Northern Croatia turns yellow after all, mainland Greece ‘open’ as well

The easings for tourist travel abroad are following one another at pace. After partial openings of sun destinations, popular holiday countries are now fully accessible. Croatia, Greece and France, for instance.

The yo-yo effect seems broken, mainland Greece ‘open’ too

In mid-May the ‘opening festival’ began, with the Greek island groups among others. ‘We’ could travel as tourists again to the North Aegean Islands, the South Aegean islands and the Ionian islands.

For the South Aegean islands, Kos and Rhodes among them, the party was short-lived. Barely two weeks later the travel advice for that part of the islands shot again to orange.

An unwanted yo-yo effect, then. Last week the islands went back to yellow. And today the yo-yo effect seems broken, with the whole of Greece turning yellow for the first time this year. The mainland included.

Mainland Spain does stay orange. The island groups there (the Balearics, Canary Islands) stay yellow. Italy is entirely yellow, and Malta on green.

Northern Croatia turns yellow after all

And then there is Croatia. Was that not already yellow? Yes, almost entirely. Only Sjeverna Hrvatska, known here as northern Croatia, was still missing from the more favourable shade. That has been put right exactly a week later.

Slovenia, Estonia and Lithuania turn yellow as well, according to de the Dutch government.

Closer to home: France and Belgium turn yellow

Vive la France. Although we usually look to sun destinations further south, we cannot ignore France.

And we no longer have to, because the country turns yellow today. As does Belgium, as it happens.

‘Fully accessible’, or perhaps not? Watch out for these exceptions in the cities

Whole countries go yellow and yet there are exceptions at city level.

• Portugal (earlier with a quarantine requirement, then without) looks entirely yellow, but for Lisbon ‘orange’ applies: essential travel only.
• Greece is fully accessible apart from Athens . “Only travel to Athens if it is essential”, says the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
• The Belgian region of Brussels-Capital gets the same orange label. “This region stays orange because the risk here is still raised.”