Flights have been grounded, social distancing is paramount and the hope of jetting off abroad this summer appears to be more of a dream than reality.

Many Lancastrians loved the occasional long weekend abroad before the world was hit with the coronavirus pandemic.

Whether you were escaping for a few days in sunny Spain, or packing the family off to a Greek island for half term - our trips abroad were something to look forward to throughout the year.


Now that measures are being eased, many of us are going to be thinking about a well deserved holiday following months of being cooped up at home.

But going abroad will likely be far more difficult for the foreseeable future.

We have detailed six reasons you won't be able to take a holiday abroad any time soon.

1. Quarantining requirements

From June 8, the government are requiring all people entering the country by either plane, train or ferry to quarantine for 14 days.

Similarly some other countries are also requiring people entering to quarantine for periods of time.

France will require people arriving specifically from the UK to self-isolate for 14 days.

Suddenly that holiday abroad doesn't seem so appealing if it could involve a fortnight of quarantining either side.

2. Travel restrictions

As it stands the UK government is advising against all but essential travel.

This means until that advice changes, holidays are definitely not a-go.

Even if our government lifts these restrictions other countries have also brought in their own.

Greece for example has said they are opening the country for tourists once again but not for those travelling from the UK due to our country's record on coronavirus.

Greek tourism minister Haris Theoharis told ITV: “I think that the UK has a big difference in terms of the current medical status of the country with Greece, so I don’t think it’s likely it will be there,” he said.

3. Flight disruptions

Some of the first businesses to feel the strain of lockdown were the airlines.

As fear of the pandemic spread, the numbers of people flying abroad shrunk massively.

This threw many airlines into disarray such as Virgin Atlantic which recently announced they were making around a third of their workforce redundant.

Massive uncertainty remains about whether passenger numbers will return to pre-coronavirus numbers. Meaning airlines are left in a particularly precarious position.

With this uncertainty flights are being cancelled or changed left right and centre so even if you want to go abroad, there might not be an airline to take you.

4. Extra testing at airports

Part of the attraction of a weekend away is the ease of it.

Jump on a plane and you're in a whole new world.

But with airports across the world likely to start bringing in some form of testing to ensure coronavirus carriers aren't coming into the country, the already sizeable palaver of going through the airport could be about to get a whole lot worse.

Will a weekend away seem so appealing if it starts and finishes with whole days spent queuing for tests?

5. Uncertainty regarding a second wave

Making big plans is all part of the holiday experience but there's a lot that you can't plan for at the moment.

Six months ago, this pandemic would have seemed like something out of a sci-fi novel yet here we are.

Our understanding of this thing is constantly evolving and no one really knows what the state of the world will be next week let alone in three months time.

Will there be a second wave of infections? Will there be another lockdown? Will the vaccine mean we can all carry on living our normal lives?

No one can really tell you, which makes planning a bit of a fruitless exercise.

6. Possible recession

Holidays are a fantastic way to blow through your savings but this only works if you have savings to begin with.

Shutting down the economy undeniably saved lives.

But at the expense of causing a huge amount of damage to the economy.

Many fear a recession in imminent and luxuries such as holidays will be the first thing people cut back on when budgets are tight.