TRAVEL WISELY; COVID-19 MEASUREMENTS FOR MADEIRA FROM JULY 1 2020

Tobi Hughes·
News Blog

Madeira and Porto Santo will reopen to tourism on the 1st of July.

From 1 July 2020, the date on which compulsory quarantine is lifted, Madeira will welcome tourists to the island again. Madeira is proud of its results, achieved by resolute action after the emergence of the virus. The island was closed and anyone who did arrive had to spend 14 days in quarantine. As a result, the island has so far only had 90 Covid-19 infections and no deaths. This makes Madeira one of the safest places at the moment. In order to keep this as much as possible, the regional government has taken a set of security measures, so that both tourists and Madeirians can continue to feel safe.

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Tobi Hughes

25 Responses

  1. Does this apply to Brits arriving in Madeira because as far as we know mainland Portugal is still out of bounds? Do we have to self isolate for 14 days on our return to the U.K. The last we heard mainland Portugal, Porto Santo and Madeira we’re out of bounds.

  2. I have decided not to travel abroad until there is a vaccine available. I do not think I would get travel insurance to cover being being repatriated with this virus in any event.

  3. From the F&C website dated 5 August:
    From 4 July, Madeira and the Azores are exempt from the FCO advice against all non-essential international travel. This is based on the current assessment of COVID-19 risks.

    However, the requirement to self-isolate on return to the UK from Portugal, including Madeira and the Azores, remains in place. See guidance on entering or returning to the UK.
    And it also states you must self isolate for 14 days on return

  4. Sadly Tobi, today we have cancelled our holiday to Madeira booked for 21 October for 5 weeks – private house, not hotel. We originally had a booking for 21 March which we pushed back to October thinking that everything would be sorted by then. How wrong can you be…… The UK Government’s mishandling of the virus arrangements has made us cautious, not knowing whether lockdowns, quarantines & emergency travel stoppages would make holiday arrangements nil & void yet again. We are particularly worried about the airplane – what’s the point of paying for a test 3 days before departure (something we are quite prepared to do to feel safe) when you could be sitting beside someone who hasn’t taken the test & could give the virus to the whole plane load of passengers! Testing AFTER the flight just isn’t on…… We WILL be back but only when it is completely safe. In the meantime enjoying all the blogs & counting down to when we can visit again & book some of your Tobi tours…..

  5. Thanks Tobi for the update on Covid-19 measurements. We arrive on Monday and are looking forward to seeing Madeira again.
    Graham and Nary Hewitt

  6. We are coming in September. Does the update mean if we have our test in Madeira we now don’t have to self isolate until the results are through? We are intending to have a test here in Uk but if the results aren’t through before we leave we will have to get it done at Funchal airport. Would far rather know we are negative before flying to protect others but flying on a Monday makes getting results back risky.

    1. If you have the test here in Madeira, you have to go to the place you are staying and wait for the results, this is within 12 hours, and average 7-8 hours.

  7. Below is a section on the update which suggests that we are exempted from mandatory confinement but must respect social distancing etc.
    It is now very confusing.! Surely mandatory confinement is the same as self isolation? I look forward to you comments. Thanks.

    After carrying out the aforementioned test, the passenger will proceed to their destination, being exempted from mandatory confinement, respecting the rules of social distance, use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and health safety. The test result will be reported to the passenger within the next 12 hours.

  8. Thank you for your prompt reply. Yes we will definitely stay in our apartment but would be nice just to Go out into our garden!

    1. Oh yes that’s fine, as long as you not close to anyone, it’s no problem. My friends got theircresults withing 7 hours the other day.

  9. It’s a shame Gail70 has cancelled. I think that things will be a lot different come the autumn. We arrived here a week ago so are just starting our second week. When we heard about the compulsory wearing of masks in the street, we had thoughts about cancelling…but decided to come. If we didn’t like it, we could always cut our break short after a week. We are glad we came.

    Some observations;

    TESTING: A few weeks ago we thought that it would be wrong to use the NHS for the purposes of travel. We chose to, however. Apart from arriving in Madeira and needing to quarantine, we wanted to be sure we were OK before travel. That, and there is spare NHS testing capacity in the UK.

    You do not need a have symptoms to arrange a test so we used the Gov.uk site to do this. Flying on the Saturday, we ordered a home test on the Monday, Amazon delivered it on the Tuesday and we tested on Wednesday pm, posting the results back that same afternoon. We got our results back early Saturday morning before our flight and were able to show the text to the ISaude staff on arrival.

    THE FLIGHT: Gail70 need not worry.All of us were masked at the airport and for the majority of the flight. Our BA crew politely insisted on distancing especially so to avoid the scramble on arrival. The chances of contracting the disease onboard is around zero.

    ARRIVAL: I won’t repeat what others have said elsewhere apart from saying that the teams at FNC were utterly brilliant; warm, welcoming and we were given a surprise welcome gift.

    IN MADEIRA: It’s quiet. Many of our favourite restaurants are not open but are plañing to do so in the next few days and weeks. Some, we noticed, have decorators in. I note that BA’s flight frequencies for September and October grow from 2 pw to 5, so life seems to be returning to normal.

    MASKS etc: Masks are now mandatory but not univerally worn.in town yesterday I reckon 80% were wearing them. But the night before, as we strolled around the Lido Area, we waere probably the only two wearing them…and it was quite busy!
    Some local people are a bit nervous, I forgot to put my mask on in the hotel, a friendly, ‘your flies are undone’ , type reminder was sufficient. In town in a gift shop, the assistant was clearly anxious as I lowered my mask to speak, other than that there were no issues.
    Oh! And our temperature is around 36.3! We know because we get checked regularly in our hotel and the cable car.

    IN SUMMARY: Covid is being taken amazingly seriously here, while the people are doing their utmost to ensure a return to normality.
    The sun is still shining (between the unseasonal clouds), the people are still wonderful, the sea is flat calm, the food still terrific. Madeira is safe. Get booking!

  10. Sadly i have to fully agree with gail70 comments. I have heard first hand how excellent Madeira airport is for testing. We know someone had the results back in under 4 hours.
    However its the Muppets in the UK we have to worry about and a 2nd spike this winter that brings everything to a stop. We have a number of local lockdowns but it increases by the week. The desire for a pint is more important than social distance. That said we will be buying flights from Bristol as they are so cheap. If we do not go, so be it. If we can go, more Euros for Poncha’s. Thank you for all your great work and so sorry your are being bombarded with blogs that must make your life very hard right now.

    PS. Do miss Quarantine Fun though. It really got us through the tough times. Thank you.

  12. Thanks for the info on the time it takes to get a test result, costs £250per person here in the UK privately, with NHS there is no guarantee in getting the result in time. Arriving in a month, best get some lunch from the airport and download ubereats if we want to eat something as stating in an apartment.

  13. Unfortunately, despite having booked our flights nearly a year ago and looking forward to our holiday, it looks like we’ll have to cancel our September trip as the Pestana Palms isn’t yet open and Pestana can’t tell us when it will be. They’ve offered to move us to the Madeira Beach Club but as we own in the Palms Residence and there is no Residence at MBC, plus the fact that all our friends are at the Palms and meeting them is an important part of our holiday, we probably won’t be going. We’re reluctant to book flights for Christmas in case the Palms isn’t open by then either.

    1. I think a lot of people will be offered an alternative. Untill things get back to some kind of normal. The Beach club is a great, and a nice short walk down into town.

  14. To Maura H. The island needs all the support it can get. We have been part of MBC since 2001 and my parents at the very beginning 1985. We simply love it. See if you can get 2601 or 2501 room numbers. If 123 which is a penthouse is free go for it. Lots of new friends to be made

  15. Hi Everybody, maybe this is interesting for some people who will come with TAP to Madeira: I left Madeira with TAP last Thirsday for a project in Hamburg, and before tTAP sent me their COVID-informations:

    https://www.flytap.com/de-de/latest-updates?accordionid=1

    Today I wanted to take my backflight, but at the airport they say, since two days now it is nessecary to have a COVID-Test to come on board of a TAP-airplane to Madeira, not doing the test at the airport of Madeira.
    So I missed the flight, because I didn’t had a test.
    It’s sad, because if this changed I expected that they contact the passengers about this point.

  16. We’re definitely not going now. Jet2 have just cancelled our flights for September so all we can do is keep our fingers crossed for Christmas.

  17. Condor cancelled flight Hamburg to Funchal for 3rd September yesterday. No reasons told.
    Not enough bookings ?

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