Travelling To Spain From The Uk.

[windywillow]

Do I need an Esta or Visa if travelling from the UK to Spain in 2024?

TIA. x

[calmck]

Not till 2025

[newmodarmy]

Do you have a valid biometric passport amd when does it expire

[windywillow]

Thanks for answers.

What is a biometric passport please? Got my last passport in 2019 and it looks very different from the previous one, which expired many years ago (can't remember when, offhand).

[Toorak]

On the cover underneath 'passport' there should be a gold symbol a bit like what you see on a debit/credit card. That indicates that it is biometric. I renewed my passport in 2019 and it is biometric.

[Buenchico]

It won't be an ESTA, it'll be an ETIAS (and you won't need one until mid-2025 anyway):
https://travel-europe.europa.eu/etias_en

At present you can travel without either an ETIAS or a visa as long as
(a) your stay (in Spain or within any other country within the Schengen Area) won't exceed 90 days in total within any 180 day period ;
(b) you won't be travelling to work in Spain (although business meetings are permissible) ;
(c) you won't be travelling to study in Spain ;
(d) your passport was issued less than 10 years before the date of your entry into Spain ; and
(e) your passport will be valid for at least 3 months after your planned date of departure from Spain.
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/spain/entry-requirements

Note, in particular, that it's entry into the Schengen Area that's important, rather than entry into Spain alone.  So, for example, if you've already spent time in, say, France or Germany within the 180 days prior to you entering Spain, that time will count towards the 90-day limit for remaining within the Schengen Area.

[windywillow]

Thanks for your very helpful answers.

I've just checked and I'm pleased to say I DO have a biometric passport.

Chris, is the ESTA for USA only?

[Buenchico]

>>> Chris, is the ESTA for USA only?

Yes.

[windywillow]

👍

[Hymie]

Another Brexit benefit, unless you haven’t been paying attention.

[Hymie]

I can confidently predict many who are blissfully unaware of the disaster that Brexit is – will be denied boarding to their EU destination, come mid 2025.

[Prudie]

You really are a nasty person hymie, you revel in the hope of other's pain if it can in any even minute way be laid at the door of Brexit.

However we are not a nation of thickos, it will just be a form and all holiday companies, airlines, ferries, travel agents, you name it, will tell you to do it - and at the end of the day it will requre only a little more info than we've putting on our APIs for years.

You are sad.

[Hymie]

Many UK citizens who have been travelling to and from EU countries for decades with only their passport in hand, will be blissfully unaware of these changes.

 

Why did windywillow feel the need to ask the question – and Buenchico given a fulsome answer that contains many pitfalls we face as a result of Brexit, in travelling to EU countries?

[Old_Geezer]

Hardly a pitfall, just a different system. Every change for the better needs to reach the stage where it's second nature. Proper checks on folk crossing borders is a benefit not a detriment.

[New Judge]

"Why did windywillow feel the need to ask the question..."

I expect because, unlike you, she accepts that the UK is no longer an EU member. Rather than harp on about it ad nauseum she understands that some slight changes are necessary to bring the country UK into line with the other 160-odd normal countries throughout the world. Far better being part of the normal majority than part of the minority freak show that the 27 EU nations participate in.

This is the Travel section and the question was going perfectly well until you put your usual oar in.

Sorry to disturb your question, windy. Glad you found out what you needed to know.

[windywillow]

Thank you, Your Honour. I know there are changes afoot, and after finding confusing info on the web, I decided to ask the good folk of AB.

It's what I love about this website. 👍

[Hymie]

It’s time Brexiteers fested-up to causing all this travel aggravation to UK citizens – I doubt that anyone who has their holiday ruined by denied boarding will think kindly towards them, or consider it some minor inconvenience.

[newmodarmy]

//I doubt that anyone who has their holiday ruined by denied boarding will think kindly towards them [i.e.Brexiteers]//

That suggests to me, Hymie, that you think, Remainers will suffer- because Remainers are not bright enough to follow new requirements.