I bought my van in March 2019 and converted it into my tiny home on wheels ready to travel Europe. I was due to set off in July 2020. The pandemic hit and I delayed my travel to January 2021. We entered a 3rd national lockdown and I had to delay my travels yet again. Now, here we are, a year later and I am preparing to set off in just a couple of days.
In this post Brexit world, travel in Europe is more complicated. Add into that a global pandemic and it’s a headache.
Below is some information about how I had to change my plans to work around the new rules and a list of all the documents now necessary due to both Brexit and the pandemic.
Brexit
Since we left the EU and our transition period ended we, as UK nationals, can no longer travel in Europe for more than 90 days in any 180 day period. Initially I thought this put an end of my dream of a year long road trip on the continent. However, I have since worked a way around this. The 90 day rule only applies to countries in the Schengen Zone. Countries in the Balkans (eg. Croatia, Albania, Bosnia) and other non-EU countries such as Morocco can be used as timeout of the Schengen Zone. This means I can still have my year long trip, as long as I visit Morocco and the Balkans at key times to avoid breaking the 90 day rule.
A fellow vanlifer Rupert (@minnie_the_van) wrote a handy e-book to help people understand the Schengen rules and how to plan a European road trip that works:
https://www.travelonwards.co.uk/schengen-ebook
Pandemic
The ever changing rules and guidance relating to the pandemic have been a nightmare. Since January I have quit my job, made plans, changed them and then had to cancel them, over and over again. Soon I gave up planning completely and just waited in hope. As soon as most of Europe was placed on the UKs Amber list (legally we can travel – hooray!) I bought a Eurotunnel ticket and began to collect everything I need.
THE BIG LIST
- Vehicle insurance with 365 day European cover (inc. Morocco and Balkans)
- Green Card
- International Driving Permit for the Balkans
- Travel insurance (inc. health insurance)
- European breakdown cover
- V5C
- MOT certificate
- GHIC card (like an EHIC but not as good)
- NHS vaccination pass (you have to have 2 doses of vaccine to be allowed to enter France)
- Private PCR test ‘fit to fly’ certificate
- Oh, and a passport and driving licence
Important things to note:
- Insurance companies (both vehicle and personal travel insurance) can refuse to pay out if you are travelling against FCDO advice. At the moment the FCDO advice is ‘avoid all but essential travel’ to Amber list countries. I have decided to take the risk and pray that the advice changes soon!
- France (and many other countries) will not let you in to their country unless you have proof of 2 vaccines AND a negative test result in the previous 72hrs.
Extra things to have/pack for EU road trip
This is a list of things I need for all the countries I am going to. Each country requires some or all of these things to be in the vehicle. If you are just visiting one or two countries you may not need all these things. I found the AA or RAC websites good for checking.
- GB sticker on the back of vehicle
- French ‘clean air’ sticker, called a Crit’Air vignette if entering cities (this can take 6 weeks to arrive!)
- Head lamp beam deflectors
- Spare bulbs
- Snow chains (in winter)
- NF breathalysers
- First aid kit
- Fire extinguisher
- Warning triangle x2
- Tow rope
- High vis jacket
I have also packed a big road atlas of Europe just in case technology fails me.