We have been planning for our family trip for a pretty long and living in Singapore, travelling within Asia was the easiest one without much planning even with kids but from the last couple of years, Europe was very much on our list. Usually Nov- Dec is the time when we travel to India but this year we decided to finally go on our much-awaited trip.
Though we did our flight booking a bit early without planning for which all places we will be going to visit as December is a holiday season, with everyone travelling and getting the bookings done is a task.
Now since tickets are booked so we will be surely flying….
We started our itinerary considering Paris, Switzerland and London but then, later on, changed it to Paris, Switzerland, Austria- Salzburg, Vienna, Budapest and Beauvais for almost 24 days.
This is the longest trip we did so far apart from visiting India.
The major part of our travel was exploring Europe on Euro Swiss rail.
- Schengen Visa
- Applying for the Schengen Visa
- Packing for Winter Essentials
- Must have card, apps or wifi
SCHENGEN VISA
A Schengen visa is a short-stay visa covering 26 countries without any border control and it includes Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
HOW TO APPLY FOR THE SCHENGEN VISA
You can actually apply for a Schengen visa 90 days before your trip but since we have not done our booking etc so we applied for the visa at a later stage. The main criteria for applying for a Schengen visa is the country where you will be spending the longest time of your trip or the first country you enter. We were visiting Paris, Switzerland, Salzburg, Vienna, Budapest and Beauvais. So in our case, the first country we entered was France and the maximum stay was Switzerland, Austria and Budapest. We had the option to apply from either France, Switzerland, or Budapest but we couldn’t get the online appointment booking so applied through Switzerland.
SCHENGEN VISA DOCUMENTS REQUIRED
Do make sure that you have all the required documents ready when applying for the visa. Before applying for a Schengen visa, you need to make all the bookings for your flights, Swiss travel pass, and hotel/Airbnb as we had to attach all the supporting documents for our stay including a letter from the employer, bank statement, travel insurance details (if you have global insurance coverage by your company) or if you will get travel insurance for your travel.
- Passport (with validity)
- Photo as per Schengen requirements
- Schengen visa application form- Download
- Singapore IC along with your Re-entry permit
- Your trip itinerary
- Flight/ Train Bookings (Since we were visiting more than one place)
- Hotel/AirBnB bookings
- Financial Proof (Bank Statements/Salary Statements)
- Your Employment Letter
- Travel/Medical Insurance (it is very important to get this one)
Make sure you keep enough time before your travelling to get your visa as getting an online slot for visa submission takes time. Everyone in the family who is applying for the Schengen visa has to be physically present for the visa submission.
Packing for Winter Trip Essentials
Winter Trip Essentials for someone like us who lives in a tropical country like Singapore means you have no winter clothing. The only colder place we travel to is Delhi, India our home. When you go to your own home, you really don’t need to pack that much and also Delhi is cold but not like European cold weather.
Now, we will be travelling to 0 and below weather, with kids, you need to pack accordingly for the extreme weather. So it’s time to shop but then for our close to one-month travel, we wanted to travel light. As we will be moving from one country to another means we have to take our luggage with us everywhere.
Here are some of the essential wear which had really helped to stay warm in the extreme weather when we used to stay for the entire day outdoors.
Base Layer, Middle Layer, Outer Layer Jacket/Coat, Scarf, Fleece cap/beanie, Comfortable snow boots/Uggs, Gloves and read more here on Winter Trip Essentials- What to pack and stay light.
Winter Trip Essentials | What to pack and stay light – Europe Family Travel Series (part 2)
Must have cards, apps, wifi
Before heading for this trip, we downloaded a few apps which were super convenient when travelling by train, bus, taxi or even maps. We got ourselves a Changi wifi router for Europe which has been super helpful for us whether we have a book a taxi or check the train timings or even plan a day trip to places. One of the most thing we got was “Youtrip” card which has saved us from all the hassle.
5 Must-haves for your Europe Trip | Europe Family Travel Series (part 3)
