Frequently Asked Questions

The whole trip, in what we publish. The guides and planners cover routes, budgets, accommodation logic, travel health and timing, and they explain where the Schengen process fits around all of that and where the official requirements are published. You use them yourself, and we do not handle anyone's paperwork.

The Schengen area and its neighbours. We publish 29 country guides spanning Western, Northern, Central, Southern and Eastern Europe, and route guides that cross several of them. Where a route leaves the Schengen area, the guides say what that means at the border rather than pretending it does not.

Three self-serve planners, free to use and with no sign-up: a visa check that tells you whether the passport you hold needs a Schengen short stay visa, a cost-per-country comparison built on official Eurostat price data, and a trip budget calculator. Everything you type stays in your browser. The cost-per-country page also offers a fuller report that weights seven Eurostat categories instead of one.

Earlier than most people expect. Visa applications can be lodged up to six months before travel, appointment availability often adds weeks, and good accommodation in peak season goes early. Work backwards from your travel dates: route, then bookings, then documentation. That is the sequence that avoids collisions.

No. Durian Travel publishes educational travel guides and planning tools. We do not provide legal advice, legal representation, or any service that constitutes the practice of immigration law. For legal advice, consult a qualified immigration attorney.

No, and no honest service can. Visa decisions are made by embassy and consulate officers on their own assessment, and nobody outside the consulate has any influence over them. We never look at your documents and we never predict a result.

Through the contact page. Send a message about the trip itself: your route, your budget, your timing, and where you are travelling from. It goes to our inbox and we answer by email, usually within a few working days. No documents are reviewed and no opinion is given on the outcome of any application.

No. Everything we publish is guidance you read and use yourself. You submit your own application to the relevant embassy or consulate.

Our guides cover the Schengen tourist visa (Type C). Some of the same ideas carry over to UK visitor visas and US tourist visas, but the rules are different and we do not publish on them.

Not with the refusal itself. A refusal letter names a ground from a standard list, and our published guide explains what each one refers to. What happens next is between you and the consulate: the letter names the ground and tells you how to appeal, and the procedure and any time limit follow that country's own law. The planning guides still apply to the trip itself.

Yes, the planning side is the same for everybody. On the paperwork, financial proof works differently without an employment contract, and the guides explain what consulates generally ask for and where each one publishes its own list. We do not gather, structure or look at anyone's financial documents.

Visa agencies typically submit applications on your behalf and may have formal relationships with embassies. We are not an agency. Durian Travel publishes guides and planning tools that explain how the process works and point you at the official sources, and you do the rest yourself. That means lower cost, more transparency, and your paperwork never leaves your hands.

English. Every guide, planner and country page on the site is published in English.

Durian Travel is published online and read all over the world. Anything we answer, we answer in writing by email. We do not run calls or meetings.