L2: Caravan Holiday Ended Early

An unplanned trip results in shorter caravan holiday and £400 extra ferry costs

Susan and John usually spend the summer travelling in their caravan to central France, staying there for the summer and returning early autumn. They book the ferry early because they need to have a cabin which quickly become fully booked and the charges for the caravan increase the later they book. They usually have about 95 days "on holiday" with 4 or 5 days travelling at each end.

2021 will be different due to 90/180 rule as they are limited to just 90 days. Peter works it all out with a margin of 5 days. They book the ferry with the cabin in November 2020.

In April they receive a call to say one of their children has had an accident in Germany. They fly out immediately. The child is OK but cannot travel for a week so they stay in an Airbnb until the child is fit to travel. They get home safely and their attention is focussed on their child.

They spent 8 days in Germany.

In May, Peter suddenly remembers the 90/180 rule and realises that they cannot use both the ferry crossings. They need to change one. Whichever they change it will be close to the school holiday period. He re-books the ferry to give them the 5 day margin. It is now much closer to their travel dates. The ferry company refunded the earlier booking, even so the re-booking cost an extra £400. They could not get a cabin.

Peter works out that the number of days they were “on holiday” rather than travelling were reduced from 77 to 69. They used to get 95 days for the same travel cost.

This would not have happened if the government had negotiated win-win 180/360 travel arrangements