A year in Europe

Are you sure you are fully aware of the Schengen rules? The restriction is not 90 days/country it is 90 days in the entire zone in any 180 period. That means after you have been in the Zone for 90 days you have to leave for 90 days. That would make it nearly impossible to do what you are planning.

I don't know how you do it, but I think you can apply for a longer stay in the Schengen zone. The 90 day restriction just applies to someone who shows up with a US passport and no other arrangements.

Medicare alone might not give you any medical coverage in Europe. Some of the Medicare Advantage plans will give you coverage out of the US. Check it out.

Wayne,

You may get some useful tips by reading this recent Thread which is also about spending a year in Europe....

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/one-year-in-eu-schengen

With careful planning of the duration of time in the Schengen countries vs. other countries, it should be possible.

Regarding your other questions....

• Where to spend the time - I'd suggest staying in several different countries for a month or more at at time, rather than staying in one central location. You'll likely get a much better sense of the culture in each.
• Using a Car - the public transit in Europe is excellent, so I don't believe a car will be necessary for the most part, and will be an unnecessary expense. If you need a car for exploring certain areas (ie: hill towns of Tuscany), then rent one for a short duration.
• Medical Insurance - I don't know what your Medicare covers, so will have to leave that question to one of the U.S.-based HelpLine members to comment on. I suspect it won't provide enough coverage for a year in Europe. You could phone the Medicare department to get a clear idea on what they cover for travel and longer duration trips. However, I found this statement online which may be applicable - "However private supplemental plans are also available to cover dental, vision, INTERNATIONAL-TRAVEL and other services not covered under Original Medicare" (I added the cap's for emphasis). FWIW, I ALWAYS take out supplemental medical insurance when travelling. If you have any health issues, you may want to consider some type of evacuation insurance as well. Have a look at THIS website for one example of an agency providing that type of service.

Good luck with your planning!

I go to Europe every summer and am on Medicare which does not cover me there. I take out travel/medical insurance each year for when I am in Europe. I happen to use Travel Guard and include medical evacuation which, if not covered, can cost more money than I have. They also cover pre-existing conditions if you pay for a policy as soon as you make your first trip payment, being air or hotel or a package tour. I can not speak for the quality or performance of Travel Guard since I have never had to file a claim, thank goodness. They were recommended by several travel agencies that I contacted when looking for coverage.

Wayne-

Are you interested in spending time in the UK? It's not part of the Schengen Zone, so you might chill out there between your Schengen times. My girlfriend and I are looking to do just that next year.

We were also planning to do the same in Croatia, since it's not Schengen, and another place we want to visit. But...something I just read said that time there still counted against one's 90/180, so I'm putting it in grey area. If Nigel is following this thread he'll probably have an answer. :)

Happy travels!

Regarding med ins: Medicare covers nothing outside of the US, what travel coverage you have would depend on your Medicare Supplemental plan (if you have one). Travel Guard does offer an annual insurance plan that covers any travels within one year - I used this last year for my 2-month trip to France but was also covered on my other trips in the US until the year was up. The cost was not outrageous and was worth it for the peace of mind it offered.

It's less expensive to rent apartments for longer periods in one place than to rent hotels (or even apts) for shorter periods. Monthly rentals are the most cost efficient, often costing about the same as 2-1/2 to 3 weeks at the weekly rate.

I don't believe there is any 'long-term' schengen visa - for long stay visas you would apply to an individual country. I'm not exactly sure what is required but you can check with the official government websites for the countries you're interested in.

Hopefully someone who has done this will chime in.

http://www.axa-schengen.com/ is my go-to list for Schengen country membership and Croatia is not on that list.

However, the page noted by JoeC does indicate that Croatia allows Schengen visa waiver holders to use their 90/180 entitlement there so could be considered a defacto member. It appears that a separate Croatian visa could be obtained which would then not keep adding days to a Schengen stay. It would be very important to contact the Croatian embassy for clarification prior to the journey. Especially in that part of the world rules change frequently and often with little notice.

Wayne, you can get permission for stays longer than 90 days, you need to demonstrate your ability to support yourself in Europe without working, among other requirements. You should check the appropriate country websites, or perhaps another poster knows a link. It can be done, just paperwork to do in advance.

I'm not sure if it was mentioned yet, but extended stay visas are issued by a particular country, and are not necessarily applicable Schengen-wide. And usually, there's an understanding that you will spend the majority of your time in that specific country. It often requires some kind of semi-permanent address, like a property rental.

One hint- living in Europe is a completely different experience from traveling over here. Even if your intent is primarily travel, you will likely see the benefit in having a local bank account. Most merchants who cater to tourists will accept credit cards, but many of the innumerable services that people need for daily life (utilities, rent, contractors, etc.) expect payment via direct bank transfer. This is a fairly fluid and easy method of payment within the eurozone, but extremely cumbersome if you're tyring to transfer funds from the US... even more so with recent fiscal law changes.

Sorry for such a late addition--I only just saw the question. My husband and I plan to do the same thing, getting around the long-stay visa problem by staying 3 months in a Schengen country, 3 months in Ireland (or another non-Schengen country) and 6 months in England.

Our Medicare supplement plan only covers us for the first 60 days, but minor ailments can be treated inexpensively (comparatively) in Europe, and we will buy a Medjet Assist policy, which will pay to evacuate us back to the States if we are hospitalized. (Travel insurance is too expensive, and many policies have an upper age limit of 67 or 70.)

We have had good luck with apartment rentals through VRBO and also by Googling local "self-catering" + [name of local area].

Also, for multi-destination air tickets, you might try Air Treks. Their service is probably more expensive than what you can find on your own, but they include travel insurance--no age limit--so that could make it worthwhile.

Good luck, and as Rick says, "Keep on travel in'!" This is the time to do it!

RI

You might be interested in buying a car in Europe. The book Europe by Van and Motorhome has a chapter about buying and selling used vehicles in Europe and is fun to read for inspiration. The book is mentioned in Rick's camping article at http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/sleeping-eating/camping and you can buy it online form the author at http://www.roadtripeurope.com/.

Wayne,
I did 290 days in Europe last year, I could of stayed longer but I didn't want to exit Ireland again and spend another 90 days apart from my Irish boyfriend (so I brought him home to the states).

Side note don't go Ireland then to the UK if you have to stay out of Ireland for 90 days before re-entering, they don't stamp. The UK customs guy looked at my passport and didn't stamp it (he said that he didn't have the permission to stamp my passport), when I return to Ireland after going from the UK to Italy then up to Ireland. The Irish customs guy lost his cool big time and so didn't want to let me in, I had to show so much paperwork.

You really need to think of how you want to go about doing this. I'd say to start do 90 days in the UK (I know you could do 6 months but that's half your year there), Then take a ferry over to Ireland (you have to get the stamp! They won't often stop trains/buses and check/stamp people between N. Ireland and the Republic of Ireland) do another 90 days there. Once that is done go into the Schengen Area and travel around for another 90 days there. Once your at the end of this you could do Cyprus, Romania, Bulgaria (even other non-Schengen Eastern European countries) or hope over to Turkey.

The preceding post, difficult as it is to understand, does not reflect reality.

I agree with Ed. A little appropriate punctuation would go a long way toward making the earlier post understandable. Why would a UK customs guy stamp your passport if you were coming from Italy (if I understood that passage correctly)? But even with that..... "They won't often stop trains/buses and check/stamp people between N. Ireland and the Republic of Ireland"? There is no "often". They simply don't. There are no border checks between RoI and NI at all, ever.

Te Republic of Ireland and the UK are part of the Common Travel Area. I thought that means they are counted together---meaning you can't stay 90 days in Ireland + 180 days in the UK consecutively. But maybe I am wrong about that. Does anyone know for sure?