Traveling Europe longer than 90 days
I'm an Aussie looking to travel Western Europe on a bike for 6-12 months.
I was just wondering how people have dealt with the 90 day limit of the Schengen Visa?
I know how the visa works but obviously people travel for longer than this in the schengen area (seems to be most of europe now), particularly traveling overland such as by motorcycle.
I guess if you can get a long stay visa for one of the countries you can move freely between the rest because there's no real boarder control. Its just that longer term tourist visas (6 or 12months) for these countries don't appear too common.
The only option i can deduce from looking at other travel forums is that you have to leave the schengen area for 90 days then return. But its hard to find anywhere not in the zone, plus spending 3 months somewhere you may not be particularly interested in being just to pass the time is quite inconvenient.
The only other option i guess is a carefully planned route with lots of longhaul backtracking to safe zones. Kind of annoying and against the spirt of adventure to intensely plan and count your days i think.
Any suggestions of what visas to look for, which countries are best for long term visas, or any other way to handle this itinerary problem would appreciated.
Cheers,
Jim
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