A travel specialist claims people planning to head abroad this summer should make "two important checks" that can be easily overlooked and cause issues if forgotten. Certain people might find that they are unable to go on holiday because of it.

Content creator and travel expert Kate Donnelly (@Thedonnellyedit) took to social media to remind holidaymakers that their passports must meet two specific requirements before their 2026 trip. Staff at airports may "stop people from going on holiday" if they don't follow these rules.

For people travelling to holiday hotspots in Europe - like Spain, Greece and Turkey - there are rules about how old passports are allowed to be. Since the UK officially left the EU and the Brexit transition period ended in January 2021, tourists must have passports issued no more than 10 years before the date they intend to travel to EU territory.

Before Brexit, UK citizens were allowed to renew early and carry over up to nine months of remaining validity from an old passport to a new one. This meant some passports could be valid for up to 10 years and nine months.

Because the EU no longer recognises this carry-over time for non-EU/third-country nationals, a passport is effectively rejected if the issue date on the photo page is more than 10 years ago. People will still be rejected, even if the expiry date has not yet passed.

Recapping the rules, Kate said: "For UK passport holders travelling to Europe or the Schengen zone, your passport needs to be less than 10 years old on the date that you enter the country. You also need a minimum of three months validity from the date that you are planning to leave."

It's the 10-year rule that catches people out the most. Prior to 2018, if you renewed your passport, any remaining months would have been added onto your new one.

This means some passports that were obtained right before the Brexit cut-off might have extra months of validity on top of the standard 10 years. Kate said: "When you're making these checks, you not only need to look at the expiry but also the issue date to make sure there is exactly 10 years between the two."

The only exception to this rule when travelling in Europe is to Ireland, where your passport just needs to be valid for the duration of your trip. If you're not sure if your passport is valid, then there is a free UK passport checker here.

You will not be denied boarding for a non-European country based on your passport being older than 10 years, as long as it is still within its official expiry date. Most international countries outside of Europe only look at your expiry date, not your issue date.

Many non-European nations require your passport to have at least six months of validity remaining from the day you arrive or leave. If your passport expires in four months, you will be denied boarding.

In other travel news, people have been urged by a budget airline to leave home early and allow extra time to reach the airport this summer - but this may not be helpful to a lot of short-haul travellers. Wizz Air director Yvonne Moynihan warned that tourists have missed their return or connecting flights due to long airport queues since the introduction of the Entry Exit System (EES).

But while this advice appears sensible, the reality is that most Wizz Air check-in desks open only two hours before departure, in some cases two and a half hours. It has been suggested that only certain passengers would benefit from arriving at the airport three hours before take-off, and it's not the majority.