Can I go to Greece with red uk passport?

[Firsttimemumsteph]

I'm only asking this because I know that UK passports have changed.

I go to Greece on 5th October this year, and my passport expires on January 2027. I know it's a couple of years away but because it's not the newer passport?

I just don't want to get to the airport and be turned away. This is my first holiday abroad so I'm panicking a bit.

It’s still a valid Uk passport. You’ll be fine.

Of course you can!

Yes. Have a fabulous time!

Absolutely. I've travelled to Spain quite a bit in the past couple of years on my red passport, which also expires in 2027. No problem in the least. It's totally valid.

From the Gov website

Greece follows Schengen area rules. Your passport must:

• have a ‘date of issue’ less than 10 years before the date you arrive – if you renewed your passport before 1 October 2018, it may have a date of issue that is more than 10 years ago
• have an ‘expiry date’ at least 3 months after the day you plan to leave the Schengen area

Thank you everyone!

Far better to ask than to find out at the airport !

As you've not been abroad before: Are you aware of the liquids in hand luggage rules?
Also, make sure you measure your carry on luggage to make sure they are within the specific airline's guidelines - I've seen people being charged a lot of money at the boarding gate as their carry on bag was too big. Weigh your hold luggage too.

Yeah I'm aware of all that. I've got to find a way to weigh my suitcase before we go 😅

Either buy a luggage scale, eg

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Aerolite-Portable-Digital-Weighing-Suitcases/dp/B01N9HJZZP/ref=asc_df_B01N9HJZZP/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=697174214319&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4726306305226339669&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046326&hvtargid=pla-466940913256&psc=1&mcid=575e8fcc5f643e47b10fbb1e7e509cb6&gad_source=1

Or weigh yourself with and without the bag on normal scales and work out the difference, but you often need someone to read the weight with the bag for you as you can't always see it while you're holding the bag.

It's a perfectly valid passport even if its the older burgundy one. Dh and I still have burgundy ones and only the kids have newer dark blue ones. They're OK until they expire although be aware of passport rules for travelling to the EU.

Weigh yourself with and without the suitcase then do the maths.

Wow how exciting for you. Take photos of everything.

We have a luggage scale thing too

Yes, my husband has just used his red passport for Spain. Watch out for the expiry date though. It actually expires 10 years from when it was issued now we are no longer in the EU. Yours will be fine obviously but something to watch out for for future trips

Aren't blue passports relatively new?

Therefore, there's probably more people still travelling on the old red ones than there are the new blue ones. Just see when standing in the queue to go through immigration. Plenty of people still have valid red passports.

If you have bathroom weight scales stand on them holding suitcase, then weigh yourself and subtract your weight from weight holding suitcase. Make sure you’re weighing in Kg’s. I did this recently and at airport it was remarkably accurate.
Happy holidays

Time flies. The first black(+) passports were issued in March 2020. So nearly half of the burgundy ones have been replaced, and probably more than half of current passports are black(+) because lots of people don't get a new one every 9¾ years.

For a while before March 2020, they used up the stocks of burgundy passport, but the words "European Union" were removed. (I have seen someone with one of the older ones, with those words, trying to use the EU lane at an airport. Nice try mate, but it doesn't work like that.)

(+) They are black. I will die on this hill! Try this: Put the passport in an envelope with a hole in the front and show a couple of inches of the back of the passport to someone through the hole, without saying that it's a passport. Ask them what colour it is. 99% will say black, I promise.

Did you mean to post this in a different thread? 🙏

Did you mean to post this in a different thread?

This is why people need to at least read the OP's posts If not the full thread!

To clarify, I was addressing the OPs follow up comment, that is in the post directly above mine, about 'working out how much her suitcase weighs'.

I suppose they're the same colour as police officer uniforms were until around the mid 1990s (I've googled and apparently they are black now).