Things to Know About Europe Before You Go
Source: kevindooley at flickr
Many North Americans have dreams of “traveling to Europe”. For some it’s a romantic tour through Italy, and for others its relaxing at a vineyard in the South of France. We all know someone who has been to Paris and loved it, or backpacked through Europe as a young adult. I’m not saying it’s everyone’s dream – it doesn’t have to be – but if you gave 100 people $1 million and asked them to list everything they were going to do, a large percentage would include a trip to Europe on the list.
So if you are planning a trip to Europe for the first time, here’s what you need to know before you go:
1. Don’t Try to Do Too Much
If you arrive in Paris for a one week vacation, you might be tempted to do multiple things in each day. You might think since the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomph, shopping along the Champs D’Elysee, and the Notre Dame cathedral are within a short walk and/or subway ride of each other, you can try to do all that in a single day. To which I say, what’s the point? If you go to Paris for only a week, you’re going to miss out on a lot of good stuff. Don’t try to do too much and enjoy doing less.
2. Don’t Try to Travel Too Much
The other temptation, related to the first, is that you think you can see several cities in a single trip too. Heck, you can fly into London, take the train to Paris, fly down to Nice, drive over to Monaco, do an afternoon in Italy, take the train back to Cannes, end up in Barcelona… and end up seeing nothing of all those great cities. Pick a city (or two) and enjoy your time.
3. They Speak English, But You Should Try to Learn
It’s the stereotypical tourist story, played out on The Amazing Race every once and a while: a couple finds themselves in a taxi, dealing with a non English speaking driver. After some frustration in communication, they exclaim “I don’t understand why doesn’t he speak English?!?” Don’t be like that. In my experience, most people in Europe who deal with tourists speak English. But you will occasionally encounter someone who does not. Bring your patience, make a good humored attempt at trying to communicate, but don’t allow yourself to get frustrated if they can’t understand you. Smile more. Like everything in life, look at it as a learning opportunity. And even if they DO speak English, try to speak a little of the local language (when ordering in a restaurant perhaps). Uno agua fria, por favor. It goes a long way to not being one of “those” types of tourists.
4. Plan, But Don’t Over-Plan
There is such a thing as overplanning. And with the internet and all the great information in guidebooks, it can be very easy to plan your trip down to the last detail. Identify in advance things that are important to you, so that you be sure to get them in. For example, The Louvre and most other European museums are closed on Tuesdays, and so that might be a good day to go to Versailles instead. But Versailles will be busier on Tuesday than a Wednesday as a result. Allow yourself to discover some really neat things naturally. It’s not until you get to Paris that you discover the great vendors and stalls along the river, books, paintings, and antiques – and what a beautiful walk that is on a sunny day. And in fact, each bridge across the river has it’s own history and unique design. Leave time to discover.
5. Hairdryers, Irons, and Electricity
Over the years, my number one difficulty with overseas travel has been electricity. It’s surprisingly difficult to recharge phones, laptops, and cameras. And next to impossible to get North American hairdryers and straightening irons working. I’ve bought a half-dozen transformers, converters and plugs over the years. They break really easily. And I’ve burnt out a laptop cable in the process.
So now, I purchase the European cables for things I need. I have a European cable for my laptop. And my wife has a European hair dryer and straightening iron. It just makes everything easier.
6. You’ll Need Lots of Money
No matter how much I bring, I spend more. Things are just more expensive there. And it’s so easy to say, “We’re on vacation in Barcelona, we should have a nice dinner tonight”. Leave some money in your bank account, and bring your ATM card. Most ATM machines work. A small number do not, but you should have no problem finding ones that do. For some reason, my Canadian bank kept freezing my account. Once a week for our seven week trip I found myself on the phone trying to get it unfrozen. There seems to be no way around that, other than to complain bitterly and perhaps blog about it.
7. Take Public Transit
Don’t be afraid to step on the subway. Most European cities have very nice subways systems that will take you almost anywhere – better than Toronto’s for sure. No need to take expensive taxis everywhere you go. Take the subway. It’s also an adventure. I’ve taken the train from the CDG airport into downtown. Many cities (Hong Kong, Paris, and London for example) have fast, comfortable, cheap, transit from the airport.
8. Those Touristy Double Decker Tour Buses Are Worth It
Whenever I visit a city for the first time, the first thing I do is take a double-decker tour. So for $25, you can spend an entire day being driven around the new city and see pretty much everything there is to see. Some have guides announcing the sites, many are tape recorded. Many allow you to get off and get on later in the day (“hop on, hop off”). For the majority of the week, you’re on your own to explore. But let a tour guide lead you the first day. And from there, you can see what you want to go back to, and what you don’t.
We did La Sagrada Familia from a tour bus stop, and knew fairly quickly it was nice but 30 minutes was about enough to see it. Can you imagine if we had planned a whole afternoon just to see that?
9. Internet Phone Places
Don’t try calling home from your hotel, and don’t buy a phone card. Find an Internet cafe that has phone service. For just pennies per minute, you can call back home. I used this when calling my bank and dealing with them for 30 minutes at a time. I bet my mother got tired of me calling (not that she ever would). Seriously, don’t get ripped off calling home.
10. Use a Travel Agent Sometimes
When we were trying to get to Ibiza from Javea, going to the web site showed that the boat tickets were sold out. I also had difficulty dealing with the web sites that were in Spanish. It was confusing, and I knew I was going to make a mistake. On a whim, I walked into a local travel agency in Javea, just off the beach, and the guy called a friend, and got us tickets on the boat that was sold out. Later, when we wanted to go back to Nerja, he got us into a hotel for one night that advertised “minimum 3 night stay” on its web site. It wasn’t that he was a miracle worker, it was that he was experienced and spoke the language. Could I have called the hotel and asked in English if I could stay only one night? Perhaps. But I wouldn’t have thought to.
That’s not a comprehensive list I guess. But it should take some of the fear of going to Europe. Above all, allow yourself to have fun.
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