Least Covid Restricted Country Europe
I am tasked with arranging an informal meeting of two EU citizens. It can happen in the EU or somewhere near (maybe even Arab countries). I will have to arrange the hotels and hopefully some public dining.
Which country has the least covid related restrictions (e.g. quarantines, closed hotels/restaurants)?
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Best Answer
One easy way to figure out the true state of lockdowns is to look at mobility ratings. People stop traveling around when restrictions are high and go back to normal lives when restrictions are low. Using data from Google Mobility we can calculate the mobility rating of European, North African and Middle Eastern countries, on a 7-day rolling average. We'll use the "Retail & recreation" category which is probably the most relevant for tourism. It is summarized by Google as:
Mobility trends for places like restaurants, cafes, shopping centers, theme parks, museums, libraries, and movie theaters.
Your best bets given travel restrictions are therefore:
- UAE - entry allowed into Dubai with just a PCR test and everything in the country seems to be open.
- Egypt - same as UAE
- Bahrain - travel is open and restaurants have limited seating available
- Croatia - restaurants are open outdoors and many other activities are available.
- Sweden - restaurants are open but limited to 4 persons per table
Countries which have a lot of mobility but are probably a bad option:
- Israel - impossible to enter unless you're a resident
- Russia - same as Israel
- Qatar - same as Israel
- Turkey - restaurants are closed
- Denmark - restaurants are closed
Anything lower than Croatia on the mobility ranking will likely have strong lockdowns in practice, making your trip unpleasant. Finally, remember that it would be best to avoid travel until you're fully vaccinated, unless both of you already recovered from COVID. We're in the final stretch of the pandemic and it would be quite foolish to get infected so close to the end.
| Country | Travel mobility |
|---|---|
| Qatar | -7 |
| Egypt | -10 |
| United Arab Emirates | -11 |
| Israel | -13 |
| Bahrain | -15 |
| Russia | -15 |
| Morocco | -16 |
| Denmark | -20 |
| Sweden | -21 |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | -21 |
| Ukraine | -21 |
| Belarus | -22 |
| Croatia | -23 |
| Georgia | -25 |
| Oman | -26 |
| Lebanon | -26 |
| Norway | -26 |
| North Macedonia | -28 |
| Moldova | -28 |
| Romania | -29 |
| Jordan | -30 |
| Poland | -30 |
| Latvia | -31 |
| Turkey | -31 |
| Spain | -32 |
| Bulgaria | -32 |
| Finland | -35 |
| Belgium | -37 |
| Switzerland | -38 |
| Germany | -39 |
| Netherlands | -39 |
| Slovenia | -39 |
| Luxembourg | -40 |
| France | -42 |
| Lithuania | -42 |
| Serbia | -42 |
| Ireland | -44 |
| Estonia | -46 |
| Hungary | -46 |
| Malta | -46 |
| Austria | -47 |
| Portugal | -47 |
| Italy | -50 |
| Slovakia | -51 |
| United Kingdom | -51 |
| Liechtenstein | -54 |
| Czechia | -55 |
| Greece | -59 |
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Europe loosening COVID-19 restrictions despite high case numbers
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Answer 2
https://reopen.europa.eu/en lists covid related restrictions such as quarantines and closed hotels/restaurants for each EU country, you can look at it to decide which location fits best your needs. The restrictions change quite often, e.g. see Third Covid wave hits Europe: Lockdowns imposed (2021-03-22). Also some restrictions are specific to some regions of a given country (example).
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