COVID restrictions in Trains

Please check reopen.europa.eu. As of 1 May, the EU digital COVID certificate ("green pass” in "Italian”) is not required anymore to use public transport.

The rules vary by country (see the Reopen.eu website linked above for details), but most countries have now scrapped the requirement to produce a Covid certificate to travel on public transport. You might still need it to use a restaurant/bar in some countries.

In my experience, if you ‘look’ foreign and can produce something that looks like proof of vaccination, it will usually be accepted even if it’s not strictly valid or won’t scan, but obviously you could be unlucky. The situation could also change (some countries are already hinting they plan to reintroduce restrictions later in the year). So I would plan nearer to the date based on which countries have restrictions.

Masks are still mandatory on public transport in many countries. Some countries (Austria, Italy, Germany, may be others?) specifically require an FFP2 mask, which is very uncomfortable, esp. on long journeys. Others require surgical (blue) masks, which are not quite as bad. Some countries are happy with any mask, even cotton or home-made. The countries I’m aware of which have scrapped masks on public transport are:

• all Nordic countries (Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden)
• most Eastern European countries (Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia)
• some ‘north European’ countries (Ireland, the Netherlands, and the UK, now including Scotland since a week ago)

Hope that helps.

I assume that you will be flying into Europe. In that case you need to make sure that the country that you are flying to will let you in without a vaccination approved in the EU . I know that e g. Germany requires either a valid vaccination, a valid proof of recovery or a valid PCR-test or equivalent in order to enter the country.