Several of us are flying (many of us on FF miles) to Amsterdam for 3 nights and Greece for 2 weeks in mid-April. I have been reading posts about how folks are feeling about the shrinking dollar. How about some upbeat and creative ways to stretch that Euro in Europe?

I know that a few of the things I did were to pay on some the hotels in advance by booking through Expedia. Also, many hotels give a significant discount when you pay in Euro cash.

We also have a 'savings' account that we deposit into monthly so that by the time we get back in early May we have funds earmarked for the credit card payments that come in. It's a lot easier to make smaller monthly payments in advance into a special saving then to get slammed with a huge credit card bill in the end.

We also prepaid our inter-Greece flights.

Any other suggestions to help ease the pain of a shocking exchange rate? Thanks!!

There are quite a few threads here on this topic...

To add a few...Priceline for hotels, appartment instead of hotel, public transit instead of taxis/shuttles, use ATM for currency, travel off-season...

Probably my suggestions won't go over, because I am, of necessity, an extreme budgeteer .... in Greece I find and stay in small family-run hotels in the islands for 30-40E per double, and in Athens (Plaka) 70E per double --I'd guess your rooms are multiples of that. My small hotels use Credit card #s to hold reservations but want us to pay in cash, to avoid the % that the CCs charge them, since their room rates are so low.

YOU can also save 2-3% by going to ATMs and paying in cash rather than charging. Also, small Greek tavernas where u can get a dinner for 10-12 Euros don't take credit cards, same reason as above.

Other 'tightwad' strategies for Greece:

(1) are u like me, a big coffee drinker? (with my Scandinavian DNA I need 12 Oz to start my day!) Coffee has been one items with the MOST increased cost in Greece-- 2-2.5E per small cup, no refills. If you are in budget hotels w. no included breakfast, consider carrying your own (steel) thermos, an immersion heater & yr own coffee/teabags. In 3 mornings I repaid the cost of the immersion thing!

(2) When ordering side-dishes in tavernas, realize that Greeks don't understand the concept of one- person dining. Thus ALL side-dishes are large, for sharing. A "Greek salad" (village salad) is HUGE, as are all other side dishes.

(3) Instead of wasting time sitting in a taverna for lunch, shop at wonderful local markets for cheese, olives, tomatoes, apricots, cherries, fresh rolls -- you can keep everything cold because most rooms have tiny Fridges for your convenience. THen you can picnic for lunch, sitting on a ruin overlooking the sea, at 4E per person rather than 10E in a taverna.

(5) Instead of paying 60¢ - 1,5€ for each SMALL water bottle, each of you buy your own HUGE 2-liter bottle at that local grocery for 80¢, put it in that little fridge and refill your small 'daybag' bottle from it.

(6) On some isles (like Santorini) local water is desalinated and barely potable, thus bottled water is necessary at restaurants. On other isles such as Crete & Naxos fresh spring are actually used by the bottled water companies! Thus, at such islands, u can just ask the water for a pitcher of water instead -- saves you 2€ amongst you per meal.

(7) Also Realize that the Med is very "over-fished" and thus most fish on menu is VERY expensive -- the best (and most reasonable) menu items are slow-roasted Lamb, chicken, pork, divine stuffed veggies.

(8) investigate local bus systems; some of them are excellent at least by day. Example: mykonos & Naxos. Paros, not so good. Use taxis sparingly.

(9) If u rent a car, make the driver someone who can drive stick-shift. Automatics are scarce and as much as 50% more costly.

... how's that for a start?? Too downmarket? I'm here to tell you it works -- I travel to Greece almost every year on 60-65 Euros per day, and stay in hotels with balconies, pvt marble bath, convenient locales and super views. And I eat my head off (and never gain a pound, because everything in Greece is up hill!!).

Forgive typos... as an editor I should always proofread my entries! in #6, it's ask the WAITER.

TravelerJan:
Some great suggestions and info -- applicable to more than Greece. Thanx for sharing.

Travelerjan offers some great suggestions for Greece.

Greek dining is usually family style, so you can order one Greek salad to share among two or three people. If there are several of you eating together, all the better. You can order two or three (or more) different starters to share among everyone at the table. All you need to order individually is the main course.

Don't forget bakeries as a good source of cheap food. They open early in the morning, so you can get croissants, cheese rolls, or other rolls and pasteries for breakfast along with the coffee you make in your room.

Bakeries also prepare sandwiches which you can buy for lunch.

Being a skinflint, I pack enough sunblock in my suitcase to last the trip (I hate paying around €15 for a bottle of European suncream when Coppertone is so much cheaper). Rather than paying for a sun lounger on the beach, I buy a cheap straw mat to spread out on the sand.

Wow! Thanks! Keep 'em coming!! How about siteseeing with 8 people. We are in Athens, Santorini and Chania.

How about tipping (hotel room, restaurant, cab)? What's the deal on that?

But wait..there's more! Good call on the coffee? What about bringing my own ground coffee, filters, cone and tea bags. I do when I go to Mexico. I need my coffee!!

Eight people? You should probably read some threads here about travelling in groups. Unless you've travelled with these people before...there are some "good" stories about what can go wrong when people with different expectations go travelling together. That may be a more important set of tips than saving money (saving sanity?)

I recently saw a traveller's french press for coffee - portable and unbreakable. Then just buy local coffee, or I guess bring your own. It's going in my suitcase in April to Croatia. I have a small Sigg thermos for bringing water or wine for a picnic, it's perfect.

Seeksocean, from your responses, it sounds as if you do not have a guidebook. Any decent guidebook will have a section on eating, drinking, tipping... what kinds of restaurants are expensive which are cheap.

Since you sound as if you want to save money, I would recommend ROUGH GUIDE -- it is extremely thorough, tho NOT tarted up with tons of color photos which u can get on the internet anyway. ROUGH GUIDES instead spends its money on good writer/ researchers and enough pages to cover things in detail.

Speaking of money, the 8 of you will be spending at least $25,000 on this trip (or the equivalent, since you hve ff miles), so why not spend $24.99 on a guide book? Go to Barnes & NOble and browse. With One like Rough Guide I recommend ripping otu just the sections u want to take... and Xerox the town maps of Chania, Athens etc (or ones off the internet) for each member of your party, so one person does not have to be "Map Mommy".

About group travel, that is a whole other subject, too big to handle here. E-mail me, or open another post with this topic. Happy planning!

Vote Clinton!

Lodging & food is a substantial expense in any vacation that could, with good research, be minimize quite a bit. Definitely look into apartment/house rental. You save in lodging, transportation, meals, tipping, and logistics.

Thanks for all the responses. especially from you, TravelerJan. I have always appreciated your posts.

Six of the eight of us have traveled together several times and are road worthy. The other two are big travelers themselves and I believe will fit in just fine. We all seem to find a groove between days of hanging out together and days where we just do our own things as couples or individuals.

We have a 'kitty' that whenever needed we put equal shares of funds in and then one person...usually the control freak of the group...hmmm, I wonder who that might be....uses it to pay for transportation, entry fees to museums, tips, etc. If there is any left over we just buy wine or coffees.

We already have all our hotels set and several nights pre-paid. I will go ahead and get that Rough Guide, although we really aren't on as tight of a budget as I am giving the impression of. The last thing I ever do on trips is penny-pinch. But, it's just good to have the edge on money savvy and not waste it.

I do like tour books, although some of the others in the group have a better attention span and will do the research and bring it back to the group. I like all TravelerJan's ideas...the photocopying, etc.

I will buy a travel French press. Good idea. Anyway, keep up the suggestions. It's fun and I appreciate it.

With all this talk about water in the bottle...has anyone tried a travel water filter to fill your bottles out of the tap? Any recommendations?

No filters used yet.
As travelerjan said, you will find bottled water in huge containers (2 to 5 liters) in supermarkets for very small money.
I'd say it's easier to buy those and refill, than to carry another piece of equipment.

By the way.. you can drink water from the tap, it may just not taste good if it's desalinated salt water (usually only on islands with no sweet water sources).

1.5l bottle of mineral water in supermarket: 60-80 cents - even cheaper if you buy it by the six-pack.

You can check guidebooks out of your local library. Unless you want to carry them on the trip, no need to purchase them.

I was in Paris in Nov. 2006. I don't feel I spent a lot other than what I wanted to spend.

I always have a water bottle on the plane and I kept it and filled it out of the tap at the hotel every morning. We had breakfast included with our room so even though it got boring as heck I ate it every morning and that held us over for our late lunch..about two or three in the afternoon. We would eat at a cafe or brasserie and I had a good meal like roast chicken or pepper steak or sometimes soup and salad. We would stop in the neighborhood at Monoprix or at the pattisserie on the way back to the hotel and get something to knosh on that evening..yogurt, cheese, and also we did a couple of nights with chinese take away.

Now, it's a lot harder if it's really about food with you. As you can see, with me, it's not all about the food. The hotel was paid for before I left home, plane fare was paid for, so I just needed my spending money, and it wasn't all that much, except for the shopping, but that was planned for.

It's not all about the food with us, but food does creap into the picture about 3 to 4 times a day. We do get breakfasts included in all our rooms and will be doing all sorts of creative eating along the way. Thanks, I will forget the filter, but will get the French press.