If you’re starting to think about booking your next holiday, you’ll want to have a read of these new laws and rules put in place across Europe. Popular holiday destinations such as
Spain and Croatia are cracking down on smoking and drinking in public and tourists will be fined in some areas for walking the streets shirtless or in bikinis. But it's not just changes abroad you need to be aware of, with some significant hikes to the price of renewing a
UK passport also about to come in within days. From passport costs to tourist taxes and new laws in popular destinations like Spain and Croatia, here's what you need to know. Passport fees If you need to renew your passport ahead of booking your next holiday, apply now. The application fees are set to rise by 7% on Thursday 11 April. An online application for an adult passport currently costs £82.50 but will rise to £88.50 next month. A child’s passport application is £53.50 and is set to rise to £57.50. Read more: The latest Foreign Office travel advice issued for anyone travelling to Turkey, Greece or Spain Read more: Susanna Reid interrupts Lorraine with 'breaking news' announcement in television first Tourist tax
Paris has tripled the tourist tax ahead of the summer Olympics. The tourist tax will be £4.46 per night per person for those staying in a three-star hotel and £6.97 for a four star. Amsterdam’s tourist tax has risen from 7% to 12.5%, making it the highest for tourist tax in Europe. This means that for a £100 per night hotel room, you’ll be spending £112.50. Venice is testing its new tourist tax system for 20 days in 2024, but the scheme will only fully come into force in 2025. This is only for tourists visiting Venice but not staying there. During the test phase, the access fee will be 5 euros (£4.28) per day to enter Venice from 8.30am to 4PM. The test days are: May 11, 12, 18, 19, 19, 25 and 26. June 8, 9, 15, 16, 16, 22, 23, 29 and 30. July 6, 7, 13 and 14. Smoking laws If you’re a smoker and heading off to Spain this year, you’ll want to take a look at the new smoking laws put in place from this year. Regions including Menorca, Mallorca and Ibiza have banned smoking on beaches and bar terraces to tackle the issue of cigarette butts littering the sand. Alcohol laws and bans Mallorca, Magaluf, Ibiza, Playa de Palma and San Antonio all limit the sale and availability of alcohol in some areas. This prohibits: happy hours open bars (such as all you can drink in 1-hour offers) the sale of alcohol from vending machines self-service alcohol dispensers the organising of pub-crawls and party boat trips ‘off-licence’ sales between 9:30pm and 8am Antisocial behaviour Croatia is clamping down on inappropriate behaviour in popular town centres such as Split and Dubrovnik. You can receive on-the-spot fines for: drinking alcohol or using drugs in public spaces (drugs are illegal) sleeping in public spaces urinating or vomiting in public spaces walking through towns shirtless or in swimwear wearing clothing that promotes drug use climbing on monuments You can also be fined up to 4000 euros for public order disturbances, including: fighting verbal abuse (shouting, arguing) drunken behaviour belittling or insulting
police officers or other public officials UK Foreign Office advice for travel to
Turkey The Foreign Office has said terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in Turkey. Most terrorist attacks have occurred in southeast Turkey, Ankara and Istanbul. You should remain aware of your surroundings, keep up to date with local media reports and follow the advice of local authorities. It also advises against all travel to the
Turkish border withj
Syria. Make sure you check the local rules ahead of your holiday at https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice