Re:European roaming charges will end in 2014
by 4ad on Monday June 17, 2013 @12:44PM
(#5894201)
You need a passport (or other form of government issued-ID), you don't need a visa.
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Re:European roaming charges will end in 2014
by darklajid on Monday June 17, 2013 @01:53PM
(#5894692)
I guess the biggest change is: Nobody's checking it.
I travel without lining up in front of a police guy, showing my passport. A border is sometimes easy to miss.
Took two girls from the US to the meeting point of DE, NL and BE after Fosdem a couple years back. It's .. boring. Taking a picture there seems .. worthless. Yes, more or less just a step away from each of these countries and still - so what? No one cares, you can cross freely.
And boring is good for these things, in my book.
That isn't that different from 40 years ago. The Dutch-Belgian border has been technically open since 1944 (the BeNeLux as a customs union dates from then; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benelux. In practice, the border will have opened a bit later, as World War II was still going on)
The Dutch-German border was closed, but in practice, outside main roads, there were only roaming border controls. The tripoint of Germany-Belgium-the Netherlands lies on a hill without main roads, so one could cross the border freely there even in the 1960's.
Any valid ID (free) vs. a Passport (86 euros, in France) makes a huge difference to many people I believe !
In Romania IDs are not free either :-). If you come from an underdeveloped country (precisely where the cost of a passport can pose a problem) you'll soon find out that many EU countries won't let you in only with a national ID; they want a passport. For Romanian/Bulgarian/etc citizens roaming through Europe without a passport is not a very smart move, even if you go to countries that accept only the ID.
You may technically be required to carry an ID, but at least on the train nobody's checking it.
Depends on the country, try to travel to or from Romania or Bulgaria next time ;). Not only that they check the ID, but they sometimes check the baggage as well, and when they do that it's a sign that they will find something and cause you trouble unless you discretely pass them 25EUR...
As a Romanian national who has used the train extensively I cannot testify to that. Not once was I asked for an ID and the "25EUR" (usually much less) is for when you don't have a ticket; though I notice the "practice" diminishing.