How much validity does a passport need for the Bahamas?

Simon Calder answers your questions on cheap flights to Frankfurt and US departures that went unregistered

Q Our family – including my wife and two adult children – are flying Virgin Atlantic in January 2026 from London Heathrow to Miami for a two-night stay before taking a six-night cruise around the Caribbean. We will call at George Town, Grand Cayman; Cozumel, Mexico; and Nassau, Bahamas. We return to Fort Lauderdale and fly back on the same day. The cruise agent says we would need to ensure that we had at least six months’ validity left on each passport on the day we return to the UK. Our daughter’s passport misses this six-month deadline by about a week. I know you specialise in this area. Is our travel agent right?

Matt G

A Nearly. Taking your destinations in order: a UK passport with a valid Esta is accepted by US Customs & Border Protection up to its expiry date. The Cayman Islands and Mexico are equally relaxed about passport validity. But the Bahamas does indeed have a “six-month rule”. The government in Nassau says visitors must “present a passport that is valid for at least six months”. That, we can assume, means from the day of arrival, although the UK Foreign Office says it is counted from the intended day of departure. Since you will be arriving and leaving on the same day, that distinction is irrelevant.

Furthermore, I predict that your family will not actually be challenged by the authorities on arrival at Nassau: day visitors on cruises tend to be given a light touch the world over. But I must advise your daughter to renew her passport in order to comply with the Bahamian rule. The cruise line might not allow her on the voyage with her current document, and if she were allowed on board, there is a chance she could be refused permission to go ashore in the Bahamas.

Fortunately, this is an ideal time of year to renew a passport. Applying online, she can expect the replacement in 10 days or less.

Condor’s colourful planes will soon be flying from Gatwick to Frankfurt (Condor)

Q I see Condor will be flying from London Gatwick to Frankfurt from April next year. As a resident of Crawley, this is welcome, but the lowest fare I can find is £160 return. There are plenty of places you can fly from Gatwick for a lot less than that. Presumably, the flights are aimed at the business market?

Rebecca H

A Frankfurt is Continental Europe’s financial hub. But it has much to offer the tourist, from culture to cuisine. The same applies to nearby Mainz, just 22 minutes from Frankfurt airport by train. Yet I was surprised to read the announcement on Friday that Condor, a rather small German airline, will fly three times daily between Gatwick and Frankfurt from 1 April 2026. Announcing the new link, Peter Gerber, the carrier’s chief executive, said: “We are adding another exciting metropolis to our city network, offering business travellers and city tourists even more options.”

Yet both easyJet and Lufthansa have tried Gatwick-Frankfurt as a route, and given it up in favour of other, more lucrative, links. Each of those airlines has a big advantage: easyJet due to the low costs at its biggest base, Gatwick; and Lufthansa thanks to its worldwide network from Frankfurt.

Condor’s timing of the launch, and pricing of the flights, may have something to do with British Airways deciding to axe its route from London City to Frankfurt from next spring. Checking a range of dates, there appears to be a flat fare of £160 return (including checked baggage. Business travellers (or their companies) will be content with that kind of price. But, for leisure visitors, much cheaper tickets are available over the weekend of 3-6 April from Gatwick. For example, £104 will get you to and from Malaga on easyJet or Bergen on Norwegian.

With more than 500 seats to fill each way, each day, I imagine Condor will soon start discounting seats more widely. Perhaps the German airline will also offer good-value connections at Frankfurt to some of its long-haul destinations, such as Mombasa and Zanzibar in East Africa. But whatever the outcome, Condor’s striking livery – bright hoops wrapping around the aircraft fuselage – will perk up plane spotting at Gatwick next summer.

Our readers enjoyed their Virgin cruise – but were dismayed to find their departure from the US hadn’t been registered (Getty)

Q My wife and I enjoy Virgin cruises (I really think they are a breath of fresh air to the cruise world) especially their positioning voyages. We took one in May from Miami to Barcelona. A few months later, we received an email from the US authorities, stating we had overstayed our visit and were considered to still be in the US. Despite several emails to them showing the Virgin confirmation that we had indeed left the US, all we get is that “the case is closed”. Have you heard of this before, and do you have any idea in what way I should proceed? My big concern is that if we return to the US, we may be carted away to one of Mr Trump’s detention centres. Alan R

A As with the UK, travellers leaving the US do not have their passports checked – except by the airline, cruise line or rail firm. This information is passed on to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), but I am aware of many cases in which a departure is not properly recorded. CBP has a useful website, i94/cbp/dhs.gov, on which you should click on “View Travel History”. Fill in your name, date of birth and passport number, and you will be immediately presented with a list of arrivals and departures.

As the authorities say your case is closed, I hope the CBP record will show your departure from Miami. If not, the next step is to contact the US government’s “Traveler Redress Inquiry Program” at dhs.gov/trip. This is a straightforward process. The authorities say: “Evidence of departure can include, but is not limited to, foreign entry stamps in a passport, transportation tickets, pay stubs, and/or other similar documentation.”

Hopefully you will clear up the issue. To be doubly sure, I suggest you apply for another Esta before your next trip; if it is granted, that is a good indication that the issue has been cleared up. But pack some evidence of your departure from the US, just in case you are invited to “Secondary” for some more probing questions.

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