[Inga]

Has anyone travelled into Portugal with a SALIVA PCR test rather than a NASAL SWAB PCR test? The FCO site says that entry to Portugal needs a nasal swab test, but the Portuguese sites don’t specify other that RT-PCR. I’ve booked with HALO which I’ve now seen is a saliva test…

[Sanchez]

I’m booked to fly on Saturday and also have the Halo test. I suggest phoning the Portuguese Tourist Office or Consulate to ask – that’s what I intend to do.
Alternatively buy a different test if you have time before you fly, and use the Halo one when you come back to the UK for your test two days after arrival.

[FaroFlyer]

Hi Inga,
It must be a Nasal swab test. Here is the link https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/portugal/entry-requirements The paragraph headed Screen on arrival includes the sentence:
Make sure you have a RT-PCR COVID-19 nasal swab test. Check your test result identifies the type of test taken and gives your name, date of birth, the date and time the sample was collected and the date of the result.

[SGJNI1961]

Do you not also need evidence of a negative test prior to boarding the return flight to the UK? Can it be a salive type?

[EasternPedlar]

I’m booked to Portugal on Sunday for a short break but am having second thoughts! A PCR test before departure (from what I can see only PCR is acceptable), another before return and a third 2 days later! That’s going to cost more than my flights and hotel, and I’m wondering whether I’m going to spend half my holiday trying to find a PCR test lab in Lisbon. Not to mention a plethora of forms to complete for both flights. I suppose this is the new normal. Would anyone travelling to Portugal this week please post about their experiences- it would be most appreciated.

[FaroFlyer]

[postquote quote=1100166]

Yes, you do. It is all covered on the UK Government link that I posted.

People working in the tourist trade want visitors, but others do not. We heard a “report” yesterday that 17,000 Brits arrived yesterday on the first day of being able to travel. This would have been quite an achievement on 16 flights. Even MO’L would only dream of 6 passengers per seat:-)

[canucklad]

[quote quote=1100176]That’s going to cost more than my flights and hotel, and I’m wondering whether I’m going to spend half my holiday trying to find a PCR test lab in Lisbon. Not to mention a plethora of forms to complete for both flights. I suppose this is the new normal.[/quote]

Hopefully not, and hoping common sense applies sooner rather than later . If this testing regime becomes the norm then I’m afraid the tourism industry in those countries reliant on us will shrink to unacceptable uneconomic levels. And the aviation industry here will need to shrink and shed jobs too.

Sadly, and again the light at the end of the tunnel dims again, signalling that there seems to be no end to this pandemic. My optimism is wavering and i certainly don’t book holidays to be have the nagging doubt of a test near the end of my holiday shrouding mt time in the sun .

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EasternPedlar

[PeterCoultas]

Eastern Pedlar wrote “I’m wondering whether I’m going to spend half my holiday trying to find a PCR test lab in Lisbon.”

The hoops you have to jump through in order to return to the UK are a serious drawback to enjoyable holidays (even forgetting catching covid waiting for hours next to red list arrivals at LHR). At least my wife was travelling alone when she returned from Sweden (on an Avios ticket + £ 17-50) but the necessary PCR test she had to get in Sweden cost some € 300 despite much local help.

I for one will not be casually holiday tripping until sanity returns to immigration and doubtful quality PCR tests cost not much more than the few pounds they should.

Luckily todays news is good – green list Gibraltar means (if I remember rightly) that I can enter Spain without passport stamps/checks then on to spanish Ceuta on the North African coast. From there it’s a short swim to a nice Moroccan beach..??. Should be doable if 5000 moroccans can make it the other way! LOL !

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EasternPedlar

[Triple X]

I actually work along with SEF (immigration) in providing covid-19 tests for passengers who arrive without or with the wrong test.

Make sure you have a nasal RT-PCR test. It must mention the name, date of birth, date & time of when the test was done.
Children 2 and over years old will need to provide a negative RT-PCR.

If you arrive in Portugal with the no test or wrong test, SEF (immigration) will force you to have a test at the airport and you would have to stay there until the result is received. You could be waiting between 6-8 hours until you get the results.

[FaroFlyer]

Here is a link which is a link to a spreadsheet with testing centres in the Algarve. https://www.visitalgarve.pt/en/menu/25/e-util-saber.aspx#testing-places-sites-in-the-algarve—diagnostic-covid-19 I expect that Lisboa offers similar information

In the spreadsheet “Ponto de Colheita” means collection point, so is probably not an actual test centre.

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EasternPedlar

[Andy240361]

PCR test not required to come back to UK. Buy a quick antigen test kit from Qured via BA web site, take it with you and do the test yourself online before you get back, not difficult.

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PeterCoultas

[Triple X]

[postquote quote=1100649]

Be careful with those tests for travel. You have to present a valid test result at the airport to be able to travel. The test has to be validated by a lab, without that they wont let you travel

[FaroFlyer]

[postquote quote=1100649]

Antigen tests are available at the airport, and at many other locations identified in the link that I posted earlier. Tests cost around €30.

[Ricardo]

I have entered Portugal a few times in the past months. As long as you carry a negative result for a PCR test (be it nasal or saliva) you will be allowed to enter. I did a PCR test in Switzerland in April and that enabled me to fly to Portugal.

[basslines66]

Just returned from Lisbon last week. Warning: it seems to depend what route and airline you are on too – TAP is quite relaxed, but I flew from Edinburgh to Lisbon via Amsterdam. In front of me at check in desk (no online check in) there were 20 people. Of these, 5 were turned away for not having the correct PCR test, for transit in AMS – 3 turned away for only having a rapid antigen test, and one poor lady with her 10 year old were turned away at check in for having a PCR test which would be 72 hours and 40 minutes on arrival at their final destination (Geneva, via AMS). So, both she and her son had taken their PCR test around 2.5 days earlier, but check-in staff were insistent that AMS airport staff would not let her take her connection. Both were told to go to ticketing office, take an GBP80 passenger PCR test at the airport and come back the next day!

[Author]

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