Spain Travel in July

As of today, travel.state.gov still has Spain listed as a level 4, do not travel to warning. I wouldn’t assume The Local is a reliable source on when it’s safe to travel abroad again. However, travel.state.gov stays current: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Spain.html.

Check the US Embassy site for Spain

Anyone know if this is a certainty or it can still change?

Everything is subject to change. Virtually every pronouncement by a politician has been hedged by "details are still being worked out", "we hope...", "providing the situation continues to improve...", and the like. In many cases, the person making the pronouncement has no power to even implement it, just setting a "goal" for Parliament, or just hoping "saying it" will pressure it into happening.

As to whether July will be it? In the heavy tourism industry countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece among others) there is an immense pressure to "save" the season. I imagine that if it is at all possible to open, they will, even if it maybe is not fully advised. Of course, opening borders and then having hotels, restaurants, shops, and sights ready to go, are different things; and internal travel restrictions, curfews, closures, masks, etc., are often set by departments internal to the government, not the tourism folks.

At this point, you can only hope; and you certainly need to be flexible, be prepared for a single location, as opposed to moving around, or even altering your plans completely (last minute flight from Spain to Greece on arrival?)

Everything is subject to change. Even if Spain opens, it could close again if things get worse. That’s why I wouldn’t have rushed right out and make reservations. Until it opens and the kinks get worked out of the system, I’ll stay home.

I'm using this website to keep an eye on travel to Spain - it's good for any country world wide.

https://www.skyscanner.com/travel-restrictions/spain/29475369?origin=29475437&utm_content=status-cta&utm_source=travel-alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=where-can-i-go-multiple_US_2021-05-26&utm_term=

I think anyone that is planning travel and purchasing air tickets for most anywhere right now needs to be thinking about the possibility of having to reschedule. My daughter moved to Hawaii in August 2020 for grad school leaving most of her belongings at home. Talk about a leap of faith! I was supposed to travel with her. I rescheduled air tickets 5 times and finally got to Hawaii October 15 with more of her stuff. I feel like they know me at Delta. I had travel booked for spring of this year to France (cancelled), I also had travel booked for June (cancelled), I am now trying again for France/Spain for September. Will it happen? maybe, hopefully. But I didn't book nonrefundable tickets. . . . Even in "normal" times, things can change. Right now, I wouldn't bet my house on much of anything. I am really ready to get to Europe, but for now, I'm enjoying my children, neighbors, parents, and cocktails by my firepit.

I live near Bilbao, in the Basque Country. As per today´s data, 42% of Basque population have been vaccinated at least once (38.5% average in Spain), and 22% have been fully vaccinated (19.5% Spain average). The forecast seems rather optimistic for the following weeks, as we are receiving enough doses weekly to meet the goal of 70% of population vaccinated by end of August. Government officials are now talking about no mask obligation by July, but nothing serious yet. The lift of June 7th is still effective and no further announcements have been made, as it´s been rightly said, tourism is a key activity for these countries.

We had pre-existing plans to travel June 19. Talk about down to the wire! I went ahead and booked all my stuff after the announcement and am hoping that some clarification occurs so we know whether to punt or not.

I'm in the same boat (round-trip flights to Madrid in August) and I'm basically going to sit now and wait until June 7 to see if anything official comes from the Spanish government.

If that June 7 date is real, then the Spanish government will have to issue something official, at the very least issue a state bulletin and push changes to Timatic (the system that airlines use to check passenger eligibility for international flights) so airlines know they can board vaccinated passengers.

If nothing official happens on June 7, that would seem a pretty good sign that they've quietly withdrawn on what Sánchez announced about vaccinated travelers, or at least chosen to delay it, and I'll probably start to change/cancel my plans (or at the very least pause the planning).

Here is a TPG post about this extension:

To clarify, the restrictions that have been extended until June 30 apply only for arrivals from third countries. There are multiple exceptions to the restrictions. The extended entry ban does NOT apply to vaccinated travellers from the United States, Rwanda, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, Macao and China. Spain has relaxed restrictions even further for visitors from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Israel and Japan. Tourists from those countries who have proof of vaccination no longer have to show the results of a negative COVID test.

The writer doesn't explain the source for his claim that the restrictions extension doesn't apply to vaccinated travelers from the US.

In fact he goes on to say:

We are still urging caution on booking trips to Spain this month. You might want to wait until we have official details on the use of digital health certificates, and how Americans will be able to provide proof of vaccination.

In fact, the Tourist Office of Spain in New York is still reportedly
advising consumers against booking tickets to Spain at the moment.

Reading the bulletin, it appears that that the new June 20 date concerns non exempt 3rd party countries, and not the USA as they are on the green list. I have not seen anything about this on the local Spanish press, I would be very surprised if they don't let Americans in on the 7th, I think this may be a case of bureaucratic miscommunication time will tell 😂

@Carlos, when you discuss the possibility of Americans being able to come on the 7th, do you mean vaccinated Americans? Or Americans with a neg. COVID test within 72 hours? I am hoping Spain drops the COVID test requirement so I can come in September!

Vaccinatied, for now

It seems like politics is gonna have a huge role as to whether Americans will be traveling to Europe this summer.

^ How so??? I think it's less of politics and more of the current epidemiological situation and practical implementation of a system that ensures safe travel. Being vaccinated shouldn't be a political statement.

The vaccines in the US have proven to be effective in preventing the individual from getting or transmitting covid. There is a very low risk of either of those things happening. There is no evidence that the approved vaccines in the US are not effective against the variants.

I say politics because many of the countries are not opening to Americans because the US is not being reciprocal, and nothing to do with the rate of covid in the United States. In fact both the EU and the US are doing much better in regards to covid rates. There is no justification for a continued travel ban. Plus there are other geopolitical reasons at play. The people in the travel industry who have suffered economic destruction should be allowed to welcome vaccinated individuals and get on with their lives.

While some countries have opened to us, once we decide to lift our travel ban, other countries will do the same for us, thats politics not science.

Someone should tell the British they are doing it wrong then lol, poor Portugal were banking on being the only EU country on the Green list, guess not!

BBC: Covid travel rules: Portugal removed from UK green list as seven others join red list

El Pais: El Reino Unido mantiene a España fuera de la lista de destinos más seguros para el turismo, junto a Portugal (In Spanish)

The British apparently have been asking the US behind the scenes to not ban them anymore, that is why the US isn’t on the green list(politics). It stopped being about science long ago.

Getting vaccinated reduces the chance of catching Covid or transmitting it, but it doesn’t stop it plus we are very concerned about the new variants and the effectiveness of the vaccines against them. In the U.K., case numbers have tripled in a week, despite half the population now being fully vaccinated and 75% have had one dose. That’s significantly ahead of the USA. Hospitalisations are rising again.

As places start to open up, infection rates are likely to increase. This thing isn’t over by a long shot.

If one got the Pfizer or Moderna shot, they have close to 95% protection. If you are one of the 5% that get it you’re very unlikely to have symptoms or have enough viral load to spread it. We have to live with some acceptable risk as a society. To ban people who are vaccinated is self defeating or create an odd list where one day a country is on it the next day they are off. Not sure about Astra but the US vaccines are effective against all variants/scariants. If we see vaccine failure in mass, then we should re-evaluate, not live in constant fear before anything happens. Btw in the US, the CDC lifted the mask guidance for the vaccinated for over 3 weeks now and cases continue to drop, this is likely due to a combination of the vaccinated and people getting infection. The UK is ahead of the US however I believe they primarily used the AstraZeneca vaccine for a big portion of their population, which could make them more susceptible to variants compared to the MRNA vaccines.

To bring the topic back to Spain and travel (as per the webmaster's policy 😉) --

From the English version of El País:

From Monday [June 7] onward, passengers who have been vaccinated
against Covid-19 will be able to enter Spain, no matter which part of
the world they are traveling from. That was the announcement made by
the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, on May 21 at the Fitur tourism fair
in Madrid.

So this is nothing new of course and has been reported lots of places. But further down in the third paragraph:

The full order is due to be released on Saturday [June 5] in the Official State
Gazette (BOE), according to the same sources, and will enter into
force on Monday [June 7] as had been announced. [my emphasis] The text is being prepared by
the Health and Interior ministries, which are in charge of healthcare
controls and the country’s borders. Late on Thursday, the document was
still yet to be finalized.

This is the first mention I've seen anywhere of a formal BOE order regarding vaccinated travel, which will be necessary for vaccinated (non-European) travelers to enter Spain. Hopefully we get the actual bulletin tomorrow!

Looking forward to the official announcement.

France published theirs but they still require negative test for vaccinated Americans and Brits.

Unvaccinated Americans and Brits can't visit for tourism.

So it will be interesting to see what the official requirements are for Spain.

On Saturday, the Spanish embassy in the U.S. confirmed via Twitter that “entry is authorized” for people traveling from the U.S. who are fully vaccinated with a vaccine approved by the EU Medicines Agency or the World Health Organization. In the Twitter thread, it’s noted that “All CDC approved vaccines comply.”

https://thepointsguy.com/news/spain-extends-ban-on-travelers-from-some-nations-but-it-doesnt-apply-to-us/

Travelers may also enter with negative test results from a SARSCoV2 diagnostic test or proof of recovery from COVID-19. You must complete the Spain Travel Health form at least 48 hours before departure in order to generate and obtain your QR code. The health form website states that “Once at the airport, you must show the QR Code that will be scanned at the health control, in order to access the terminal and collect your luggage.”

https://twitter.com/SpainInTheUSA/status/1401155628417048579?s=20

There are official state bulletins, issued today, that you need vaccine proof, negative test or some documentation that you recovered.

So it appears official, open to American from June 7, this Monday.

If you’re an American that has been vaccinated do you need a negative test as well or is that only for Americans without the vaccine?

Vaccinated Americans DO NOT need a negative covid test to enter Spain starting next week.

Wonderful news, hopefully other European countries follow and open up to the vaccinated/neg covid test

An account of the first day Americans were allowed to visit Spain.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/spain-reopening-first-day/

Brian continued:

“We called Delta a few times. I tried to get information about PCR
test or not. I was told I would need a PCR test or would be denied
boarding at JFK. We erred on the side “we’re not getting a test. I was
reading in Spanish that we wouldn’t need it. So we went to counter and
they only asked for vaccine card, your Spain QR code and no mention of
a test despite the Delta App saying I would need a test. It turned out
to be the right choice.”

Brain says, “I will confirm 100% that vaccinated Americans did not
need to show a PCR test in Spain — only that we had our two vaccine
doses taken within 15 days and the QR code (from Spain Travel Health
(SpTH) form).”

They told me that nobody ever asked for test results, and, in fact, at
the gate, they were only asked for their passports.

Liz said that once they arrived, they were super nervous. They were
the first ones off the plane. At first, the border patrol agent didn’t
know what to make of it when they got to the window and told him they
were Americans there for tourism. They showed the agent their vaccine
cards and their passports, and she said he looked “confused” and went
to get a supervisor. Liz said they never said two words to the agent
or his supervisor. Eventually, after much deliberation, their
passports were stamped and they were waived through. They did have one
more stop to show QR codes to workers dressed in PPE, but that was it.
Welcome to Spain.

Just for clarification, I'm wondering about non-vaccinated US citizens coming from the US to Spain. The US embassy in Spain website says non vaccinated US citizens aren't able to travel to Spain unless they have special permission. However, other sources say that non-vaccinated US citizens can enter Spain with a recent negative test. The points guy article says seems to imply this in the last paragraph of the article, as do some other sources I've seen.

Unvaccinated people can enter but they're taking on more risks of course.

The long flight, then mixing with other unvaccinated people.

Spain new case rate is dropping but now is higher than that of the US.

From the official requirements posted on June 7:

"I am travelling to Spain for tourist purposes from a country that does not belong to
the European Union or the European Economic Area, what entry requirements are
applied to me?"

You will have to check the LIST OF EUROPEAN UNION/EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA
COUNTRIES and LIST OF THIRD COUNTRIES:
1. If you are travelling from a country or territory included in the list of countries with low
incidence, excluded from the risk zone, you will be able to travel without the need for
a diagnostic test or a certificate of vaccination or immunity. At the moment the
countries included in this list are:
1. Australia
2. Israel
3. Japan
4. New Zealand
5. Rwanda
6. Singapore
7. South Korea
8. Thailand
9. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
10. China and the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macao (subject
to reciprocity)

1. If you are travelling from a country or territory that is not included in the list of exempted countries, from 7 June tourists will be allowed to enter if they have a certificate of vaccination issued by the competent authorities of the country of origin from 14 days after the date of administration of the last dose of the complete vaccination schedule. The vaccines accepted shall be those authorised by the European Medicines Agency or those that have completed the World Health Organisation’s emergency use process. Currently, these vaccines are those produced by Pfizer-Biontech, Moderna, Astra-Zeneca, Jansen/Johnson&Johnson, Sinovac and Sinopharm.

The certificate of vaccination shall include at least the following information:
7. Name and surname of the holder
8. Date of vaccination, stating the date of the last dose administered
9. Type of vaccine administered
10. Number of doses administered/complete schedule
11. Issuing country
12. Identification of the institution issuing the certificate of vaccination

So the answer is no, unvaccinated Americans are currently not allowed to travel to Spain for leisure.

Best to look into utilizing the EU Digital Green Pass when it comes into effect on July 1st, if still unvaccinated at this point.

Official requirements: https://travelsafe.spain.info/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/NUEVOS_REQUISITOS_DE_ENTRADA_EN_ESPANA_A_PARTIR_DEL_7_DE-JUNIO_eng.pdf

Hopefully most of the sites will be open. Going to Madrid in July, hopefully San Miguel market and museums are open.

I was hoping to go to Madrid after spending a week in northern Italy (having arrived on a so-called COVID flight)

As an American, it sounds like I just need to be vaccinated and submit the health form 48 hours ahead to enter Spain from Italy by air?