Ireland 14 day self-isolation/quarantine for all arrivals except from Northern Ireland

We are a family of 6 booked on a June tour. I really wish RS would just cancel all May and June tours. I know that would be awful, but the anxiety of waiting and wondering is awful too, on top of everything else to worry about.

I'm with you on that, Stacy. This drip, drip, drip approach is nerve-wracking, especially now that we have clear advice, verging on directives. Yesterday I posted news from the Irish Times about drastic cuts in Ryanair flights and anticipating similar ones for Aer Lingus. My RT is on Aer Lingus from Seatte to Dublin. If any flight is likely to be canceled, I'd expect it to be that one.

Stacy, I gotta say agree with you. We are not traveling this year, but in past years we did 2-3 big trips to all 7 continents, etc. (most group tours, two were RS tours). Based on what I am experiencing thru you all (on the Forum) and other friends who had large trips planned, just this morning I said to my husband it will be a really, really, really long time (if ever) before I book a group tour again..........the waiting and uncertainty would be stressing me out.....I would want to be able to cancel for this summer and be done with it........especially since it is likely the virus will be around for at least a year, maybe longer....likely until there is a vaccine. For independently arranged travel, one is in more control...not the benefits of group travel...but sure more control.

Maybe (I am guessing) there is some sort of business insurance that requires that the RS operation wait until so many weeks before the start of the tour to be certain the virus has not subsided enough to otherwise allow trips to go. But....duh...does anyone really think it will? If it is a business insurance reason, it would be good to know that, so people could understand. But, with the stress of worrying how we can all keep from getting the virus (we are going in no inside public places without our N95 respirator masks (that we had on hand from paint/sanding/yard projects) and plastic painter gloves) . Even then, we are limiting to absolute necessities. Not germaphobes, but spouse has a somewhat compromised immune system, so precautions.

That said, I can only guess the additional stress of wondering WHEN my tour money might be refunded......at a time that many households (small business owners wondering how they can keep it together, those who work in hospitality, tourism, retail, restaurant owners seeing huge drops, etc. experiencing reduced income......and many with employees depending on them.....or just people seeing their 401Ks shrink.

It would be nice to reduce one of those many stresses, and travel is a luxury. I hope you get good news soon. Less stress mounting might make you reconsider a group tour in future years. I sure would not book one for 2021 unless everything looks totally good in January 2021.

Got it.

The quote in the post is straight from the source cited. There have been many more updates since then. Click on the "specifics on Ireland" in the original post to see them along with more detail.

James,

I think most of us know the difference between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. That doesn't change the fact that the U.S. Department of State simply calls the Republic, Ireland.

I checked both your U.K. link and the U.S. Department of State link for the U.K. and found nothing similar to the very clear travel restrictions for people going to the Republic either for the U.K. in general or specific to Northern Ireland.

Everything I saw today on the U.K. site seemed to be about travel of U.K. citizens or U.S. ex-pats. The U.S. State Department was an even more confusing jumble of scrambled U.K. information.

Perhaps both of those websites will become more direct and understandable in the future.

If you know where a direct answer can be found for a person from another country who wants to know if they can enter the U.K. at all and what restrictions they might face if they do, please provide that.

My original post was less than 2 weeks ago and circumstances have obviously changed dramatically since then. My RS Best of Ireland in 14 Days tour, starting in Dublin on 8 May and ending in Belfast on 21 May, has been canceled.

I'm very disappointed, but not surprised. I was planning on arriving in Dublin on 5 May and staying in the tour hotel before the tour started and on staying in the Belfast hotel for 2 nights after it ended.

I haven't spent much time in either city, but I was particularly interested in Belfast. I've only been near there once when we stayed in Holywood to visit the Crossle factory where my husband's race car was born.

Sorry your trip was cancelled, hopefully there will be many more chances to visit when we get back to normal.