Are rumours that Spain will relax the 90 day rule true?

Simon Calder answers your questions on EU regulations, Singapore dining and the billions in travel vouchers people are sitting on

British citizens are only allowed to stay in the Schengen Area for a limited time (Getty)

Q I am 85 years of age and will shortly be taking my annual trip to Tenerife for the permitted 90 days. I have heard rumours that Spain is considering relaxing the 90-day rule. Do you have any information regarding this rumour?

Marlene H

A As tens of thousands of British travellers head off to Spain to avoid winter here, there have been widespread reports in the media this month suggesting that Spain could launch a special permit to reflect the long-stay habits of many UK visitors.

As background: one of the many triumphs of Brexit is that we successfully reduced the length of time we are allowed to stay in the Schengen Area (most EU countries plus Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein). Rather than unlimited stays, the UK government successfully negotiated for British travellers to become “third country nationals” and therefore subject to the “90/180-day rule”. If you travel to Tenerife on 1 December, you must leave on the last day of February and stay out for the following 90 days until the end of May.

A special “Spanish exemption” is not in the gift of the government in Madrid. The UK negotiated with the European Commission in Brussels to make life more difficult for British travellers, and any relaxation would need to be negotiated at an EU level. What we may see is countries including Spain creating an easier-to-obtain long-stay visa – which, as sovereign nations, they are entitled to do. Such a visa would allow you to spend more than 90 days there this winter, and furthermore not count towards the time limit for other EU countries. If you had the right visa, you could spend December to May in Spain and then visit other Schengen nations for up to 90 days. But I have heard nothing definite yet.

Finally, I am obliged to point out that if EU plans for the Electronic Travel Information and Authorisation System (Etias) go according to the latest plan, British visitors to Spain – and anywhere else in the Schengen Area – will need this permit from November 2023. As with the US Esta and Canada’s eTA, the aim is to get plenty of information in advance on travellers arriving from “third countries”. While Brussels insists it is an alternative to a visa, since it requires pre-registration and payment (€7/£6) I think it is reasonable to call it a “euro visa”. Again, it’s apparently what we wanted when leaving the European Union.

Light meal: diners eat al fresco at Lau Pa Sat in the city centre (AFP/Getty)

Q I am following in your footsteps and going to Singapore next week, where my daughter is a teacher. Did you discover any restaurants you would recommend?

JC

A In Singapore, eating is a perpetual joy. Flavours from across Asia and beyond have been imported to the city-state, often with an added Singapore twist. My dining default is the hawker centre – where dozens of vendors, each with their own culinary specialism, compete for custom. You choose what takes your fancy and then take a seat; drinks from tropical fruit smoothies to craft beer are also available.

Dozens of hawker centres are dotted around the nation, but my favourite is right in the city centre: Lau Pa Sat. The venue is a former Victorian market that was built in Glasgow in 1894 and shipped across to be assembled locally. You can choose from all manner of Chinese regional dishes. If you prefer Malay satay, just outside the meat skewers are grilling at what has become known as Satay Street. Choose the provider with the longest queue.

On my most recent visits I also enjoyed the hawker centre at Holland Village, amid a line of more expensive restaurants, and the food court (an upmarket variant) in the Marina Bay Sands complex.

“Proper” restaurants are available in their hundreds. I am a repeat visitor to Muthu’s Curry in Little India, which has been serving delicious dishes on banana leaves since 1969. While I generally pass on the fish-head curry (the only surprise is the size of the head looking resentfully at you) the vegetarian dishes are excellent.

Prices in all these places are very reasonable, even with the current shocking state of sterling. For a special meal, head for the former army cookhouse now known as Como Dempsey. This large, airy barracks of a building houses several upmarket eateries, of which the standout is Candlenut. The dishes are Peranakan – the closest Singapore has to a national cuisine. Peranakan people are descendants of the earliest Chinese settlers in Singapore. The community includes the celebrity chef, Malcolm Lee, who creates elaborate feasts using simple ingredients. Candlenut is the world’s first Michelin-starred Peranakan restaurant.

Travellers could be sitting on a voucher stash worth as much as £5bn (Getty)

Q Your current thinking please on whether you think airlines will extend vouchers (arising from 2020 Covid flight cancellations) that expire next year? That said, with inflation and rising costs of flights, the purchase power of these vouchers is falling fast.

Franch, via the latest Ask Me Anything at independent.co.uk/travel

A You have touched on a really serious and increasingly significant issue. During the dark days of the coronavirus pandemic, millions of journeys were cancelled. A large number of people accepted vouchers for future use. I calculate the value held by British travellers is currently in the region of £5bn.

Initially, airlines and holiday companies tended to issue vouchers for about a year. When it became clear that Covid was going to affect travel for a lot longer than that, the expiry dates were extended. Currently, I am holding vouchers for several airlines totalling hundreds of pounds. They have been extended into 2023. I haven’t been able to use them before now, and as you say their value is declining due to the rising cost of flights: a trip to Egypt and back that cost me around £300 is now selling at £646 – more than twice as much.

Things could actually get worse: with these “IOUs” soon to expire, expect a surge in demand driven by people who are keen not to lose the whole value of their voucher. This in turn will cause what I call “vouchflation”.

For cases like mine – where the flights actually operated but I could not travel – a voucher is generally the best you can hope for. But there may also be people who were persuaded to accept a voucher even for a flight cancelled by the airline. If you are in that position, then you could seek cash instead. For example, British Airways says: “If you were due to travel with us between 9 March and 19 November 2020 on a flight that was then cancelled, we were unable to offer our full range of ways to access refunds at that time. If you are eligible, you can now get a refund online for the voucher you hold.”

Email your question to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder