5 minute read
SAIL AWAY
on your dream holiday this year with the latest news and off ers
Image: Kevin Standage / Shutterstock
Cruising in Scotland
Despite all this talk about heading abroad, UK holidays are going to remain incredibly popular this year, with Scotland the destination of choice for many people.
Kraken Travel offers a Scottish West Coast and Hebrides week long cruise on an Oyster 62 yacht with July and August dates costing from £2,000pp.
Surrounded by beautiful landscapes, this cruise offers the opportunity to spot wildlife - anything from sea otters to basking sharks - before settling down in the evening with a Scotch from a local distillery.
Additional Scottish adventures with Kraken include a nine-day Hebridean Whisky Tour in the autumn costing from £1,125pp and, also in the autumn, a Caledonian Canal trip on board a 1903 Tall Ship. There are a number of other UK Tall Ship trips available, from Scotland right down to the South Coast. kraken.travel
Holiday bookings up
Sailing Holidays has updated their brochure for 2022, and you can view it online. They tell us their phone lines have been busy, and although there are plenty of one-week holidays still available, two-week dates are fi lling up more quickly.
If a one-week holiday at Easter sounds tempting, the Greek islands would provide a welcome escape. There are fl otillas departing from Corfu on 17 and 24 April priced from £655pp. www.sailingholidays.com
Luxury charter
ScicSailing charters a small fl eet, called gulets, based around Bodrum. All yachts sail along the south west coast of Turkey and some of the Greek islands.
The charter business has been in touch to let us know about an eight-person yacht joining their fl eet. As a result they now have two luxury yachts with charters fully customisable, including catering, drinks and wines on board.
Their luxury yachts can only be chartered on an exclusive basis, while their comfort yachts can be enjoyed on a cabin charter basis, including solo travellers, or chartered exclusively for friends and family. scicsailing.eu
Grant Shapps MP, 24 January, 2022
Image: Shutterstock / Thornova Photography
Just as Sailing Holidays have reported a high demand for getaways, so too has PlainSailing. com who saw “crazy demand for boats in 2021”. They were having to turn away customers because there were no boats available to charter in Croatia, Greece or Italy.
History looks set to repeat itself this summer as demand remains high. Not only are sailing holidays relatively Covid-friendly, they make good ‘push the boat out’ holidays for people who have saved having not been abroad for a while. There there are still many charters that have been rolled over from early 2021, as well as many sailors who have not been sailing in the sunshine for the last two summers and are keen to do so.
The problem has been exacerbated by the lack of available boats for charter companies to buy to add to their fl eets. The upsurge in the popularity of sailing during the pandemic means that there are waiting lists of over a year to buy boats from many large boat builders, and the majority of 2022 boats are going to private sailors.
PlainSailing.com therefore recommend that anyone thinking of sailing in the sunshine should probably start making plans, as there is not likely to be much available for ‘last minute charter’ because the boats will be booked well ahead of time - particularly in the school holiday months of July and August. PlainSailing.com
Image: ScicSailing.eu
Travel rules up-date*
• Fully vaccinated passengers (two doses) and under-18s do not need a pre-departure test two days before travelling to the UK. • Covid tests for fully vaccinated travellers arriving in England and Scotland are being scrapped from 11 February and under-18s will no longer need to take a lateral fl ow test two days after they arrive in England or Scotland. • Those who are not fully vaccinated will no longer have to self-isolate on arrival or take a day eight test. However, they will have to show proof of a negative Covid test taken two days before they travel and take a post-arrival PCR test. • Passengers still need to fi ll in a passenger locator form. • From 3 February, 12 to 15-year-olds in England can prove their vaccination status via the digital NHS pass for international outbound travel. • Wales and Northern Ireland have not yet announced when they will relax their current restrictions. • You need to check the UK Foreign Offi ce website for entry requirements of any countries you visit. • Covid passes issued in the UK can be used throughout the EU to show proof of vaccination - either digitally or as a printed download (as long as it is dated later than 1 November 2021). Basically, all that fully vaccinated people will have to do to when they travel to the UK is verify their status via a passenger locator form, which is being simplifi ed. In addition, from the end of February, people will be given an extra day to fi ll out the form before they travel.
*Correct at the time of writing.
FURTHER INFORMATION n Nautilus Yachting: www.nautilusyachting.com n Nisos Yacht Charter: www.nisosyachtcharter.com n Seafarer: www.seafarersailing.co.uk n BVI Charters: www.bviyachtcharters.com n Ocean Elements: www.ocean-elements.co.uk n The Moorings: www.moorings.co.uk n Mauri Pro: www.mauripro.com n Dream Yacht Charter: www.dreamyachtcharter.co.uk n Sunsail: www.sunsail.co.uk n Mallorca Yacht Charter: www. mallorcayachtcharter.eu n Tall Ships Adventures: tallships.org n Naleia Yachting:www.naleiayachting.com
• 50+ Stunning sailing grounds to explore • World’s largest, most diverse sailing fleet • Latest models from the leading brands • Bareboat, skippered, crewed or by the cabin • Excellent customer service
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