The UK government has been running a 'Be Ready' campaign aimed at British travellers heading abroad, urging them to check their documents before they travel rather than discovering a problem at the airport gate. Secret London has covered the push, which boils down to a simple message: the rules for travelling to Europe changed after Brexit, and plenty of people still don't know them.
The main things to get sorted are passports and trip length. Under the post-Brexit rules, UK passports need to have been issued less than ten years before the day you arrive in the EU, and they need a few months of validity left on top of that. That 'ten-year rule' has caught out families whose passports technically had time remaining but were issued more than a decade ago — airlines can and do refuse boarding over it.
There's also the 90-day limit. British travellers can only spend 90 days in any 180-day period across the Schengen area, which covers most of Europe including favourites like France, Spain, Italy and Greece. It sounds generous until you add up a long summer trip plus a Christmas break and realise you've used most of your allowance. Clock-watching now matters in a way it didn't before 2021.
The campaign also points people towards travel insurance and ensuring their documents are in order before booking, rather than assuming everything will be fine. On top of all that, the EU's ETIAS travel authorisation — a pre-travel electronic clearance similar to the US ESTA — is expected to come into force, adding one more box to tick before flying to Europe. It's cheap and applied for online, but it will be mandatory for UK passport holders once live.
Why should you care? Because a bit of admin now beats a ruined holiday later. Check your passport's issue date, not just its expiry date. Count your Schengen days if you travel to Europe more than once or twice a year. Sort insurance when you book, not the night before. None of it is difficult — it's just easy to forget until an airline employee is shaking their head at the check-in desk.
For anyone in the UK planning a European getaway this year, the 'Be Ready' message is worth five minutes of your time. Renew a passport early if the issue date is creeping towards the decade mark, keep an eye on the ETIAS rollout, and you'll sail through the airport as ever.
