said: ‘Some days have been better than others over the past year but there’s been more bad days than good.

‘It used to be mostly Brit customers here but now we get a mix of nationalities. Spain opening up to holidaymakers is positive. All we need now is for the UK to drop the quarantine requirements for returning tourists and they’ll come flooding back.

‘My boss is getting messages from Brit holiday home owners saying they’re booking flights in the next few days. We’ll be waiting for them with a cold pint and good homemade food.’

Retired insurance broker Nigel Wilson, travelling with common-law wife Wendy Bartlett on the second flight of the day from the UK to Malaga – easyJet flight EZY8607 from Gatwick – said: ‘We have a holiday home near Marbella.

‘We went back to the UK on February 14 and were planning on coming back in April but couldn’t. We tried to fly out last Thursday but were stopped from boarding the plane even though we had paperwork showing the purchase of another property.

‘There were no problems today. We’re here for five weeks and we’ve factored in the possibility of quarantine when we get back. If Spain is put on the UK’s green list in the meantime which hopefully it will then we may stay a bit longer.’

The 67-year-old from Poole in Dorset added: ‘I used to own a bar-restaurant here in Puerto Banus which employed singers and artists and if I had kept it on I don’t think we’d have survived.

‘I sold three years ago which looking back on it now, couldn’t have been a better time. We’re going to have some fun and spend some money which the local economy will need after such a long time without British tourists.’

Ms Bartlett, 61, added: ‘It feels great to be back. The flight was pretty busy. The only thing I’m not so sure about is the fact you don’t have to have any sort of testing to enter Spain if you’re coming from the UK.

‘We’re both fully vaccinated but there would have been people on our plane who wouldn’t have been vaccinated and wouldn’t obviously have had negative PCR tests because they’re not needed now.

‘I just hope that it’s not something that’s going to cause problems and regrets in a few weeks’ time.’

Joanna Chrzanowska, 68, from Billingshurst, West Sussex, added: ‘I’ve flown in to see my Singaporean husband Ian. We’ve been apart for three months with him being stuck here and me in the UK. Today couldn’t have come sooner.’

Amid scenes of long queues at Heathrow today, travel expert Paul Charles told MailOnline: ‘People are voting with their feet. They are seeing that they can go responsibly. Many people can self-isolate when they come back.’    

Spain’s tourism minister Fernando Valdes said this morning he is expecting the country to be added to the green list at the next review early next month.

He told Sky News: ‘What I can say is that right now Spain is doing a great effort not only in terms of vaccination, we have at least one third of our whole population with at least one dose… but also, we do have some holiday destinations which are very loved by British tourists such as the Balearic islands, Costa Blanca or Malaga, with our notification rates which are pretty low and by the same notification range of the UK, so I have to suspect that on the next review that the UK Government can provide… Spain is going to change on its notification.’

Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez said on Friday that visitors from the UK and other ‘safe’ countries such as New Zealand, South Korea and China would be exempted from restrictions on travel.

‘I can therefore announce that from next Monday the 24th of May we will be delighted to welcome all UK tourists,’ he said.

‘They are welcome to enter our country without restrictions and without health requirements.’ 

However, business minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan stressed that Spain remains on the ‘amber list’. 

She told Sky News: ‘The Prime Minister has been clear that, for now, amber means ‘please don’t go unless there is an urgent family reason and so on’ because we are still trying to slowly move through our road map to being able to open up on June 21 and we want to do that in a steady and careful way.’

She added that ‘we hope very much that, obviously, the amber numbers will become more green in due course’ but ‘at the moment, today, that means amber countries really aren’t safe to go to’.

Mr Le Drian raised the possibility of tighter restrictions for British tourists yesterday.

He suggested the UK could be put in a health category of its own, somewhere in between the strictest measures that France is imposing on visitors from India and 15 other countries, and more relaxed requirements being readied for visitors from the EU and some other countries.

Without giving specifics, Mr Le Drian said there was potential for ‘health measures that are a bit stronger’ but Paris is watching the progress of the Indian variant before making final decisions. 

‘We hope that the variant can be controlled in a country which experienced real failures during the pandemic,’ he said. 

‘However, the arrival of the Indian variant and the increase of cases of Indian variant in the United Kingdom pose a problem and so we are vigilant about this (and) in contact with the British authorities,’ he added.

‘It won’t be the red treatment if we have to do it. It will be an intermediate treatment,’ the minister said. 

‘But it is not excluded – this springs to mind because of British tourists – that we have health measures that are a bit stronger.’

As of yesterday Germany is requiring people arriving from the UK to go into quarantine for 14 days on arrival.