This was a good question, it got good answers, and your follow-up questions were perhaps even better. I think they will help a lot of people.

The little "interview" in the UK allows them to photograph you and compare your face to their database of people who have previously entered the UK. At the same time, it allow the Border Control officer to assess your demeanor.

I am old and well-off and have visited the UK many times. Still, I am always asked the purpose of my visit and where I will be staying. When I am staying with friends or at an apartment, they ask the address. When we stay at hotels, the name of the hotel, the street and the city are enough.

I wandered around in Croatia for two days spending expensive euros before I found a bank machine that would give me nice cheap kuna on my Capital One card. Now I try to keep enough cash for a day if my card gets swallowed or stolen.

And if it's all on your phone, where are you if your phone gets stolen? At home, you are just a random woman (no offense); when you are abroad, you are a target. Even if they catch the crooks, you aren't going to be around to testify. It changes the dynamic.

You are no more a target when abroad than at home.

Nevertheless a hard copy is useful to have just in case. You should certainly know the name and address of your first hotel in the UK and either Germany or Italy, whichever one you land in first, unless of course the UK part of the trip is in the middle in which case you will need both.

At home I drive everywhere. When I travel I take public transport. I am much more of a target when I travel.

<I guess what I'm really wondering- I'm assuming you fill out paperwork before landing or something- so you list ALL of your destinations or just your immediate destination?>

There's a very short little card that most airlines will give you on the plane--sometimes shortly after takeoff, sometimes shortly before landing. You fill that out and bring it with you.

The questions on the card are different for every country--I don't remember Germany's specifically, or maybe it's an EU card. But the address of your first destination is often asked--you put your hotel. No need to give all the hotels and destinations unless, of course, the agent asks you. I have never been asked for all that, but they are the law and can ask whatever they feel like asking.

I have never been questioned about proof of funds upon entry, even when quite young, and have never even considered bringing a bank statement.

I do carry printouts of my itinerary, although I usually use my phone, because electronics can fail.

Btw, the immigration card will also ask your passport number and expiration date and the carrier and flight you entered on, without fail, IME.

When I travel, I make up an itinerary sheet - just a 1 pager - it has my flight info, any pre-purchased ground transport, names and addresses of anywhere I will be staying with dates, and my contact info. I keep a copy of that sheet with me for my own reference and I put a copy in my luggage.

I do the same thing as Novembermoon, I make an itinerary with all my info on it -- flights, hotel reservations, train reservations, etc. I print several copies, keeping one on me, one in my carryon, etc. I refer to this all the time. Also, I email it to some contacts (person watching my house, relative) so they know where I am, you never know when some emergency can happen, either abroad or at home.

I am always stunned by people who travel and cannot do anything if their phone doesn't work, or gets lost or stolen or (shocking, I know) they don't have it on them. Sometimes phones can not work, also, or no Wifi, lots of things. People who cannot move withought having a phone to tell them what metro line to use, also, stuff like that.

I don't know why anyone who makes plans & reservations would not also make themselves an itinerary as they do so, so simple & sensible. And print 3 copies while they're at it - one for each piece they carry. I can understand it if there's no fixed itinerary, a wandering sort of open-ended traveling as I've done on occasion. But I want to write it, print it and forget it. I can refer to it when I need to but not have to devote brain cells to keeping track when I'd much rather think of more interesting things. Just thinking about it when I see it mentioned several more times, as if anyone doesn't. I guess there must be some who don't, or didn't and now do and figure it's worth mentioning.

I don't see anything wrong with using your phone for everything--it's not inherently worse than using paper for everything. The issue is having a backup in case something goes wrong with your Plan A, whatever your preferred Plan A may be.

By the way, if you have a US passport, you can enroll for free for EasyPass and use the automated passport control gates in Germany.
http://www.easypass.de/EasyPass/EN/E.../rtp_node.html

The only other difference between me or other EU citizens who can use that without prior registration anyway and US citizens seems to be that an agent will open the last door for you manually to give you an entry/exit stamp in your passport.
Still could be quicker than lining up at staffed passport control.

<i> Usually the people that get asked all these questions are yong people who look like they don't have much money and as if they may be coming to stay with a boy or girlfriend or try to get a job there and/or end up a charge on the public benefit systems. </i>

My daughter, traveling with her 10-year-old child, was asked a lot of very detailed questions at immigration in Dublin two weeks ago. They even asked the child a number of questions, maybe checking up on the mother's responses? My daughter is a 40-year-old college professor, but she's non-white.

I once was delayed for over an hour at Boston airport because I didn't know the address of where I was staying. My daughter (who was waiting for me outside in the arrivals hall) had reserved a B&B for me and I didn't know the name. She had just moved and I didn't know her address either. They put me in a special line, where I had to wait nearly an hour to be interviewed. They wouldn't let me call my daughter to ask the name of the place. I might still be there, but I got the bright idea to say something like, "I think it had "Orchard" in the name." The agent pulled out a phone book, said, "Is it Orchard Place B&B?" (or something like that), and I replied, "That's it!"

There's no immigration card to fill out for Italy (Schengen), nor for Ireland (non-Schengen). I don't remember one for France, Germany, or the Netherlands (all Schengen countries) either, but I wouldn't want to swear to that. I've passed through these places as a transit passenger in recent years, and immigration is always in the first Schengen country you reach, if transiting to another Schengen country.

I usually put all the crucial information about flights, car rentals, hotels, concert tickets, and museum reservations on a single sheet of paper, in order by date, and print that out. I copy the pertinent lines from each confirmation as it arrives and paste it into my document. Most confirmations are full of boilerplate, and I don't want to carry all that paper around. Also, it makes it easy to find each item quickly. I keep the originals of the confirmations in a Dropbox folder so that I can access them from any computer.

@NewBe - guess you didn't read this on why relying on your phone is a bad idea:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...omment-9696526

There is immigration card (landing card) to complete for UK if you are a non-EEA citizen. You need to enter among other things your full contact address in UK, so you should have your hotel/accommodation details at hand.

thursdaysd, that's this thread. And yes, I rely on my phone. Many people do. I also prepare a Plan B in case my phone dies or gets lost, which is a printed sheet of information. As I said, it doesn't matter which is A and which is B as long as you have both.

Alec, I'm an Italian citizen and have flown a number of times to the UK from Italy. The most recent time was two years ago. I don't remember this landing card, but maybe it's slipped my mind if they distributed it just to non-EEA people on the plane.

Yes, and also there are a stack of them on the channel for non-EEA and Swiss citizens.

>>if they distributed it just to non-EEA people <<

That is what they do . . .

My iPad is usually my back up. Yes, I did paper before iPad and iPhone. I also navigated with paper maps and got lost a lot- so mock me if you like but travel definitely got less stressful post- smart phone