London v. Madrid: May of 2022

I’m not certain what attitude you’re referring to. Nobody has a crystal ball regarding future entry requirements and restrictions for either country. The situation is getting worse everywhere in Europe, including Spain and especially the region of Madrid. The link is to Spain’s numbers for 12/21/21.

If plan B is needed there should be plenty of options to catch a flight from Heathrow to Madrid. The main tourist season in Spain begins in late May so you should have no problem getting accommodations at somewhat reasonable rates.

It's also true that by early May you should have a decent chance at decent outdoor weather in London, so maybe you won't need a Plan B.

you can sit in a square in London today without a mask. The England part of the UK has never worn masks outside unless you want one.

Spain isn’t Italy, and May 2022 isn’t September 2021, but our Plan A this past September was to fly Denver to Heathrow, then connect to Bologna. The Italian Covid regulations then became a required a 5 day quarantine upon arriving in Italy, for any passengers on a flight from England. That applied to people who’d been on the ground in England for some time, as well as anyone simply changing planes at the airport. With that latest development, we scrapped Plan A and went with a totally different Plan B, not taking British Airways and not passing thru Heathrow, but taking their partner American Airlines, flying Denver>Dallas>Rome. We then used the train to reach Bologna.

Quarantine policies have come and gone, at different locations, for different durations. A couple days might be tolerable, but more than that was not going to work. Then outright border closures have happened. British Airways let us scrap Plan A for B without penalties due to the Pandemic. Whether they’ll be so accommodating in the future is unknown. If your Plan B still involves Heathrow on any level, it might not work in the end. For a different Seattle to Madrid booking for May, I still might start looking before early April.

Thanks for the input. I should have been more clear about the "attitude" in the UK that I'm referring to. I'm not comfortable being in close proximity with people not wearing masks and not taking COVID seriously. The UK infection rates reflect. Maybe I'm not aware of the anti-mask sentiment in Madrid. Within the U.S., we have vast differences from city to city. I'm comfortable in Seattle. Not so much when I went to Missoula a few months ago.

Perhaps my question should have been this:
Where is a place with
(a) reasonably good weather in May
(b) reasonably good access from London (because the polar route saves a lot of time coming from Seattle) and
(c) reasonably mask-compliant people.
Does such a place exist?
Thanks.

Perhaps my question should have been this:
Where is a place with
(a) reasonably good weather in May
(b) reasonably good access from London (because the polar route saves a lot of time coming from Seattle) and
(c) reasonably mask-compliant people.
Does such a place exist?

Madrid should do the trick, in Spain we have been blessed by not having much of that anti-mask/anti-vaccine nonsense.

The UK infection rates reflect.

The UK infection rates reflect the higher rates of testing, tracking and sequencing in comparison to other countries. Don't be under any illusion that the UK is any worse than anywhere else in Europe. The virus is everywhere, there's no way to contain it or prevent it crossing borders.

JC, I think the poster is equating lack of masking with higher risk. I know that there are places I avoid here in the US for the same reason.

Mask wearing has been mandatory in Wales and Scotland but not England for some time yet infection rates across all three countries are similar which would suggest that masks really don't offer much in the way of protection from transmission.

Regarding mask wearing habits in Europe, you might find this interesting:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1114375/wearing-a-face-mask-outside-in-european-countries/

It would be interesting to see corresponding fines and enforcement (if any) were applicable against each country to see if there was any correlation.

Some friends returned recently from a multi-country trip, they said Italy was the strictest, followed by France, followed by London. They didn't feel the Brits were taking COVID all that seriously.

It is no surprise that compliance with generally accepted Covid Protocols varies by locations in Europe, just as it does in the United States. My experience with this topic is that one never changes the opinion of another and that it is fairly pointless to go down that path of trying to convince someone to change his/her mind.

What a traveler can do is determine his/her own level of comfort with what Covid Protocols are important to himself/herself and avoid areas that don't match up. This works two ways. I avoid Florida and Texas and I am pretty sure they are glad to avoid the Seattle area. It is important that if one travels to another area where the region doesn't practice the way you are used to, to comply with any rules or requests. If they are more "lax" then you are used to, you need to accept that and just keep wearing your mask yourself or whatever protocol it is that seems important. If they are more "strict", then you need to meet the prevailing standards whether you agree with them or not.

Not that 2022 is 2021, but my husband and I were in Madrid in August of 2021 and felt very comfortable there. Almost everyone wore a mask and outdoor seating options were plentiful. We spent 4 weeks in Spain and Portugal and ate indoors a total of 3 times at our hotel at breakfast with the doors open and just a few other people in the same space.

As for air travel, yes, that was our experience. We booked about 6 weeks early for our trip that was supposed to happen in June. Then it got postponed to July because Spain didn't open until mid-June. Then it got postponed to August because of work commitments that came up unexpectedly. Each time we were able to get decent flights.

When we changed planes in London on November 22, about 1/3 of the people at Gatwick airport were not wearing masks. This included the staff, such as the security staff, whom we could not avoid. And the two guys sitting behind us on the flight home who were drinking vodka the whole way so they wouldn't have to wear masks (I heard them discussing this) had British accents. So, I would definitely avoid flying through London again during Covid.

I loved Madrid when I went there. It was May, and they were having a heat wave, so I'm not sure what the average May weather is like. I also found people, in general, to be very courteous there.