Thanks to everyone who shared great tips and know how regarding my recent posts about visiting Scotland. I have arrived and I am having a marvelous time. Another question comes to mind: how do I get a stamp on my passport? I flew in via Dublin and when I arrived in Scotland, I didn't go through customs - just walked out the door. I'd like to get it stamped for the heck of it / posterity sake. Anyone have suggestions? Thanks!
Good luck. I haven’t gotten a UK stamp since 2019; not even our recent trip to Scotland when we saw a person rather than going through the E-gates.
You can't get a stamp. You entered the Common Travel Area (UK and Ireland) at Dublin which is where immigration takes place. No immigration controls travelling from Ireland to the UK so no stamp.
The UK no longer stamps US passports.
Yes the days of exotic passport stamps is long gone, even the poorly stamped Schengen locales use a common stamp with the airport name, that is barely legible.
Do not fall for places that offer to "stamp" your passport (Yeah, that started as a "Thing"), though I did read someplace that the tiny country of Andorra can legally stamp your passport on request.
Now with scanning and the like, even the few remaining stamps will be going away (UK no longer stamps, the US no longer stamps on return usually), once the Schengen countries get fully online with an integrated system...no more stamps there.
bummer about the times a'chaning and no more stamps. Another bit of nostalgia, one that at least had some cachet, gone. I carry a small notebook in my excursion bag. I ask for an impressiom of rubber stamps and embossing machines whenever I see such a thing in a museum, shop, or tourist trap. When I was in Colorado last week, there was an old assay office stamp machine in a diorama display. I asked the docent if she could stamp my notebook.
Andorra can legally stamp your passport because it is neither a part of the EU nor a member or Schegen.
Denise,
You used to get passport stamps at immigration/ passport check not at customs.
Times are a changing!
Andorra can legally stamp your passport because it is neither a part of the EU nor a member or Schegen.
Yes, but you need to seek it out. Even though they are neither Schengen or EU, they do not stamp passports at the border, or really have much in the way of border controls usually, but you can head to the tourist office and they will stamp it.
There's an up side. Now you rarely have to worry about your passport pages filling up before it expires. Unless you travel frequently to places requiring visas/special entry.
Chances are you won't fill all the pages unless you transit Munich regularly. They are stamp-happy. And, as I learned on a recent trip, they don't like it when you pitch up without a stamp demonstrating you legally entered the EU. The Port of Amsterdam doesn't issue them. Took 10 minutes to talk our way out of that problem.
There was just something satisfying about that “thump” of the official stamping your passport after he’d scrutinized you closely first, wasn’t there?!
Now, I’m going to have a look at mine and see if I got “stamped” last trip, as I don’t honestly remember.
You can get a National Trust "Passport" and get it stamped at the properties you visit
I’m glad I kept all my old passports, as I had no other proof of where I had lived and worked in four different countries, when I started the process of claiming my Canada Pension and other official “senior” benefits.
If I hadn’t had those passports, it would have been a lot more difficult to prove my whereabouts for all those years.
And, Aku: this travel forum supports people who like to travel to “vanilla” countries as well as less-visited ones.
People have to start somewhere when they begin to travel!