Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me Simon Calder.

And today, if you've been lucky enough, perhaps that's not the word you would use to be a regular listen to this podcast.

You will know that I've been trying to keep everybody informed about what's happening with changes

for UK travellers going to Europe.

By now, on Thursday the 22nd of August, there is so much misinformation being spouted in all

kinds of locations that I thought it would be time to tackle the myths about what is changing, what

isn't changing and why it is changing.

So the first myth is that things will change from the 10th of November that you will need

to do something about.

That's not true.

Well, you'll need to do something about it in the sense

that you will need to wait patiently because from Sunday the 10th of November 24,

assuming that things aren't delayed still further, the entry exit system takes effect. That

means every UK traveller entering the Schengen area must, in theory at least,

be fingerprinted and provide a facial biometric.

That is because the entry-exit system is wanting to keep tabs on who's coming and going, and

those are the metrics that the EU has decided. It won't be until six months after that that the Etias system,

the electronic travel information and authorisation system, is going to launch.

But again, anything that you have heard saying it's going to be mandatory

and you could have your holiday wreck next summer if you don't

have one is total tosh let me just talk you through what the timeline actually is so 10th of

November we get the entry exit system what could possibly go wrong with a continent-wide massive IT system which hasn't

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