How Brexit will affect European travel

Firstly, while being a massive blow to the political idea of Europe, we do have to stress one sentiment that us Brits use time and again:

It would to foolish to say that this decision won't impact everyday life, and travel isn't immune either.

Will the cost to travel go up?

In the short term - yes.

On the day of Brexit, sterling fell to its lowest level in years meaning the cost of that croissant in your favourite Parisian cafe or entry into your favourite museum in Italy will go up.  The full increase in cost will only be apparent once the dust settles a bit.  However, the treasury predicted a 12-15% drop in value.  How sterling settles against the US dollar is key as that is what oil is based on - which will affect the cost for airlines.  

Is this the end of the EasyJet generation?

Since 1994, any EU airline has been free to fly between any two points in Europe.  Millions of us have taken advantage of budget airlines like EasyJet and Ryanair to get from one European destination to another - cheaply and quickly.  This competition in turn made bigger airlines like BA lower their flight costs to be competitive.

As you can imagine, some countries haven't been as well receiving of these budget airlines seeing them as unwanted competition against their domestic carriers.  As London is a worldwide hub, routes to and from the UK may be able to continue their status quo, but routes from within and between other EU countries could be at risk as politicians may take the opportunity to 'clip the wings' of these budget airlines.

Will you need visas to travel to Europe?

New travel requirements will be negotiated for UK citizens travelling to the EU.

If visas are required, this could potentially make travelling to the continent of Da Vinci & Ronaldo a bit more costly and time consuming.  Certainly more than the 'freedom of borders' travel that is currently enjoyed. 

But, seeing as the UK is outside of the Schengen Area anyway, unless UK tourists were actively targeted by European countries, it will hopefully stay as it is currently with showing your passport upon arrival.

Will it cost more to call or use mobile data in Europe?

There has been clamour over the past few years for mobile roaming charges to be scrapped under the notion that Europe should be classed as 'one nation'.  Now that the UK has voted to leave the EU, there is a real possibility that despite mobile roaming charges across EU countries being axed in April 2017, the UK may be left out of this.

In practical terms though, there may well be a business case for mobile phone companies to continue offer zero roaming charges in Europe.

So hopefully all those selfies can still be uploaded in-country 😀

The reality is, for a lot of these questions it is a case of - only time will tell what the real fallout will be for travellers, and Europe in general.