It was me this summer: Schengen -> 1 month in Montenegro -> 2 months in Croatia -> Schengen

Soon it will be Romania and Bulgaria :)

They will have a harder time because they will effectively be a new outer border and especially for Bulgaria there are some challenges in dealing with this. Which is a pity because I personally would love Romania and Bulgaria to become part of Schengen. It makes life so much easier if you travel there frequently.

Honestly maybe getting Croatian borders dissolved will be enough because in-season traffic is just such a sad waste. I would guess that traffic on the new borders will not be as bad.

Some of the countries like Poland have bilateral agreements with USA allowing 180 days in country. Which makes the recharge rate very minimal, basically just get out for a day, then return to Poland.

Excerpt from Poland's policy.

"Yet further, above the framework of the Schengen visa exemption of 90 days in any 180-day period, Argentine, Chilean, Costa Rican, Honduran, Israeli, Japanese, Malaysian, Mexican, Nicaraguan, Panamanian, Singaporean, South Korean, United States and Uruguayan nationals are permitted to spend an extra period of 90 days visa-free in Poland."

Could you point to source of your claim? US embassy website doesn't mention any extra 90 days.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-tra...

While looking for the source I found this comment amusing. https://www.everyoneinbetween.com/2018/02/how-to-travel-in-e... "But bilateral travel agreements are weird. Mostly because there is little to no official information about them available for travelers! This is most likely because countries want them to be forgotten since they all date back to before the Schengen Treaty came into action for them (in the 90’s most likely)."

Here is your source. Not the best source, but I couldn't find my original on the Polish website https://www.gov.pl/ Well, honestly since I'm not in Poland it's just not worth looking for...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_the_Schengen_Ar...

Legacy visa waiver agreements for Annex II nationals[show]

Wikipedia points to web archive of Polish government page, but the page is gone since 2021. Like if it should be forgotten.

I was about to say, as someone who DNs sometimes, I like countries like Croatia where I could recharge the Schengen window. Technically you can live in the EU forever if you keep rotating every 90 days, but practically speaking, I'm not sure if border agents will refuse your entry if you keep doing that.

Just "visit Andorra" a lot. Not-Schengen, but no borders with France or Spain.

How does this work in practice? If a border guard accosts you for overstaying in Schengen and you tell them “I was spending time in Andorra”, what then? Can they not demand proof?

You're supposed to get stamped by Andorran and French or Spanish police if you properly want to document the non-Schengen days, but stamps are optional. Not sure how part-days work.

Part days are in both, so any part day is counted as a full day in Schengen. Crossing a border means you lose a day.