Crossing borders in a pandemic

Well, for one, you can go right into Hungary by land, from Austria, with absolutely no paperwork beyond your passport.

So glad you posted this. I am wondering if we have some real world reports from travelers who have crossed 2-4 borders in a single trip during the pandemic. Of course all the borders are different, but I'd love to get a general idea.

Quite a few people have crossed borders. I went from France to the Czech Republic in December. Easy that direction. Staying up with all the information is the hard part. I haven’t been to Austria in the past year, though.,

From my preliminary research France and England have loosest covid restrictions. Italy and Netherlands still required a negative test to enter. Austria is kinda borderline.

The rules are constantly changing. If you want to go from one country to another, you find out the requirements of the country you wish to go to and act on them. As of now, I believe, there is no country in Europe that is requiring quarantine for vaccinated tourists. At most, you will need a test.

If October and November, I crossed borders and the rules changed in the middle of my trip. I didn't panic, I didn't throw up my hands in disgust, I did what I had to and got on with it.

I don't understand why some posters here scold against trying to visit more than one country per trip and make it sound like trying to go to another country is like taking a Higgins boat to Omaha Beach.

Frank II, check me on this, but I suspect with a few exceptions that ground transportation between EU countries is pretty much unrestricted; yes a few countries still do require country specific documentation to get into restaurants, etc.... and that could be a complication not worth the effort but that's a personal choice to pursue and not a deal breaker.

Yes, you need to get the rules and follow them dont ask here, go to the official source for each country and you might want to avoid countries where the rules are complicated.

I dont think anyone is going backward and I doubt they ever will; a very many countries have only changed their rules once in the last year; so a comment that the rules are changing daily isn't entirely correct either.

You will also want to look at direction of travel and air vs ground transportation for instance, in August if I wanted to visit Hungary and Croatia if I went to Hungary first I would need a PCR test, if I went to Croatia first and then drove to Hungary all i would need would be a CDC Card.

My August trip which included Ukraine, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Greece and Turkey required nothing more than one PCR test at the start and a CDC card for the rest. .

Oh and trip insurance that will cover the cost of waiting until you pass the test to return to the US might be a wise thing to do.

This ^ (James E note above. ). I entered thru Croatia with only the cdc card and needed nothing else until flight back to US. By April, restrictions will only scale back. In terms of neighboring countries, the one that’s irritating is Germany with the most restrictions. But cdc card should get u thru.

I'm writing in response to Sleight's post requesting reports from people crossing borders. We are a couple in our mid to late 60's who are triple vaxed. We left the US in early January. We spent one night in London before heading to Sri Lanka via Abu Dhabi. After SL we stopped in the Maldives. From there we flew to Mallorca via Istanbul. We are now in Malaga where we will remain until returning to London and then back to the US.
We had nine flights in one month. We had pcr testing before traveling to each final destination plus filled out locators and/or health forms uploading testing results, cdc cards and any other required info.

Our daughter's in laws determined the timing of the SL trip and as we already had firm plans for Spain, we decided we didn't want to go back to US after SL only to fly over the ocean again in a couple weeks so that is the reason for the complicated itinerary.
We feel very fortunate that all has gone smoothly so far. It was an amazing amount of planning and preparation but well worth it to us.

@Susan,

And all of your tests came back in time? Did you use airport-based speed services for them? Did you use a locator form provided on the govt website of each country or did the airline/airport provide one?

Thank you!!!

Yes all tests came back in time. Once we arrived in London we had to take another test as our US test would have been expired by the time we landed in Colombo. We scheduled a pcr test at LHR with results returning within 3 hours. It was ridiculously expensive but we had to upload results and other info before our 0800 flight the following day and I didn't want to take any chances.
The pcr test in SL was at a hospital with results within 24 hours. The Maldives test was done at the resort and the result was given to us the following morning. The staff had the result before we did because if either of us were positive they would have moved us under cover of darkness to a different area in the resort!
We filled out all required country forms on government sites and I believe all were within 48 hours of arrival. SL also required us to buy covid insurance through an official site. For $12.00 pp it covered covid related illness. We flew Etihad from London which required its own form and a negative pcr. Each passenger was given up to 30 days covid insurance coverage when flying with them.
Hope that helps!

Crossing borders is no issue. Often countries will depend on the airlines checking all passengers for vaccination documentation prior to getting into Europe..

Being admitted into a sit down restaurant is a different matter, and it often will require showing proof of vacinnation.

When we came back into the U.S., nobody checked anything regarding COVID testing, etc. Not a word spoken about it.

I don't understand why some posters here scold against trying to visit more than one country per trip and make it sound like trying to go to another country is like taking a Higgins boat to Omaha Beach.

Well I’ve done it because I think most travelers have enough to keep up with, staying up to date with one country's rules (plus the United States' for re-entry), rather than additional countries, and in addition the rules for a second or third country based on where one has been in the first and/or second country.

Obviously some people (like yourself) are more experienced travelers, and are able to gather and digest the information more ably, and it doesn’t add a level of stress for you that it does for, I would guess, a great many travelers.

In any event, as these things evolve as they are now (with requirements becoming fewer and fewer), I am probably making that recommendation less and less.

But that is the why. Not everyone has the travel savvy you do, and I think people who are nervous about the requirements (and maybe not as resourceful on the ground) did well to minimize the number of requirements they had to learn and act upon.

I do advise against crossing borders right now. Not because it can’t be done - obviously it can and a flexible traveler can handle it just fine. My concern isn’t as much with keeping track of rules but rules changing. Say you plan a trip where you go to A, B, and C, with a layover in D. But C suddenly bans travel from B - you are stuck in B and can’t get home since your return is from C. Or your layover country D requires all sorts of extra tests and paperwork, and you can’t enter the country just be in transit. But your flight is canceled and you are stuck in the airport for 20 hours because you can’t enter the country, just transit.

People here in this forum, sometimes me includeded, book trips pretty far in advance so changing rules are a big complication. People also get anxiety over all this - look at all the posts about how to navigate things etc. The easiest route is to limit countries. Not the only route or the necessary route, but easiest. I stand by that.

Against advice, I have planned a 4 country trip for May. Landing in Munich, traveling through Austria, a quick visit in Slovakia and ending in Prague. This was the trip we wanted and we are going for it. I will let you know when (if) we get back how much trouble it is. I am a very organized person, so will keep track and follow all of the rules. Of course, I am hoping these get less restricted by May, but there is no guarantee it won't be worse.

I honestly think that for the next little bit, it is only going to get easier.

Of course I am not laying down any money on a bet !