Visa requirements

January 13, 2018

Well, that plan didn’t last long! we’ve never contemplated a longer tour like this and haven’t given thought to whether we’d have access issues. Who knew that the Schengen Area (which comprises most of Europe) restricts visitation to 90 days out of any 180 day period. So, it looks like we’ll need to slash our original concept roughly in half:

At the speed we plan on traveling, something’s got to give.

And, we probably don’t have even 90 days, because we’ll be going to Greece for six weeks in the spring also. I assume that will count against our 90 day allotment, so we may only have about seven weeks available for our fall tour of Europe.

Fortunately, there’s more to the world than Europe. We still like the general model we imagined, but we’ll just need to think a bit differently about destinations. We’re still processing this new information, but at this point it feels likely that we’ll spend our full allotment in Europe by crossing Northern Italy and the Alps, and then head down to Australia and/or New Zealand for the winter months before returning home for dad’s birthday.

Among other things, this means that ‘Venice to Lisbon’ was the wrong choice for a journal title. We’ll put in a placeholder for now until we’re clearer on where we’ll be going.

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Steve Miller/GrampiesWe are currently still on tour around the Yucatan, but will try to send you some thoughts on possible routes we have really enjoyed in the same general areas you are thinking about. If you have 90 days between trips into the Shengen zone you are OK. So, depending on when your spring trip ends and your fall trip begins you might be able to swing it. Also, check for non Shengen countries such as Britain, and the Balkan countries-Croatia , Serbia etc. If you duck out of the Shengen zone the clock stops until you are back in. Also use of trains to cut out some sections makes getting around in Europe really easy. Most accept bikes with no problems. Really loved your Hawaii journal. We did the Big Island circle twice so far, and loved it each time. Of course, we travel at about half your speed but you seem to have hit the highlights anyway. Looking forward to your European blog later this year.
The Grampies
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6 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Steve Miller/GrampiesThanks for the information, Steve. I’d thought about probing you or Leo - I read your old discussion on this back in CGOAB. So if I’m out of the zone for 90 days, the clock starts over? I haven’t seen that stated anywhere, but it makes sense to me. That’s good to know - if we depart about a week later than I’d been planning, we’d have the whole 90 to work with. Worth waiting for, of course. And I did know about Britain and the Balkans. We’re starting to piece together a rough itinerary for the next few years that will leverage that. For this year, I think we’ll head down to Oz when our time is up - it’s been on the radar for quite awhile as it is.

Quite surprised by how much we both enjoyed Hawaii, and expect we’ll make it back again and take more time one of these years. and have started dipping into your Yucatán adventure now that we’re home again. We almost went there years ago and I’ve wondered about it ever since.

Take care, be safe.
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6 years ago