While Brexit limits and post-pandemic costs have perhaps taken the shine off the traditional British ‘booze cruise’ to France, a perk for avid travellers living in Kent is the county’s close proximity to Europe.
Having both Gatwick and Stansted airports within reach is equally convenient - particularly if this miserable British summer keeps-up and we’re all left searching for cheap weekend flights to sunnier climes.
But the brakes may be about to be slammed on our ability to hot-foot it out of the county thanks to post-Brexit border checks arriving in October.
Under the Entry Exit System (EES) non-EU nationals, including us Brits, will need to log biometric information when crossing the border the first time.
Processing areas are being installed at Dover’s ferry port, at Eurotunnel in Folkestone and Eurostar’s St Pancras terminal while people taking flights out of the UK will provide that information at European airports when they land.
Now last summer it took us over three hours to get through Spain’s border controls - such were the sheer amount of passengers versus the number of nonchalant staff at the desk.
Throw in the need for every passenger to enter their data before getting permission to pass and there’s every chance our entire holiday would have simply been spent inside Malaga airport.
Travellers heading to France last month for May half term, who faced horrendous delays starting their break, may also be questioning how finger print scans, journey information and other biometric data can possibly be collected at pace from entire families holed-up in their car.
We braved driving the kids to Amsterdam in April, and hand-on-heart the biggest headache in the entire 300-mile journey was trying to leave Kent. Getting a passport stamp was stressful enough - swap it for fingerprints and photos and I think I’d have stayed put.
Which of course might all turn out to be great for tourism in England - particularly if someone could just do something about the weather
But realistically foreign travel and the aviation industry are worth huge sums to the UK economy and whoever is in charge after July’s election must be across the entire plan before the new regime turns out to be a disaster.
Foreign Secretary David Cameron is among those at the top to have already warned British travellers to Europe are likely to face long delays come the autumn.
I hope there’s more up Lord Cameron’s sleeve than just a warning should his government return to power?
The UK is rumoured to be pushing in the background for the EU to allow Britons to enter their data instead through apps - well away from the borders - to avoid the need for time-consuming physical checks.
This sounds like a far better idea, and also one more likely to help keep Kent moving.
What remains less certain is how good any new government’s negotiating skills will be over the summer as they go, yet again, head-to-head with their European counterparts.
