This follows Friday’s announcement that budding holidaymakers in England will only be able to travel to a select number of countries and territories from May 17th if they want to avoid quarantine on their return to England. 

Scotland’s travel rules have now been confirmed to be identical to England’s, meaning Spain will also fall into Scotland’s “amber” category, whereas neighbouring Portugal and Gibraltar are on the “green” list.

The countries and territories on Scotland’s “green” list are currently:

Australia

New Zealand

Brunei

Iceland

Faroe Islands

Gibraltar

Falkland Islands

Israel

Portugal (including Madeira and the Azores)

South Georgia

The South Sandwich Islands

Saint Helena

Ascension Island

Tristan da Cunha

“Even though the rules on non-essential travel are starting to change, that doesn’t mean we’re saying that non-essential international travel is desirable,” Nicola Sturgeon said at Covid press briefing on Tuesday.

“Everyone should think seriously about whether they should travel abroad this summer. When it comes to holidays abroad, my advice continues to be to err on the side of caution and to staycation this summer.”

“Whilst the British Government wants to see the safe return of international travel, we have decided that given the risk posed by variants of concern, and to protect the progress that the UK has made on vaccination rollout, we need to maintain strict border measures and testing requirements,” the British Embassy wrote on its Facebook page on Friday.

“This means that only a very limited number of countries (12) have been categorised as green in our new traffic light system.  We are removing the stay in the UK restrictions from the 17th of May, but the UK government has said that people should not be travelling to red or amber countries for leisure. Spain has been categorised as an amber country”.

As a result of falling into the amber category, travel to Spain from Scotland will require three PCR tests and a 10-day quarantine on return, which can be done at home.

READ MORE: How much will Covid tests cost for a trip between Spain and the UK?

However, Spain Spain’ Tourism Minister revealed on Tuesday that UK tourists and other non-EU nationals will be allowed to enter Spain for non-essential reasons such as holidays from around May 20th. 

As non-EU nationals, both Scottish and English citizens have not been able to travel to Spain for months unless they are residents or can prove force majeure reasons. 

Equally as important is the fact that the Spanish government is prepared to offer PCR-free travel to all Britons, a move which could potentially save them several hundred euros on their holidays, and serve as a mild consolation for having to quarantine on return from Spain.

FIND OUT MORE HERE: How Spain plans to welcome back UK tourists without PCRs from May 20th

Scotland’s traffic light system for travel will be reviewed every three weeks.