2022 Quarantined

At this time you had to have a covid test within 24hrs of getting on an international flight. We had booked ours at the Airport and then catch our flight :) Unfortunately, Wendy tested positive and I then had to change our flights so we did not lose it and book Hilton Hotel at Heathrow (We had always planned to use points if we needed a covid retreat) for initial 5 days, as we get an extra day for every 4 days booked, so the 5th is free.

We got a double room and because we were Diamond members at the time, got a free breakfast. We would order the breakfast the night before and the staff would put the trays down outside the door, knock and then run :) After a few days we decided to get some groceries in as dinner was costing us a fortune! The groceries were delivered at front desk and staff brought them up to the room. We had a small fridge so were able to put milk and juice etc. in there.

Cousin Sheila in Barton-upon-Humber kindly sent us a couple of packets of NHS Covid tests (made in China!) which really helped us! Renewed the reservation for another 5 days as Wendy was still showing positive. By the 10th day, the line was starting to go faint so I just took the plunge and rebooked our flight to Portugal for 2 days time. The hotel had a laboratory on the ground floor for Covid testing with instant (2hr) email confirmation. The hotel was used by a lot of Flight crew so testing was going on all the time. I booked the tests for the 11th day afternoon and had the flight ready to go on the 12th day. On the 11th day we received our Covid tests - NEGATIVE!!!! and I uploaded these to the airline for proof. Flight was confirmed and we had to show our Covid Test at the check in.

Finally off to Portugal, albeit 12 days later than our booking!