Have returned from a 4 day trip to Portugal and thought I'd share my experiences, perhaps it will help others in some way
So, we were reticent at going away while there were tests to go, tests to come back (PCR) and all the other bits, partly 'cos of cost and partly b'cos all that stuff didn't really say 'holidays!', especially 3 days. However you need to check your destination, as Portugal now has reciprocal agreement and accepts NHS vaccination certificate and has therefore removed the requirement for a test on entry. Also the gov here changed day 2 return test to lft from pcr about 10 days ago, reducing the cost from £50 a head to about £19 a head.
It still felt a bit faffy getting the covid vaccine certificate downloaded, doing the Portugal passenger locator, getting the test booked for return and then doing the UK passenger locator whilst on holiday (for which you need the code from the booked test), as well as dealing with Ryanair on steroids, who are covering their arse at every turn. BUT it was worth it, in the main the trip was admin light apart from pinch points, like the actual travel itself, but then budget airline travel hasn't always been plain sailing.
The test on return today was waiting, just a standard lft. Yep a con. It's just corruption. It made me feel uneasy that I'd willingly contributed to such blatant opportunism, but there we go. I sent them a photo of my test result.
Note; at no point in this trip, anywhere at all during travel or in Portugal, did I show anything but boarding pass and passport. I did see two spot checks at Lisbon airport returning to UK of people's locator form for UK. I never showed vaccine status or either plf at any point to anyone and nobody asked.
Portugal itself is great, extremely high mask adherence, public transport must be up at 99.9%. bars are a bit like here where it falls down a bit after midnight but it's all still great. With this comes the slightly strange rules like being on a boat tour with 4 others on the open sea sat 2m apart and having to wear one... But whatever, they've gone for blanket rules and the popn have embraced the vaccine and the mitigations wholly (practically) and still welcome people from the UK into their country to enjoy the atmosphere, weather and food/drink. It's to be admired really.
