I know I have been guilty of reading too much on the BBC news site (we tend to avoid the news on the telly unless it’s a Downing Street News Conference) and scrolling through posts and opinions on Facebook, all of which just puts my head in a spin. After our recent trip to Whitby<\/a>, we both realised how much we miss being in our motorhome. Don’t get me wrong, I love our little bolt-hole that we live in (known as The Cooler<\/a>), but there’s something about being in the motorhome that lifts the spirits in a way that I just don’t get at home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The weather has turned and it looks like autumn is well and truly here, and while being in a motorhome in the Alps in winter<\/a> is fun – think powdery snow, icicles, sunny skies, vin chaud etc, the prospect of being in the UK in the winter doesn’t seem so enticing. There’s just a couple of things stopping us from going now – Brexit and Covid-19. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Brexit issue, is still a few months away, but as our trips are often that long, it’s something that needs to be considered. The way things stand at the moment (today, the 26th of September, as it could change tomorrow if previous weeks are anything to go by) we can go abroad and everything is the same as it has been in the past until the clock strikes Midnight (not sure if that is UK or European time) on the 31st December. At that point our European Health Insurance Cards (EHIC) cards will stop being valid, meaning we can’t access free state-provided healthcare abroad if we needed it, like when I fell over and cut my knee open in Spain<\/a>. At that point we would also start our Schengen clock, which allows us to be in the Schengen zone<\/a> for 90 days in every 180 day period<\/a>. The Schengen clock means that we’d need to be home (or in another country outside the Schengen zone) by the end of March if we planned to use up our first half of the year allowance in one go. However, we do love spring and summer in the Alps, so if we didn’t come back until the end of March, we’d have to wait until the start of July before heading back into Schengen again. I think we’ll just need to sit down with a calendar and do a bit of planning going forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We can prepare for a lot of things before we go, such as ensuring our travel insurance covers us adequately once the EHIC has stopped and checking we have plenty of time left on our passports. We’ll also need to buy some International Driving Permits (IDPs) from the Post Office, I say some as there are different rules for different countries and we’ll both need the right ones in case I have to drive for some reason. We’ll also need to buy a GB sticker for the back of our van and ask our insurance company to send us a Green Card – a document that proves our insurance is valid in the country we are in – and check our breakdown cover is still valid. We still miss our little furry travel companion Charlie, but at the same time are quite relieved that we don’t have to navigate the changes to the pet passport scheme, which will be the case for anyone travelling with their dog, cat or ferret. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With us as prepared as possible for Brexit, we come to the trickier subject, travelling abroad in a motorhome in a pandemic. We’ve seen on Facebook groups, blogs, forums and reviews on the Park4Night app that loads of people are out there touring Europe in their motorhomes, they aren’t all staying in their own countries. So do we just need to fill the van with face masks, hand sanitiser, soap and loo roll and away we go? Sadly it’s probably not that simple. While our motorhome insurance is valid despite the pandemic (I don’t Zagan will catch Covid-19), our travel insurance policy ran out earlier this year. As we weren’t allowed out of the house at the time, let alone off to foreign shores, we chose not to buy another policy until we knew where and when we wanted to go. Earlier this week I searched online as we usually would, but quickly hit a snag, the Foreign Office is, of course, advising against ‘all but essential’ travel to several European countries, and they include the ones that connect the UK to mainland Europe by ferry or tunnel. Most insurance companies won’t cover you if you are travelling against Foreign Office advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After reading all the ‘Coronavirus Travel Guidance<\/a>‘ on the Foreign Office website, it talks about checking with your airline or accommodation provider which wouldn’t really be applicable, and keeping up to date with local restrictions – like we are doing here at home. We would continue to be cautious about what we do too. Yesterday we visited our local pub for the first time since this all began, we wrapped up warm and had the entire beer garden to ourselves along with our best friends and their two kids. We sanitised, we socially distanced, we kept to the rule of six and enjoyed the table service. That visit was a big step, we’ve been avoiding going to pubs and restaurants (apart from when we happened upon an empty pub near Carsington Water that was empty<\/a> so we once again had the beer garden to ourselves, and ordering takeaway from one in Edale<\/a>) as it just doesn’t feel safe, sitting inside with strangers. There wasn’t anything in the Government guidance that didn’t seem to be common sense, and we don’t mind the prospect of two weeks in quarantine if it means several months of life in the van. We’ve already done it once so we know our favourite Italian restaurant will deliver to our door. I am also struggling to see how the advice can be to not to go to places because they have a high infection rate, when some parts of the UK have an even higher rate. If we went to Spain for the winter, we’d be mainly outside in open spaces without many people around – which for me feels much lower risk than being at home, unless we plan to not go out for the entire winter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n More insurance searching and I did find a company called BattleFace (www.battleface.com<\/a>) that will insure you to travel against Foreign Office advice – but the policy came in at around \u00a31000, and going by the information on the website it is more aimed for people heading to do humanitarian work in war zones. We just want to drive our motorhome to Spain for some winter sun, so I think their policy would be a bit much. Another two companies Staysure (www.staysure.co.uk<\/a>) and Avanti (www.avantitravelinsurance.co.uk<\/a>) allowed you to pay \u00a35 extra and be covered for travel even against Foreign Office advice, but the cover would not extend to the reason for the no-travel advice. That would mean we would be covered for all the usual stuff, but not if we caught Covid-19. That seemed perfect and just what we want, only the maximum trip length is 104 days. So there goes our plans to stay out until after Brexit!<\/p>\n\n\n\n [UPDATE 27 Sep 2020] <\/strong>Thanks to Christina Butterworth for pointing us to www.insurefor.com<\/a>. We’ve run our details through and it appears they’ll cover a 5 month single trip for both of us for \u00a3378, including travelling to countries which the foreign office recommends against due to COVID-19. Their cover includes medical care if we get sick with COVID-19. We were also pointed at www.truetraveller.com<\/a> by a couple of people, their cover includes destinations the FCO advises against, and includes medical cover, but won’t cover us if we get sick with COVID. Their policy quote was \u00a3307 (and it looks like you can officially take it out while you’re outside the UK). Not cheap, but it appears policies are starting to come available which meet our needs. Thanks to every who’s been in touch with suggestions – very much appreciated. [END]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n So, we’re now mulling over the many options. Stay in the UK. Go abroad for 100 days with insurance then come home. Go abroad without insurance (don’t worry Mum and Dad this one is very low down on the list), Go abroad for the 100 days and see if we can get another policy while away (most won’t cover you unless you are in the UK when taking it out), or any other number of permeations. On top of all of that, I am still struggling with the moral \/ ethical dilemma – should we be travelling abroad, or travelling at all? The answer to the second question is that the Government seems OK for us to tour England and visit areas of high infection as long as we adhere to the local guidance. From the advice against all but essential travel they don’t want us to do the same thing overseas and I’m not sure I can work out why. Most other countries in Europe still have their borders open to each other, so do their Governments want us there? Do their people want us there? I guess we won’t know until we go and find out for ourselves. In the meantime we’ll continue to research insurance and also some of the apps and websites that are out there tracking the virus rates, border requirements and local information. We’ll put what we find in another blog post, but please let me know if you have any great resources too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ju x<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We’d like some winter sun, but have come across issues while we preparing to travel abroad in our motorhome during a pandemic and Brexit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[417,516,1482,415],"tags":[1360,1361,1363,134,723,1362,1413],"class_list":["post-38638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motorhome-blog","category-preparation","category-travel-during-covid-19","category-at-home","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-covid-19-2","tag-motorhome","tag-motorhome-insurance","tag-pandemic","tag-travel-insurance"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ourtourmedia.s3.eu-central-003.backblazeb2.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/IMG_20190628_112951586_HDR-1024x576.jpg\")
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