Hello, I'm Simon Calder, welcoming you to my independent travel podcast, bringing you the latest news on travelling, whether you're dreaming of a great escape or actually away, and I hope, having the time of your life.

Today, Germany follows France in banning Brits, with even tougher regulations. With the Netherlands and Austria

also bringing in stricter rules and rumours of lockdown in the UK is your Christmas getaway

in jeopardy. Well, I was genuinely surprised when on Saturday Germany said that they were going to be following France in banning British travellers.

I was pretty sure that France's ban was an outlier, an overreaction perhaps given that Omicron is most definitely already in France

and spreading rapidly in Paris, I understand. But Germany have done the same. And the rules are

actually much tougher. Germany wants to know where you've been in the past 10 days. And if you've

been in the UK, well, you're basically not coming in.

You're certainly not going on a holiday, a business trip or a family trip over Christmas and the new year.

And there are possibilities for people to be able to get through Frankfurt and Munich

if you're flying to a different country,

but that's more or less it.

German people and people with residents in Germany

will still be able to travel.

Now, very distressing for a lot of people.

Germany not a key holiday destination, but the crucial thing is that over the weekend I've been checking out more about the France ban and in fact it's really quite leaky.

The spirit of the ban is absolutely clear, closing borders to people from the UK. But there appears to be absolutely

nothing to stop people, well, flying into Italy if they were aiming for the south of France,

to Genoa, to Turin, to Milan and heading across by land from there, or going to Barcelona in Spain and going north from there.

I'm not encouraging people to do that.

I'm just saying that that does not appear to be a possibility.

But for France, for Germany, it definitely is.

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