Greetings,
I haven't posted for a long time, though I've been keeping up with the forum periodically. We're scheduled on the Barcelona/Madrid tour starting Oct. 2, our first overseas trip since early 2019. Like so many others, we were thrilled to see the U.S. re-entry testing requirement rescinded Sunday, and very much hope that policy continues during our tour.
I do see that RS is still requiring a test before joining a tour, but it seems to me, anyway, that the language has changed slightly:
Due to increasing Covid cases throughout Europe and on our tours, we require pre-tour testing in our endeavor to help keep our tour groups healthy. Within 24 hours of the tours start, tour members must self-test and present a negative test result to their guide before the welcome meeting. At that time, the guides also verify that everyone in the group is fully vaccinated and boosted. This way we know our tours start with a healthy group.
My question here is for those who've been on RS tours recently, as in the past few weeks.
I'm just wondering what is considered "proof" for a self test? I assume you can't just show the test stick from one of the quick home tests. So does this mean you must do one of the online proctored tests? I further assume that a pharmacy test in-country would be acceptable, too? We'll be in Barcelona several days before the tour starts, and if it's just as handy to go to a test site rather than doing an online proctored test, we might prefer to do that.
Thanks for any and all insight on recent experiences. And, of course, I recognize that everything can change on a dime before October.
Cheers,
Stoutfella