France Lifts Ban Against UK Travellers From 14th January

The excellent news many of us were anticipating has finally come out as France lifts the ban against UK travellers entering the country from January the 14th (Friday).

After the speculation that has been ongoing in the past couple of weeks, the French Tourism Minister, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne finally announced today (Thursday the 13th of January) that France would lift the ban against travellers from the UK that was put in place in December due to the rising cases of Omicron in the UK.

There was some uncertainty about what exactly will change after France lifts the ban and changes the restrictions for visitors entering from the UK, but these new, and simpler, restrictions have now been clarified in preparation for tomorrow.

This means that from Friday the 14th of January, all fully vaccinated UK arrivals in France will no longer need a compelling reason to travel, nor will they need to self-isolate upon arrival. They will need to provide proof of a negative lateral flow or PCR test taken within 24 hours pre-departure.

This announcement was hinted at yesterday by the government spokesperson, Gabriel Attal, which lead to excitement about this announcement coming by the end of the week. The news that France will lift the ban against UK travellers in time for the weekend is wonderful as many travellers booked ski trips to France for this weekend in anticipation of this news.

“We are relaxing the entry conditions to France from the UK for vaccinated travellers,” Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne said in a tweet.

“End of compelling reasons and isolation on arrival, a negative test >24 hours will be requested at the start. The decree will be published tomorrow morning with immediate entry into force.”

Travellers to France are also being advised to check the local vaccine passport rules leading up to any coming holidays to France as this will be changing in the coming days for bars, restaurants, and other hospitality venues.

As always, we also highly recommend that travellers keep a lookout for changes on the Foreign Travel Advice page in case of any other requirements that might apply. This is, however, very exciting news, especially for those who missed a ski holiday in December and are excited to get on the slopes.

So, if you’re looking forward to booking a great holiday to France, don’t forget to get in contact with a travel business registered with PTS and offering 100% financial protection through trust. Or, if you’d like assistance choosing one of the lovely PTS members to book with, you can get in touch with PTS directly at 0207 190 9988.

And, if you’d like to learn more about your consumer protection with PTS and how the Package Travel Regulations protect your holiday booking, check out our pages and articles.