101 days in Schengen Countries

You would need to get a visa. Which can be a pain. Anyway to reduce that number by 11 days and avoid the hassle for example spend some time in Eastern Europe, UK, or Ireland?

What you are asking is how to break the law. Please delete this question.

I must have missed the part where Mary Ann asked how to circumvent the law. As previously mentioned, you'll need a visa, which means you'll need to contact the embassies or consulates for the countries you're visiting to determine requirements. Good luck!

Start or end your trip in UK. England is not a Schengen state. Remain there for 11 days of your trip, however you choose to divide your time.

Settle down, there, Officer Bob! As the previous poster noted there was no request to help the OP evade the law. Mary Ann, were you planning on visiting England or Ireland? Spend your extra days there and you'll be fine.

I think this is a good question and one that someone on the HELP LINE may give useful information for, rather than accusing Mary Ann of finding a way to break the law. I have often wondered how one may stay longer than the 90 day Schengen rule.

As mentioned by prevous posters, anchor the start or the end of your trip with the extra days in a non-Schengen country. Are you able to modify your flight plans?? That might end up being the easiest and less costly solution in the long run.

I agree with others in that Mary Ann asked how she can stay for over 90 days and not how she can get away with staying for longer. Big difference.
Do what the others suggested. Start or end your trip in a non-Schengen country or combination of countries (i.e., Ireland, UK, etc.). Otherwise, a visa is the only other legal way.

There are plenty of legal ways to stay in Schengen countries longer than 90 days. The variations on the legalities differ depending on where your citizenship is. If you have US citizenship, contact the US Department of State or look at their website. It clearly outlines the process to obtain a Visa to stay longer. If you are Australian, contact your equivalent.

There has been a long and detailed discussion of this already: search for it in the helpline files. It details PRECISELY what you can do and how to do it, as well as pitfalls. This is not an area you can fudge in. As noted in previous discussions, one of my daughters was fined 500 euros for overstaying her Schengen time by 3 days. They will catch you (it's all computerized) and if you go to non Schengen countries (eg England) the passport stamps are NOT sufficient to protect you; you need receipts for each country to prove how long you have been there. Yes, there are different longer visas you can obtain BEFORE you leave for Europe, and they involve detailed procedures (eg proof of income, and medical coverage that will work in Schengen countries - this is a hard one, as many US policies don't meet the stringent Schengen requirements). I have two daughters living in Europe and we have waded through these requirements many times. Again, read the long and detailed previous postings on this topic.

Diane, Actually you would not have to start or end in a non-Schengen country. Just make sure you get an exit stamp when you leave. Although I think you might need to be gone for 12 days then as both the entering and exiting day will count against the 90. If one is touring Europe for 101 days, UK/Ireland is worth 2 weeks.

Ed, you're right. Ending or starting the trip in London would just seem to be quite easy to plan for... especially if flying to/from Australia. Mind you, having said that, the cheap Ryan Air / Easy jet flights might provide an option for those weird itinerary questions that pop up - like trying to get from Barcelona to Bologna, for example - where a cheap flight into Ireland, 11 days bopping there & the UK, then back down to the next stop, might be a solution that "kills two birds with one stone"!

Thanks everyone for your input, very helpful. We are travelling in a motorhome, so do you think we can go to Croatia for the 2 weeks in the middle of our journey then back again to the Schengen, I realise we need a visa for Croatia. Can we get the visa when we are over there? Is it difficult? We are Australian

I can't answer for the visa question, but Croatia would fit the bill. If you are in a motorhome, then the issue of proof of your lenght of stay with receipts is very important. You'll also have to double-check where your rented(?) motorhome is allowed to go...

not rented, we own our motorhome. So keep all receipts when in Croatia, thanks

To get a visa for Croatia you need to apply BEFORE you leave. There are several consulates in Australia and they will be happy to assist you in spending your tourist dollars in Croatia.