A short blog on the dreaded subject of Brexit and how this may effect your holiday in Europe with British Bike Tours.
Like everyone else in the UK we are also fed up with the whole situation and uncertainty. However, we are extremely confident that even if the UK drops out of the EU without a deal, this will have minimal impact on our European Tours and operations.
There are 3 main concerns/issues which could potentially impact on our European Tours. These are:
1) Eurotunnel crossing including customs and passport control.
2) Increased costs due to drop in value of sterling (£).
3) Requirement for increased documentation (International Drivers Permit, Green Card for Insurance).
Taking each of these in turn:
1) Eurotunnel crossing including customs and passport control.
We are an approved tour operator for Euro-Tunnel crossings. Euro tunnel have been excellent in keeping all tour operators up to date with the latest developments. They have made the following reassurances regarding travel with Euro-Tunnel.
"Yes - the Channel Tunnel will definitely be open after Brexit, and Eurotunnel will be operating as normal whatever form Brexit takes.
We’re in the very lucky position of having the protection of The Treaty of Canterbury which was signed by France and the UK when the Channel Tunnel was conceived – this sets out that both countries will facilitate as frictionless travel as possible through the Tunnel up until 2086."
Euro tunnel have also issued a 'Brexit Promise'.
"We recognise that given all the Brexit stories in the press, you may be wondering when to go ahead and book your travel this year, so we want to give you absolute reassurance that we’re Brexit-ready.
Our shuttles will be running as usual throughout the year, whatever form Brexit takes.
Even in the case of a “no deal” Brexit, the EU & UK have confirmed we’d continue to have visa-free travel this year and next. If International Driving Permits and Green Cards are required, they are cheap and simple to obtain ahead of your travel, but there’s a good chance these won’t be needed either."
In view of the above we are confident that there will be minimal, if any, disruption to our crossings to and from Europe.
2) Increased costs due to drop in value of sterling (£).
We have actually been here before in 2008 when the financial crisis hit. At this time the £ dropped to almost parity with the Euro. We were running lots of European tours through this period and were able to absorb the increase in European prices without surcharging our customers. Some of our competitors did apply surcharges.
WE GUARANTEE TO THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY BOOKED THEIR HOLIDAYS WITH US FOR 2019 THAT WE WILL NOT APPLY A SURCHARGE TO THE COST OF THE HOLIDAY TO COVER A DROP IN THE VALUE OF THE POUND.
3) Requirement for increased documentation (International Drivers Permit, Green Card for Insurance).
There has been a lot of scare-mongering in the press/news etc regarding validity of passports, Drivers Licences, Green Cards etc.
Our take on this is as follows in the event of a no-deal:
a) You will require atleast 3 months remaining on your passport in order to travel. This is actually a common requirement for travelling to non-Euro countries such as US, Australia, India, etc
b) UK citizens will not need a Schengen visa to EU. However, starting in January 2021, all UK citizens will have to obtain a travel authorization prior to their trip to the Schengen Area. This authorisation, named European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS), will cost €7 and will last 3 years.
c) If there is a no-deal then you may require an International Drivers Permit (IDP). These are issued by the Post Office, currently cost £5.50 and take 5 minutes to issue. They last either 12 months (Spain) or 3 years (France, Germany, Italy, etc). https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/travel/driving-abroad/international-driving-permits-and-brexit/
d) Green Card. You may need some form of documentation and/or Green Card from your insurance company.
If there is a no-deal on March 29 2019 then we will contact you once we know what the exact requirements are in relation to travel documents. The above is a worse case scenario and we actually believe that there will be very few additional document requirements and these will not be onerous.
TO CONCLUDE
We are very experienced travellors, we travel all around the world with groups of people and cross many borders on our trips. Brexit may result in some very minor changes for holiday makers but these, in our view, will be negligible. The Euro-tunnel will continue to run, we will not surcharge you for any increased costs due to drop in the value of the £. You may need an International Drivers Permit and Green card but this is not at all certain. We will keep all customers aware of any changes in requirements.
TAKE THE PLUNGE - LIFE WILL CONTINUE AFTER BREXIT - BOOK THAT HOLIDAY.