Scott and Tracy Cuthbert, from the village of Bloxham, Oxfordshire, say that reducing their holiday in the Loire Valley by six days “is a simple resolution we must take because or we want to work.”
Scott, sales director of a glazing company, has been on leave for 10 weeks, but the business has gone well since he repainted, so he can’t miss the opportunity. And Tracy needs to make sure she’s back for the beginning of the term at the personal school where she paints.
The couple and their daughter Milly, 16, were due to return next Thursday, but began “meeting frantically” and taking a ferry to return in time after hearing the news of the rule changes. They were on vacation with 3 other families coming home early.
“He ruined everyone’s vacation and shortened them,” Scott says. “Why about 40 to 14 days when some areas of the UK are most affected? I’m very frustrated.”
The family circle booked a ferry for Friday afternoon, only to discover that they would not arrive at the port in time, so they have now booked another ferry, which is expected to leave Calais at 20:30 BST.
“We’re driving now and the satellite navigation formula says we’ll have about an hour of margin,” Scott says from the car.
Milly is already concerned about its effects on the GCSE after the announcement of other people’s degradation to A level, and now fears missing the first day back to school if the family circle is forced to isolate itself, adds her father.
Katie is a London holiday instructor in a remote location in France, in a personal villa. She says she and her children will miss the start of the new school year because they are a 12-hour drive from the English Channel crossing “so we can’t go back in time.”
Katie says she consulted the government and registered to receive all the alerts to keep an eye out for the rule changes. “We knew there could be a risk, but we may not get a refund for our vacation,” he says.
“Why didn’t you make that call before this week so we can move home? Why did they tell us it was appropriate to travel to France?”
“We’ve done everything the government has asked us to do for months, but I think they want to treat us all with a little respect and give us time to organize.”
Laurence Dolman and her family, from Sheffield, enjoyed a week of ice and sunshine at a Eurocamp in Wassenaar, The Netherlands. Your return ferry will arrive in Hull on Saturday at 8.30am, 4 hours after regulations take effect.
Before the pandemic, the circle of relatives had spent about a year and a part making plans for a big holiday in Europe for this summer, and they have lost a lot of cash since their cancellation. So they made the decision for a smaller summer holiday and consciously chose the Netherlands because what they thought was a “low risk” position to scale up compared to other European countries.
While Laurence, 41, and his wife Michelle, 40, discussed “crazy ideas” about the option of abandoning self-isolation regulations, because “perhaps being in British naval territory” by the 4 a.m. deadline, they “don’t regret having to quarantine.
“We deserved this vacation,” Laurence says, and he mentions how difficult it was to take his children’s house to school confinement.
When asked if they wanted to get to the house early, he added, “No, we’re just going to enjoy our last vacation.”
“My wife and I have another week off before we go back to the paintings. I’m lucky enough to be in the house paintings, but since my wife is a social painter, it’s a little more of a challenge for her.”
Karl Simpson went to his home for the time being in the French village of Vion knowing “very well” that he had to be quarantined when he returned to Southampton on 20 August.
But now that this has been confirmed, it’s about organizing the care of her 90-year-old mother with dementia.
“There’s no time now to rearrange the care I’ll offer if I’m out,” he says. “Will I be the government? Will I break quarantine regulations if I stop at Mom, or do [the above blocking exemptions for caregivers] still apply? It’s going to be hard.”
Karl, a 68-year-old scientist who pleaded with the government on vaccines and pandemic planning, expects the same exemptions for caregivers to be in position as when the UK was completely blocked in March, but “there are still no transparent rules on this.”
He says he has the precept of quarantine after a vacation abroad, “but it will have to be implemented intelligently.”
Tom Duffell, who has a small company, to shorten his circle of family members on holiday in Nice in 4 days and booked a last-minute flight home.
“We were enjoying a nice cocktail last night and suddenly a news flash pops in and a scramble to book flights,” he told the BBC from the airport.
“I think we controlled to take my wife and one of my children on a flight and me and my other son on the flight.
“We had to spend about $800 because we just can’t take two extra weeks off,” added Tom, whose wife works as an NHS nurse and has volunteered at an extensive care unit.
He said the government deserves to have given tourists who are already in France more time to prepare. “They may have just said that you know how to give tourists 72 hours to return to the UK, that a little over 24 hours and there’s a crazy race,” he said.
“Instead, we are all overcrowded at the airport. There are massive queues, the social distance has passed the window.”
“We all rushed on the same flight, the flights are all full. In fact, it doesn’t go to public health, it’ll only make things worse.”
Will you be affected until you’re 40? Do you have a story to share? Email [email protected].
Please come with a contact number if you would like to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:
Terms and Conditions
BBC politics