Do you know you can fly from Madrid or Barcelona, Spain, to Marrakesh, Morocco for the teensy price of 15 Euros or $22 U.S. Dollars?!I was drooling all over the keyboard when I saw this Ryanair promotion, and was about to click "Buy" to fulfill my long-standing lust for quality North Africa time when-- BAM! -- an informational window popped up on my screen:
"You may not enter Morocco with a passport that expires in less than six months."
Heart pounding, I flipped open my little navy blue packet.
After some quick mental calculations, it became clear: I had a mere 5.5 months of passport validity remaining. Dagnabbit! Dreams dashed.Now, the "Everything Happens for a Reason" mantra may come into play here, because the next day the ash cloud madness descended upon Europe, and my Morocco flight would have been utterly altered anyway.
However, the lesson remains: I should have renewed my passport before flying out of Boston in August in the first place.
"You should never travel anywhere with less than six months of passport validity," chided a hostel buddy. "I mean, it's usually not a big deal in the end, and you likely could have even snuck into Morocco unnoticed, but you really just don't want to risk it. Why didn't you just renew before you left your country, anyway?"
"I dunno," I mumbled, "I guess I didn't realize I should have."But now we know!
Photo Note: Granada, Spain is preeetty, as is its massive Alhambra palace complex pictured here. And in the end, less Morocco means more Southern Spain, which ain't a bad deal.
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I did not realize that either until a co-worker had to cancel her trip (after buying a ticket, mind you). Mine expires in July and I just got my renewed passport.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip!
Lesson learned. Travel agents have told me the reason is that if you get sick or jailed and need to stay in that country, your passport expiration just adds another complication you don't need at that point.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you should smile less. I like that serious looking photo...
Another thing to be aware of is your passport needs to have at least 4 blank pages to get into many countries. I've heard of folks being hassled trying to enter China with only two empty pages.
ReplyDeleteMy cousin was already in the airport with her flight ticket when the Customer Service of the airlines said that her passport is about to expire in a month and the city where she's going won't allow this. Too bad for her. I've learned a lot from her experience. Thanks for your advice too. By the way, I would like to invite you to Iceland and experience the breathtaking sceneries and activities like kayaking, hiking and midnight golf playing. I have the best Iceland hotels ready for you! Enjoy!
ReplyDelete