Wall's Words

By Roger Wheeler

Shall we gocation or staycation?

For the past 18 months the government has not known exactly what to tell us about travelling, endless ‘experts’ have offered conflicting advice, where we can but shouldn’t go. Stay in the UK or risk going abroad. Do we need a vaccine passport? The much derided and confusing traffic light system is a total disarray, red, amber, pink, green, blue – choose what colour you like, it comes to the same thing.

In late July, Gatwick and Heathrow had some of the busiest days of the year. So, despite all the various perceived problems, people are going on holiday – to hell with the consequences. But it turns out that there are very few ‘consequences’ to worry about.

So where are our gay chums heading? Thailand is currently on the Amber list, if you are double vaccinated you will not have to quarantine when you get back. You should avoid the mainland because of internal political problems. Stick to the islands. The local government of Phuket has introduced a fascinating new scheme called the Phuket Sandbox, so long as you jump through all the usual hoops you won’t need to quarantine.

“Gay sailing is the new big thing, avoiding all Covid-19 problems as you just enter and leave through one country. Croatia is one of the most popular countries that these trips leave from”

One of the best gay travel companies, if you believe their PR, is Out of Office, which claims to be the world’s foremost gay travel agency. It does have a large range of gay vacation itineraries, usually based on small groups. Of course, they claim to be ‘luxury’, but that depends on your definition of the word.

French-based Gay Sejour promotes “a quality tourism offer dedicated to homosexual communities and their friends. Hotels, guest houses, vacation rentals, restaurants, gay bars, massages, spas, saunas, gay beaches”. It sounds and looks very good indeed. Although their offer is worldwide their speciality is France, with some very nice-looking gay owned chambres d’hôte.

At the time of writing, August 1, there is a lot of discussion about travel to France, which is on the Amber+ list; despite being double vaccinated you may need to quarantine when you get home. This doesn’t apply to Spain, the islands, Italy or Greece, you do not have to isolate if you are double vaccinated.

Gay sailing is the new big thing, avoiding all Covid-19 problems as you just enter and leave through one country. Croatia is one of the most popular countries that these trips leave from. On entry everyone from the UK must show a negative PCR test taken in the UK less than 48 hours prior to arrival. GaySail is the leader of this gang, Amsterdam-based they organise cruise and sailing holidays for gay guys of all ages and nationalities.

Pride Sailing Holidays is also Croatia-based, as is Off the Grid Yachting – they all offer very similar packages. Canadian-based Out Adventures is the third company running very similar sailing trips, also from Croatia. Not being a lover of small boat sailing I cannot vouch for them but they do appear to be very popular. Happy sailing.