visit europe from us

New requirements for Americans traveling to Europe postponed until 2025

Visitors who now travel visa-free will need to get approval prior to departure.

Americans eyed upcoming travel to European destinations slightly differently due to news of a requirement that was set to start in 2024 for U.S. passport holders. But now, EU officials have postponed the European Travel Information and Authorisation System ( ETIAS ) launch until spring of 2025.

SchengenVisaInfo.com, a website dedicated to the world's largest visa-free zone where 27 European countries abolished their internal borders known as the Schengen Area, first reported that an EU official confirmed ETIAS won't go live until May 2025, "due to continued delays with the introduction of the related Entry-Exit System (EES), which needs to be operational before ETIAS can be implemented."

An official for the European Union did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.

What to know about ETIAS for US travelers

If you previously traveled to Europe without a visa, you will now need to apply for authorization through the ETIAS , before visiting.

Today, American travelers have visa-free access to 184 global destinations, according to the Henley Passport Index . And while the U.S. passport is currently ranked eighth-most powerful passport to own, that could be set to shift when the European Union adds its new documentation requirements for U.S. visitors.

The application form, which will be available on the official ETIAS website as well as a mobile application, has a fee of 7 euros or $7.79 U.S. dollars. All communication is done by email.

Once you are approved for travel, the authorization entitles visitors to stay in European countries that require ETIAS for up to 90 days within any 180-day period and travelers must be in possession of a valid ETIAS during their entire stay.

MORE: New warning issued for rebooking air travel after delays, cancellations

According to ETIAS, most applications should be processed within minutes, but in case an application takes longer, decisions will be sent within four days or up to 14 days if the applicant is asked to provide additional documentation.

The European Union encourages travelers to apply for an ETIAS authorization "well in advance of your planned journey."

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Confirmation of application submission will be sent on email with a unique number that is needed for future reference.

Upon receiving ETIAS travel authorization, travelers are to ensure that their name, passport number and other information is correct because any mistake will prevent them from crossing the border.

If an application is refused, the email will include the reasons for the decision along with information about how to appeal.

ETIAS travel authorization is valid for three years, according to the EU, or until the travel document you used in your application expires, whichever comes first.

MORE: European heat wave breaking records with little relief in sight

The ETIAS authorization is linked to a person's travel document -- such as a U.S. passport -- and both documents will be needed to board a flight, bus or ship to enter any of the European countries that require ETIAS.

Similar to international border requirements with a passport, the ETIAS authorization doesn't guarantee automatic right of entry. "Border guards will verify that you meet the entry conditions" and anyone who does not meet the conditions "will be refused entry," according to the EU.

Click here to learn more about the process from the European Union.

An earlier version of this story was originally published on July 21, 2023.

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In Europe's Schengen area , your passport must be valid for at least six months at the time of your entry. At present, the Schengen area includes most European Union (EU) countries, except for Cyprus and Ireland.

If you are transiting through Canada or the United Kingdom (UK) enroute to the Schengen area : your passport must be valid for at least six months, even though Canada and the UK do not themselves have the six-month rule. If your passport will expire within six months, airlines may not let you board your onward flight to Europe.

Traveling in Europe

If you plan to travel in Europe, you need to know about the Schengen Borders Agreement, which allows you to move freely within a number of countries without border checks. Tourists, exchange students, and people visiting for business from certain countries, like the United States, can travel in the Schengen area for up to 90 days. The Schengen area includes most EU countries, except for Cyprus and Ireland. It also includes four non-EU countries: Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein.

Before you travel to the Schengen area, we recommend you do the following:

• Check the expiration date on your passport book carefully before traveling to Europe. Ensure your passport book is valid for at least six months when you enter the Schengen area. This is especially important for minors under age 16 as their passports are only valid for five years. In contrast, U.S. citizen adults aged 16 and older receive passports that are valid for 10 years.
• Always carry your passport book with you when traveling to another country in the Schengen area. Even if there is no border check at that time, officials may reinstate border controls without notice.
• Be prepared to explain your purpose of travel.
• Be prepared to provide proof of sufficient financial resources for the visit.
• Comply with other entry requirements for each country you will visit or transit.

On our Country Information pages , you can find passport validity requirements and other important information for your destination country. If your passport does not meet the Schengen requirements, you may be:

• Refused boarding by the airline at your point of origin or while transferring planes.
• Denied entry when you arrive in the Schengen area, regardless of how long you will stay.

An immigration official will determine if you qualify for visa-free entry to the Schengen area when you first cross any external Schengen border. You will have to present your passport at that time. The officer may deny your entry if you do not qualify.

You should also check passport validity requirements if traveling onward from the Schengen area to a country outside the Schengen area. You can find this information in our Country Information pages.

HOW LONG CAN I REMAIN?

• With a valid U.S. passport book, you can stay up to 90 days in the Schengen area for tourism or business during any 180-day period. You must wait an additional 90 days before applying to re-enter the Schengen area.
• If you plan to stay in the Schengen area longer than three months, contact the embassy of the country where you plan to spend the majority of your time and apply for a visa.

Countries in the Schengen area may reinstate temporary internal or external border control without notice. U.S. citizens should carry their U.S. passport book at all times when entering or leaving the Schengen area. They should also bring it when traveling between Schengen countries.

How can the U.S. government help me if border officials do not let me enter?

• We can give you the contact information of foreign embassies of the countries you wish to visit.
• We can provide information about hiring an English-speaking foreign attorney overseas if you choose to do so.
• Note: We cannot influence a foreign government’s decision about allowing you to enter. We cannot intervene in another country’s criminal or administrative procedures.

What countries are members of the Schengen Borders Agreement?

Click on the country name for more information.

Bulgaria (entering in March 2024)

Czech Republic

Liechtenstein

Netherlands

Romania (entering in March 2024)

Switzerland

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Travel restrictions are back in Europe for U.S. visitors, at least in some places.

In removing the U.S. from a list of safe countries, the European Union opened the door to a new web of bans, quarantines and testing requirements.

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By Elian Peltier

• Sept. 8, 2021

Italy now requires travelers from the United States to take a test before arrival, and unvaccinated American visitors must isolate for five days. Sweden is barring all nonessential U.S. visitors. The Netherlands says vaccinated travelers must isolate after arriving from the United States — and unvaccinated ones are not welcome.

In removing the United States from a safe list of countries whose residents can travel without coronavirus testing or quarantine requirements, the European Union last week opened the door to myriad rules, restrictions and hurdles for travelers, with the bloc’s member countries implementing different measures.

The surge of coronavirus deaths and hospitalizations in the United States has led some countries — including Bulgaria, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden — to enforce new obstacles, and the list could grow.

The E.U. suggestion to reimpose restrictions on unvaccinated U.S. travelers is not binding, however, and many European governments have yet to act on it. Some may even choose to ignore it entirely, creating confusion for travelers.

For questions about requirements in a given European Union member state, the best answers can usually be found on the website of its U.S. Embassy. Most, including France, Spain and Germany, still welcome travelers from the United States without much hassle.

It is different for a few others, and that’s where the confusion starts.

For instance, any traveler from the United States, no matter their nationality, is prohibited from entering Bulgaria “unless they meet an exception,” according to the U.S. Embassy in Sofia . Those exceptions include students with a visa, citizens from an E.U. country, and foreign officials or medical professionals.

In Italy, meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in Rome states that vaccinated travelers must take a virus test 72 hours before arrival, and that unvaccinated ones must isolate for five days. France has no travel restrictions on American visitors, but a “health pass,” based on testing or proof of vaccination, is needed to access cultural venues, restaurants or bars, among other places.

These varying measures, which can appear dizzying to non-Europeans, reflect a reality that the pandemic has only amplified: As much as the European Union strives to present a unified front on many issues, the bloc is made of 27 member countries with diverging — sometimes competing — interests, and facing different epidemiological situations .

After the European Union closed its external borders in March last year, it urged member states to reopen to U.S. travelers and some others in June , hoping that a revival of tourism would boost E.U. economies.

Yet some countries had already moved ahead, while others waited for the recommendations from E.U. officials. A similar scenario is at play with the new travel guidelines. And the hurdles don’t only affect travelers from the United States or other non-European countries; some member states have implemented new measures for travelers coming from other E.U. countries, too.

Overall, the European Union has fared better than the United States in vaccinations : 70 percent of the E.U. adult population has been fully inoculated, compared with 64 percent in the United States.

And while the more transmissible Delta variant of the virus is becoming dominant in Europe , case numbers across most of the continent have not yet resurged to the levels seen in the United States .

Yet just as the virus’ spread varies across U.S. states, E.U. member countries are seeing divergent outbreaks . More than 83 percent of Belgium’s adult population has been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, for instance, but only 20 percent have been inoculated in Bulgaria, which has one of the highest death rates in the world and has lately faced a surge of hospitalizations and deaths.

Elian Peltier is a reporter in the Brussels bureau of The New York Times, covering the European Union and Belgium. More about Elian Peltier

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• 1 The Azores, Portugal
• 2 Reykjavík, Iceland
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• 4 London, England
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These 7 Long-Weekend European Getaways Are Completely Doable from the U.S.

Europe for a long weekend? It’s possible—even enjoyable, if you’re willing hit the ground running after a red-eye flight. We found seven hot spots that can be squeezed into just a few days.

Senior Editor, Jetsetter | @lindseytravels | lindseytravels.com

See recent posts by Lindsey Olander

The Azores, Portugal

Despite being one of the closest European hubs to the U.S. (the flight clocks in at just five hours and 45 minutes), the Azores still flies off the tourist radar—but not for long. This lush volcanic archipelago, 900 miles west of Lisbon, is steadily cropping up on itineraries as people continue to seek out “the next Iceland.” Limited flights and its remote locale just add to its mystique. After landing in San Miguel, hit buzzy port town Ponta Delgada for its black-sand beaches, hot springs at Caldeira Velha , and gorgeous gardens like Terra Nostra (beloved for its 600 varieties of the camellia flower), where you can conveniently rest your feet (and head) at Terra Nostra Garden Hotel nearby.

Reykjavík, Iceland

A six-hour flight from the U.S. gets you to Reykjavík, Iceland’s colorful capital city. After getting a refresher in Viking history at the National  and  Saga  museums, climb the iconic white clocktower at  Hallgrímskirkja for a sweeping view of the city and the sea. When hunger strikes, dig into Nordic specialties like Arctic char and beetroot at places like Dill  (which earned itself a Michelin star in 2017) and  Fiskfelagid  (its sea-centric menu includes Icelandic salted cod and monkfish). Afterwards, bed down in the  ION City Hotel  downtown from Icelandic architectural studio Minarc (behind the brutalist  ION Adventure Hotel ).

Explore More: See hotel details | See all Reykjavik, Iceland hotels

Dublin, Ireland

There’s lots to love about Dublin—and we’re not just talking about the easy six-and-a-half-hour flight from the States. Ireland’s gritty capital has become seriously hip over the years, adding buzzy new cocktail bars and award-winning restaurants to its must-hit list once dominated by storied pubs and cobbled lanes. After ticking off the Trinity College Library and the Guinness Storehouse (you gotta do ‘em), make time for another tipple—this time of the craft cocktail variety—at Bow Lane . (For something more traditional, The Brazen Head has been open since 1198.) Then soak up the booze with bites at Mish.Mash , a ‘gram-worthy café known for its hearty lunches. The hotel du jour is The Dean , complete with a rooftop bar and restaurant and industrial-chic guest rooms—reclaimed wood, personal turntables—straight out of Brooklyn.

Explore More: See hotel details | See all County Dublin, Ireland hotels

London, England

We made sure this list of long-weekend long-hauls tops out at seven hours (because truthfully, being in the air longer than a full work day is worth cashing in more PTO to recover from). London never fails to capture our hearts what with its royal neighborhoods, iconic landmarks, deep history, and newfound knack for incredible food and drink. After dropping your bags at The Franklin London – Starhotels Collezione , a posh Victorian townhouse boutique in tony South Kensington, hit the ground running: Kensington Palace , the V&A Museum , Royal Albert Hall , and Hyde Park (home to the Serpentine Galleries ) are all just minutes away. Afterwards, head to trendy Marylebone and satiate your appetite at The Wigmore (get the three-cheese stovetop toastie and Cornish cod), then walk it off with some retail therapy down Regent Street.  

Explore More: See hotel details | See all London, United Kingdom hotels

Edinburgh, Scotland

Most visiting the U.K. for the first time stick to London, but Edinburgh, a few hours north in neighboring Scotland, has charm all its own. Picturesque Georgian townhouses, narrow lanes, storied pubs, and even a hilltop castle in the middle of a medieval Old Town—no wonder J.K. Rowling holed up here to pen her magical Harry Potter novels. If your wallet can handle a room at The Balmoral , go for it: the grand dame, filled with kilted staff and gilded antiques, is as gorgeous as it gets. If not, the Venetian mirrors and moody tones of Nira Caledonia are just as atmospheric. Tea, whiskey, pub life, royal life—what the rest of your stay entails is up to you (though we love enjoying a cuppa at the Elephant House after a hike up Arthur's Seat).

Explore More: See hotel details | See all Edinburgh, United Kingdom hotels

Lisbon, Portugal

You won’t be harping on that seven-hour flight after stepping into the glorious sunshine of Lisbon, one of Europe’s prettiest—not to mention affordable—capitals on the west coast of Portugal. Skip the in-flight meal and leave room for everything you’re going to want to taste here, from mouthwatering pastéis de nata (egg tart pastries) at Antiga Confeitaria de Belém (open since 1837) to sardines (a city specialty) at Farol de Santa Luzia and a bifana (a kind of pork sandwich), which you can pick up at most lunch spots ( Casa das Bifanas is a local favorite). Design lovers will also find their groove here at places like the LX Factory , an urban complex of boutiques and studios; the MAAT Museum ; and storied hotels like Verride Palácio Santa Catarina , where you’ll find 18th-century painted tiles, original stucco, and a rooftop pool overlooking the city.

Explore More: See hotel details | See all Lisbon, Portugal hotels

Paris, France

Paris is always a good idea—so good, we think, that it’s more than worth braving the just-under-seven-hour overnight flight for a weekend jaunt. You can’t get more central than The Castille Paris – Starhotels Collezione —a gorgeous boutique hotel in the 1st arrondissement literally right next to the Chanel flagship and within easy walking distance to sites like the Tuileries Gardens, the Musée d’Orsay, the Palais Royal, and the Louvre. If you’ve been there, done that, might we suggest a few off-the-radar spots like the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont —a 61-acre swath of waterfalls, temples, and Gustave Eiffel–designed bridges just begging for a picnic. Shopping in Paris is also nonnegotiable, and one of our favorite spots right now is home concept emporium Merci , where you can pick up finds from labels like Alexander Wang and Solid & Striped. Afterwards, toast to your purchases with a glass (or two) of wine with charcuterie and cheese at La Cave de Septime .

Explore More: See hotel details | See all Paris, France hotels

• 15 Gorgeous Designer Beach Bags to Buy Now
• The 5 Best Day Trips from Rome
• 9 Paris Museums and Art Galleries Worth a Visit This Year

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Europe to require new entry fee for visitors

After all the pandemic-era regulations and international travel rules, get ready for one new requirement coming for travelers to Europe in 2023. The European Travel Information and Authorization System will introduce a mandatory registration and a 7 euro (about $7.50) fee for visitors to most European countries as of May 2023. While some people have called this a "visitor tax," the stated reason for the program is improved security. According to then-European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker when ETIAS was announced in 2016, "We need to know who is crossing our borders. This way we will know who is traveling to Europe before they even get here."

ETIAS states the system will be able to "Assist in detecting and decreasing crime and terrorism" and "Impede irregular migration." With the system, Americans and visitors from 62 other countries will still be able to travel visa-free in most European nations.

For more TPG news delivered each morning to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter .

What is ETIAS?

The European Travel Information and Authorization System is an electronic process to pre-screen, profile, approve and register visitors to the 26 countries of the European Schengen Zone who don't currently need a visa to enter. Similar to the U.S. Electronic System for Travel Authorization entry approval system, ETIAS will cross-check visitor information with government databases and watch lists before issuing authorization to enter. The information collected will also be used in data tracking for business and tourism purposes. ETIAS covers European countries that are part of the Schengen Zone travel agreement, in a region mostly overlapping the EU, with the addition of Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein but minus Ireland. An individual's ETIAS authorization will be valid for an unlimited number of entries over three years.

Countries in the Schengen Zone to require ETIAS:

• The Czech Republic.
• Liechtenstein.
• Luxembourg.
• The Netherlands.
• Switzerland.

Who needs to apply for ETIAS?

All U.S. citizens and those from the other 62 non-EU countries that are not currently required to apply for a visa will need ETIAS authorization to enter the EU for visits of up to 90 days, including transit passengers. Only visitors who are between the ages of 18 and 70 will need to pay the application fee, but those of all ages will still need ETIAS authorization to enter. If you have applied separately for a visa to enter Europe, you will not need to complete the ETIAS application.

Related : A country-by-country guide to where you can travel without a COVID-19 test

When and where will ETIAS go into effect?

This long-planned and much-delayed system is currently targeted to be fully operational in May 2023. At that point, airlines and other transport systems will be required to check for ETIAS authorization prior to allowing passenger boarding, and visitors will be required to complete the application process prior to travel. At land borders, visitors can complete the application at an electronic kiosk.

How do you apply for ETIAS?

Before traveling, you'll need to access the ETIAS online application to input passport information, name, date and place of birth, an email address, phone number, and a credit or debit card to submit the payment fee. You'll also need to provide your destination, as well as answer a few background and profile questions. The ETIAS website indicates the form should take about 10 minutes to complete.

Approval for most applicants should take only a matter of minutes. However, if an item is flagged in the application, a manual review must take place. The applicant can then either correct the improperly entered information or appeal a denial decision.

Bottom line

No immediate action needs to be taken by U.S. citizens planning to visit Europe. However, be prepared for the May 2023 launch when you must go through one more step and pay one more fee in the traveling process as part of the ETIAS implementation. Stay tuned to The Points Guy for further developments related to this program.

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Travel focused lifestyle blog featuring recipe, family and garden content

Travel to Europe from US: 9 Essential Tips to Enhance Your European Adventure

Traveling to Europe from the US is a dream come true for many adventure seekers. The continent is renowned for its rich history, stunning landscapes, diverse cultures, and vibrant cities. In this article, we’ll cover several essential tips to enhance your European adventure and make the most of your journey.

From saving for a vacation , planning your trip and packing smart to embracing local customs, managing your finances, and staying safe, these tips will help both new travelers or well seasoned wanderers navigate the complexities of traveling in European Union countries with ease.

We’ll guide you on immersing yourself in the local culture, exploring the countries beyond the tourist attractions, sampling the country with mouthwatering cuisine, and capturing memories that will last a lifetime.

Tip 1: Plan Ahead and Research

To make the most of your trip to Europe, thorough planning and research are essential.

• Visa Schengen area Requirements : Check the visa entry requirements for the many countries you plan to visit Europe and ensure you have the necessary documentation well in advance.
• Travel Restrictions: Stay updated on any travel restrictions, entry requirements, or COVID-19 protocols that may be in place. Check government websites and consult with travel agencies for the latest European travel information.
• Destination Research: Research each popular destination you plan to visit for example: Italy , Spain , Iceland , Portugal , Norway , Greece . Learn about the local culture, traditions, and customs to respect and appreciate the local way of life.
• Must-See Attractions: Identify the key attractions and landmarks you wish to visit. Make a list and prioritize your sightseeing plans to maximize your time and cover the highlights of each city or region. Personally, I don’t like to plan every aspect of my trip, but I do want a general overview of the things I may want to see and experience (like staying in a castle! ) so I can make better decisions on the ground and in the moment.
• Accommodations and Transportation: Research and book accommodations and transportation options for travelers in advance. Look for deals, compare prices, and consider the proximity to attractions and public transportation.
• Seasonal Considerations: Take into account the climate and seasonal variations of your European destinations, especially Christmastime. Pack accordingly and plan activities that align with the weather conditions.

Tip 2: Pack Smart and Light

Packing efficiently will not only save you space but also make your journey more comfortable and stress-free. (If you’re traveling abroad with kids, I have an extensive list specific to traveling with children here .)

• Clothing: Pack versatile and lightweight clothing suitable for the European weather. Opt for layers that you can mix and match. Consider the cultural norms and be sure to dress modestly when visiting religious sites.
• Comfortable Shoes: Europe often involves a fair amount of walking, oftentimes on uneven surfaces like cobblestone, so bring comfortable walking shoes or sneakers for travelers. Consider bringing a pair of dressier shoes for evenings or special occasions.
• Travel-Sized Toiletries: Purchase travel-sized toiletries or transfer your essentials into smaller containers to comply with carry-on regulations. Don’t forget items like sunscreen, hand sanitizer, and any necessary medications.
• Travel Adapters and Chargers: European countries like Italy and Germany use different plug types, so check and pack the appropriate travel adapters to charge your electronic devices. Ensure you have chargers for your phone, camera, or other gadgets you plan to bring.
• Travel Documents: Keep your travel documents organized and easily accessible. This includes your passport , identification, travel insurance, copies of important documents, and any required by countries visas or permits.
• Day Bag: Bring a small day bag or backpack for your daily excursions. It should be lightweight and comfortable to carry, with enough space for essentials like a water bottle, snacks, a camera, and a guidebook or map.
• Consider Weight Restrictions: If you plan to travel within Europe using budget airlines, be mindful of their weight restrictions for both checked and carry-on luggage. Yes, many will weigh and charge for your carry on baggage! Check flight schedules with Directflights.com . Familiarize yourself with their policies to avoid any additional charges or inconveniences.

Tip 3: Embrace Local Culture and Customs

One of the most enriching aspects of traveling to Europe is immersing yourself in the local culture. Here are some suggestions on how to embrace the culture and customs:

• Learn Basic Phrases: Familiarize yourself with a few basic phrases in the local language, such as greetings, thank you, and please. Locals appreciate the effort and it can enhance your interactions.
• Respect Local Customs: Research and understand the cultural norms and customs of the EU countries you’ll be visiting. This includes dress codes, dining etiquette, and social norms. Respect local traditions and be mindful of appropriate behavior, especially in sacred sites or religious ceremonies.
• Try Local Cuisine: Explore the local culinary scene and sample traditional dishes. Visit local markets for travelers and eateries to get an authentic taste of the region. Be adventurous and try new flavors and ingredients.

Tip 4: Manage Your Finances

Proper financial management will ensure a smooth journey without any unexpected financial hurdles. 

14 Ways to Save Money on Your Next Family Vacation

• Notify Your Bank: Before your trip, inform your bank about your travel plans to avoid any issues with your credit or debit cards in EU countries. They can place a travel notification on your account to prevent any potential blocks.
• Currency Exchange: Research the currency of each country you’ll be visiting and exchange some currency before you depart. Look for reputable currency exchange locations or withdraw cash from ATMs upon arrival for better rates.
• Credit Cards: Carry at least one major credit card that has wide acceptance in Europe. Check if your card charges foreign transaction fees and consider getting a card with no or low fees to save on charges.
• Budget Wisely: Set a daily budget for expenses such as accommodations, meals, transportation, and activities. Research average costs in each destination to help you plan accordingly and avoid overspending.

Tip 5: Stay Connected and Safe

Staying connected and ensuring your safety are crucial during your European adventure.

• Communication: If you’re concerned with saving money on data charges while traveling , consider purchasing a local SIM card for your phone or activating an international roaming plan. Alternatively, rely on Wi-Fi hotspots available in cafes, hotels, and public spaces to stay connected.
• Travel Insurance : Protect yourself with insurance for travelers that covers medical emergencies, trip cancellations, and lost belongings. Carefully review the policy to ensure it suits your needs.
• Safety Precautions : Be vigilant and aware of your surroundings at all times. Avoid displaying valuable items and keep your belongings secure. Research any potential scams or tourist traps in each destination and take necessary precautions to stay safe.

Tip 6: Embrace Public Transportation

Utilizing public transportation in Europe can be cost-effective, efficient, and provide an authentic local experience. 

• Trains: European countries have an extensive rail network, offering convenient connections between cities and countries. Look into rail passes or discounted tickets for flexibility and savings.
• Buses: Regional and intercity buses are another affordable option, especially for shorter distances or less popular routes.
• Metros and Trams: Many European cities have well-developed metro or tram systems, making it easy for travelers to navigate urban areas quickly and efficiently.
• Local Transportation Cards: Check if the destinations you’re visiting offer transportation cards or passes. These can provide unlimited travel on buses, trams, and metros within a certain timeframe.

Tip 7: Sample Local Cuisine

Exploring the local cuisine is an essential part of your European adventure. Immerse yourself in the culinary delights by considering this bit of advice:

• Local Markets: Visit local markets to discover fresh produce, regional specialties, and unique ingredients. Engage with vendors and sample their offerings for an authentic food experience.
• Street Food: Explore street food stalls and food trucks to taste quick and delicious local treats. From crepes in Paris to currywurst in Berlin, street food reflects the local flavors and culinary traditions.
• Traditional Restaurants: Seek out traditional restaurants serving regional dishes. Opt for establishments frequented by locals to experience authentic flavors and culinary techniques.
• Wine and Beer: Europe is renowned for its wine and beer culture. Don’t miss the opportunity to sample local wines in vineyards or visit breweries for a taste of traditional beers.

Tip 8: Explore Beyond the Tourist Hotspots

While iconic landmarks are must-see attractions, don’t limit yourself to the tourist hotspots. Some ways to discover hidden gems and lesser-known destinations:

• Off-the-Beaten-Path Towns: Venture beyond capital cities and popular tourist destinations to explore charming small towns and villages. These places offer a more intimate experience and a glimpse into local life.
• Nature Retreats: Seek out national parks , scenic coastlines, and picturesque countryside to connect with nature. Enjoy hiking trails, breathtaking landscapes, and outdoor activities away from the hustle and bustle of cities.
• Cultural Festivals: Check if there are any local festivals or cultural events taking place during your visit to Europe. These celebrations showcase traditions, music, dance, and culinary specialties unique to the region.

Tip 9: Stay Flexible and Embrace the Unexpected

While it’s essential to plan, it’s equally important to stay flexible and open to unexpected experiences.

• Serendipitous Moments: Leave room for spontaneous adventures and serendipitous encounters. Some of the most memorable experiences happen when you let go of rigid itineraries and embrace the unexpected.
• Local Recommendations: Interact with locals and fellow american travelers to gather recommendations and insights. They may suggest hidden gems or off-the-beaten-path destinations that you wouldn’t have discovered otherwise. This is how I had one of my most amazing Italian adventures EVER…on the back of a Vespa scooter with a friendly local as my guide!

Whether you’re a first-time traveler to a country in Europe or a seasoned globetrotter, these insights will provide you as travelers with valuable knowledge to enhance your experience, connect with the local communities, and create unforgettable moments. So, get ready to embark on a European adventure filled with exploration, discovery, and cultural immersion.

By following these 9 essential tips to enter Europe, you’ll be well-equipped to navigate the vibrant cities, picturesque landscapes, and centuries-old landmarks that await you in Europe. So, pack your bags, leave your worries behind, and get ready to embark on an extraordinary journey that will leave an indelible mark on your travel memories.

 Bon voyage!

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ETIAS Visa Waiver for Americans

Europe's travel authorization for u.s. citizens.

This website does not belong to, nor is it affiliated with, the EU. The official website of the European Union is europa.eu.

US passport holders will soon need ETIAS to travel to Europe. The European Travel Information and Authorisation System will be operational from 2025.

ETIAS is the new travel permit for Americans and other visa-exempt non-EU citizens visiting European destinations such as France , Italy, and Spain.

U.S. nationals can continue to go to Europe visa-free for short stays by applying for ETIAS .

Do Americans need a visa for Europe?

Americans who meet the ETIAS requirements do not need a visa for Europe. This means that US passport holders can travel to Europe without a visa:

• For up to 90 days in any 180-day period
• For tourism, business, and short-term study

Visa-free American visitors need to apply for ETIAS .

Americans must hold a visa or residence permit to stay longer than 3 months or to work in Europe.

WHAT DO AMERICANS NEED TO VISIT EUROPE?

This is what Americans need to visit Europe for up to 90 days:

• Passport valid for 3 months after exiting the Schengen Area
• ETIAS from 2025

You can find out how to apply for your ETIAS to travel from the US to Europe below.

If you’re staying for longer than 90 days, check the specific requirements for your European destination.

Do American tourists need medical insurance for Europe?

Medical insurance is not an ETIAS requirement . You do not need to provide proof of health insurance to apply.

However, all American travellers are advised to take out insurance that covers medical emergencies and other travel-related incidents.

US citizens need ETIAS for these European countries

Currently, there are 25 european countries that form part of the schengen area:.

• Czech Republic
• Netherlands
• EU Schengen
• Non-EU Schengen States

Non-Schengen EU States

Non-eu member states:.

• Liechtenstein
• Switzerland

Micro-States de facto part of Schengen Area:

• Vatican City

HOW CAN AMERICANS APPLY FOR ETIAS TO VISIT EUROPE?

As an American, you can apply for ETIAS online. Fill out the electronic form, pay the fees, and submit the application.

You’ll be asked to provide the following information on your application form:

• Name and surname
• Nationality
• Date, place, and country of birth
• Current address
• Contact phone number
• Email address
• Passport number
• Passport issue/expiry date
• Criminal records
• Travel to conflict areas

Why do Americans need ETIAS to travel to Europe?

Americans need ETIAS because they are visa-exempt non-EU citizens . The ETIAS regulation applies to third-country nationals who do not need a visa to enter the Schengen Area. Other eligible nationalities include British, Australian , and Japanese.

ETIAS pre-screens travellers before they arrive in Europe . By identifying potential threats, ETIAS improves the security of the Schengen Area.

How will my information be used by ETIAS?

The information provided on an ETIAS application form is checked against security databases. These include 3 systems managed by eu-Lisa :

• Schengen Information System (SIS) — database to identify suspected criminals, missing persons and stolen objects.
• Visa Information System (VIS) —database to share visa information
• Eurodac —database storing fingerprints of asylum seekers and irregular migrants

If there is an alert in the system, European authorities know to review the application manually. A decision can then be made on whether to grant travel authorisation.

Is my ETIAS information kept secure?

Information provided on ETIAS applications can only be accessed by authorised users. In addition, advanced technology is used to protect data and prevent any unauthorised access.

ETIAS data protection is in line with European law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

When do Americans need to apply for ETIAS?

Americans need to apply for ETIAS for any trips to Europe after 2025.

After the first ETIAS has been issued, US citizens need to apply in 3 years' time or when their passport expires (whichever is sooner). ETIAS is valid with the passport used to apply only.

Americans planning to visit several European countries on one trip do not need to apply for different visa waivers. ETIAS is valid across the Schengen Area.

TRAVELLING TO EUROPE FROM THE US WITH ETIAS

It is also important to note that an approved ETIAS for American citizens does not guarantee entry to Europe; it grants the holder permission to travel to Schengen countries.

The final decision for entry will be made by an immigration officer at Schengen border control. You do not need to print your ETIAS—it is linked to the passport—but you must travel with the passport you used to apply.

There are regulations and restrictions on carrying weapons, importing and exporting large quantities of tobacco, alcohol or perfume, and declaring large amounts of currency when travelling from the USA to Europe. Travellers must check the latest immigration rules.

US and Europe VISA WAIVER BILATERAL AGREEMENTS

US citizens may be able to stay in some European countries beyond the 90-day Schengen limit . The United States has bilateral visa-waiver agreements with several countries.

The Schengen Area nations that have bilateral visa-waiver reciprocal agreements with the US are listed below. The maximum stay is also shown.

• Belgium (3 months)
• Denmark (3 months)
• Italy (3 months)
• Hungary (90 days)*
• Portugal (60 days)*
• Spain (90 days)*
• France (90 days)
• Latvia (90 days in half a year)*
• The Netherlands (90 days)*

Schengen-associated country with a bilateral agreement:

• Norway (90 days)

*Only ordinary passports are permitted

US passport holders who take advantage of one of these visa waiver bilateral agreements must exit the Schengen Area from that EU nation. On departure, they must fly directly to a third country or transit in a non-Schengen airport.

In addition, travellers must remain in that particular EU Member State. It is not possible to move freely around Europe under the bilateral agreements.

Bilateral agreements between the United States and European Union Member States are subject to change.

EUROPE VISA REQUIREMENTS FOR US CITIZENS

US citizens who do not meet the ETIAS requirements need a visa for Europe. Visa applicants need to make an appointment at the embassy or consulate of their European destinations.

Documentation requirements depend on the type of visa requested but may include:

• accommodation bookings
• Round trip flight tickets , or tickets to an onward destination
• Proof of sufficient financial means to cover the stay in Europe
• Travel insurance that covers medical care in the Schengen Area
• A recent, passport-sized, photograph

Visa applications should be started several weeks before the intended travel date.

ETIAS for Americans - Related News

ETIAS Europe: the EU’s version of the US ESTA

The European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) is being implemented by the European Union to improve safety and security within the Schengen Area. ETIAS is a visa waiver programme with…

ETIAS for Americans - FAQ

Which countries do american travellers need etias to visit.

With ETIAS, Americans can visit countries where Schengen visa policy applies . The most popular ETIAS destinations for US passport holders include France, Spain, and Italy.

There are no internal border checks in the Schengen Area—ETIAS is valid across the travel zone.

Do American children need ETIAS for Europe?

Yes , US passport holders of all ages need ETIAS for Europe, this includes children under the age of 18.

Parents or legal guardians can complete the ETIAS application on behalf of their children .

Do US citizens need ETIAS to transit through an airport in the Schengen Area?

You only need ETIAS if you will leave the international transit area of the airport. If you will stay in this area, you do not need to apply for ETIAS.

You must hold a valid travel authorisation to enter any of the countries requiring ETIAS, even if it is just for a short time between flights.

CAN AMERICANS USE AN ETIAS TO WORK IN EUROPE?

ETIAS is not a visa and is not valid to work in Europe.

US passport holders need to apply for a work permit or work visa for the European country they will work in. ETIAS is valid for short business trips, for example, to attend meetings, conferences, and other similar events.

CAN AMERICANS STUDY IN EUROPE WITH AN ETIAS?

Americans can study in Europe for up to 90 days with ETIAS. The visa waiver covers short language courses in European countries, for example.

A student visa is required for all study programmes lasting longer than 90 days.

IS ETIAS FOR US CITIZENS A VISA?

No , ETIAS is not a visa for Europe. ETIAS is an electronic travel authorisation, or visa waiver, similar to the ESTA for the United States. US tourists and business travellers do not need a visa to visit the Schengen Area short-term , provided they meet the requirements to travel visa-free. Americans will be able to register for ETIAS from 2025

How do Americans pay the ETIAS fee?

You’ll pay the ETIAS fee online at the end of the online application . All major payment methods are accepted.

The ETIAS system does not keep payment information after the transaction has been completed.

Do American tourists need confirmed travel plans to apply for ETIAS?

Your travel plans do not need to be 100% certain to apply for ETIAS. You do need to indicate which European country you’ll enter first when applying however, once you have your approved ETIAS, you can enter via any of the ETIAS countries.

Find cheap flights to Europe from $91

This is the cheapest one-way flight price found by a kayak user in the last 72 hours by searching for a flight from the united states to europe departing on 4/23. fares are subject to change and may not be available on all flights or dates of travel. click the price to replicate the search for this deal., search hundreds of travel sites at once for deals on flights to europe.

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Good to know

Faqs - booking europe flights, what are some of the passport and visa requirements for united states citizens traveling to france.

Citizens of the United States need to have a valid passport and make sure that the passport remains valid for at least 90 days beyond their date of departure from France. When traveling on vacation, there is no need to get a visa so long as you plan on staying for less than 90 days in France.

If I plan on vacationing in Greece, what are some all the quickest ways I can get there from the United States?

Most Travelers in the United States flying to Greece will go to the Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos (ATH). When you are departing from the west coast of the United States and an airport like the San Francisco International Airport (SFO), your quickest option will be a board one-stop flights offered by Lufthansa they have layovers at Munich Franz Josef Strauss Airport (MUC).

If I plan on traveling to Germany for Oktoberfest, what are the best airport choices?

By far, the best airport choice is to travel to Munich Airport (MUC), which is the city where this event is held. When traveling from the United States, you can find nonstop flights aboard Lufthansa from both Los Angeles International Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport, and there are one-stop flights on the same airline from Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW).

If I am traveling to the International Music Summit in Ibiza, what are some of the best ways to get there from the United States?

One of the most convenient airport choices to get to this event is to travel to the Ibiza Airport (IBZ). When traveling from John F. Kennedy International Airport, you will find one-stop flights aboard Air Europa and Iberia to this airport. If you are traveling from the West Coast of the United States from an airport such as Los Angeles International Airport, you can travel on one-stop flights aboard British Airways and Vueling.

If I would like to make my way to an eastern European country such as Poland, what are some good flight options from the United States?

Most Travelers in the United States making their way to this country will fly to the Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW). If you’re departing from a large city on the East Coast United States such as the Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), the quickest trips occur on one-stop flights aboard Scandinavian Airlines that have layovers at Kastrup Copenhagen Airport (CPH).

Which airline is the best choice for nonstop flights to Sweden from the United States?

By far, your best choice is going to be SAS Airlines since they are based in Stockholm and have a reputation for offering great flight options to Sweden from the United States. One example of this would be the nonstop flights they offer between Chicago O' Hare International Airport (ORD) and Stockholm Arlanda Airport (ARN).  

How long is the flight to Europe?

An average nonstop flight from the United States to Europe takes 8h 27m, covering a distance of 3986 miles. The most popular route is New York - London with an average flight time of 6h 50m.

What is the cheapest flight to Europe?

The cheapest ticket to Europe from the United States found in the last 72 hours was $122 one-way, and $327 round-trip. The most popular route is New York John F Kennedy Intl to London Heathrow and the cheapest round-trip airline ticket found on this route in the last 72 hours was $354.

Which airlines fly to Europe?

British Airways, American Airlines & Finnair fly the most frequently from the United States to Europe. The most popular route is from New York to London, and Iberia, American Airlines and Finnair fly this route the most.

What are the most popular destinations in Europe?

The next most popular destinations are Paris (18%) and Rome (13%). Searches for flights to Athens (8%), to Madrid (5%) and to Lisbon (4%) are also popular.

How does KAYAK’s flight Price Forecast tool help me choose the right time to buy?

KAYAK’s flight Price Forecast tool uses historical data to determine whether the price for a given destination and date is likely to change within 7 days, so travelers know whether to wait or book now.

Top tips for finding cheap flights to Europe

• Enter your preferred departure airport and travel dates into the search form above to unlock the latest Europe flight deals.
• A popular city in Europe that people from Los Angeles often travel to is Paris. Most travelers will utilize Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) as their departure airport, and to Paris Orly Airport there are non-stop flights aboard French Bee and Air Caraibes, and to Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG) there are direct flights aboard Air France and Delta Airlines.
• A city that is quite popular with travelers departing from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) is London. Some of the non-stop flight options available from the airport to London include flights aboard Finnair, Iberia, Virgin Atlantic, and American Airlines to Heathrow Airport (LHR), as well as non-stop flights aboard Norse Atlantic Airways, British Airways, and JetBlue to Gatwick Airport (LGW).
• Passengers in the United States traveling to any city in England and planning on renting a car should know that children must use a car seat until they are at least 12 years old. Parents can utilize the most appropriate type of child restraint based on the age and size of their child.
• When travelers in the center of the United States want to travel to the popular city of Berlin, they most often will depart on international flights from Chicago O' Hare International Airport (ORD). From this airport, passengers can find one-stop flights to Berlin Brandenburg Airport Willy Brandt (BER) aboard LOT Airlines, Icelandair, and Lufthansa.
• When parents plan on taking their children to France and will be driving a rental car, it is important to know that children up to 15 months of age must travel in a rear-facing car seat, and then up to four years old must travel in a forward-facing car seat. After that, any child up to 12 years of age needs to travel in either a booster seat or on a booster cushion.
• One of the most popular destinations in Europe for travelers from the United States is Madrid. When traveling from the large city of Boston and the Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), travelers can find nonstop flight options aboard Iberia, Finnair, and American Airlines to Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD).
• Another destination that is quite popular for visitors traveling to Europe is Vienna. When flying from Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL), passengers can find a number of one-stop flights aboard both United Airlines and Lufthansa that travel to Vienna International Airport (VIE).

Top 5 airlines flying to Europe

The flight was delayed but we got to our final destination.

Boarding was great. The flight landed early. It took the crew over an hour and a half to bring out drinks. I paid to upgrade my seat to Comfort+ only to be near a crying/screaming baby who was seldom quiet. Noise-cancelling earbuds didn’t even help. Waste of money to upgrade.

Boarding was good, was able to get on early and get settled in . Loved the glass of wine before take off. Once in the air the service was amazing, from the snacks, drinks and the food was good. The flight attendants were very good and attentive. Love flying with Delta..

Seats in first class on the E175 recline too far back. I was in 2A, and the man in 1A fully reclined almost the entire flight. It took 6-7 inches of space away from me and made it very difficult to work on my laptop.

On 2 different flights the wifi was horrible and there was no drink or snack service.

Wifi wasn’t working well so we couldn't view any media.

Flight was late. Club was full. Experience is exactly what I expected.

Carly the flight attendant was extremely helpful and very accommodating to passengers on the flight from what I noticed. Couldn't be more satisfied with the service and assistance from Delta's flight attendant, Thanks again Carly!!

I didn’t not like that I could not select my seat and ended up with the worse seat.

I didn’t like that I could not select my seat and was assigned a seat when I checked in at LAX

Nice flight, nice crew but no cookie or napkin with my seltzer.

Trip was smooth bumpy from the wind but no issues at all the crew attendant was very pleasant and had great customer service

This was a Lufthansa flight. Disappointing main meal. Very rough over Canada and arrival at FRA. IFE was almost unusable.

It got me where I needed it to; not much more. It had no competition so that was why I chose it.

I liked everything about the flight. The service was excellent!

The customer service was excellent! Check-in, baggage check-in, boarding, the flight went very smooth.

The flight was delayed instead of leaving at 11 it left at 12.20

United WiFi is consistently unusable (it can take 10 mins to load a single web page). If you need Wifi to do work, be prepared to lose half a day of productivity.

We waited to takeoff for about 1 hour delay for a 20 min flight.

Good dinner and nice plane.Smootz flight. Breakfast had no sweet option. Seats hardly reclined.

The flight was delayed for over four hours due to “maintenance “. Your ground staff made no efforts to avoid my family missing their connecting flight to London. They did not try to reroute them and didn’t even offer meal vouchers without being asked. My daughter, her husband and four children were in the States for our son’s celebration of life service. They experienced rude and unhelpful staff in Asheville. The lack of communication was disgraceful. They missed their connecting flight and the first rebooking. Then the 2nd rebooked flight was delayed by over two hours. They didn’t leave Charlotte until 1:30 AM. Since returning home my granddaughters sleep has been so disrupted that they are overly tired and cry hysterically at bedtime. I have already contacted you regarding compensation but have yet to receive a response. All I’ve received is a canned wrote response. This is not acceptable!!! When my wife and I traveled to England in December on your partner, British Airlines, we were delayed for 4 and one half hours. We missed our connecting train to Leeds and had to pay double. They not only reimbursed our extra train expense, they also refunded half our airfare. And upon our return to the States we were surprised to find that they had upgraded us for free! Now that’s customer service!!! I look forward to a prompt real human response. Sincerely, Jon Cannon

Crew were attentive and friendly. Flight was smooth and early! I enjoyed the less crowded plane. Thank you!

No complaints. The flight was uneventful, which is a good thing.

Was as expected. Good leg room on planes - much appreciated.

after boarding on phx to sjd, crew discovered that one of the megaphones was either out of date or not working. It took 90 minutes to get a replacement and do the "paperwork." That is really unacceptable. Why wasn't the megaphone problem discovered before boarding? Is it part of normal maintenance check? who is responsible for checking. How can paperwork take that long? Fortunately, SJD was final destination for most travelers so very few if any passengers had to miss connections.

We sat on the plane for 1 hour because the airline was short handed could not be unloading.

We sat on runway for an 1 hour because they were short handed at key west airport was not fun

Awful customer service on the phone. No phone number on the website to call a real person. Website says changes are no charge but this is a lie. I had a cheaper ticket through Kayak therefore Finnair wouldn’t change it unless I would pay the entire fare again. I begged but their agents at the airport were rude and the online chat person cut off the call with no help. Super disappointed. Wont fly this airline again and will tell everyone I meet how bad it is. Crew on the flight was nice but otherwise huge disappointment.

Fight crew was not very attentive and the bastions were gross!

Late boarding to clean plane from previous flight; initial boarding announcement not loud enough; fantastic cabin attendant front of plane

My concern is with Flight: 441 IAH-FRA I was very cramped in my seat and the person in front of me was reclined. I pulled my wallet out of my purse and when finished I did my best to cram it back into my purse. Our flight was very delayed and we were rebooked twice and lots of airport time. As I got off the flight I noticed that I had dropped my wallet( containing all my credit & debit bank cards + 240 US dollars & 240 Euros. I spoke to customer service & Lost &Found. I was denied access to look on the plane. Therefore I have been without money and given no help. Paula Bjork 503.545.6698

Dinner was good by air travel standards but breakfast was too light and heavy on carbs/sugar.

Used to love Lufthansa, but Rowe are too close together in Economy and passengers are allowed to recline their seats so far back it is impossible for those behind them to even reach for carry-on essentials during flight - except for meal service when flight attendants ask for seat backs to be raised, we can’t sleep on planes so this flight was most uncomfortable ever! Rod Rose

So far so good. I missed my flight because of the Lufthansa diversion. United helped me to figure out how to get accommodations from Lufthansa for my long layover. They help me book appropriate onward flight.

Horrible crowding on the seats, headphones provided did not fit or work in the entertainment center, seriously the most uncomfortable flight I have taken in a LONG time. The people in front of me were literally 5 inches from my face the entire flight. Did they change their seats recently? I remember it being tight but wow this was a whole new level. Also I am a 5'3" small woman so I can't even imagine a larger person dealing with that for 11 hrs.

Seat controls of lights were broken, and only 1 of the 2 seat TVs ever worked on the long flight. On the short flight there were no USB connections, on the long one they were difficult to access. Part of my meal was frozen, though the hot portion was good.

Lufthansa fails at mentioning no luggage when booking through points. We had to pay added fees to take checked bags to Europe for 2 weeks. The staff at check in were not helpful at all. told us "if we don't like it, then book another flight". Food was bad, they ran out of half the options. Vegetarian was terrible. The flight crew was nice, and tried to make it work ok.

Always a pleasure to deal with United's helpful and knowledgeable staff

Always a pleasure to deal with United's helpful and knowledgeable saff

My school age daughter was not sat near me. We left almost an hour late. Therefore arriving late and missing another flight. Since it was not a connecting flight there was nothing Lufthansa could do about it. After the selay in take off and arrival we waited almost an hour for baggage claim. There was zero concern for my inconvenience. I asked if we could insure being seated together on the return. They stated no because we booked through Kayak. I typically love Lufthansa. This was very disappointing.

I’m not happy because I discovered there is something wrong and my miles have not been getting put on my AA account. So this needs to be fixed because I have traveled a lot since October and none of my miles are registered

This was an American Airlines flight. The crew were very unhappy and quite grumpy. Abrupt to the point of being rude. The food was dreadful. Indeed the breakfast was in edible. I will avoid AA at all costs in the future.

As expected for a BA long haul flight in economy - you get what you pay for. Good leg space, in flight entertainment and food and drink provided. Staff on the return flight (overnight) we're a bit brisk and just wanted to get everyone fed and watered before turning the lights down. We're vegetarian so ordered it separately through the booking, although when we were in flight we realised there was a normal and vegetarian option anyway, and we were given vegan. This is fine, however on the return trip we were told there were no more specially ordered meals left, so be aware in case you have specific dietary requirements.

Fare was much lower with a layover in London as I was able avoid numerous landing fees that would have been added to the ticket price had I booked a direct flight to Amsterdam.

We have business class seats from Los Angeles to London. The crew is friendly and provided great service. The flight was very comfortable and very smooth. Will use this airlines again in the future.

The flight was delayed numerous times with inconsistent updates and very ambiguous information. When it was finally cancelled the logistics of handing out vouchers and rebooking was extremely chaotic. Meal vouchers were completely inadequate for the airport restaurants, and not even accepted at some. All-in-all, it was a very disappointing experience.

Terrible. The flight from Islamabad to London took 3 hours more then previously planned, I missed my connection to Chicago, and instead had to go New York, spend an extra day before arriving at my final destination. The return leg of the journey was similar. The connection time in Qatar was shrinked to less then an hour unannounced, I had to scramble to barely make it to my flight to Islamabad. Terrible experience, never using British airways again.

The crew on this flight were attentive, efficient and friendly. It really made for an enjoyable flight.

The crew on this flight were excellent. They were friendly and attentive. It really made the flight more enjoyable.

They canceled my flight , they put me on a different flight that was delayed and the connection was lost . They lost my luggage. And now I’m stuck with any of my belongings.

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Europe Tours & Trips

With so many cultural experiences, it's no wonder why a European tour is top of mind for many. Step back in time when visiting London 's famous landmarks, sample the finest wines in Paris, or get lost in the alleyways of Rome . Whether you want to relax on a Danube cruise , or don your hiking boots in Iceland , there's so much to see on a tour through Europe.

250+ Europe tour packages with 83,344 reviews

• Coach / Bus

Europe Escape

The trip start to finish, was amazing, our tour guide Gustavo was wonderful!

• 10% deposit on some dates Some departure dates offer you the chance to book this tour with a lower deposit.

• Christmas & New Year

The Great Adventure

Israel was an amazing guide. My only critique would be how I was shuffled into other tours but with different timetables

Europe Jewel

Good route which covered the main attractions of Mid Europe. The trip is compact and efficient and the optional excursions add on the contents. Tour leader Matt is full of knowledge about various area’s history and events, he also looked after the team well and tried to accomodate customers’ needs, A really caring and professional tour leader. Pascal is not only a brilliant driver who tried to park the coach as close as possible for group’s access, he was also taking care of the team in many ways and his warm greetings and kind words won our hearts. If you haven’t or only seen a couple of European countries, this trip will be the one to open your eyes or the one to expend your European experiences. Additionally, the trip is good value for money.

• In-depth Cultural

Best of Central Europe

I though the Intrepid tour was fantastic. The group leader did a great job in looking after us and providing us with good orientation in all the countries we visited. The only point that could be improved, was in relation to accommodation. In Prague, five people were placed in the one hotel with one bathroom and toilet. This is not really ideal, however, when we raised this issue, our group leader went out of his way to provide an alternate accommodation for my husband and I. I felt that this was really good and we were very pleased with the outcome. The other tour participants were great and I recommend this to anyone who is interested in a great holiday. Thank you Zsolt.

The Best of Eastern Europe

Excellent tour and with a small group it was easy to get to & enjoy everything. There were a couple of hiccups. More to do with local public transport and out of the hands of our CEO, Jakub. He took everything in stride though and went above and beyond to assist some of the group when they needed it My first group tour and I was pleasantly surprised. G Adventures did a stellar job with this tour and comments from other, who have done other G Adventures’ tours, members of group said they are generally good value

Genuine Europe

Tour was great and the tour guides were excellent. It just felt a bit rushed as there were too many sites to see in too few days.

All About Balkans (4 Star Hotels)

The itinerary was incredible. We saw magnificent places we would have never visited on our own. Tour guide Simone was great, knowledgeable, and always made sure we don't get lost. Local guides were excellent too. Pace was not too intense, allowing us to enjoy each location and have some free time. Thank you, Chris, our excellent driver through tough mountain terrain. CONS: Travel Talk still advertise that the Group Size is 13-35. In reality, the bus was packed full, 48 participants. Travel Talk should change this false advertisement because it is misleading. Hotels were of excellent quality and location, in each place, EXCEPT one: Hotel Central Park in Trebinje. It was disgusting. The minute we entered the hotel we were attacked by a huge smoking Lobby with tens of people smoking everywhere, and it was the same smell in the hallways and inside the rooms! Even the linen smelled like cigarettes. Within two minute your hair and clothes were soaked with smell of ashtray. We all commented on how terrible it was. Breakfast was bad or rather, there was nothing there. Travel Talk should take snot contract with this hotel. It merits one star. They should choose another, since we stayed there for two nights. Everyone complained about this hotel smell everywhere and all the time. Otherwise, I would have given this trip 5 stars.

• €150 deposit on some dates Some departure dates offer you the chance to book this tour with a lower deposit.

Baltic Experience

First and foremost with these tours, the enjoyment and experiences can be enhanced by the guide you have and our guide for this trip was exceptional! There are a LOT of cobblestones to walk on this tour so sensible footwear is an absolute must. Every city visited had its 'Old City" which were paved with cobblestones. It was a fascinating tour of the history of this part of Europe from medieval times to present day. The days spent canoeing and trekking in the countryside offered a welcome break from the cities visited. Klaipeda and the day trip to the unique, World Heritage-listed Curonian Spit National Park was just one of the highlights of the countryside experience. A hillside of Witches was a unique collection of sculptured tree trunks depicting all manner of mythical witches and demons. Amazing to wander through this huge area with such an engaging local guide to share the stories and history of the area. Hiking and canoe through Aukstaitija National Park's dense forests and lakes provided an opportunity for not only physical activity, but also time to swim and stop to appreciate the wild flowers and other flora. Plants that are considered garden annuals here, grow wild amongst the grasses and forests of this area. But Riga was one of the most beautiful cities visited. Fragrant gardens, fountains, old and new public sculptures and the well preserved and restored art nouveau buildings, made this city enchanting and fascinating. The trip did consist of long journeys especially by bus from Warsaw to Berlin. It proved to be quite exhausting and could be well improved by a stay somewhere in between these two major cities. Overall, if interested in Russian and German occupation and the history of these Baltic countries and their struggle for independence then this is the trip for it.

Zagreb to Athens: Adriatic & Ancient Capitals

Excellent tour with fantastic tour guide (Noddy). It's a tour aimed at younger (under 40) travellers, so the accommodation is mainly hostels and the pace is pretty fast but we still managed to spend a reasonable amount of time in each place. There was a good balance of history/culture and activities, and there is a lot of flexibility with the optional activities and free time to spend more or less time at the beach, museums, etc. Highly recommended as an introduction to the Balkans!

Balkan Discovery (4 Star Hotels)

I went on this trip in mid October and surprisingly the weather was great enough for swimming. Simon was my guide with Chris as our bus driver. Simon was very informative and extremely nice throughout the whole trip. I really felt like I received a great introduction to the land and its people. Chris made sure we took comfort breaks every couple to few hours so that everyone had a chance to regroup. The first couple of days were short as it required some long hours of driving, but it was all worth it. Also, I had the pleasure of meeting wonderful travelers from university students to grandparents, though the group skewed to the former. Pay for all the extra excursions, especially the nature ones!

Balkan Kaleidoscope

I’m a see all I can fall I can guy. Not the type to sit at a resort on a beach. I really enjoyed every where we were at and learned so much. Our guide was helpful our driver was excellent and we had a great time.

European Cavalcade (End Paris, 18 Days)

Amazing!!! No complaints, loved it!! Tour guide was extremely competent and the driver was very very good. So many memories made, highly recommended!

Britain and Ireland Delight (Summer, 8 Days)

We had an awesome experience, made possible by our tour director Damian and driver Dave. Damian’s knowledge was exceptional and Dave was an amazing driver.

Essential Britain & Ireland

Very knowledgeable, professional, and courteous.

Tour from Athens to Dubrovnik or Split: 7 Balkan countries in 14 days

we had a great trip so many places we saw in only 14 days even with the covid 19

What people love about Europe Tours

Thank for MARYSOL AND SE BASTIANO a great deal I finally seen Europe a great deal, I enjoyed Interlaken Switzerland Casino as I invested £10.00 and won £300.00 Swizz Francs . I love Switzerland and France. I think it's quite too much walking for me . You should try to incorporate renting some of GOLF CARTS TOur Like me Rosita did in Florence we rented a Cart tour Cart ride and was able to a lots around Florence. I glad to made a lot of new friends specially from South Africa they are all wonderful and sweet and other countries.

Eva and Rene were amazing tour guides. Disappointed that we didn't see the Eiffel Tower at night. Several times we were dropped in town at night with not enough time to get a meal before being taken to the hotel. Some hotels were out of town with nothing within walking distance. Thank you to Rene for arranging for a group of us to go to the Moulin Rouge.

Having Gustavo Gomes as a Team Leader and combination with Sebastiano as a Coach driver really made a difference in having a memorable experience our first trip in Europe.

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13 Affordable Places to Visit in Europe — From Country Escapes to Stunning Cities

You can visit Europe on a budget — here's how.

Elizabeth Rhodes is a special projects editor at Travel + Leisure , covering everything from luxury hotels to theme parks to must-pack travel products. Originally from South Carolina, Elizabeth moved to New York City from London, where she started her career as a travel blogger and writer.

If you have big dreams of jetting off to Europe, but worry that your bank account isn't quite ready, don't worry. For every expensive city, there are dozens of charming — and surprisingly affordable — places that offer all the European charm for a fraction of the price. Ljubljana, Porto, Budapest, even Berlin — these cities have all the rich culture, stunning architecture, and delicious food that you'd find in pricey European capitals, but they're perfect for budget travelers.

You can even travel to some of Europe's best (and famously expensive) destinations without breaking the bank — you just have to know how to save money without sacrificing on experiences. Travelers can often score deals on flights from the United States to major cities like Paris or London, and upon arriving, transportation within Europe can be much more affordable (hello, budget airlines). Those large cities also offer a wide range of accommodations, so you can certainly find something in your budget. You can even save money on food by hitting the local markets. After all, a bottle of wine, fresh bread, and cheese from a Parisian market make for an unforgettable meal when picnicking under the Eiffel Tower.

And you might be surprised by how many museums, churches, and other attractions are free or inexpensive to visit, too. Be sure to keep an eye out for free entry days (often one day a month) or tourist cards that offer entry to multiple attractions for one flat fee. (Do the math ahead of time by calculating the cost of every included attraction that you want to visit to make sure it's really worth the money.)

Trimming your budget doesn't mean sacrificing the quality of your trip. Sometimes, the less you spend, the more you can immerse yourself in the local culture. Staying in a thatched Irish farmhouse, perusing old masters in Rome, or snacking your way through Spanish specialties aren't just tricks of the frugal traveler — they're the stuff dream vacations are made of.

Here are some of the top destinations for an affordable European vacation (and tips for saving money once you arrive).

Bavaria, Germany

For a storybook-worthy vacation in Europe, head straight to Bavaria. Book a room at Burg Colmberg , a 14th-century castle rising from a rocky crag above a tiny village. It offers an eclectic collection of rooms tucked throughout a warren of crooked hallways, hidden staircases, and cozy sitting nooks. Be sure to visit the postcard-perfect Neuschwanstein Castle , resplendently perched atop a mountain, and take the time to tour Hohenschwangau, the castle in which "Mad King" Ludwig II actually lived. The latter is a more modest pile of battlements on a smaller nub of a hill in the valley below. What it lacks in the carefully crafted pomp and circumstance of Neuschwanstein — which Ludwig II never lived to see completed — it more than makes up for in homeyness and history.

Puglia, Italy

The iconic architecture of Puglia — the "heel" of Italy's boot — is the prehistoric trullo, a cylindrical whitewashed house with a cone-shaped roof of stacked gray stones. There's no greater concentration of trulli than in the UNESCO-protected town of Alberobello, where whole neighborhoods are made of the structures, and the local entrepreneur behind Trullidea has fixed up dozens of the abandoned ones and rents them to visitors. Cool in the baking summers and with cozy indoor heating for wintertime, a rental trullo lets you live like a local for less than the cost of a tourist-class hotel in town. Want to sample what the Amalfi Coast was like before the hotshots and high prices moved in? Puglia's forested Gargano Peninsula is popular with sun-loving Italians, but is otherwise refreshingly off the tourist map.

Budapest, Hungary

Alisha McDarris/Travel + Leisure

The capital of Hungary, Budapest offers all the charm of more popular European destinations for a fraction of the price. The Hungarian Parliament Building and Fisherman's Bastion are just a couple of the picture-perfect attractions you'll spot in the city, and you'll find lots of affordable accommodations, meals, and nightlife, too. Even the city's famous thermal baths — some of which are over a century old and feature beautiful architecture — can be affordable to visit.

Andalusia, Spain

Rory Fuller/Travel + Leisure

Take a break from sizzling on the crowded Costa del Sol beaches for a self-guided driving tour along the route of the Pueblos Blancos. This string of clifftop, whitewashed villages stretches from the Moorish town of Arcos de la Frontera through the Sierra de Grazalema to Ronda, a maze of medieval streets perched above a 500-foot gorge. Opt for a stay in nearby Seville — the capital of Andalusia — to take in the beautiful architecture, watch some flamenco dancing, and indulge in classic tapas.

Berlin, Germany

Berlin has Cold War mystique, contemporary architecture, and booming gallery and restaurant scenes. With its cosmopolitan, East-meets-West edginess, it's no wonder the city has become a cultural capital of central Europe. It's a destination that continues to attract creative types and in-the-know travelers. Begin your trip to Berlin in the fashionable Mitte (or "middle") district, as it's convenient to major sites such as the Reichstag and Potsdamer Platz.

Bath and the Cotswolds, England

The charming villages of the Cotswolds look like they're straight out of a fairy tale — Chipping Campden, Stow-on-the-Wold, and Bourton-on-the-Water are among the prettiest. There are inns and pubs sprinkled throughout the little towns, but we'd suggest staying in Bath, a quaint city dating back to the Roman era, for its variety of accommodations. While there, check out the Royal Crescent, Pulteney Bridge, Bath Abbey, and of course, the historic Roman baths. Best of all, Bath is under two hours from London by train, making it an easy weekend trip from the city.

Istanbul, Turkey

Istanbul's major state-run museums may charge hefty admissions, but the Great Palace Mosaic Museum, just behind the Blue Mosque adjacent to the Arasta Bazaar, costs only 60 Turkish lira (that's about $4). These delightful mosaic scenes of hunts, myths, animal battles, and everyday life in antiquity — boys riding a camel, a man milking his goat — once covered the floor of a large courtyard of the Palatium Magnum, the Great Palace built between the time of Constantine the Great himself and Justinian I (fourth to early sixth centuries). You can even cruise between the continents for an affordable price when taking the ferry.

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Take a tour of the architectural masterworks of prodigious local talent Jože Plecnik, who took the Secessionist Art Nouveau style he learned in Vienna back home (via Prague) to remake his native city along his own, idiosyncratic lines. Like Gaudí in Barcelona, Plecnik designed his buildings right down to the smallest fittings, like the Pegasus door handles on the entrance to the National and University Library. Plecnik designed a bit of everything around town, from the central market to the two flanking spans of Ljubljana's iconic Triple Bridge to the café-lined embankments of the Ljubljanica River. The city also has a number of incredible, affordable restaurants, and you can take a public bus (for a small fee) to nearby Lake Bled for a day trip.

The Dalmatian Coast, Croatia

Skip the overexposed island of Hvar for the walled medieval village on the Adriatic island of Korcula, purported home to Marco Polo. Korcula is more of a day-trip destination, and that means the tourist crowds thin considerably by sundown, leaving those who remain to relax in the cafés and stroll the narrow alleys. While every old city in Europe has an Old City historic district, Split has the only downtown actually carved from the carcass of an ancient Roman palace. When the emperor Diocletian left his throne in A.D. 305, he built a lavish palace on the Croatian coast to live out his days as head of the empire's eastern half. In the 1,700 years since, the ruins of his enormous structure have been colonized by the locals, the buildings turned into medieval town houses, and the emperor's tomb transformed into the cathedral.

Paris, France

Want to experience fabulous French cuisine on a budget? Opt for a midday splurge — many cafés and restaurants offer less expensive menus at lunch. And a picnic is always a good idea in Paris. Stop by a market to peruse the (typically) extensive options for cheese and wine, or pick up a simple yet delicious crepe from a stand. If you plan to visit the City of Light's top museums and attractions, you might want to invest in a Paris Museum Pass . For one fee (priced depending on the number of days you purchase), you can gain admission to top tourist spots like the Arc de Triomphe, Sainte-Chapelle, Panthéon, Louvre, Musée Rodin, and more, and you get to skip the ticket line. Talk about a win-win.

County Clare, Ireland

Irjaliina Paavonpera/Travel + Leisure

Avoid the tour bus-clogged Ring of Kerry for its neighbor to the north, County Clare, home to the dramatic Cliffs of Moher rising more than 700 feet from the crashing Atlantic waves; the weirdly eroded limestone landscape of the Burren, where prehistoric slab tombs perch on the rocky flatlands like miniature houses of cards; and Doolin, a blink-and-you'll-miss-it village that has become a popular destination for traditional Celtic music. Local pubs are the perfect evening stop for hearty (and usually affordable) Irish fare and — if you're lucky — live music.

Rome, Italy

Daniel Gorostieta/Travel + Leisure

Rome has more than 900 churches, all of them free, displaying great works of art and architecture by the likes of Raphael, Bernini, Caravaggio, Bramante, and Pinturicchio. And that's just the short list of artists contained in one church — the little-visited Santa Maria del Popolo. Other iconic landmarks, like the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, and Rome's famous piazzas are all free to visit, too, and some museums offer free entry days, so check their websites for details.

Porto, Portugal

Paula Galindo Valle/Travel + Leisure

Portugal's northern city of Porto is among Travel + Leisure readers' favorite European cities, and once you visit, you'll see why. In Porto, visitors can admire the Art Deco architecture, sip port wine, and explore the walkable city on foot without going over budget. Plus, a day trip to the Douro Valley, a picturesque vineyard region along the Douro River, is worth the trek.

Already planning to see the next solar eclipse in 2026? What travelers need to know.

Umbraphiles feeling the post-eclipse blues should start checking the expiration date on their passports.

The next total solar eclipse is set to happen on Aug. 12, 2026, over Greenland, Iceland, Spain, Russia and a small part of Portugal, according to NASA . 

In North America, only a partial eclipse will be visible, so if April’s event made you an eclipse chaser and you want to see totality, you’ll need to head overseas.

Here’s what you’ll need to know before packing your bags:

Do you need a passport or visa for the best destination?

The path of totality for the 2026 eclipse mostly goes through places Americans can travel visa-free with their passport, so long as they’re planning to stay for less than 90 days.

Spain, Portugal, Iceland and Greenland all allow visa-free tourist travel for U.S. passport holders.

Spain, Portugal and Iceland are also members of the Schengen Area, which allows for visa-free travel in much of Europe, meaning if you decide to make a multi-country trip out of your eclipse adventure, you won’t need to clear customs if you’re coming from much of the rest of Europe, either.

One major change for travelers to Europe from the U.S., however, is that electronic preauthorization will become a requirement beginning in mid-2025. The European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) requirement will apply to all four open countries in the path of totality. 

Depending on the state of the Ukraine war, travel to Russia may or may not be an option for most Americans by 2026, so it’s unclear what the paperwork requirements will be by then.

Is it better to see it from the beach?

Beaches can be a great place to see the eclipse because there are few natural obstacles blocking observers’ views of the sky. The 2026 path of totality passes over beaches on Spain’s northern and southeastern coasts, as well as over islands in the Mediterranean Sea including Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza. The eclipse will also pass over coastal areas in Greenland and Iceland, according to the National Solar Observatory . 

Cruising Altitude: What it was like to see the eclipse from a plane

Will there be eclipse cruises or flights?

Almost certainly, although most operators have not announced specific plans yet. 

Cruise lines will also offer more viewing opportunities. Princess Cruises “has created a bespoke itinerary aboard Sky Princess to position the ship near Spain on that date,” according to a spokesperson for the line. The cruise will open for bookings on Princess’s website on May 23.

Cunard Line has sailings on its Queen Mary 2 , Queen Victoria and Queen Anne vessels that will put passengers in prime spots to watch .

'The ship can move': Why you should watch next solar eclipses from a cruise ship

Holland America Line is also planning multiple sailings around the event, though details are still to be announced. “Guests have reacted positively to our 2024 eclipse cruises and with the next full eclipse in 2026 we plan to have three sailings in Europe that will align with the path of the eclipse,” Paul Grigsby, the line's vice president of Deployment & Itinerary Planning, previously told USA TODAY in an email.

The Pilot Who Explores

Travel the world like an Airline Pilot.

How to visit the USA from Europe during COVID-19 travel restrictions

Love across continents : my girlfriend lives in Europe and I live and work in the US. I thought I was in a small minority – until 2020 and the Covid-19 pandemic showed me otherwise. After figuring out the restrictions between the US and Europe and posting about it on my instagram , my inbox became flooded with people asking me how I managed to have my European girlfriend visit me in the United States.

At first, it may seem daunting. How do you enter the United States with a European passport right now? What are the new restrictions for entering the US? Can I fly to the US if I’m not vaccinated?

I’m here to tell you that it IS possible, and it’s actually relatively easy ! Here’s how.

Starting November 8th, vaccinated and pre-flight tested Europeans (and all other foreign nationals) will be able to fly directly to the US

That’s right!

We’ve been waiting on this news for 18 months now. That’s a long time! Families have struggled to find ways to see each other, long distance couples have become super proficient at FaceTime, and tourists have had to cancel their awesome travel plans.

No longer. The EU Ambassador to the US Stavros Lambrindis recently tweeted , “Travel ban lifted! Vaccinated, pre-flight tested Europeans will again be able to travel to the US from November, just as vaccinated Americans are today allowed to travel to the EU.”

According to an official announcement by the White House and now the CDC, the “ban” is lifted starting November 8, 2021 at midnight Eastern Standard Time.

• All foreign nationals must be fully vaccinated to enter the United States, and will need to take a Covid-19 test (nucleic acid amplification tests [NAATs – which includes RT-PCR tests] OR an antigen [rapid] test) within 3 days of departure. Negative results are required to travel.
• There is no required quarantine

Those looking to travel to the United States before November 8 can ! Keep reading for more information.

Update 28.08,21: Added Croatia to the list of accessible countries, updated travel restrictions Update 15.10.21: The ban officially ends November 8!

What does fully vaccinated mean for travel to the United States?

According to the new rules, foreign nationals (non US-citizen and nonimmigrant) must be fully vaccinated to enter the US. You might be wondering what “fully vaccinated” actually means.

For the United States, it generally means:

• 2 weeks after your second dose in a 2-dose series, such as the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, or
• 2 weeks after a single-dose vaccine, such as Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine

Other currently approved vaccines according to the CDC include:

• Astrazeneca/Oxford

You will still have to wait a minimum of 2 weeks after the full vaccine course for those.

Additionally, those with mixed doses of the above approved vaccines will also need to wait two weeks after the full vaccine course, and must have an interval of 17-21 days between first and second doses.

When do I need to take a Covid-19 test prior to travel to the US?

According to the new rules, you must take a Covid-19 viral test within 3 days before a flight’s departur e; not 72 hours.

This is actually a far looser rule than 72 hours. For example, for a flight leaving at 2200 on a Saturday, you could get tested on Wednesday at 8AM and still be “legal”.

What if your flight to the United States is delayed? Luckily, there is a 24-hour provision for your first flight to the US and 48-hours for connecting flights. However, you may have issues alerting your airline to this fact. You can find all the info on the CDC website here . Search for “What happens if my flight is delayed past the…?”

You may be interested in

Before november 8th: the ban on europeans visiting the states is not really a ban.

Although the ban on nonessential travel to Europe (which is ending soon ) actually is a ban, the Presidential Proclamations barring entry for certain kinds of travelers into the United States is NOT.

The Presidential Proclamations simply prohibit all foreign travelers who have been to these countries in the last 14 days from entering the United States.

The 26 countries in the Schengen Area are included on that list, so if you live there, you have two options to get to the United States.

• Travel for essential reasons
• Spend 2 weeks in a country not listed in the Presidential Proclamations, then enter the United States

Where do I need to go before entering the United States?

I’ve actually entered and exited the United States four times in the last year with my European partner. We never had any issues.

One important note is that you CANNOT even transit through any country listed in the Presidential Proclamations on your way to the United States. And you cannot transit through the United States, either. This makes things more complicated.

Here’s our formula for deciding where to go for 2 weeks before entering the US:

• What countries are not listed on the Presidential Proclamations banning travelers from visiting the USA?
• Which countries are you allowed to visit from Europe and don’t require a quarantine period?
• Which countries have direct flights to the US and Europe?

What countries are listed on the Presidential Proclamations?

Right now (8/28/2021), the Presidential Proclamations restrict any foreign nationals who have visited or transited any of these countries in the last 14 days from entering the US:

• European Schengen area (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City)
• United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland)
• Republic of Ireland
• South Africa

It’s important to note that this does not apply to US Citizens or Residents. It’s also important to note that your nationality does not matter, it’s your presence in these countries within the last 14 days that does. This means that you simply need to spend 14 days and nights outside these countries to be able to visit the US (assuming you have a valid US visa or are in the ESTA Visa Waiver Program).

The Presidential Proclamation also states that you cannot transit via any of the above countries . This means you have to visit a country that allows Europeans in AND has direct flights to the US. Luckily, I’ve compiled that below.

Every country you can easily visit from Europe before entering the United States

If you’re looking for an easy solution, you’re in luck.

I’ve extensively researched which countries have flights from Europe AND to the US and what their current travel restrictions and quarantine periods are.

My personal favorite from the list below is Croatia, where I experienced the best 8-day road trip of my life from the north of the country along the insanely gorgeous coast and islands all the way to the south.

• Daily nonstop flights from all over Europe to Dubvronik (DBV), Split, Zagreb, and more
• 3 times weekly service from Dubrovnik (DBV) to New York (JFK) on Delta and Newark (EWR) on United
• Requires either a PCR test (72 hours) Rapid/Antigen test (48 hours), or complete vaccine course. See more here.
• Daily nonstop flights from all over Europe to Cairo (CAI)
• Direct flights from Cairo to New York 4x a week, Washington DC 2x a week on EgyptAir
• Requires a negative PCR test (<72 hours) to enter. See up-to-date restrictions here .
• Daily nonstop flights from all over Europe to Istanbul (IST) on Turkish Airlines and others
• Daily direct flights from Istanbul to New York, many other US cities 4x a week on Turkish Airlines
• Requires a negative PCR test (<72 hours) to enter. Other restrictions may apply .
• Daily nonstop flights from many cities in Europe to Mexico City (MEX) on multiple airlines
• Direct flights daily from many cities in Mexico to all over the US,. Caution: land border to USA is closed
• No testing or quarantine requirements
• Daily nonstop flights from many cities in Europe to Accra (ACC) on multiple airlines
• Daily direct flights from Accra to New York
• Requires a negative PCR test (<72 hours) to enter. See up-to-date info here .
• Daily nonstop flights from many cities in Europe to Dakar (DSS) on multiple airlines
• Direct flights Dakar to New York 3x a week
• Requires a negative Covid test (within 5 days), no quarantine required. See more here .
• Daily nonstop flights from London (LHR) to Bridgetown (BGI) on Virgin Atlantic
• Direct flights Bridgetown to New York 2x a week
• Requires a negative PCR test (within 3 days) and 1-2 or 7 day quarantine (vaccinated vs unvaccinated). More details here .
• Daily nonstop flights from Paris (CDG) and Frankfurt (FRA) to Punta Cana on Air France and Lufthansa
• Multiple daily flights on Delta from Santo Domingo (SDQ), Punta Cana (PUJ), and Santiago (STI) to New York
• Daily nonstop flights from Amsterdam (AMS) to Panama City (PTY) on KLM
• Daily flights to USA on Copa Airlines
• Requires a negative COVID-19 test (PCR) within 72 hours -OR- test on entry for $50. Full details here .

For the ultimate reunion, have your American partner/family/friend spend 2 weeks in one of these awesome countries with you before heading back to the US!

Always keep records of your travels in case you are asked by the United States Customs and Border Patrol .

Related: The Ultimate 2-Month Central America 2021 Itinerary

The perfect itineraries we used to enter the United States in 2020 and 2021 with a European Passport

Here’s an example of crafting an itinerary using the information above. This is exactly the itinerary my partner, Andi, and I took in July.

Step 1: Take a cheap flight down to Egypt:

We flew down to Cairo for just over $200 per person with an awesome 9 hour layover in Athens, Greece.

Step 2: Enjoy a two week vacation exploring an awesome country (or countries!)

We found that exploring Egypt without the hoards of tourists was incredible.

Other itineraries we used to enter the USA with a European passport this past year include:

• an amazing two months across Central America ,
• a quarantine-free Caribbean trip ,
• visiting Peru and Chile

Step 3: Take a Covid test

As per the newest CDC recommendations, the United States requires Covid test (PCR or rapid/antigen) negative results from a test taken within 3 calendar days of entry.

In my experience, this is checked by the ticketing agent of your airline prior to departure to the United States. You will also have to sign a sworn affadavit stating that you meet the health qualifications to enter the United States. I’ve never actually had my Covid-19 documentation checked on arrival into the United States; only before departure.

Step 4: Take a Direct Flight to the US:

The next step is, well, flying to the United States! Just make sure not to transit through any countries listed in the Presidential Proclamations as I explained earlier.

If you’re looking for the cheapest flights, CheapOAir is running a special summer sale giving you another $35 off airfare .

Flying back to Europe from the United States

After visiting the US, you can fly directly back to Europe (assuming you have an EU passport). No loophole needed here.

Just note that every country has their own entry, testing, and quarantine requirements. Some, like Belgium, are more strict. Others, like Croatia , Greece , and Spain are much more liberal.

Flights headed to Europe are selling for significantly cheaper than normal prices. Here’s an example:

The first time we tested the loophole to enter the United States with a European passport

Equipped with this knowledge, Andi and I visited Egypt and spent two weeks in the summer heat (up to 47C/118F) before hopping on a direct flight to Washington D.C. (IAD) last July.

Andi is enrolled in the ESTA Visa Waiver Program, so we confirmed with Customs and Border Patrol as well as ESTA that she would be able to embark on her flight to the US and make it through customs. See the below Q&A from the ESTA Website :

What if I am a passport holder of a Schengen country with a valid ESTA but I have not been present in a Schengen country within 14 days of my travel to the United States?

• Travelers are subject to the Proclamation if they were physically present within the Schengen Area during the 14-day period preceding their entry to the United States. This prohibition necessarily includes direct travel from, and transit through, the Schengen Area within the 14-day period. If you have not been in the Schengen Area during the 14-day period preceding entry, and you are not departing from or transiting through the Schengen Area during your travel to the United States, then you are not subject to the Proclamation.

Since then, Andi has returned to the United States an additional 3 times from Mexico, St. Lucia , and Costa Rica .

Where can I get a PCR test done in Europe?

Some airports in Europe, such as Frankfurt (FRA), provide designated COVID testing sites which can produce results within 2-8 hours, depending on which service you pay for.

We actually used the Covid-19 testing centre in FRA twice – once for entering Europe and once before visiting Egypt. There is usually about a 1-2 hour wait in line at the airport to get tested for the 8 hour/non-rapid test. If you pay extra for the rapid option, that wait in line to get tested is reduced to about 5-10 minutes, followed by a 2-3 hour wait for your results via e-mail.

So, did your love story work out?

Absolutely. Though we were nervous, Andi was able to enter and visit the US with absolutely no issues. It was a complete breeze entering via Customs and Border Patrol at Washington-Dulles International Airport.

The officer only asked the usual questions – how long she’s staying, purpose of her visit, etc. And soon after, I was able to take her flying with me!!!

View this post on Instagram You know that feeling of true accomplishment, the one you only get a few times in your lifetime? That’s how I felt when I brought my love, Andi (@destinationchaser) along flying with me. It had been a long time coming. In May, when I managed to get into Austria (where Andi lives) to see her, the idea of bringing her into the states, despite these insane COVID restrictions on the Schengen area, came into mind. With my potential furlough date of October 1st coming up, I knew I wanted, I HAD to fly her, and soon. A few phone calls to some embassies and US Customs/Border Patrol later, we came up with the plan to spend 2 weeks in Egypt and take a direct flight to Washington from there. For the first time in years, I even bought airplane tickets. You can say it’s true love. 😜 The culmination of all of this is that my two loves got to meet each other. Not something most people can say. 😉 I got to fly Andi on her birthday, made a baller PA embarrassing her in front of all the passengers, then greased the landing. It was a pretty. good. trip. 😊 P.S. If you wanna read more about travel restrictions and getting between Europe and the US, read my blog at www.ThePilotWhoExplores.com A post shared by Pilot Pierre 🛫 (@thepilotwhoexplores) on Sep 20, 2020 at 1:06pm PDT

I know how exciting it is to KNOW you can see your loved ones. Go ahead and enjoy your trip! As they say, life is an adventure.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with further questions or success stories.

Share this:

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How to Transit in Europe During COVID-19 Travel Restrictions

great article, thanks! When I saw Dominican Republic in your list I started wondering… what about Puerto Rico?

No worries. Puerto Rico is wide open!

Hi, my boyfriend and I are trying to enter the USA. I’m American and he’s South African. We spent 14 days in Mexico (departed SA on a Friday, arrived in Mexico the next day, Saturday, and then two weeks later on a Saturday, attempted to fly to the US). He was denied boarding because he’s from South Africa, though he has a valid US B1/B2 visa. They claimed he needed 15 days in Mexico. When your girlfriend visited you in the US, do you remember what counted as 14 days outside of a variant country? Any insight from your own experience would be deeply appreciated!

Hi Bianca, apologies for the late reply. They consider this as 14 days AND nights.

I am planning on going to croatia for 2 weeks and then to the USA – I hold a norwegian passport. Will I need an ESTA or something whenever entering the USA?

Yes, you’ll need an ESTA or B1/2 visa. This works, but make sure to keep records of everything – and stay 14 nights.

Great article thank you for the info 🙂

If I travel to Istanbul from Norway for 14 days and nights, and take a direct flight from Istanbul to New york then New York to Nashville is that a possibility sir? Or am I not allowed to transit thru America

Yes, that is totally fine!

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59 European Places You NEED To Visit In Your Lifetime

Posted: December 15, 2023 | Last updated: December 15, 2023

Europe's unmissable sights

For such a small continent, Europe certainly punches above its weight. There are countless things to see, do, eat, learn and admire here – from historic neighborhoods to natural wonders. Read on to discover 59 European places you should definitely add to your bucket list.

Go on a polar adventure in Svalbard, Norway

Svalbard is the final frontier before the North Pole and one of the world's northernmost inhabited areas. A place of dramatic landscapes, it’s perfect for observing the mesmerizing Northern Lights throughout winter, while summers bring perennial sunlight. As one of Europe’s last true wildernesses, it’s also great for spotting Arctic foxes and polar bears.

Visit Santa Claus Village in Lapland, Finland

Located in Rovaniemi in the Arctic Circle, the Santa Claus Village is the “official residence” of Santa and his helpers. Visit the post office and write your wishlist, or stop by the Santa Claus office to meet the mythical man himself. With its Christmassy shops, snow hotel and a year-round festive atmosphere, even adults will believe in the magic.

See the chateaux of the Loire, France

More than 300 castles are dotted throughout the Loire Valley, and many of them are open to the public. Don’t miss the chance to visit one of the most exquisite: the 16th-century Chateau de Chenonceau. If you come to this picturesque region during the summer, you'll catch the captivating sound-and-light shows put on at many of the chateaux.

Hike in England’s Lake District, UK

Lace up your hiking boots and discover how the beauty of the Lake District – a UNESCO World Heritage Site – inspired William Wordsworth to write his sublime poetry. Follow in the footsteps of Alfred Wainwright, the intrepid hiker whose Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells is still required reading more than 70 years after he first started writing it. Whether you walk his signature routes or blaze your own trail, the majesty of the Cumbrian countryside won't fail to blow you away. Don't miss Bassenthwaite, Wastwater and Derwentwater, some of the prettiest lakes in the national park.

Climb the Three Towers in San Marino

Looming high above one of Europe’s smallest countries, the Three Towers are located on a trio of Monte Titano's peaks and used to serve as fortification during medieval times. Today only two towers are open to the public; when you reach the top of the highest tower, the Guaita fortress, you’ll be enchanted by sweeping views in all directions. San Marino is surrounded entirely by Italy and doesn't have its own airport or train station, so the Italian city of Rimini is your gateway to this elusive microstate.

Take a road trip in Iceland

For an unforgettable road trip, tackle some or part of the 828 miles that make up Iceland’s Ring Road. Leave at least 10 days to get to know some of the country’s most scenic spots. You'll go right past the huge blue-and-white expanse of the Jokulsarlon glacier lagoon, as well as the Seljalandsfoss waterfall, whose thundering cascade you can walk behind – just remember to pack your waterproofs.

Explore Andalucia's white villages, Spain

For a break from the beach crowds along the Costa del Sol, head into the mountainous countryside of Andalucia. Take a tour of the interior’s white villages, called pueblos blancos. One of the prettiest is Zahara de la Sierra, which overlooks a giant reservoir and features the remains of a Moorish fortress clinging to the mountainside.

Get musical in ABBA the Museum, Stockholm, Sweden

Fans of Sweden’s most famous musical exports can find out how Agnetha, Anni-Frid, Bjorn and Benny rose to fame in this fun museum. Listen to the fab foursome's memories of how they put Swedish pop music on the map, and see how you would look in their fantastically spangly costumes. Singing and dancing aren’t obligatory, but hard to avoid.

Hit the slopes in Grandvalira, Andorra

Feast on khinkali in Tbilisi, Georgia

Originating from the Caucasus mountain regions, khinkali are filled dumplings that you’ll find in every traditional Georgian kitchen. Most commonly they’re filled with a mix of spiced beef and pork mince with fried onions, but the fillings can range from mushrooms to various combinations of different vegetables. You'll find some of the best in Georgia's capital Tbilisi, at joints like Cafe Daphna and Amo Rame Bani. Eat the khinkali with your hands and try to slurp up the hearty broth inside without spilling a drop.

Relax in the Luxembourg Gardens of Paris, France

Pull up a green chair and chill out in one of Paris ’ most elegant green spaces. Kids will love racing toy boats on the ornamental pond in front of the 17th-century Luxembourg Palace. Stroll through woods and past elaborate fountains and elegant statues. Play a round of tennis if you're feeling active – if not, exercise the brain with a game of chess.

Visit Lisbon’s Bairro Alto, Portugal

Portugal’s capital has an enchanting old town, filled with cobbled streets and vintage trams that trundle through its historic quarter. Lisbon ’s layout harks back to its Moorish past, with narrow lanes and twisting alleyways. The old town is one of the liveliest parts of the city, with plenty of restaurants and bars where you can listen to the haunting sounds of fado, Portugal's Unesco-inscribed traditional music.

Hike along the Princes’ Way, Liechtenstein

Visit Rome's Pantheon, Italy

Rome is full of ruins, but the wondrous construction that is the Pantheon has been standing intact since AD 128. You can’t help but marvel at the coffered dome and its oculus that lets the light (and rain) in. It's one of Rome's most beautiful buildings, having started life as a Roman temple before becoming a Catholic basilica. As of July 2023, you have to pay for a ticket to peek inside – look out for the tombs of two Italian kings, Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I.

Explore Bergen, Norway

Norway’s second-largest city is in a breathtaking location surrounded by seven towering mountains and impossibly deep fjords. Stroll along Bergen's old wharf past brightly colored wooden houses, and hop on a ferry for a tour of the fjords. A visit to the fish market will whet your appetite for fresh seafood in the city's waterside restaurants.

Listen to live music in Galway, Ireland

Take a ride in Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens, Denmark

Flop on western Algarve beaches, Portugal

You’ll find some of Portugal’s best beaches along this western strip of the Atlantic coast. Look out for Praia do Martinhal, one of the region’s most appealing beaches. It's one of the gentlest, as it's sheltered from the full force of the Atlantic's waves by the promontory at Sagres. It's only 90 minutes from the nearest airport at Faro, but it's a world away from the busier resorts of the eastern Algarve.

Ride a pedal boat through Amsterdam, Netherlands

Take the train from Koblenz to Mainz, Germany

Taste the tapas of San Sebastian, Spain

This northern Spanish city is famed for its delicious tapas – known as pintxos in the local Basque language. Take a slow bar crawl through the old town, nibbling these morsels of ham, seafood, cheese or olives along the way. They're either on bits of bread or on toothpicks, which you then tot up to find out how much to pay. Don't miss the Playa de la Concha, one of the loveliest city beaches in Europe.

Visit Bruges’ offbeat museums, Belgium

Three of Belgium’s most prized products – fries, chocolate and beer – get their own museum. At the Bruges Beer Experience, reward yourself with a craft brew in the museum's taproom after taking a tour. At Choco-Story, you'll discover the fascinating history of chocolate and see how it's made. And as you wander through the Frietmuseum, the smell of fried potatoes will eventually lead your nose to the museum's cafe.

See Berlin’s East Side Gallery, Germany

There isn’t much left of the Berlin Wall, but there’s a stretch in old East Berlin that's become the longest open-air gallery in the world and shouldn’t be missed. Check out the graffiti and street art mocking just about everything from politics to industrialisation. It's right on the edge of Kreuzberg, still one of Berlin's hippest districts after all these years.

Catch the best view of Venice, Italy

Leave the crowds of Piazza San Marco behind and hop on a vaporetto (water bus) to the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. The church’s bell tower (currently closed for maintenance) typically allows you to see the best views of Venice – and there’s even a lift to the top. Elsewhere, use the vaporetto to explore some of Venice's lesser-known districts, including Giudecca and the studenty part of Dorsoduro.

Go shopping in Monte Carlo’s Carre d’Or, Monaco

Watch Prague’s astronomical clock, Czechia

For more than 600 years, this mechanical marvel by Prague’s Old Town Hall has been putting on a performance every hour. Watch the procession of Apostles and statues as they mark each hour in mesmerizing style. You can catch it every hour on the hour from 9am until 11pm. While you're there, don't miss a visit to the dazzling interior of the Old Town Hall, a complex of several Gothic buildings.

Visit Riga’s old town, Latvia

Latvia’s capital is a pleasure to explore, particularly Riga’s old town on the Daugava River’s eastern side. Walk along cobbled streets admiring the magnificent medieval and Baroque architecture before taking in the views from the top of St Peter’s Church tower. Because the tower soars to 425 feet, you'll have splendid vistas of the old town's crenelated roofs, the historic zeppelin hangars that now house Riga Central Market and the uber-modern National Library of Latvia across the water.

Soak in Budapest’s spas, Hungary

Explore Kazimierz Jewish Quarter in Krakow, Poland

Go hiking in the Tatra Mountains, Slovakia

The Tatra Mountains form a natural border between Slovakia and Poland, and feature more than 90 lakes and 35 valleys. Keen hikers can join a hut-to-hut guided tour and keep an eye out for wildlife, including lynx and bears. The town of Poprad is a handy starting point for guided or self-guided walks, as it's right by Tatry-Poprad airport.

See the art in London's National Gallery, England, UK

It’s one of the world’s finest art galleries – and as it’s free, it’s one of London ’s best bargains. The National Gallery’s huge collection covers everything from 13th-century paintings to works from the early 20th century. Among the 2,300-odd artworks are some of the world's best-known paintings, including Van Gogh's Sunflowers and Van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait.

Stop for a coffee in Vienna’s coffeehouses, Austria

Visit the Acropolis in Athens, Greece

Enjoy Ljubljana’s riverside cafes, Slovenia

Slovenia’s capital is one of the most visually appealing in Europe; a harmonious blend of Baroque and Art Nouveau architecture – not to mention an attractive string of cafes and bars along the Ljubljanica River. Some of the bars suit certain times of the day: for example, the ones along Petkovskovo nabrezje are the buzziest at happy hour. On hot summer days, head south to the large grassy area of Spica.

Eat oysters in Mali Ston, Croatia

Take a boat ride on Loch Lomond, Scotland, UK

Get the best view of Loch Lomond from the vantage point of a boat – anything as simple as a pedal boat to a large speedboat with its own skipper. Stop for a walk on a lake island or a lochside village. Loch Lomond forms part of the Trossachs National Park, the place to "bag some Munros" – walk up a Scottish mountain that's higher than 3,000 feet. You've got 21 here to choose from. Alternatively, explore Scotland by cruise ship – its coastline and islands make for an epic seafaring adventure.

Visit Kotor, Montenegro

Visit the old town of Vilnius, Lithuania

Allow plenty of time to explore the fascinating old town of Vilnius – it’s one of the largest intact medieval old towns in Europe, an enchanting mishmash of all sorts of architectural styles, from Gothic to Neoclassical. But Baroque is the king here, including the imposing 17th-century St Casimir's Church. For superb views, climb the 193 wooden steps to the top of St John's Church bell tower.

Lose yourself in Sarajevo’s Ottoman Quarter, Bosnia-Herzegovina

The Ottomans founded Sarajevo in the 15th century, and you can still see the strong Turkish legacy in the Bosnian capital’s old Bascarsija quarter. It’s like a mini Istanbul, with souk-like stalls squeezed in among cafes and silversmiths and coppersmiths working their metals in tiny workshops. You'll spot their little coffee pots in cafes, whose Turkish coffee – called bosanska kava – will keep you going for hours.

Ride a boat through Gothenburg’s waterways, Sweden

Visit Beyoglu in Istanbul, Turkey

Once you’ve seen Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and Istanbul’s other landmarks in Sultanahmet, head across the Golden Horn to Beyoglu. The district's Istiklal Street is one of the liveliest and most cosmopolitan in the city. Check out the little side alleyways where jazz clubs lurk in spaces hardly larger than cubbyholes.

Come to Lake Bled, Slovenia

Slovenia's Lake Bled really does look like something out of a fairy tale. There’s even a medieval castle perched atop the lakeside cliffs. Rising from an islet in the centre of the lake is the Baroque-style Church of the Assumption and its striking bell tower. Once you ride to the island on a wooden boat called a pletna, tradition has it that you should climb the 99 stone steps to the top of the church tower and ring the bell yourself.

Visit Symi, Greece

It’s hard to choose among Greece’s 227 inhabited islands, but if you have to pick one, go for Symi. This small Dodecanese island has one of the prettiest ports, a riot of colorful houses tumbling to the water’s edge – not to mention excellent beaches. On the days when it's too hot to hike to the beach, just take a water taxi from Symi harbor.

Explore Kato Paphos Archaeological Park, Cyprus

Join the party on Belgrade’s floating nightclubs, Serbia

Explore Gozo's Ggantija Temples, Malta

Visit Zermatt and the Matterhorn, Switzerland

Explore Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Walk across the Stari Most of Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Wander through Keukenhof Gardens, Netherlands

Prepare to be dazzled by the extraordinary Keukenhof. More than seven million tulips and other brightly colored flowers spread across this sprawling garden that’s only about an hour from Amsterdam. But you'll have to time your visit carefully – because it's a celebration of spring flowers, the park is open only from March to May. 

Discover Ohrid, North Macedonia

Head to Snowdonia, Wales, UK

The biggest mountain in Wales and England stands at a whopping 3,650 feet, but there are many ways of exploring Snowdonia National Park without hardcore hiking. Its footpaths suit all levels – or you can just take the Snowdon Mountain Railway to the summit. But it's not just mountains here – the park includes nearly 200 miles of seashore, with sandy beaches and sheltered coves.

Explore Berat, Albania

Wander through Tallinn’s old town, Estonia

Stroll along Varna’s Black Sea waterfront, Bulgaria

Urbane Varna stands out from Bulgaria’s Black Sea beach towns as it’s a port city and naval base as well as a resort. There’s plenty of room along its waterfront promenade for sunbathing, as well as a large selection of bars and restaurants. Afterwards, you can cool off in the lushness of the 19th-century Primorski Park.

Walk along Dubrovnik’s city walls, Croatia

Allow at least two hours for a wander around the medieval and Renaissance fortifications circling Dubrovnik’s cookie-colored old town. Get a snapshot of Dubrovnik life as you walk past courtyard gardens, laundry-lined balconies and terracotta rooftops. The walls are extremely popular with cruise-ship crowds that descend in their thousands, so try to time your visit for as early in the morning or as late in the afternoon as possible. A ticket for the city walls will also grant you access to Fort Lovrijenac, across the bay from the historic centre.

Spend a weekend in Dresden, Germany

Located near the German border with Czechia, Dresden has collected its fair share of nicknames over the years, including Florence on the Elbe and the Jewel Box. The world almost lost it forever during the Second World War, when it was bombed into near-oblivion. But this dazzling Saxon city has since been reborn and is full of world-class museums, lavish palaces, onion-domed churches and arty hotspots ready to welcome discerning visitors.

Get back to nature in the Faroe Islands, Denmark

Learn Belfast’s nautical history, Northern Ireland, UK

The story of the Northern Irish capital is inextricably linked to that of the world’s most tragic ocean liner. Built on Belfast’s slipways, the RMS Titanic began life here before sailing into Southampton for that ill-fated maiden voyage. Today, the waterfront Titanic Quarter of the city exists to further connect the dots of this maritime history, featuring unmissable maritime-themed attractions like the immersive Titanic Belfast museum.

Now discover the story of Titanic's lesser-known sister ship

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Want to see the next total solar eclipse in 2026? An expert recommends booking travel now.

• 2026 will be Europe's first total solar eclipse in 27 years.
• Travelers worldwide will likely head to Spain, Iceland, and Greenland for the event.
• A hotel expert encouraged travelers to start planning and booking their trips now.

It'll be two decades before the next total solar eclipse hits the US .

Another option: hop on a plane to Europe and turn the 2026 total solar eclipse into a viewing vacation.

Eclipse cartographer Michael Zeiler at GreatAmericanEclipse.com told Space.com that up to 3.7 million people likely traveled for the solar eclipse on Monday.

HotelPlanner's chief communication officer, Philip Ballard, told Business Insider that the eclipse was a major revenue generator for many cities. For places like Austin, Texas, and Rochester, New York, it could have created $1 billion in revenue, Vox reported.

"I would say the total solar eclipse has become a global phenomenon," Ballard said.

Ballard added that the next solar eclipse , which will pass through Iceland, Greenland, and Spain on August 12, 2026, could result in similar tourism and revenue influxes.

And if travelers are considering a trip to Europe for the solar eclipse, Ballard recommends planning your trip now.

Determine your eclipse viewing destination

According to Space.com , 2026 will be Europe's first total solar eclipse in 27 years. Its path will go through Greenland, parts of western Iceland, and northern Spain.

Choosing where to watch the eclipse will be a tough and important decision for travelers.

Iceland and Greenland have some positives. These regions will experience longer totality times, so viewers can watch the eclipse longer. Plus, the sun will be higher in the sky, so finding a spot to watch the eclipse will be less challenging, Space.com reported.

The downside is that these regions are more likely to be cloudy, according to the outlet.

Related stories

While parts of Spain are likely to offer clearer skies, the eclipse's timing will be shorter and closer to the horizon, which means travelers will need to plan and track down a viewing location with unobstructed views of the western horizon, Space.com reported.

Regardless of the destination, according to the outlet, one bonus is that the strongest meteor shower in the Northern Hemisphere will happen the following night, so travelers can pack two events into one trip.

Book flights and hotels far in advance

Ballard encouraged people to book their hotels in their destination of choice as far in advance as possible.

"You should start looking now and booking hotels now because those cities in the path are already going to be at peak season," Ballard said.

Ballard said it's similar to when a Super Bowl city is determined or a Taylor Swift tour date is announced — you immediately see spikes in bookings. He predicts hotel occupancy rates will hit near-record highs, and room prices may double around the solar eclipse date.

Ballard's general rule of thumb is to book international travel at least three months in advance, but since this is such an anticipated event, booking earlier is smart. His advice is to start discussing plans with friends and family. If you decide on a destination, book a refundable room to keep your options open if plans change.

Regarding purchasing a plane ticket, a study from Expedia states that international travel's sweet spot is at least six months in advance.

According to Expedia, travelers who book six months in advance save an average of 10% more than travelers booking within two months or less.

Skip the hassle of planning altogether and book a solar eclipse tour

Another option is to let a tour operator do the work for you. A handful of tour companies have seen the increased interest in the solar eclipse and launched tours designed around the event.

These tours will have predetermined locations to view the eclipse, hotel blocks reserved, and itineraries highlighting both the region and the eclipse.

However, these can sell out quickly. For example, Space and Telescope created an 11-day tour of Spain around viewing the 2026 solar eclipse. The tour has already sold out as of Wednesday, and the waitlist is full.

Other operators, such as Wilderness Travel and Eclipse Traveler, have similar itineraries for the total eclipse in 2026.

Watch: A small Australian town was treated to a rare hybrid solar eclipse

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is on a five-day visit to China

Devan Schwartz

Leila Fadel

NPR's Leila Fadel talks to Mary Lovely, senior fellow with the Peterson Institute for International Economics, about Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's visit to China.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is finishing a trip to China, where she's managed to become a favorite on Chinese social media. Posts with the secretary masterfully using chopsticks have been viewed millions of times there. But has the secretary's popularity online translated to success for the actual purpose of her trip, trade talks? For more on Yellen's visit and relations between the world's two largest economies, we're joined by Mary Lovely. She's a senior fellow with the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Good morning, Mary.

MARY LOVELY: Good morning.

FADEL: Thanks for being on the program. So there are a lot of competing U.S. and Chinese interests over goods like electric vehicles, solar panels, as well as national security concerns related to the economy. So I want to start with listening to what Yellen said to the Chinese premier, Li Qiang, yesterday.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JANET YELLEN: I believe that, over the past year, we've put our bilateral relationship on a more stable footing.

FADEL: Mary, does that strike you as true, and does Yellen's trip further destabilize the relationship?

LOVELY: Well, that's an interesting question. I believe it is true that the U.S. and China talking at the highest levels of government is extremely important to not just stabilizing the relationship, but trying to reduce conflict, so I think it's important. It doesn't mean that many problems have been solved. It's an attempt by both sides to begin to solve some problems, I think. And has her trip destabilized it? No, I don't see that it has.

FADEL: Were there any breakthroughs with this trip?

LOVELY: Well, I think the mission is - was not so much to have a breakthrough as to warn the Chinese. It seems as though the Biden administration is teeing up more trade restrictions against China. And in particular, we're talking about so-called new energy products - EVs, solar panels, batteries. And there might have been some attempt to, you know, negotiate with the Chinese to get them to restrain, in some way, their exports, but it doesn't seem like anything like that has happened. So it can be seen as an attempt by the administration to avoid tariffs and settle this in a different way.

FADEL: Now, Yellen went to China with a big message, which is that China is overproducing and flooding the market with cheap products, as the administration puts it, and that hurts local production here. How was that message received on her trip?

LOVELY: Well, China has admitted that it has a problem with overcapacity, certainly in the past on steel and cement. And more recently, it was discussed at the work program last December. So at the highest levels of the Chinese Communist Party, they have admitted that there are - overcapacity.

I think where the Chinese and the U.S. most clearly disagree is in electric vehicles. China has become a strong exporter of those vehicles, as is - Europe. The U.S. is far behind, exporting about a tenth of what China and the United - and Europe export each month. But these EVs are, in some sense, a threat to the future. So as the Biden administration and the United States in general has invested in transitioning its auto sector toward EVs, it's important that those, you know, green shoots have a chance to take off.

And there's a fear that Chinese companies lack the basic profit-based motive of when they build too much, inventory builds up, they pull back production. Instead, as we've seen in other industries in the past, China keeps pumping out more product.

FADEL: Really quickly, before I let you go, Yellen's making this visit right before a presidential election, meaning they - China might not be see - dealing with the same man soon or could be dealing with the same man. Does that affect her trip?

LOVELY: Yes, I think it does. I think the Chinese don't really know, if they cut a deal, if it will hold. President Trump has certainly argued for much more draconian restrictions against China.

FADEL: That's Mary Lovely, a senior fellow with the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Thank you so much.

LOVELY: You're welcome.

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‘We would not survive without coffee’: how rules made in Europe put Ethiopian farmers at risk

Coffee is the country’s biggest export, but millions of smallholders are being asked to provide paperwork to prove their land is not deforested

T he first white flowers are starting to appear on the branches of Habtamu Wolde’s coffee bushes in the Kafa region of southwest Ethiopia . They will bloom several more times before turning into round red cherries ready for harvesting in October. Then they will be prepared for export and shipped to the capital.

“Our coffee is iconic, you cannot find a higher grade,” boasts Habtamu. Coffee is more than a drink in Kafa. This region claims to be the birthplace of Arabica coffee, which grows naturally in its temperate cloud forests. The plant is at the centre of daily life and the people’s main source of income.

“Coffee is part of the Kafa people’s identity,” says Habtamu, from his eight-hectare (20-acre) plantation. “We would not survive without it.”

Coffee is Ethiopia’s biggest export – comprising about a third of export earnings – and the main source of foreign currency. The European Union is the biggest market , taking more than 30% of Ethiopia’s beans. In Kafa, 80% of the beans produced go to Germany.

Across Ethiopia, 5 million smallholders depend on growing coffee. Another 10 million workers wash, process and transport the beans. The industry has boomed in recent years, helping drive Ethiopia’s economic growth. But producers say it is at risk from new European legislation – the EU Regulation on Deforestation-free Products (EUDR) – due to come into force in 2025.

The EUDR bans the sale of coffee, rubber, cocoa and other products if companies cannot prove that it did not come from deforested land. Environmentalists have hailed it as an historic achievement .

Yet Ethiopia’s coffee industry claims the new rules are unfair since almost all Ethiopia’s coffee is grown by poor farmers who own small plots of land and lack the expertise to gather the complex data needed to show compliance.

“The EUDR changes everything,” says Abebe Megnecto, the manager of Kafa’s coffee union, which represents 13,676 local farmers. “Meeting the criteria requires a lot of technology and manpower that we simply don’t have.”

Abebe and other Ethiopian coffee officials argue that their beans are more sustainable than those from other big producers, such as Brazil, where most coffee plantations are vast monocultures cut from the jungle, sustained by fertiliser and devoid of trees.

By contrast, Ethiopia’s coffee farming relies on maintaining forests and the shade they provide, which protects coffee plants from the heat. The beans are grown by smallholders who on average cultivate less than two hectares of land. Abebe says: “Our way of growing coffee is far less damaging.”

Nonetheless, orders are already slowing from European buyers, who face fines of up to 4% of their turnover if they bring non-compliant products into the EU.

“Buyers are hesitating to buy our coffee because they are not confident we can demonstrate compliance,” says Tsegaye Anebo, manager of the coffee farmers union in Sidama, about 150 miles east of Kafa. “We are thinking of diversifying to other markets, but that will take years. It’s not simple.”

Felix Ahlers, founder of Solino, a German company that imports 200 tonnes of roasted Ethiopian beans a year, says its business model could become unsustainable.

“At the moment we don’t have a solution,” he says. “We’re hoping we’ll find one, but it’s not clear how we can keep importing.”

Few farmers in Kafa have even heard of EUDR. But they are confident they would comply given the chance.

“We are not destroying the forest, because we know growing coffee without the forest is impossible,” says Habtamu.

The coffee plants on his farm are interspersed with towering fig trees, poplars and palms, as well as wild pepper and cardamom. Habtamu estimates he has planted 2,000 trees over the past three decades to create shade for coffee plants on degraded land previously used to grow maize or graze cows.

Many farmers in Kafa support anti-deforestation rules. Mekonnen Utta, 76, who owns a 1.5-hectare (3.5-acre) farm that yields about 10,000 Ethiopian birr (£140) of coffee each year – his only source of income – says: “We need the forest, not just for our incomes, but for our health. If these rules protect the forest, that’s good, but everyone should be made aware of them so they can comply.”

There are fears the cost of compliance could make Ethiopia’s coffee uncompetitive due to its heavy reliance on smallholders. The country’s supply chains are fragmented, involving several brokers, and a single shipment of coffee to Europe can include beans from thousands of farmers.

“In places like Brazil it’s easy to drive around on a quad bike and gather the data needed for EUDR,” says an executive at a large trading company importing Ethiopian coffee to Europe. “In Ethiopia, you would need to map all these very small farms individually. That’s going to be incredibly expensive.”

Even though the EUDR resembles a “bit of a sledgehammer”, the move away from voluntary eco-friendly schemes to compulsory regulations is still positive, says Mike Senior, of Proforest. Products consumed by the EU cause about 10% of global deforestation .

Even in Kafa, where the forests are vital to the local economy, trees are being cut to make way for coffee plants, says Asaye Alemayehu, the local office head of Nabu, a German environmental group.

That is because coffee is being planted in pristine patches of forest, not just old pasture land. “You need to cut down about 70% of the trees to let enough light in for the coffee plants,” says Asaye. “If you have 100% coverage, they’re not productive.”

An EU spokesperson said extensive consultations were held before EUDR’s introduction and that support is on offer for smallholders. Nonetheless, Ethiopia is asking for more time. Cocoa producers in Ghana and Ivory Coast and palm-oil-producing Indonesia also want a delay.

“This coffee helps build schools, health centres, roads,” says Abebe from the Kafa coffee union. “Without the European market, we will lose all of this.”

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State of Grocery Europe 2024: Signs of Hope

For the European grocery industry, 2023 was a challenging year. Inflation led consumers to tighten their belts, leading to a drop in volume and significant downtrading. As a result, industry growth was significantly below food price inflation. Food price inflation in Europe was 12.8 percent in 2023, 1 Based on Eurostat data, January 2024. while grocery sales grew at a rate of only 8.6 percent. 2 Based on Europanel data. Discounters and private labels benefited from this market environment and were yet again the winners of the year.

In 2024, we expect macroeconomic uncertainty to persist, but at the same time, our research indicates the first small signs of recovery. The pressure on margins, costs, and prices remains a key concern for grocery retail CEOs, but leaders are less pessimistic than they were in previous years. In addition, thanks to initial signs of economic recovery and wage increases in many countries, consumer confidence is returning. Still, our consumer research shows that recovery of consumer behavior is very polarized for 2024. While most consumer segments are still price sensitive and trading down, some segments show an increased appetite for uptrading and innovations.

2023: Again all about price

Grocery sales in Europe 3 Includes Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. grew by 8.6 percent in 2023. This growth was a result of 12.8 percent food price inflation, a downtrading effect of 1.8 percent, and a 2.0 percent volume decline. This implies that grocery sales in real terms (that is, adjusted for inflation) declined again in 2023 and are now 4.5 percent below 2019 levels. This decrease from 2019 is driven by a small volume increase of 0.3 percent and a decline of the price per item in real terms by 4.8 percent.

About the authors

While inflation eased significantly over the course of 2023, it was still the dominant factor affecting the industry. Overall inflation came down from a historic high of 10 percent in October 2022 to a stable 3 percent at the end of 2023. European food price inflation was even higher, reaching a 19.0 percent peak in March 2023 and an average of 12.8 percent for the full year. Producer prices in the European Union started to decline in early 2023, following agricultural prices with a delay of six months. Food prices for consumers saw minimal decline at the time, in part because grocery retailers’ price contracts with suppliers remain in effect and labor costs increased significantly. 4 Eurostat, January 2024.

Real wages were compressed during 2022 and most of 2023. This has put severe pressure on many household budgets and curbed consumer purchasing power. Wage increases of 6.3 percent in the EU-27 in the second half of 2023 brought some relief for consumers, but not all countries returned to 2019 wage levels in real terms. For instance, real wages are still below 2019 levels in France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. On average, real wages in the EU-27 were 1.2 percentage points below 2019 levels at the end of 2023. 5 Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), January 2024.

As a result, consumers traded down significantly in 2023, and private labels and discounters benefited. The private label share increased substantially by 1.8 percentage points, to 38.0 percent of sales in 2023 from 36.2 in 2022. Discounters gained another 0.8 percentage points in market share on average, and at least 1.0 percentage point in Belgium, Germany, Poland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The overall market share of supermarkets remained stable at 37.2 percent in Europe. Supermarkets in Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain found strategies to succeed despite high price pressure and even achieved market share increases of 0.5 to 0.8 percentage points. Online sales remained stable at 6 percent of total grocery sales, with significant differences among countries. France had the highest online gain with 0.5 percentage points, while the online channel lost market share in Sweden (–1.2 percentage points), the United Kingdom (–0.7), and Italy (–0.5), as well as in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Portugal (–0.2). 6 Europanel, March 2024.

With inflation easing toward the end of the year, the development of the grocery market also improved. Downtrading and declines in volume slowed from quarter to quarter and came close to zero in the fourth quarter of 2023 (Exhibit 1).

2024: Signs of hope?

Our data shows signs of hope for 2024. While the first few months of 2024 may still be challenging as the economy contends with the aftereffects of high inflation, the fundamentals are slowly improving. Overall inflation is expected to stabilize around 2 percent, with food inflation slightly below in the short to medium term. Real wages are expected to grow. Grocery volume stopped decreasing toward the end of 2023 and even started to increase in some markets. In addition, in our survey, consumers tell us that they plan to trade down less than they did in 2023, and a few consumer groups even intend to start trading up again (Exhibit 2). If this trend holds, we expect grocery volume in Europe to return to growth in the second half of 2024.

Our data also shows large differences among countries and consumer segments. In some countries, including Germany, consumers report a strong intention to reduce downtrading and to start trading up again selectively. In other markets, consumers are still less optimistic about the future (for example, in Italy and Switzerland). We therefore expect market performance in Europe in 2024 to be quite heterogenous, with significant differences between countries. We expect the same to be true for consumer segments. For example, low-income households are still trading down, while high-income households intend to trade up again on specific occasions or in selected categories.

Grocery CEOs remain concerned—although less so than last year. Seventy-six percent of European grocery retail CEOs in our survey remain concerned about challenging market conditions (Exhibit 3). Thirty-six percent expect market conditions to become worse than in the prior year (down from 44 percent in 2023 and 60 percent in 2022), while 40 percent expect them to remain the same (up from 33 percent in 2023). CEOs are particularly concerned about prices and inflation. That said, CEOs in Central and Eastern Europe are somewhat less pessimistic than their peers in Western Europe. Only 29 percent of Central and Eastern European CEOs expect market conditions to become worse, compared with 50 percent in Western Europe.

The 2024 grocery CEO agenda remains similar to last year’s. Increased margin pressure and downtrading take the top two positions again, well ahead of other priorities (Exhibit 4). However, four priorities gained between seven and 12 ranks compared to last year: talent, food to go, government regulations, and loyalty programs.

Based on our CEO and consumer surveys and further research, we identified eight trends that we believe will shape the grocery industry in 2024. Some of the trends build on last year’s, while others are new and will shape the strategies required to win in the grocery industry in the coming years (see “ Key Trends ”).

1. Cost and margin pressure

The profitability of grocers declined further in 2023, and the pressure will not go away in 2024.

Margins decreased for both grocery retailers and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies between 2019 and 2022. While grocery retailers lost 0.4 percentage points of EBITDA margin in that period, CPG companies lost 1.3 p­oints. However, 2023 followed a different trajectory. Retailers were losing another 0.3 percentage points because of additional cost increases, while CPG ­companies gained back 0.8 percentage points as they passed their cost increases on to retailers (Exhibit 5).

In 2024, grocery retailers will continue to feel margin pressure. The main driver in 2024 is rising rent and labor costs. According to our CEO survey, cost and margin pressure is a top three priority for 70 percent of CEOs (compared with 67 percent last year).

To improve their margins, retailers are expected to intensify supplier negotiations, buying-alliance activity, and consolidation efforts in 2024. In 2023, we saw intense supplier negotiations during which some leading products were temporarily not available in stores. This year we expect to see even more intense negotiations. Buying alliances are gaining strength, and selected new ones are emerging—such as the recently announced partnership between Auchan and Intermarché. “This will be a real game changer,” Auchan CEO Yves Claude told us during an interview (see “ A growth journey toward green and local” ). Meanwhile, M&A activity is expected to stay high as retailers seek economies of scale, building on the 2023 record of 21 transactions in Europe, 7 GlobalData, March 2024, data available for past ten years for Europe. including Reitan’s acquisition of the majority of the ALDI store network in Denmark.

Back to all trends

2. The return of polarization

Most consumer groups still intend to trade down in 2024, while high-income households are starting to trade back up.

More than 45 percent of respondents to our European consumer survey said they are still looking for ways to save money when shopping in 2024. Still, this number is lower than it was last year, while it continues to be similar across income groups (Exhibit 6). While downtrading is still highly prevalent across low-income households, we saw initial signs in 2023 that high-income households are uptrading again. The net intent of high-income households to buy more high-quality or organic products further increased at the beginning of 2024 and is now clearly positive. We therefore expect to see downtrading and uptrading at the same time, depending on the consumer group and the geography. The consumer survey results vary greatly across countries, leading us to expect significant differences in market development across Europe.

Private label growth continues and is expected to persist, even if the economy improves. Both private labels and discounters experienced strong growth across Europe, gaining 1.8 and 2.9 percentage points, respectively, and consumers continue to have positive experiences with private label offerings. According to our consumer survey, 83 percent of consumers rate private label products of equal or better quality than branded options. Therefore, we do not expect shoppers to switch back even if the market environment improves.

The quest for health and longevity is the only premiumization trend that has not been negatively affected by inflation. The intent of shoppers to buy healthier products has remained constantly high for several years. According to our consumer survey, consumers also prioritize products perceived as “good for myself” over those “good for the planet.” Functional food claims such as “boosting energy” and “supporting health” continue to gain traction.

3. Food to go: A wrestling match for share of stomach

As consumers spend more time on the move, the food-to-go market is surging.

The food-to-go market declined during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it has recovered and continues to grow. Food to go encompasses various channels: prepackaged ready-to-eat meals, ready-to-heat convenience meals, counters and kiosks, restaurant takeaways, and meal delivery. The growth of these channels is driven by the return of workers to offices and consumers’ increasingly busy lifestyles. According to our CEO survey, food to go is one of the top five trends for 2024; CEOs expect food to go to drive traffic, raise margins, and generate cross-selling opportunities.

In Paris, half the population now lives alone, so they prefer packaged meals and smaller portions. Our new concept stores will help us gauge the demand for ready meals. Yves Claude, CEO, Auchan Retail

Foodservice providers such as restaurants, takeaway players, and meal delivery services are gaining share from grocery retailers. Despite the inflationary environment and consumers trading down, the foodservice industry outpaced the grocery retail industry by nearly three percentage points. While foodservice grew at 11.5 percent, 8 Eurostat foodservice turnover. grocery achieved a growth rate of only 8.6 percent last year. France and Italy now have higher foodservice volume compared with prepandemic levels, while Germany and Spain are still below those levels. 9 Eurostat, February 2024; McKinsey, growth in sales value adjusted for change in Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices for catering. Going forward, food to go is expected to grow at roughly 8 percent per year over the next five years in Europe, 10 GlobalData: Away-from-home food in retail channel 2023, sample of 23 European countries. while the grocery retail market is expected to grow at roughly 3 percent.

Grocery retailers are expanding their food-to-go offerings to capture this growth. Grocers are expanding their offerings of traditional ready-to-eat, ready-to-heat, and ready-to-cook products. They are also increasingly experimenting with foodservice offers such as hot food to go, cafeterias, and seated restaurants, either through third-party concepts or by offering them directly.

4. Sustainability: Progress made, still a long way to go

A step change for sustainability in grocery requires bold actions from retailers; our 2024 consumer research does not show increasing pull from consumers.

In fact, the share of consumers who want to buy products that are more sustainable in the next 12 months decreased by one percentage point from 2023. Also, the intent to buy more alternative-protein products remains stable at the low levels of 2023. Only members of Generation Z and millennials signal a high intent to buy more environmentally friendly products in 2024.

The window of opportunity to reach 2025 sustainability targets is closing. All of the top ten European grocery retailers have set sustainability goals for 2025, covering a variety of sustainability dimensions (Exhibit 7). 11 The top ten European grocers are Schwarz Group, ALDI Süd, Ahold Delhaize, Tesco, Edeka, Rewe, Leclerc, Carrefour, Sainsbury, and Casino; Euromonitor, accessed February 2024. Many of the dimensions still have sizable gaps to close to reach these targets. We therefore expect to see accelerated sustainability efforts across the industry in 2024. For targets on Scopes 1–3, 12 Scope 1 is direct emissions generated by an organization. Scope 2 is emissions generated by production of purchased energy. Scope 3 is indirect emissions from up and down the value chain. working toward these presents a dual opportunity to reduce carbon emissions and capture cost savings; we have found that, depending on the category, up to 40 percent of emissions can be reduced in a way that also reduces cost.

So far, none of the top ten European grocers are reporting any progress on Scope 3 emission reductions. 13 Scope 3 refers to all greenhouse gas emissions that happen in the value chain before or after grocery retailers (that is, suppliers and consumers). This is mainly because measuring these emissions accurately is very difficult. However, pioneering retailers have started to build Scope 3 accounting capabilities that use actual emissions by product and supplier instead of global averages across all suppliers. This shift will enable grocers to measure and reduce their Scope 3 emissions more effectively. For example, by understanding the real emissions associated with each supplier, grocery retailers can switch to suppliers with lower emissions or agree with suppliers on concrete reduction targets.

Regenerative agriculture 14 Regenerative agriculture includes farming and grazing practices that improve soil health, crop resilience, nutrient density, water management, and biodiversity, as well as the livelihoods of farmers. could become the new ‘organic.’ Most of grocery retailers’ greenhouse gas emissions are driven by agriculture. About 50 percent are driven by dairy and meat alone. Regenerative agricultural practices are therefore the key to meet the net-zero ambitions proclaimed by many retailers. Introducing regenerative agricultural labels in their assortment as an alternative to organic labels can be a big opportunity for retailers to differentiate their offerings while working toward their sustainability targets.

5. Online: Liberation from offline

Online grocery is returning to growth, and it is increasingly evolving into an independent, profitable format with its own differentiated value proposition.

Online grocery lost market share in 2023, but consumers are starting to return as spending power recovers. The net intent of consumers to buy more food online has returned to positive, increasing by eight percentage points in the first quarter of 2024. We expect e-grocery to grow faster than the overall grocery market over the next years. Meal delivery from restaurants might grow even faster than e-grocery (Exhibit 8). Pure players in particular show extraordinary growth rates as they expand into new regions. For instance, Picnic grew at more than 30 percent per annum over the past five years, 15 Picnic company accounts, February 2024. driven by rapid expansion.

Pure players are starting to reach profitability. For instance, Rohlik is profitable. 16 Zosia Wanat, “Brunch with the founder of Rohlik — a profitable disruptor of a trillion-dollar grocery industry,” Sifted, December 12, 2023. Picnic claims to be “operationally profitable in mature markets,” 17 “Online supermarket Picnic gets €355 million capital injection from shareholders,” NL Times , January 9, 2024. and Ocado returned to profitability in 2023. Moreover, leading meal delivery players have also reached breakeven (DoorDash and Deliveroo over the course of 2023), thanks to a successful shift of priorities from growth to rightsizing. 18 Company financials; Corporate Performance Analytics by McKinsey, March 2024.

Increasingly, consumers expect different value propositions from online and offline channels. It is becoming progressively clear that the two channels satisfy different shopping needs. For example, 37 percent of consumers in our UK survey (two percentage points higher than 2023) always shop at a different banner online than offline because they exhibit different needs by channel. In addition, UK consumers see promotions as more important than price for offline store selection, while for online, price is more important than promotions.

6. Retail media: Click here to boost the bottom line

Retail media (RM) undoubtedly remains a substantial profit driver for grocery retailers, with 20 of Europe’s top 30 grocery retailers now active in the market.

Grocers view RM as a fundamental driver of profitability. In Europe, the RM market was worth €11 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow at a rate of 15 percent annually in the coming years. With EBIT margins reaching 65 to 70 percent within three years of launching, RM presents an attractive opportunity for grocery retailers. 19 IAB Europe, Statista, January 2024. In our survey, grocery retail CEOs confirmed this opportunity, naming RM as one of the top five opportunities for the year ahead.

2024 will be marked by a bold expansion of retailers’ RM footprint. The name of the game for RM is scale—only the largest players are expected to remain relevant for CPG advertisers in the long run, especially in light of Amazon’s large share in the market (Exhibit 9). This will prompt smaller players to consolidate and form partnerships to maintain relevance in the RM world. Alliances, such as the Unlimitail partnership between Carrefour and Publicis, and the growth of ad network aggregators such as Amazon Ads are expected to shape the market this year.

Standardization, impact measurement, and ad diversification are critical for engaging CPGs on RM. Regulatory changes have increased the difficulty of targeted digital marketing, boosting the appeal of RM for CPG companies to engage with consumers at the point of purchase. Transparency and standardization of impact metrics, such as return on ad spending, are essential for RM success, and CPG companies rank these as the top barrier to further investing in RM. 20 Retail Media Standards Survey 2023, IAB Europe, 2023. To address this, Ahold Delhaize, for example, has launched a self-service platform for suppliers to manage and track the impact of RM campaigns. Moreover, retailers are expected to expand their offerings beyond classic paid search and website banners to include video, connected TV, shoppable (video) content, and innovative in-store activations in order to stay relevant to CPG advertisers.

7. Conversational commerce: The next wave of analytics

Advanced analytics and traditional AI still account for most of the impact, but conversational commerce enabled by generative AI has the potential to reimagine how we shop.

Retailers have started to experiment with generative AI but have yet to unlock real value. From the total advanced analytics and AI impact pool in grocery retail, an estimated 10 to 20 percent of value potential stems from generative AI. In grocery, six revenue-enhancing and efficiency-driving use cases are expected to drive value: hyper-personalized content, smart search, copilots for category management (for example, supplier negotiations), copilots for support functions (such as software development), content creation, and conversational commerce (Exhibit 10). By engaging shoppers with a human-like chatbot as a personal shopping assistant, conversational commerce can significantly improve the on- and offline shopping experience. For instance, US-based Walmart launched its Text to Shop proposition last year, allowing consumers to shop for groceries by texting. They can also get inspiration for recipes, make restocking suggestions, and schedule delivery or pickup times.

Advanced analytics and traditional AI are still the largest sources of technology-driven value creation in retail. Eighty to 90 percent of future value creation for grocers is driven by advanced analytics and traditional AI. For grocers, assortment, pricing, and promotion optimization are the largest opportunity areas. Rigorously leveraging advanced analytics and traditional AI across the organization has the potential to improve EBIT margins in retail by up to one percentage point. Most large retailers in Europe have adopted a range of advanced analytics use cases by now and started to capture a significant share of that potential. The remaining opportunity resides in expanding to further use cases, increasing adoption of use cases, and using the new capabilities to localize and personalize the offering for each store and consumer.

8. Talent: Making retail a career again

Grocers across Europe face an unprecedented number of job vacancies, and the average employee tenure is shrinking.

Vacancy and fluctuation rates are high. In the third quarter of 2023, 2.2 percent of all retail jobs were vacant, a 29.4 percent increase from 1.7 percent prior to the pandemic. 21 Eurostat EU-27 countries. While retailers work hard to fill open positions, they are also confronted with high turnover rates—especially in frontline positions. In addition, there is a shortage of skilled talent, particularly in supply chain activities, as well as for jobs that require digital and technological know-how. The aging of the population further exacerbates the situation. The number of citizens of working age in the EU-27 will decline by approximately one million people per year going forward. Hiring and developing talent is one of the top three priorities of European grocery retail CEOs, according to our survey. Yet only 21 percent of retail employers in Germany say they have a professional retention program in place, and even fewer—11 percent—say they have the tools in place to survey employee satisfaction regularly. 22 Study: Talents4Retail 2023/24 , EHI Retail Institute, January 2024.

As automation and digitalization progress, the roles and job profiles of retail employees will change significantly over the next decade. Social, emotional, cognitive, and technological skills will become more important as the need for physical activity decreases. Our analysis shows that by 2030, the time workers spend using social or emotional abilities will increase by 32 percent, and the time they spend leveraging technical skills will increase by 64 percent. Physical and manual activity, on the other hand, will decline by 17 percent as a result of technological advancements.

Attractive grocery employers offer careers, not just jobs, in combination with the right work–life balance. Forty percent of retail employees in Germany and 33 percent of retail employees in the Netherlands are considering changing their jobs. 23 McKinsey HR-Monitor Germany 2024; Distrifood 2023. Respondents cited unmet needs of applicants, compensation, and working times among the top five factors in ongoing retail vacancies in Germany. Flexible work arrangements and a multitude of career paths gain in importance. Yet only 16 percent of retail employers in Germany say they offer work–life benefits to frontline retail employees, and more than 50 percent of retail employers in Germany say they do not offer individual career opportunities to their employees. In the United Kingdom, the retail sector ranks in the bottom third in terms of offering career progression opportunities compared with other sectors. Meanwhile, retailers such as Walmart have started acting on these developments by offering different types of career paths and trainings depending on employee preferences.

Implications for grocers

The state of grocery continues to present challenges, but—supported by stronger consumer sentiment—there are opportunities for executives to build new sources of competitive advantage. We see three strategic priorities for grocery retailers that will help them strengthen their assortments, increase profitability, and leverage the momentum for RM networks.

Future-proofing the assortment

Confronted with polarized consumer behavior, grocers seek to balance affordability with value-adding products while rationalizing the assortment to optimize costs. To defend their market share, supermarkets and hypermarkets will want to keep strengthening their private label offerings. At the same time, growing demand for healthy products and for food-to-go, ready-to-eat, and ready-to-heat options provides further opportunities for uptrading consumers. Retailers that can differentiate assortment by store depending on local needs will be best positioned to win in this market environment—especially given that different countries, regions, and neighborhoods will show varied recoveries in 2024.

Driving nontrivial efficiency savings

As margin and cost pressure remains high, grocery retailers need to take rigorous mitigating actions to achieve cost savings. With low-hanging fruit already captured, cross-functional and nontrivial cost positions need to be addressed in 2024—for example, operating model redesign, end-to-end supply chain optimization from supplier to store, rent renegotiation, or design-to-value for private label assortment.

Monetizing retail media

When it comes to building and scaling a RM business that drives profits in 2024 and beyond, grocers have no time to lose. To go from good to great in RM, players need to think like ad agencies and secure the right leadership commitment, business autonomy, and resources dedicated to RM business development. Grocery retailers enjoy a privileged position in today’s media landscape. However, to remain relevant to advertisers over time, RM players should consider improving their impact measurements, as well as continuously enhancing and renewing their advertising offerings.

Christel Delberghe is director general of EuroCommerce, where Anton Delbarre is chief economist. Dirk Vissers is consumer insights director for Europanel. Daniel Läubli and Franck Laizet are senior partners in McKinsey’s Zurich office, where Alexandre Kleis is an associate partner, and Rickard Vallöf is a partner in the Gothenburg office.

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