Brexit

Nobody has any idea, to be honest. The UK politicians certainly don't.

Chances are nothing will change for the US traveler. You’ll have your passport and that is all you need.

If you were a UK citizen or a citizen of another EU country, there may be issues that are as yet unresolved.

Many countries live off the Yankee Dollar. No matter what happens politically, travel between all countries is here to stay.

I'm traveling in Ireland and then Scotland in June-July 2019, so I'm watching developments too. Clearly the UK government has no plan yet and there's a good chance for surprises (and some chaos, but that shouldn't come as any surprise). But as stated above, for a tourist from North America going between Ireland and the UK, for example, not much going to change at a high level. There will probably be some more/different formalities at the airport upon arrival and/or departure, and that might be implemented in a sloppy way - it seems they are going to be making up things as they go along, so if I were traveling right around the "implementation" (or "transition") date -- as if they could even accurately predict the date of that -- I'd build in a little more time for airport tasks. But other than that...I wouldn't worry much.

A bit of chaos and inefficiency? Sure. Problems? Don't think so, not for tourists flying between Ireland and Scotland.

As soon as the date passes the Scots will declare independence and move south to occupy Hadrian's Wall as a solid boundary. They will let in Americans but not English. All English wanting to travel to Northern Ireland will have to travel from Liverpool and dock at a floating pontoon customs and immigration station moored just off the Isle of Man.

That won't work so Ireland will absorb Northern Ireland and Wales won't know what to do. Conventional wisdom is that they will join Scotland.

But none of that will affect American tourists.

• or maybe not -

Implementation will not be “sloppy” and no one will be “making things up as they go along”. Sorry, but those are inane comments from someone who doesn’t understand the process!. There will be formal procedures for everything.

At present, nothing has been agreed, but hopefully by May things will be clearer. There have been stories of planes not flying, but I am sure this will be resolved, as it’s in nobody’s interest for travel to halt.

Nigel, Nigel ...... you know there are some who will believe everything you wrote.

Surely not one will believe Nigel. Thanks for the laugh though, it was amusing. And thank you all the for your comments I fell much more reassured.

What will happen on all those empty shelves at LIDL?

A true BREXIT story. At airport immigration, in Europe there has for a long time been two queues.
1) "EU/EEA+Switzerland", those nationalities who have no time limits and do not have their passports stamped.
2) Other nationalities. Limited to 90 days in 180, or needing a visa, who need to be registered in and out.
A colleague told me that at Geneva airport, the first queue now says: "EU/EEA+Switzerland+UK". So this Swiss at least think UK citizens will still be unlimited.

Macron, on the other hand, has refused to rule out UK citizens being subject to the "90 days in 180" limit.

I would really like to know the answer to that, as it would seriously affect me and many people I know. Emma, are you prepared to leak anything as an "unattributable government source"? ☺

Ireland to Scotland should be no change. One of the BREXIT problems is that the UK and Ireland are by treaty obliged to have an open land border with nobody stopped. How to do that when only one country is in the EU is one of the big problems.

The first answer is correct. I guess we will find out on the 30th March, or when/if a withdrawal agreemant is signed.

However, while I do hope there will be some kind of withdrawal agreement, it seems that a no deal-brexit is possible . So for a May 2019 trip I would make sure I have some kind of travel insurance/refundable bookings, just in case.

"I probably wouldn't want to be flying at the beginning of April ( based on not much more than gut feel)"

I'm flying from the US to Madrid on April 8th and am feeling pretty lucky to be changing planes in Amsterdam rather than in London.

I'm flying into LHR on March 30th and out on April 5th. I am not worried about this in the slightest. I am confident that whatever the outcome of the negotiations, a high priority will be to keep airports operating and functioning as close to normal as possible. I have confidence in the ability of the British to sort this out. Now this may have something to do with my British Grandfather who always told me how special everything in Britain was...... I still believe, Grandpa.

Am glad you have said that Emma, we need to get to Tuscany for 13th April and so have decided to avoid the airports at all costs. So taking the boat over to St Malo and driving down. It will just be one smallish boat coming into St M so if there is confussion it shouldnt take too long. It wasnt the British airports that worry me, it is the Italian ones, where we would need to go through passport control.
Believe me it is not my choice to travel at this time......

I have made no arrangement for any trips to Europe for next year apart from a trip to Lanzarote in January. We really have no idea what is going to happen much like the UK government. I work for a large University Medical research facility and we really have no idea what is going to happen especially to the funding we get from the EU (the UK government has guaranteed it for 2 years after Brexit ). Considering about 30% of our funding is EU grants and that about 40% of our researchers are non british EU nationals we have no idea of what will happen to jobs and research groups .All I can say is thank goodness I will be retired in just over 2 years time.

@Carol: Considering the lack of progress so far I'm not sure I would be as confident as you are if I had a trip to the UK booked the day after Brexit. Do you have any plan for what to do in case of a no deal-brexit?

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/how-brexit-will-affect-travel/index.html

I think a key point in the article is this - "Jenkins says that a no-deal scenario could cause growing queues at passport control, with the European Union intending to treat UK passengers as those from a "third country" rather than those enjoying full EU rights under freedom of movement."

Those from the US travelling through the UK on to other EU destinations aren't likely to be as affected as those from the UK travelling to EU countries.

As of now, Scotland is still part of the UK. :)