Current as of Friday 16 July 2021 

Under the traffic light scheme, countries will be assigned a colour – green, amber or red – as a guide to the restrictions in place for travelling to and from them. 

These will be assigned in line with a number of risk factors, which will include: the number of vaccinations in a particular country; the rate of infection; whether there are any worrying variants at large; and the country’s access to reliable scientific data and genomic sequencing.

For more and up-to-date information, visit the UK government’s website.

What do the particular colours mean?

Green: arrivals will have to take a pre-departure test, as a well as a PCR test on or before their arrival back into the UK, but they won’t need to quarantine unless they get a positive test result.

Amber: arrivals will have to quarantine for 10 days and take a pre-flight test. Then, they’ll need to take a PCR test on day 2 and day 8 of their quarantine, with the option to ‘Test and Release’ on day 5 to escape isolation early.

BUT – from 19 July returning travellers who have been fully vaccinated (that is, jabbed twice) skip the quarantine rules, as would happen with a ‘green’ country. For a little – OK, a lot – of inspiration, check out out feature The ‘amber list’ double vaccination rule is happening – so where should I go?

Red: arrivals will be placed under the same restrictions already in action for ‘red list’ countries. These include an obligatory 10-day stay in a designated quarantine hotel, pre-flight testing and PCR tests on days 2 and 8.

Test packages and quarantine hotels should be booked by the traveller before they set off.

Which countries are on the green list?

The following easyJet destinations are on the travel ‘green list’:

All will remain on a travel watchlist, and could be removed from this list at any time. Despite the fact that these countries have been given the lightest travel restrictions, travellers must also check the restrictions for travel in those countries as well – some are still requiring visitors from the UK to quarantine when they arrive. The UK government still recommends not booking a holiday unless it is fully refundable.

The lists of green, amber and red countries can be found via the UK government’s website here. For more information, check out our article ‘Where can I fly with easyJet?‘