Travel with Katie Butler: Lack of snow at some European ski resorts

Katie Butler writes: Despite the economic challenges it appears to remain clear that travel remains high on the agenda for many.

Our concerns around Border Force strikes causing severe problems over the festive period were also alleviated as many of our customers did not see any delays at all.

We took a number of calls last week from concerned holidaymakers that had heard that Spain had reintroduced travel restrictions.

Whilst updates were made to the FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office) website, these were only relating to travellers from China and not the UK.

From January 3 Spain re-instated the requirement of Covid-19 vaccination and testing requirements for all passengers arriving from China.

For all other passengers – Spain does not require any proof of vaccination, a negative test result or a recovery certificate to enter the country. Panic over!

Spain were not alone in their decision to add restrictions for those arriving from China.

Last week the UK joined several other European countries along with the US, India and Japan.

In addition to adding pre-departure tests, the UK Health Security Agency will also test a sample of passengers arriving in England from mainland China.

No snow in ski resorts… another new one to us!

After a promising cold start to the ski season in December and healthy snow fall, we expected few issues for our winter sport customers.

However, unseasonably warm weather across Europe and heavy rainfall in some areas has forced the closure of some ski resorts, particularly those in Bulgaria where there was literally no snow.

We managed to re-locate our impacted customers to different destinations.

Temperatures are set to drop again and hopefully by the time of reading this – normal service will be resumed.

Although this has been a first for us it does pose the question of whether this will become a more common issue in future years.

If you are a seasoned winter sports traveller it may be worth checking that your tour operator offers a “snow guarantee” policy or that your insurance policy covers this.

We are often asked out of general interest what our customers are booking and what the trends are.

As expected, the main summer holiday is top priority for many right now and the desire to have something to look forward to ensured that the bulk of our bookings were to depart between June and September.

Lapland was also a fab seller for us last week as offers and prices were released for December 2024, giving plenty time to plan and save.

Finally, the last of the Christmas chocolates are gone! In January we often don't get chance for lunch but we wouldn't want it any other way. So, if you call in – we don't have any choccies left but we do have plenty of Yorkshire Tea!