Food (10)

Food will surely be a major part of your European experience. Making the most of this experience may require familiarization with the native landscape. Take recommendation for guide books, friends, site guides, hotel conoseiur or front desk staff. Unfortunately, all the aforementioned recommenders most often guide you to the heart of tourist food areas. As an evolving traveler we want to bypass these locations when possible, so we can experience authentic food of the destination. If you have a gift of gab, you can get recommendations for eating from locals. This may take into areas where English is not as widely used, so your survival language skills may come in hand.

On arrivals, travelers need to make preparation for the stay. The first task is to determine the location of the nearest grocery store were locals shop. Your hotel desk can direct you to this location. You will want to stock up traveler staples that you would surely pay a premium for if you purchase on the run.

• Bottle water
  
• Snacks Batteries
  
• Fruit
  
• Toiletries
  
• Alcohol
  

Eating out in Europe is an experience beyond the food. The city streets are littered with cafes, restaurants, street vendors. Take your time to experience all it has to offer. You should probably plan around your budget.

Cafes - provide a social experience for local and tourist alike. Eating here in tourist areas provide limited fair. Some offer formula menus that cater to tourist. This make exploring less of an Restaurants Street side Americana If you have a sensitive stomach, don't forget your digestive aids. I can assure that will eventually run into a dish that will disrupt things.

Note: Tipping is not held in the same regard as in the US. In most European countries tipping is not required or even suggested. Tipping is reserved only for extraordinary service if even acceptable, but not at US percentages. Ten percent would be reasonable.

Security (9)

Your saftey should be your top priority when traveling internationally. Your safty plan should include well

Utilize some type of money and identification holder that can be worn on you. There are several style that can be worn as belts, over shoulder wallets or packs. It is an added benefit if it can be concealed under your clothing.

Make photo copies of vital documents including passport, drivers license, VISA and leave at hotel, preferably in a safe. Also make a contact list that includes: Banks, Credit Card Companies, Insurance, Doctor, Lawyer, and Pharmacy. Store this list on your and on paper companies that remain at your hotel.

Be informed about saftey at every level of your travel.
Country: Visit http://www.kevincoffee.com/airlines/suggested_sites.htm
City and Local: Discuss with hotel repsresentative your plans in visiting local areas. Ask specifically for places of safty concern and what are the particular threats.

Have regular intervals to checkin, specific meeting places and times
If traveling alone update someone at home as to your daily plans, by email, text or phone. Also establish contact interval.

(8) Media and Communications

Travelers have no choice but to embrace the digitial age inwhich we are living. Bits and bytes are impacting travel just as much as any other part of our lives. The successful mastery of the tools, technologies and techniques of the savvy digital travel can substantially enhance your travel experience.

The tools of the digital traveler are evloving at a rapid pace. New technology quickly becomes old and convergence conintuely blurs the lines between tools. This means selecting the right tools and utilizing them effectively may require some updating your sphere of technology knowledge and understanding.

There are loads electronic and gadgets that you can possibly add to your digital travel bag. Most may already possess, so we can guide you to maximize the potential of your travel technology. Most technology gadgets discussed here perform or aid in your use of media and communications.

Tools of the trade:
Cell phones
Digital Camera
Video
GPS
Battery Recharger
Digital Music Player
Voice Recorder
Headphones
Computer

Media



Communications


Media

(7) Speaking the language

American tourist are notorious their arogant assumption that the rest of the world speaks English. As wanna-be traverlers we can never be accussed of the rude American, because we always minimally master survival language skills of our distination country.

Survival language skills
Courtesies
Direction and transportation
Purchase transaction
Food - indentifying and ordering. Foods you are alergic too.

Determine amount of English spoken in your destination city. See chart below. This can vary greatly from country to country. Mandatory that you are able to ask, "Do you speak English". Outside of the major cities the English speaking rate substantially decreases. Try these options if you definately have to speak in English.

Young people
Hotel desk personel
Attraction host and tour guides
Resteraunt Host and Wait staff
Police

Even in English speaking countries it is important to know dailectic differences in words

(6) Money Changers

You will have ample opportunities to spend money during your Europeon travels. Unfortunately, you can loose money as your purchases are translated from U.S. dollars to foriegn dollars. Your spending plan needs to include a strategy to minimize fees related to credit purchases and acquiring foriegn currency.

Your credit card my be the best option to make purchases above nominal amounts.

• Insurance
• Automatically exchanged a current market rate
• Itemmized purchases

Debit cards provide the best cash access option. If your card has a VISA option, you can "kill two birds with one stone." Having your credit and cash card in one.

Your local airport provide your best option for your start up foriegn currency.

Other cash options:

• Money Exchange Kiosk
• Banks
• Cashiers Checks
• Hotels

Addtional Tips

• Don't carry too much cash
• Carry 3 cards, credit and debit on you and a credit card safely stored at your hotel
• Monitor your cards closely during and after return - make sure you have contact information for your bank and credit card companies.

(5) Shopping

Shopping is the likely a hightlight for some travelers. Making the most of this experience may require familiarization with the native landscape. Take recommendation from guide books, friends, site guides, hotel desk. Unfortunely, all the afformentioned recommenders most often guide you to the heart of tourist shopping areas. Experienced travelers seek shopping excursion off the beaten path. If you can get recomendations for shopping from locals. This may take youinto areas where English is not as widely used, so your survival language skills may come in hand.

Eating out in Europe is an experience beyond the food. The city streets are litered with cafes, resteraunts, street vendors. Take your time to experience all it has to offer. You should probably plan around your budget.

Cafes - provide a social experience for local and tourist alike. Eating here in tourist areas provide limited fair. Some offer formula menus that cater to toruist. This make exploring less of an Resteraunts Street side Americana If you have a sensitive stomach, don't forget your digestive aids. I can assure that will eventually run into a dish that will disrupt things.

Note: Tipping is not held in the same regard as in the US. In most Eurpeon countries tipping is not required or even suggested. If tipping for extraordinary service is acceptable, but not at US percentages. Ten percent would be reasonable.

Shopping The current economic climate does not suggest that you will find extreme bargins in Europe. The US dollar is not holding its own to the Euro or the Pound. You will need a plan to create value if your shopping agenda is not limited to window shopping, suverneiers or money is not an issue. Here are some suggestion for the serious shopper

1. Have an idea of what you would pay for the same items at home (perfume, purses, alchol, etc.). This would be deficult to do for most items. In these cases you must be a good judge of quality and value in the area of your purchase. Also, a certain amount of value can be attributed to items that you just can't find in the US.

2. Consider exchange rates and possible cost to get it home (luggage count and weight).

3. Carry a backpack or duffle to secure your purchases

4. Purchase on your credit card to inact its purchase insurance

5. Determine if hangling is custom in shops and markets.

(4) Sightseing Guide

Seeing the sights in your distination city should not be a hit and miss expedition. A little planning will go a long way. I would suggest starting with a city travel guide book. This or similar books are available at your local book store or library. This will help you outline your main sight seeing hit list. Also search web travel sights, particularly those with forums with contributed feedback from other visitors. Talk to your acqaintences or even aquaintences of aquantences who have visited your destination cities. Even strangers will gladly share there travel experiences, because most the poeple they know are tired of hearing about it :) Aquatences and forums can often offer hotspots that are not documented by mainstream publications. If there is no time for preplanning you can visit the local tourist office in major cities. They are usually located near central train stations. Here you will find guidence and brochures for everything you can to or see in the desitination city. They even provide booking services.

Getting around
My stategy for touring major cities on a first visit is to start with the Tour Bus. These take you directly to most major sites and offer passes of 1-3 days that you unlimited boarding. This means that you can get on and off along the routes as often as you wish. They also provide mult-lingual tour nariations via audio headphones. No time wasted exploring the transportation system. But once you are aclimated and have hit most of the major sites, I suggest getting a full access local transit pass. These passes provide you full access to metro areas trains and buses. You can get a transit map and plan you visit to location outside of major tour routes or revisit areas you previously visited by tour bus.

Many Eurpeon cities have navigable waterways. Water tours or taxis provide a viable option for getting in reach of city sites.

All inclusive tours
Private Tours
Rickersham
Bicycle rental
Car rental - I don't recommend unless you plan to venture far outside of the central city.

The sites
Many of your sightseeing desitations may have free access. Or just seeing sights without venturing inside may be enough for you. This this will surely not be the case for all sites. You can economize your site visits by purchasing tour packages or simple passes that permit access to a number of sites for one price. Some passes even include access to local transit along with admissions fees.

(3) Lodging

Finding a place to rest your head should not require 5 star accomodations for a traverler. Most traverlers spend very little time in there hotel rooms, so top requirements tend to be safty, location, and cleanlyness. Warning: the Eurpeon hotel rating system is not equilvilent to US rating. It would fair to discount Eurpean hotel 1 star to match US expectations. Likewise don't depend entirely on ratings. You could fall in love with a 2 star and hate a for star. You will be able to find both professional and guest review of many lodging options. Guest reviews are especially helpful in flushing out the truth about the accomodations.

Location will likely be a heavily weighted criteria in determining your lodging choice. Proximaty to major attraction is significant because you will also find many food and entertainment option in these areas. Accessibity to main transit lines could eliminate the need to be in the middle of the hussle and bussle, but night owls have to remember that few transit options run 24 hours.

Your stay does not have to limited to hotels accomations. Eurpeon cities offer a host of alternative accomodations.

Hostel

Boats

Bed and breakfast

Home Rentals

Questions to ask...
Is bathroom private?
Proximity to major attractions?
Proximaty to main transit lines?
Is breakfast included?
Is internet access available and $?
Cost of local calls?
Is there a charge for incomming calls?
What are desk operation hours?

(2) Getting There

There are three variable to consider in your destination travel planning.

Time
International travel to Europe will take a minimum of 8 hours by air. Air is the only realistic consideration for transatlantic travel. And the focus of this blog is traveling in Europe not Cruising the Atlantic. But once you hit land in Europe your inter or intra country transportation option are considerable. You can opt for air, train, or boat.

Air - has shortest actual travel time, but when airport travel and pre-depature time is calculated, some routes could actually be faster using other modes of transportion.

Train - stations featuring high speed trains are usually centrally located in most Eurpeon cities. In most cases requires less travel time to the station. Also stations have considerably less pre-departure rituals, so you don't have to arrive 2 hours before departure.

Boat - Surprisely you can get to many Eurpeon distinations by sea. But, unfortunely you will have to find other transport modes if the central city is your final distination. If time is of esssense you should seek out the high speed hoover craft, otherwise consider day or overnight leasure cruises. Can be most time effective when traveling to coastal locations over shorter distances.


Cost
Air - surprisingly cost can range much lower than other modes with advance purchase.

Train - train travel may prove more expensive if individual tickets are purchased, but very cost effective when passes with set or flexible destination. These tickets have open departure dates and have experations of day or months.

Boat - can find attractive pricing during low seasons.

Experience
Air - most american have probably been over exposed to air travel so the only novelty of Eurpeon travel would be limited to the brief scape views during take off and landding.

Train - probably provide the most comfortable travel and scenic views. Save your daylight travel on sleeper trains

Boat - this can be a very pleasant experiece depending on the sea conditions. There are a wide range of comforts and adminities depending on the shipping options you choose

Other transportation consideration
Car rentals - if you enjoy car travel and can quickly adjust to Europen driven rules this may be an option for you. Don't forget your GPS.

Take your car along - some train and boats allow you to bring a care along, but for most american travelers. This would require car rental.

Luggage regs - intra/inter country air travel can have more restrctive baggage wieght limits. Ship and train wieght requirements are less restrictive, but check for specifics.

Booking Transportion
There are a large number of sites to book travel to and within Europe. Her are my favorites.

Air
So many airlines and booking agents to choose from suggest an alternative of a search engine. Travel search enginges search most airlines and agents but don't provide purchase options, only links to providers. The best of these are...'
www.kayak.com
www.sidekick.com

Train


Boat

(1) Packing Essentials

The starting point of the evolution from tourist to traveler starts with packing for your trip.

Packing
What goes in your luggage can help or haunt you during your travels. This can be an even tougher decision when considering more than 1 traverler. You must be willing sacrafice in the name of neccity and utility for your long term sanity and satisfaction.

Most international airports have free access to baggage carts. Porters seem to only be available in US airports. Portability and utility should be a chief criteria in choosing your luggage, because you surely find yourself lugging luggage places besides airports and you don't want to be over burdened by your luggage.

Types of Luggage

Wheel based drag or the the new walk beside luggage work best for larger pieces. Backpacks and duffles also have great utility for travelers, but most require you to bare the full burden.

• Standard
• Drag
• Walk along
• Backpack - they can be used as carry-on, shopping expidtions, or tour excursion. The many conpartments will serve you well by organizing item for quick access.
• Duffles-duffles are must have travel accessories. They can be stored initally practically no weight or space in your luggage. They can be used during your trip as laundry or shopping bags. On your return you have an additonal luggage. They come in many shapes and sizes, some double as backpacks.
  
• Both duffles and backpacks have great utility inflight or around town. You can secure items you don't want out of your sight, mobile entertainment, personal care items, and snacks
  
  
  Packing liquids
  Most airport either ban or retrict liguids in carry-on. You can re-fill regulation conforming travel size bottles with your ligquids for carry-on. But i also recomend using down sizing items to travel size or portions by using bottles, baggies or other travel size containers.
  Washing Power, Bleach, hair care,
  
  Warning: unpressurized luggage compartments can open your sealed liguid items. So store are liquid items in sealed zip lock bags with like items or items that would not be dammaged if a mishaps happens.
  .
  
  Baggage Requirements
  Simply packing too much is the most common mistake of the tourist wannabe traveler. This could cost your wallet dearly. Airlines can impose helfty penalties for luggage exceeding limits in size, weight or count. Check your ticket confirmation details for baggage regulations. This can vary greatly by airlines. Short haul Eurpeon airlines have more strengent baggage requirements. Warning! Your shopping habits can cost you on your return. Consider the additional baggage and weight that your shopping could contribute.
  
  Your packing must also adhere to airport security, inwhich rules and enforcement that can vary among airports. It would be wise to plan based on the more strengent airport security. Here are some tips to lighten your load:
  
  1. Check departing airport security rules.
  2. You can utilize airport lockers for your uneeded baggage, if you are returning to the same airport on a inter-Europe flight
  2. Check all liguid personal care or repack liquids in regulation bottles to be included in carry-on.
  3. Wash and wear and wrinkle free cloting
  4. Hand wash and radiator try cloting
  5. Pack a colaspable duffle to store contributions from your shopping spree.
  6. Pack liguids in sealable backages
  8. Wash clothes - this item does not seem to included in most Europeon hotels.
  
  
  Travel Adaptors
  Not having a travel adapter or getting the wrong one could cut off currents to your electrical travel companions. Eletrical outlets in most countries not only have different interfaces (plugs), but also have different voltage requirements. So you may need adapter plugs and a voltage regulator or a device that combines both.
  
  
  
• Adaptors- changes foriegns plug interfaces to accept US plugs. Adaptors can be purchased individually or in packs that include several different adaptors.
• Voltage Regulator - adjust voltage received by appliance either up or down automatically or by manual controls.
• Cobination devices - these device include both voltage regulation and a single or multiple adaptors (swiss snife).

About My Travel Blog

I was inspired by the successes and failures of my recent Eurpeon vacation to let the world in on my lessons learned. I have only traveled to a few Europeon destination, so I am no travel expert. But being the highly analytically (impulsively analytical) person I am, my thoughts often provide great insight into confusing or complex topics. It is my gift :)

Travelprocity? This name represents my reciprocal intent of this blog. I expect viewers to makeup for my like of travel experience by posing there own tested travel tips. I hope the reciprocity encoraged by my blog will help all visitors to more sucessfully navigate there journies around the world.

Where I have been:

• Paris (2)
• Amsterdam (2)
• London
• Nice
• Barcelona

I will address what I consider as my 10 most importantant travel considerations.

1. Packing Essentials
2. Monitary Fund
3. Transportation Plans
4. Touring Guide
5. Speaking the Language
6. Logging
7. Food and Shopping
8. Security
9. Media & Communications
10. Other