Cas

Hello! I am travelling to Europe in the fall and have a few questions for anyone who has been there recently.<BR>1) What did you do for money?<BR>2) Was it easy to use a credit of debit card?<BR>3) Is it easy to get Euros while you are there?<BR>4) Did you carry money around with you and if so did you feel safe doing this? <BR>5) Are the hotel safes actually safe?<BR><BR>We are unsure of how much money we will need and don't fell comfortable carrying tooo much cash on us. Any one who can answer any of these would be a great help.<BR><BR>Thank you<BR>Cas

Anonyimouse

1. Used cash and credit cards.<BR>2. Yes.<BR>3. Yes, as long as you're in countries that use the Euro for currency -- they even come out of ATM machines. For example, Switzerland is not part of the EU and uses Swiss Francs.<BR>4. Yes, and yes, but be aware of your surroundings. Use a money belt if you feel more comfortable. Keep your wallet in your front pocket. Keep your purse in front of you. Don't put valuables in a backpack.<BR>5. Yes, and some hotels have in-room safes, otherwise, you can ask to keep your valuables in the hotel safe.<BR>

dl

How do you know if hotel safes are safe?<BR>Obviously they will have access to it, there are shady people who run hotels.

x

dl, how do I know that the post office box at the US Post Office or at Mail Boxes, Etc. is safe? Many businesses and individuals rent them, and there are unscrupulous employees everywhere. You've got to trust some things, otherwise stay home.

CAS

Thank you very much for your help.We really don't know how much money to bring with us as we will be moving around a lot on the train and staying where ever/whenever. We will be in Europe 16 days. <BR>For anyone who has been to Europe in the fall. Do you think that in September we will have any trouble finding hotels in Germany (Frankfurt, Berlin, Heidelburg), Belgium (Brussels, Antwerp) Austria (Vienna) ?<BR>Thanks Cas<BR>

mark

It seems to me that you aren't too familiar with Europe. If you were, you wouldn't be asking some pretty elementary questions about money and other things.<BR><BR>If you are planning to use the trains, you will be forced to use the hotels that are available in the cities where the trains stop. Even thought he room reservation office is almost guaranteed to have something for you, you may not be overly pleased with what may be left.<BR><BR>That means that you will be stuck paying for whatever is left. It would make great sense for you to do some research and make some reservations for your trip.<BR><BR>There are plenty of excellent ideas on Fodor's. Check out some of these itenaries and start looking for hotels in those towns. It sounds like you are inexperienced in Eurpoean travel. Not quite sure how flexible you are willing to be.<BR><BR>Find a few towns that you are planning to visit. Go on the internet, type in the name of the town and then follow the town with a ".de". You will usually end up on the internet site for that town. Click on tourism, and then navigate into the hotel section of the tourist part. You'll find plenty of info to review.<BR><BR>You have nearly 8 weeks to figure something out. Good luck<BR><BR>Mark<BR><BR>P.S. If you want to get an idea of where i am taking my group of 11, e-mail me. I'll give you an idea of where I am going. I'll be there from thw 19th of Sept to the 4th of October.<BR><BR>Good luck

Dick Yeager

Regarding in-room hotel safes; they seem to be very secure. One we had you swiped your credit card to open it and again to lock it. Another had a method to enter your own 4 diget code, much like a pin number. Very secure.<BR><BR>One thing I do not understand, why do people walk around Europe carrying their wallets? You only need them for your driving license when you are actually driving. The rest of the time keep your cash for the day, a credit card and your ATM card (when it is needed)in your front pants pocket. <BR><BR>The only other thing you need to carry is a PHOTOCOPY of your passport. Your most vunerable pockets for picking, your back pockets, are pretty free of anything.<BR><BR>Your actual passport, wallet, airplane tickets, car keys, extra cash, etc. go in the safe.<BR><BR>Pretty simple.<BR><BR>Dick

Bob Brown

The web is such a great planning tool, I would scout out and reserve my hotel before I got there, particular the major cities where there is an active business community. The business men know the better hotels and that is where they go. For example, the Astoria in Munich is very popular with business people, and it stays full because it is a good value. Not many tourists were there that I could identify. I think we were one of the few Americans there. The same is true of the Hotel Carlton Opera in Vienna. It is just off of the Ring, and it is a good value for the money. Both it and the Astoria serve a banquet at breakfast. Geez what a spread!!<BR><BR>For money, I arrive with a little local currency in my passport case; just enough not to be at the mercy of the ATM at the airport. Once in town, I find an ATM and take out enough currency for 3 or 4 days.<BR>I rely mostly on my credit card -- one from MBNA because it does not tack on an extra 2% like other major card issuers. By using my credit card, I don't have to carry large amounts of paper money. Of course, it is a valuable possession!! <BR>I also have an emergency reserve of traveler's checks as a doomsday type of defense. I have used one of them so far because the ATM at the Zurich airport train station was not working and I had no time to look for another one.<BR><BR>

lisa

We went to Europe last fall and used our debit and credit card everywhere.<BR><BR>We let our bank and credit card company know the dates of our travel so they would not block our cards...got cash for each day from the ATM's - only carry the amount of cash you can afford to loose...and, used undergarment money belts to carry our passport. We had an incident on the metro in Paris where pickpockets "attacked" - but, they did not get anything because it was at the end of our day, and all but some change was gone from our pockets...nonetheless it was a little frightening.<BR><BR>We used the hotel safe - no problem at all.

lisa

P.S. - Ditto on the emergency reserve traveler's checks!

Jane

We have found the in-room safes and hotel safes to be very secure. We had no problems using debit or visa cards in Paris or in 'germany, can't say about others. Carrying money in Europe is the same, as far as I can tell, as in the U.S. I wouldn't carry large sums either place. Yes to the Eurs. Enjoy your trip!

fred

Cas, My wife and i traveled for a month in germany this last May. We took along with us 300 Euro's to get us started and away from the airport. The rest of the time we used our credit cards or went to the ATM every morning and got out the amount of cash that we thought we would need that day. That way if we were ran into a problem we had very little cash with us. We have been to Europe several times and have never had a problem. Fred