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What UK parents travelling to Spain with their children need to know

The UK government recently announced that kids aged 12 to 15 will now be able to prove their vaccination status for travel to Spain. Here's what you need to know about the Covid-19 rules and restrictions for travel with children between Spain and the UK this Christmas.

Published: 15 December 2021 15:36 CET
Updated: 18 December 2021 08:46 CET
Children travel between UK and Spain
Vaccine status can be proved for kids to enter Spain. Photo: Ina FASSBENDER / AFP

Travel to Spain from UK

Spain announced that from December 1st onwards, all those travelling from the UK would only be allowed in if they were fully vaccinated and were no longer just allowed to present a negative test. Read all the latest requirements on travel between Spain and UK HERE. 

The new rules apply to everyone over the age of 12, which has presented problems for families wanting to travel to Spain from the UK this Christmas, as many children aged 12 to 15 haven’t been fully vaccinated yet and those that had couldn’t get the NHS Covid Pass to prove it.  

READ ALSO – ‘Two years running we can’t travel to Spain’: How Covid has hit your travel plans

So far, more than one million children aged 12 to 15 in the UK have received a single dose of the vaccine, with around three million eligible, according to the NHS. 

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) in the UK only recently said that 12 to 15-year-olds should be offered a second jab (to be given at least 12 weeks after the first) meaning that so far, very few children in that age category are fully vaccinated.

But further problems arose for those who were fully vaccinated, as they couldn’t prove their vaccination status because the NHS Covid pass was only available for those aged 16 and over.

NHS Covid Pass for international travel

The good news is that the UK government announced that as of December 13th, the NHS Covid pass would be rolled out to 12 to 15-year-olds for international travel.

This follows the government decision to extend the vaccination programme to offer both vaccine doses to all 12 to 15-year-olds.

The UK government website states that: “The NHS Covid Pass letter will be sent to the address held on the child’s NHS record and will show all the vaccinations they have received, including any boosters. The NHS Covid Pass letter should arrive within five working days, but may take slightly longer in December due to the Christmas postal service”.

If you need the letter sooner, however, you can also request the letter online and print it out yourself.

The letter will include an internationally recognised 2D barcode, however a digital solution via NHS.UK for this age group will not be rolled out until early next year. The letter service can be accessed by calling 119 or via NHS.UK.

The move may already be too late for some families this Christmas, but it’s good news for those wanting to travel to Spain next year.

UK Health and Social Care secretary Sajid Javid said: “The move will enable families to plan holidays in 2022 with greater confidence, as parents can be reassured they will be able to evidence their child’s vaccination status once they have had both doses of the vaccine”. 

In Spain

Once in Spain, travellers will find that many regions require a Covid health pass to enter various establishments. The rules vary slightly according to the region, so find out the latest rules HERE. 

Find out how tourists and people vaccinated abroad get Spain’s Covid health pass for daily affairs HERE. 

READ ALSO: How Spain will vaccinate five to 11 year-olds against Covid

Travel to UK from Spain

Travel to the UK from Spain also got more complicated recently. At the beginning of December, the British government announced it would reintroduce pre-departure tests for all arrivals from December 7th onwards.

The tests must be taken within two days of travel to the UK and can be PCR or antigen tests. They must be carried out by all travellers, regardless of their vaccination status.

Earlier at the end of November, the UK government also brought out another new requirement that applies to all arrivals (including those vaccinated and UK citizens and residents). They must take a PCR test for their Day 2 test as antigen tests are no longer accepted, and they must self-isolate until a negative result from the test arrives.

Children remain exempt from having to show a Covid health pass when arriving in the UK as well as for the vast majority domestic matters. 

KEY POINTS: What are the new Covid travel rules between Spain and the UK?

Member comments

  1. Children age 11 and under are not required to take the pre-travel test. I believe there are some other exemptions listed too.

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COVID-19

Health experts advise end of masks on public transport in Spain

Spanish health experts have advised the government that the use of masks should no longer be obligatory on public transport, but no concrete date has yet been set.

Published: 19 January 2023 10:57 CET
Health experts advise end of masks on public transport in Spain

Health experts who advise the Spanish Ministry of Health have said that masks should no longer be mandatory on public transport, but with the caveat that the government should first wait and observe the epidemiological situation in China, which has experienced a surge in case numbers since it abandoned its strict ‘Zero Covid’ strategy at the end of 2022, following widespread civil unrest.

The use of masks on public transport has now been the norm in Spain for almost three years, since the start of the pandemic. 

Speaking to Ser Canarias, Darias said: “We are getting closer and closer [to the end of having to wear a mask], but we will have to see how things evolve in order to make that decision; obviously the epidemiological situation is getting better and better, but we have to see how the issue of China evolves”. 

Reports in the Spanish press suggest some kind of agreement was made during a meeting between the government and the experts in December that masks would no longer be compulsory after assessing the situation in China, however, there is still no fixed date.

Back in October 2022, Spain’s ‘Emergency Unit’ suggested that mask rules would not be reviewed until March 2023 at the earliest, but more recently it said that it does not seem necessary to wait for March to remove the mask rule. 

According to recent Ministry of Health figures, just 2.79 percent of hospital beds in Spain are taken up by Covid-19 patients.

READ ALSO: Face masks to remain mandatory on public transport in Spain until March 2023

The use of masks indoors in Spain ceased to be mandatory on April 20th, 2022, after almost two years, however, they have remained mandatory in hospitals, pharmacies and, crucially, also on buses, metro, trains, planes and taxis.

While the mask rules have been strictly enforced in some places in Spain such as Seville and Valencia, in other cities such as Barcelona, many people refuse to wear them, despite the regulations still officially being in place. 

READ ALSO: Spain now requires Covid certificates for arrivals from China

In China, figures suggest that almost 60,000 people have died as a result of Covid-19 in a single month amid the spike in cases following the end of the country’s draconian restrictions. In response, Spain reintroduced health control checks for travellers arriving from China. 

It seems that Darias and the Spanish government are waiting to see how the situation plays out in China first, but all the indications and expert advice seems to suggest that masks will no longer be mandatory in public transport sometime very soon. 

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