A group of friends who were left "trapped" in Portugal when it switched from green to amber said they were made to feel like "criminals".
The government took Portugal off the green list after coronavirus cases started to grow in the country.
But in May, Portugal was classed as green so Cheslyn Baker from Swannington, near Coalville, headed off with two friends to the Algarve, where one of them had a holiday home.
READ MORE: 14 countries that could be added to the green list today
She said: “At last we could go out with a friend back to her home in the southern Algarve, after many months of lockdown.”
They booked Ryanair flights from East Midlands Airport for a flight on June 3, having taken a compulsory Covid test costing £160 each.
As they filed towards the boarding gate they heard a rumour that the UK was considering taking Portugal off the green list - reports Leicestershire Live.
Cheslyn said: “We thought it wouldn’t happen as cases there - especially in the Algarve - were so low, otherwise we wouldn’t have considered going in the first place.”
The three, who are all fully vaccinated, had been in the Algarve a couple of days when they heard the news that the change to amber was definite.
She said British tourists and Portuguese people over there were first bemused, then angry.
She said that as well as being "locked up" in her Leicestershire home for 10 days after she returned, she was having to fork out more money because the three extra PCR tests came to about £300.
Cheslyn said: “To me it felt like we, as British citizens, had committed a crime.
"We were certainly receiving a hefty fine in costs of three further PCR tests and a prison sentence of 10 days in the form of self-isolation, plus daily check ups at random, not to mention visits by officials to make sure we were staying put.”
All travellers back to UK were also newly required to produce proof of orders and payments for tests yet to be taken on days two and eight of their isolation.
They also had to show a negative Covid test certificate at the airport and fill in another Passenger Locator Form.
However, it wasn’t until they reached the boarding gate at Faro to fly home to East Midlands Airport that any of this was asked for.
Two passengers who were meant to be on their flight weren’t allowed to board the plane home as their results were on their email, which they couldn't access because of poor mobile reception.
Then, when they got home, they were not asked for any proof of Covid vaccinations.
Cheslyn said: “Some of the measures, haphazard and unclear as they were, are understandable to prevent the spread of Covid. Other rules aren’t at all clear or understandable.
“Having to take so many costly negative PCR tests, then also to be put into 10 days’ isolation and ordered not to go outside anywhere at all during that time, even to walk the dog, seems illogical.
“It all seems too draconian and far too punishing to UK citizens who have already more than proved, at great cost to themselves, that they are Covid free.
“The government should at least clarify in plain language the scientific reasons for prohibitive measures they take with travel.”
