So you want to know how to survive quarantine?
What should you bring in quarantine? And what should you expect?
As countries open up more and more are requiring you to quarantine at a hotel, from Australia, to NZ, UK.
We’ve just completed our 14 Day Quarantine in Sydney, Australia and I wanted to share what we learned.
Table of Contents
Here are 10 Tips to survive Quarantine – along with a Quarantine Essentials List (download) of things that will help you make it a little easier.
These 10 tips below will mostly apply to all 14 day quarantines in a hotel. But please note this is based on 14 day hotel quarantine in Sydney May 2021. Other hotels, states and countries may differ in their policies so check the local government website for information.
For Australia check the Health Australia site for individual state policies.
Quarantine can be fun, exhuasting and frustrating.
Annoyingly we found that there was very little information about Quarantine in Australia.
Some friends and family reported what they’d heard or experienced so we did our best to prepare, but there is very little information on the government websites so we wanted to share what we learnt with you!
Tip 1: What to expect in Quarantine
- You will be in a hotel room for 14 days.
- You will not be able to leave your room under any circumstances.
- You will NOT be allowed outside for smoking or fresh air. (Australia)
- Prepared meals will be delivered to your door.
- You will have x2 PCR Covid Tests during your time.
- You may have a nurse/doctor will call daily to make sure you’re ok.
In most cases, you will have to pay for all this and it is not cheap.
So before you fly check out the costs associated with quarantine.
For Australia it is currently:
Travellers will be charged $3000AUD for one adult.
Fees for additional occupants are
- additional adults: $1000AUD each
- children under 18 years of age: $500AUD each
- child under 3 years of age: no additional cost.
*Please note you will not be charged more if you are required to stay longer. (ie if you have Covid-19).
However by comparison if you are quarantining in the UK you will be charged additional.
Tip 2: Get a bigger room
We were taken to a lovely hotel in central Sydney CBD, the Radisson Blu in central Sydney CBD.
On arrival the concierge offered us an upgrade to
1) a larger room / spa room or
2) normal room with balcony
If you are more than one person – get the LARGER ROOM. It is a mental life saver.
Having extra space with a bed / lounge area and a desk space meant that we could stretch out, do exercise, work and relax outside of the bed.
The spa bath isn’t too bad either : )
*You will be asked to pay for the upgrade on arrival. But the quarantine fees will be sent to you later.
TIP 3: Bring or Buy the Essentials
The essentials will save your sanity and your health.
TIP 4: Get food and drink deliveries
Quarantine food varies depending on the hotel and where you are in the world.
Hotel Food
Australia has pretty good food standards generally (we are picky people) so our hotel the Radisson Blu Sydney was actually pretty good. They mentioned needing follow strict guidelines which changed what food they’d normally offer.
The result?
Most meals were pretty good, well balanced with vegetables, protein and fruit, but sometimes were delivered lukewarm and at odd times…..
See below for sample meals
Food timing
As the hotels are catering to many people with lots of different dietary requirements it makes sense that food might get delivered at odd times. But ours seemed to be oddly early every single time!
We would get our breakfast any time from 7-8.30
Lunch came between 11.30 – 12.30 (occasionally 11am!)
Dinner would come at 5pm until we asked specifically to move it to 6.30pm.
Who eats dinner at 5pm?!
Radisson Blu had a 7 day menu, each night it would go up on the tv info channel. (Highlight of Greg’s night finding out what we eat the next day!).
Food and Alcohol Delivery
As you may know we are big foodies and also want to eat healthily. So we would occasionally get Deliveroo / Uber Eats if we felt like a treat or like something lighter (a salad etc).
Getting an online shopping delivery of museli, yoghurt, fresh vegetables like carrots and cucumbers, dips, and bread meant we could also snack if we got hungry in between. (We had a small bar fridge so had to play tetris with it : )
Alcohol
Be careful – there are strict rules about how much alcohol is allowed daily.
My bottle of gin was confiscated as it exceeded the limit.
They calculate by the ‘unit’ so a bottle of wine is 8 standard units – which was allowed to us for one day (yes a bottle a day!). A bottle of gin is 14 standard units – so no.
*The hotel will go through all deliveries and confiscate any items such as drugs / alcohol they deem necessary.
TIP 5: Use your Family & Friends
If you have family/friends in your city then get them to drop around groceries, coffees, games, puzzles and wave to you from the street!
Its quite fun and unexpected deliveries are the highlight of the day.
My best friends decided to take this one step further and do an impromptu dance on the street. Then a beautiful care package turned up ; )
TIP 6: Things are allowed in – but not out
Apart from rubbish, nothing is allowed out of your room.
You can leave the rubbish bags and food containers outside the room and hotel staff will take them away.
There are no clothes washing facilities.
So be prepared to do sink washing – or be lazy like me and bring 14 days of underwear and socks.
And on that note bring some washing up liquid. (download our Quarantine Survival List in Tip 3)
TIP 7: Keep yourself busy (and happy)
Do daily exercise, call friends, work, read and play games, just keep going.
Below is our little video as featured by the Radisson Blu
TIP 8: Establish a Routine
We found our first week in quarantine pretty great! Sleeping in, calling friends and family, playing games and finalising work from the UK.
However about halfway through (7 days) I started to flag. It became more and more difficult to get up and find motivation for the day.
What was truly helpful was establishing a routine early on, and if you can find a 14 day course then it is perfect motivation for you to keep getting up and going.
Yoga / Meditation
I signed up to Boho Beautiful’s 14 Day Yoga & Meditation course (free on their app and Youtube). It was awesome as it kept me getting out of bed in the mornings and on a routine. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for you to do some sort of routine to get you going each day.
*Please note these are personal recommendations and we receive no income/perks for this.
TIP 9: Do an online course
Skillshare / Domestika / Masterclass – they all have a plethora of online classes available. Not to mention free business courses on Google and other places.
Skillshare have a 14 day free pass which I really enjoyed. There are loads of creative classes from painting to blogging and you can sign up for 14 days free and then unsubscribe easy! : )
Get your free 14 day subscription below.
Please note as an affiliate we do make a little money if you decide to sign up.
If you like it here is a 40% off yearly voucher : ) Enjoy!
Here are my painting projects PHOTOS!!!
And of course the blogging courses have helped me create this post ; )
Tip 10: Use your time wisely
Relocating back to any country has a lot of set up and paperwork involved.
MOBILE: Getting a mobile number is key. Luckily our family could pick up a local Sim card for us. If you have an iPhone like me consider getting an Esim so you don’t have to carry 2 phones. Larger telco providers will offer Esim and its AWESOME!
I went with Optus for my Esim. They send you an actual sim which you then convert to Esim instore – quick and easy and now I can keep my UK number and my whatsapp handle too.
REGISTER: Register with your local authorities – get all the correct forms.
For Sydney you will need to get Services NSW App so you can scan into locations (shops/cafes/restaurants).
Medicare cards, Aussie drivers licence and more are all available through Services NSW. You can also go into their branch and people are super helpful.
TOP TIP: The NSW Government has launched DINE & DISCOVER to encourage the community to get out and about and support dining, arts and recreation businesses. Valid until 30 June 2021. To qualify for $100 of vouchers go to their website.
So that’s it!
Top 10 Tips to Survive Quarantine, we’d love to hear how you get on. Please do tag us on instagram or email us and tell us about it.
Remember to download your free Quarantine Essentials List below!
Happy Travels
Jade & Greg xoxo
