Covid-19: Quarantine-free travel to France resumes as UK rules change

Fully vaccinated people can now visit France without quarantining on their return to the UK, after travel rule changes came into force at 04:00 BST.

Brittany Ferries said it had received a “surge” of bookings following the rule changes announced on Thursday.

But travel agents said the relaxation of quarantine for one of the UK’s most popular destinations came “too late to save the summer”.

Meanwhile, travellers in Mexico had to rush back to avoid hotel quarantine.

Under the latest changes to the UK’s traffic light system for travel, the rules have been relaxed for a dozen countries.

France moved from its own amber-plus category onto the amber list, which means children and fully vaccinated passengers do not have to quarantine on their return, although unvaccinated travellers still have to self-isolate at home for 10 days.

Londoner Kyle Frank is among those who booked a trip after the change was announced. He plans to drive to Nice because he feels it is safer than taking a plane – and so he can bring his puppy, Indy, with him.

“It would have been great to book it before but everything has been changing so rapidly it’s hard to understand when it will be safe to travel. So I’m trying to go now while I can,” he told the BBC.

“There’s no quarantine when I get back to London so I can get straight back to work.”

Agencies