Taking exercise equipment through Europe
 

Hi we are going on a 5 month ( yippee ) trip though Europe and I want to take resistants exercise bands with me they have plastic clips on there ends and plastic rod that they attach to. I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with taking similar things and any trouble at all getting on aircraft or going through immigration. - thanks in advance Gilbert

It is neither the getting on aircraft nor the immigration that you will have the problem. Your issue would be going thru the carry-on security check. Once you pass that, you can get on aircraft provided that they have a space. What they cannot allow is the possibility of concealing things inside they rod. They may be satisfied with the x-ray or they might not allow it unless they can physically see the inside. If you have to take it, put it in the checked luggage. Additionally, I presume you have looked into the entry requirements based on your citizenship? If you are from the US and unless you have a visa, you must choose the sequence of the countries carefully to stay within the maximum allowed stay restrictions.

Thanks Gregg we are trying to use carry on baggage only so that makes it tricky. The rod is hollow so I suppose that may help. I'm a Kiwi (New Zealand) our travel agent said we don't need any visas so I hope she is correct.

New Zealanders seems to enjoy more generous length of stay in Europe than the U.S. citizens without visa. However, you still have the length of stay limit requiring sequencing considerations when staying over 3 months.

http://www.nzembassy.com/france/nzer...nce-and-europe

Given that knitting needles are often banned in flights I think you need to send an email off to each airline to check their latest status.

Knitting needles are POINTED which is probably why they are banned.

The reason why knitting needles are banned is that some flights are very long and a ski mask could be made to conceal one's identity.

Is that before or after the wool's pulled over everyone else's eyes - or used to pull their legs?

ah but no restrictions on pencils I understand

I have no knowledge of your NZ visa requirements, but I think you can get away with the rod. People carry on fishing rods all the time, for goodness sake.

I have to carry a cane now, and that sure doesn't keep me from doing carry-on at all (and I certainly could belt someone with that!). I just make sure it is always screened with my carry-on luggage.
AZ

AZ

Thanks everyone I'll pass the knitting needles comments onto my wife ( boots on the other foot now she loves her knitting ) and that's a good point with the cane as I use one as well. I maybe able to adapt the rod to double as my cane H'mm that's an idea. In regard to the visa's we are not staying in one country more then a few weeks so I imagine the 3 months applies to an extended stay in a country

Giltai, you need to read the page that greg provided a link for. You can stay in the countries with which New Zealand has separate visa agreements for up to three months each, but if you then go to one of the other Schengen countries, they will accuse you of overstaying your visa. So if you want to go to the Czech Republic or Poland, for example, you won't be allowed to enter. Make sure you plan your itinerary to go to these "other" countries first, if you're planning to visit any of them.

You you need to understand from what your Ministry of Foreign Affair is saying is that the Schengen timer is CUMULATIVE as <u>Schengen area as a whole</u>. Exiting one Schegen country does not reset the timer, it just pauses it if you exit out of the Schengen zone. If you stayed in France for two week, you have used up two weeks of the Schengen timer. If you then spend two seeks in UK, the Schengen timer just pauses. If you then visit the Netherlands, then the Schengen timer resumes at week THREE. The only way the accumulated days are removed from the timer is the passage of 180 days.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention our travel agent's been excellent and we did ask her about visa's which she stated there would be no requirement for them. I'm going to have to look into it before we finalise our destinations.