After all this time without being able to leave home, visit friends and family and even go on outings and activities in places you used to frequent, you’re dying to finally get out, meet or revisit other countries, see and feel new air and have fun without the confinement, right? We are happy to say that this is possible! With the dissemination of the new Corona Virus the whole world went into quarantine, but thanks to the creation of vaccines and the establishment of isolation measures and social distancing the situation in many countries was controlled and with this decrease in incidences of positive certificates for the virus, the borders for visits and tourism in Europe are being opened little by little, keeping all the necessary precautions for not spreading the virus, of course.
How are the Europe borders?
However, as we are still under threat from the virus and variants, especially in some areas more accentuated the number of viral circulation, restrictive measures have been established by each country to allow entry into their territories. So, for you to achieve your longed-for trip, you need to have some very important general notions about the European borders and what you should know and do to plan your travel itinerary.
BASIC REQUIREMENTS FOR TRAVELLING TO EUROPE
To start a trip to Europe, in this pandemic context in which we are inserted, it is necessary that some preventive measures are taken, mainly to ensure the safety of the population and that there is no increase in cases of positive tests for COVID-19. With this, some countries have defined some rules to allow visitors to enter their territories, but as there are several rules, each with certain details, besides varying from country to country, we will start with some conditions required in a general context, and they are the PCR test or antigenic test and or vaccination up to date, with some dates and periods to be respected before the trip.
The PCR-RT test, where a sample of respiratory secretion is taken to search for the viral genetic material, is the most reliable test to detect the presence of the virus in the body and therefore it is essential for permission to access other countries, being even enough in some of them. Some other countries are accepting entry only if vaccinated, so, the single dose of the Janssen vaccine, with a deadline before arrival in the country that varies for each country, and may even reach a month, or the second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Moderna or Covishield vaccines, which may have a shorter time between the vaccination and arrival in the country. The CoronaVac, even approved by WHO (World Health Organization), is not yet accepted in some countries for tourists entry, like Portugal.
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IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN AND DESTINATION
If you want know how are the Europe borders, need to know about the testing and vaccine requirements to be allowed entry at Europe’s borders, there are still other issues that can complicate or prevent you from going to the countries there. Therefore, having information about the situation of both your home country and the destination country is essential to get permission for your trip, since visitors coming from certain countries, that is, not the nationality itself, but the place of embarkation, depending on the situation they are in the pandemic scenario are prohibited to enter some places in Europe so far, and there are still European countries that have not even opened their borders for tourist activities.
if you want to check the full list of countries listed by the EU, try the link bellow:
EU’s List of Epidemiologically Safe Countries Amid COVID-19
Thus, to facilitate the search and visualization, the countries of each continent were classified by colors that inform the situation of coronavirus cases in the regions, with the rates of those contaminated and the state in which it is, whether critical or not, and also, along with the classifications, specific guidelines were established according to each scenario. The color codes are:
- Countries in red.
- Countries in orange.
- Countries in green.
COUNTRIES IN RED
The “red” countries and territories are the countries with high rates of infection, with an active circulation of the virus and with worrying variants.
Some trips originating from countries in this range are forbidden for certain European countries, while in others vaccinated persons with vaccines approved by the EMA (European Union Medicines Regulatory Agency) are accepted. Non- vaccinated people coming from such countries are only allowed entry in emergency situations, and are also subject to testing before departure and on arrival, as well as mandatory quarantine of more than a week.
ORANGE COUNTRIES
Countries in orange are areas with greater control of active virus circulation than countries in red, and with the absence of variants of concern. They represent the largest portion of countries in an overview of the globe, being all countries that are not in the other bands.
In certain locations, visitors from orange countries are subject to the same conditions as those from countries in red, however with less time stringency, and some tests possibly not being requested, such as the test upon arrival in the country.
GREEN COUNTRIES
Green countries, on the other hand, refer to areas where there is no identification of the presence of worrisome variants of the virus, nor its active circulation.
In general, the requirement for flights from green zone origin is only to test negative for COVID within a few hours before travel, which is only valid for unvaccinated persons.
Check more updates and travel restrictions in Europe clicking bellow.
COVID IN EUROPE: A COMPLETE LIST OF TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS FOR EVERY EUROPEAN COUNTRY
CONNECTION IN PROHIBITED (RISKY) COUNTRIES
Now that you know the information of the situations of the countries for your trip, it may be that there are no direct flights from your country to where you wish to go. To solve this you need to make a connecting flight, which is a flight with stops, where you board a plane with a mandatory stop in some city, having to board another plane to continue the journey. And what would that be like in practice? For example, maybe you want to go to Paris, but in Quebec city, Canada, there are no direct flights there. The solution is to look for airlines that make a connection, such as from Quebec to Montreal, and from there to Paris. This connection can occur in an intermediate country between the origin and destination countries too, in these cases, you may need to go through the immigration and customs departments, staying in a restricted area, known as transit area, waiting for the flight to your final destination.
What if flights from your country are banned in the country you want to go to, but you still want to travel there? There is a solution for that too! You can go to a country that is not yet accepting travel from somewhere else by going to another nearby country and from there on to your desired country. Did it get a bit confusing? Maybe an example will help: you may want to go from Australia to Russia, but there they don’t accept trips from that country, so you can go to Sweden and from there enter Russia. Of course there are rules for this, like whether you can go straight or you need to stay a few days in that country before going to the other, which varies in each country.
WHERE TO FIND RELIABLE AND ACCURATE INFORMATION?
All the information presented so far are essential for your trip, but they are presented in a general context. Knowing the requirements, situation of the countries and the options for solutions to some issues and flight restrictions, now just know what is needed for each country in specific, after all, each one has its rules, but for your trip you just need to know where you want to go. Thinking about it, there are some options with reliable and accurate information to assist in your search in a practical, simple and affordable way.
The first is to go directly to the official websites of the European countries, there are all the updated information for the trip and the procedures, and can still be easily translated by Google mechanisms if necessary. The second is the applications, which facilitates this search bringing official information from various countries, just indicate your country of origin and which you want to go to know what the restrictions, possibilities and what is required. Among the recommended applications there is RE OPEN EU, which has several tabs with all the information clearly and dynamically, with easy use, and also has the IATA (The International Air Transport Association), both in application and website, which brings the official and recent information of all countries.
Another trustable websites to check Pandemic news:
YOU UP FOR A ROAD TRIP?
With so many restrictions and things you need to know and do to get access to these countries, you might be wondering if all this work to kill travel nostalgia is worth it, right? Our articles below can show you why yes, it is well worth visiting Europe in the pandemic or out of it!
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So, are you really up for travelling? If you’re determined to get on the road and get back to enjoying a bit of a break from the sameness of being confined at home, how about gathering some more information so that you can do it? You might want to know if you’ll need a visa for Europe in 2022, you might want to know all about the European Health Form, and you might want to know what it’s like to travel to Europe during the pandemic.
