How To Avoid UK Quarantine After Your Portuguese Vacation

The UK Foreign Office is urging Brit expats in Portugal to stop helping their compatriots avoid quarantine.

As reported in an English language local expat newspaper, expat Brits living in Portugal are advising prospective UK tourists on how best to avoid having to quarantine for two weeks after returning to the home country. Some enterprising expats are even volunteering to pick British tourists up at local airports in Spain and drive them across the Portuguese/Spanish border. For British holidaymakers needing to avoid the 14-day lockdowns on re-entry to the UK, it’s straightforward and simply involves sending a private message to a would-be helper.

The route itself couldn’t be easier and includes taking a flight from the UK to Seville and a long-distance bus from the airport straight to Portugal’s Algarve province, which admits tourists coming from Spain without an enforced quarantine period. One enterprising tour company has already picked up on the scheme, offering to transport British arrivals in Seville straight to the Algarve and bring them back to Spain for the flight home. The transfers are costing a maximum of 499 euros and cover up to six persons per trip.

According to the tour company’s CEO, the ruse is totally legal and the responsibility is on the travellers themselves as regards their health and the dangers of spreading the virus. The crafty scheme became a reality after Portugal wasn’t included in the UK’s permitted travel corridors allowing European holidays in selected countries without the self-isolating requirement on return to the UK.