Earlier today, the world lost undoubtedly its most well-traveled monarch with the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. The Telegraph reported that in her 70 years as Queen, Her Majesty has visited at least 117 countries, covering more than a million miles.
What Are All the Awesome Travel Perks When You’re the Queen of the United Kingdom?
According to Vogue, the royal family uses regular commercial airlines for personal vacations. For this reason, Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, may be spotted on a few planes for their polo games or a trip to Los Angeles. If they are traveling for an official state visit, however, they may take a privately chartered flight.
Because the British government has planned ahead financially for just such an event. It is said that the Queen only travels for official purposes, never for pleasure.
The Points Guy claims that royal charter flights are exclusively flown by British Airways. It mentioned, for instance, that she and Prince Phillip had rented a British Airways Boeing 777 for a trip to Australia in 2011. The Queen has rented planes as old as the Concorde and as new as 777s.
For official state affairs, the Queen is entitled to use a military aircraft if she so chooses. According to The Points Guy, the Royal Air Force has an Airbus A330 that has been modified for the Queen’s use. The British Prime Minister and other high-ranking government officials are regular passengers on the plane, it said. That’s a truly awesome travel perk.
Her glamorous trips continue even after she lands.
Not only does the Queen have access to private jets, but also to private trains. Expert on the royal family Robert Jobson told The Express, “Of course, at 92, 93 next birthday, she is not doing more long-haul flights. She did fly in 2015 to Germany by private jet. But the reality is, they use the royal train a lot. She has away days and she still carries them out to the best of her ability.”
Another travel perks of being the Queen is that you do not need a passport while visiting foreign countries. She also did not have to pay any sort of visa fee to enter those countries. This is due to the fact that she was the one responsible for issuing them.
This is what the first page of every British passport reads, in case you’ve never looked at one before: “Her Britannic Majesty’s Secretary of State requests and requires in the name of Her Majesty all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary.”
The Queen can travel without a passport via private plane, train, and automobile whenever she pleased. And if anyone deserves it, it is a monarch who has traveled extensively.
The Queen visited the following countries:
1950s: Panama, Bermuda, Jamaica, Fiji, Tonga, New Zealand, Australia, Cocos Islands, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Yemen, Uganda, Malta, Gibraltar, Norway, Nigeria, Sweden, Portugal, France, Denmark, Canada, United States, The Netherlands, Canada
1960s: India, Pakistan, Nepal, Iran, Italy, Vatican City, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Canada, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Ethiopia, Sudan, Germany, Canada, Barbados, British Guiana, Trinidad & Tobago, Grenada, St Vincent, St Lucia, Dominica, Montserrat, Antigua, St Kitts, Nevis, British Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, The Bahamas, Jamaica, Belgium, Malta, Brazil, Chile, Austria
1970s: Canada, Fiji, Tonga, New Zealand, Australia, Turkey, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Maldives, Seychelles, Mauritius, Kenya, France, Yugoslavia, Cook Islands, Norfolk Island, New Hebrides, British Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Bermuda, Barbados, The Bahamas, Mexico, Jamaica, Hong Kong, Japan, Finland, United States, Luxembourg, Western Samoa, British Virgin Islands, Antigua, Germany, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Oman, Denmark, Tanzania, Malawi, Botswana, Zambia
1980s: Switzerland, Australia, Italy, Vatican City, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Norway, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Canada, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Nauru, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Fiji, Bermuda, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Mexico, Sweden, Cyprus, Kenya, Bangladesh, India, Jordan, Portugal, Belize, The Bahamas, Little Inagua Island, St Kitts-Nevis, Antigua, Dominica, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, Nepal, China, Hong Kong, Spain, Singapore, Malaysia
1990s: New Zealand, Iceland, Canada, United States, Kenya, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Australia, Malta, France, Germany, Hungary, Cyprus, Anguilla, Dominica, Guyana, Belize, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, The Bahamas, Bermuda, Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Thailand, Pakistan, India, Brunei, Malaysia, South Korea, Ghana, South Africa, Mozambique
2000s: Australia, Italy, Norway, Jamaica, New Zealand, Canada, Nigeria, France, Germany, Malta, Singapore, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, The Netherlands, United States, Belgium, Uganda, Turkey, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bermuda, Trinidad and Tobago
2010s: Canada, United States, The United Arab Emirates, Oman, Ireland, Australia, Italy, Vatican City, France, Germany, Malta
