Top 3 things I wish I knew...
 

While planning for my trip (my 4th, my aunt's first), I was thinking of all the various things I wish I knew before going over there (for example, I made the mistake of completely forgetting that my hair dryer required a different outlet!), I was compiling a list of "things I wish I knew" before going and thought I'd throw it out there to be sure I don't forget anything!

So...what are the top 3 (or more) things you wish you knew before going to Europe, either in terms of finding out you needed to get particular tour passes in advance or even basic packing stuff.

I wish I knew

1.Not to pack more than you can carry.

2. To walk alot before you go to get use to it.

3. to make sure you have all the chargers for cell phones, IPOD,camers....

1. To wear comfortable shoes on the plane in case your hotel room isn't ready when you arrive and you have to spend a few hours sightseeing before it is.

2. To buy bottled water at a store or market for .30 euro each (or whatever) and carry it with you during the day instead of spending 2.50 euro on a tiny bottle at a restaurant.

3. To look ahead and see if there are any national holidays during your visit, so that instead of planning to shop or something that day you can go to a street festival or a museum that will definitely be open!

I wish I'd known:
1. That they didn't use face cloths and I needed to bring my own.
2. How to use a hand-held shower in a tub without a shower curtain.
3. That the maps I buy here have the English translation for city and street names, often making them virtually worthless and I should just save the money and get a free one from the TI when I get there.

1. To realize if you're getting an incredible deal on a cruise of the Aegean, it's probably because it's the last ship sailing of the season (it was) and you're cabin is below the water line (it was that, too).

2. To not expect that just because you like the three people you are travelling with, they will necessarily like each other (they didn't).

3. To have someone else count out your medication to make sure you have enough for the trip. It's crummy to realize you are short a week's worth of blood pressure pills because you counted wrong and the only way you can get more is to go to emergency.

The most important thing I wish I had known before my first trip to Italy back in the 70's was that Italians do not have any concept as to what standing in line means, lol.

1. Pack as light as you can using luggage that's right for you. Bring an empty cabin bag that can flat pack to give yourself an extra 7kg for your shopping spree overseas :)
2. Picnicing at a town square or a park with supplies bought from the supermarket is a fraction of the cost and gives you a much better appreciation of local culture.
3. When on vacation stay a step ahead - plan for what you'll be doing tomorrow not today.

I wish I had known:
Taking your wonderful, but elderly mum on her first overseas holiday needs the words "SLOWLY DOES IT" written across your sightseeing list!
It did not occur to me that although I can hit the ground running when I get off the plane, my mum at 79 years young, soon encountered swollen feet, red ankles, and worse to come.
Halfway into the trip her knees gave out and this meant a trip to a private doctor in London (did not know about the tourist/hospital thing) so set my funds back quite a few bob for medication etc., which only helped slightly.

1. That most of the maps they give you at the Tourist Information offices will get you quite lost.

2. DO NOT bring a car into central Paris on your first trip to that wonderful city and expect to get out of said city without frayed nerves and a lot of yelling at and by DH when the street names change every few blocks or so and you really don't know where you are.

3. That in some rental cars, you need to depress a ring around the stick shift in order to go in reverse. Once again, a wonderful time was had by all when we had to put the car in neutral and push it backwards to get out of a parking space in Austria, while the rain was pouring down.

Thanks so far for all the wonderful tips! While I'm sorry to hear about those bad experiences some of you had :( , the "silver lining" is that others can learn from them--didn't even think about planning on getting all the medical affairs in order in terms of planning ahead where to go in case of medical attention and prescriptions! It's one of those things you assume you won't need but still good to plan for just in case! This is why I wanted to ask others. Thanks and keep them coming!

Best,
Carrie

1) If you are driving, a good GPS is your friend. Best money I have ever spent.

2) That Alitalia is an awful airline. That KLM is not much better.

3) That unless you are staying near Paddington station, that the Heathrow Express can seem a pretty big waste of money.

Some of these things I already knew, but I wasn't disciplined enough to follow my intuition:

* Pack LIGHTLY! Realize it's gonna be just like it is at home, where you have a great big closet full of clothing, but you only wear the first three or four things on the rack. Dragging along five pairs of shoes, and a zillion shirts and pants and sweathers, etc. is no fun when you're trying to negotiate stairs and train platforms.

* Get a general idea of some of the sights you really don't want to miss, and check them out online before you leave on your trip. Many museums have printable "Highlights Tours" - helps if time is limited.

* And most important of all: Be flexible and find a way to see any unforseen glitches as adventure opportunities. We had a delayed flight out a few weeks ago, from SFO connecting in Amsterdam to Athens. Totally missed our connection and ended up with an unexpected ten-hour layover in Amsterdam. Used our laptop while waiting in SFO - checked out Fodor's and discovered we could catch the train into Amsterdam directly from the airport (and there are storage lockers available for heavy carry-ons) and we took a great canal tour. It ended up being an unanticipated and wonderful extra stop on our month-long trip ... instead of an inconvenience.

...about this forum, so many helpful tips, I open a Word doc and then copy and past advice to it, be careful, though, you can end up with too much advice which is as bad as too little

...it's hard to lug big/heavy bags on a train!

...to carry at least one extra camera battery so that you always have 2 fully charged

We have always packed light, never forget things, etc. but one thing we neglected to take on our very first trip was kleenex for those out-of-the-way weird toilets! :)

All you really need are comfortable shoes and a credit card.

TG, KLM is my first choice when booking!

LoveItaly,

Your comment really had my husband and I laughing. We were just in Italy and thought we were the ONLY ones to get frustrated at the fact that the Italians just do not know what a line means! Don't you think it would make their life a lot easier and more organized if they just figured out this one concept? Thanks for the entertaining comment.

- to renew all batteries in the alarm clock, camera, etc... not to pay triple in a remote hotel in the mountains :)

- if you see a souvenir you like, buy now, think later, or you won't see anything comparable again and feel sorry

1. That your legs are not forgiving when you go from walking zero miles a day to 47 miles a day.
2. Even with an adaptor, flat irons don't work quite the way they do in the US.
3. No one at CDG knows how to speak English when you miss your connecting flight in Paris.

1. No matter how carefully you pack, you will arrive to find: the flash on your camera doesn't work; the memory chip you bought is faulty; you left all your spare batteries down somewhere. Be prepared to shop for replacements.

2. Bring a compass and double-check the orientation of any map you get at a TI. Many TIs don't know north from their elbow.

3. One word: earplugs.

1) If you are going to stay in a hotel in Europe with a pool, make sure you take "Swim EAR" with you. It's a product that dries up water in the ear canal. If left there, the water can cause an ear infection.

2) Pack your clothes and then unpack your clothes while still at home, putting them in piles of like items. Leave half the items in each pile behind. At the same time, make sure you take at least two pairs of extremely comfortable shoes. Use the space in the suitcases for footwear, not clothing.

3) I never leave the United States without a pile of new, empty ziplock bags in my suitcase. They are useful to segregate items I want to throw out, postcards I have bought and not mailed, items I haven't washed, chocolate, and pens, stamps & thank you cards. I also take thank you cards from the United States with an "American feel" (but ABSOLUTELY NO FLAGS) and use them to write my thank yous while in Europe. I mail the cards from the airport as I am leaving the country in which the relatives and friends who are the recipients of the cards live.

Buon Viaggio,
Jane

Definitely earplugs! A good night's sleep can mean the difference in enjoying your dayand feeling refreshed.

Consider bringing a laundry detergent tablet like "Persil" or a small bottle of laundry soap in case you succeed in packing light and visit a laundromat. Even hair shampoo works in a pinch; wash jeans or a top in the bathtub and let them dry over the shower rod.(Even washing panties and sox in the sink can lighten your luggage.)Pack one lightweight plastic coat hanger for this purpose.

Stuff underwear and socks inside shoes to save space in the suitcase.

Do not fill your rental car with diesel if it needs unleaded fuel and wonder why people are pointing and laughing.

Don't drag a blow dryer to Europe. Most lodgings provide one and you can always buy a cheap one if not.

If you pinch off tiny pieces of pizza crust for the sparrows at canalside tables in Venice, people will get very aggravated with you, even if you thought nobody was looking. Especially if your husband hisses at you to cut it out and everyone turns around to see.

Bring an adapter kit for curling irons, shavers, etc and one of them will fit.

Canyonjane is so right about the shoes. Never leave home with one pair of shoes as some advocate. ALWAYS have at least two pair. I think you should always alternate shoes and even if you aren't like-minded, you're really stuck if one pair gets wet and you don't have another.

She and I also think alike about the baggies. I always travel with one big baggie filled with baggies of various sizes and when I get home, I find I've used most of them for one thing or another. They are priceless!!

Thanks for the additonal items...few things:

Overplanner: When you said you had a hard time with the adapter for your flat iron, did you mean it didn't work or did not work as well? I use a flat iron and was planning on bringing mine...

FainaAgain: Great advice about buying items--all too often I make the mistake of saying "I'll get it later" just to not be able to find it anywhere else! I for sure don't want to make that mistake in Italy! :)

Great ideas with the plastic bags, tablets for washing clothes and even packing tips! I really appreciate all the advice and have found the Fodor's forum to be a lifesafer!

Top 3 things I wish I knew...

1. I wish I knew about lardo before travelling to Tuscany. I regret not tasting it.

2. ditto on knowing that some gear shifts require you to push the gear shift down to shift into reverse.

3. I wish I had printed out directions (e.g. from Mapquest or something similar) from our rental car pick up location to our first destination. Navigating Italian road signs can take a bit getting used to.

Hi G,

How to say, "Good morning, Good evening, Hello, Goodbye, Please, Thank You and Do You Speak English?".

((I))

Three Things I wish I knew:

1) The only thing you can control is your own attitude. People might be rude, trains might be late, theft might happen--but I can fully control my outlook.

2) Money can equal happiness. Sad, but true. (goes along with buy it when you see it, there might not be another)

3) Alitalia eats luggage. Including the bags full of new clothes I had to buy to replace the lost luggage on the TO: leg of the trip.

___________
I'll do thank-you notes and ziploks and mapquest from now on!

1. That the "just 5 minutes walk" to the tube station assumes you run a 4 minute mile.

2. That London is HUGE and all distances are 5 times greater than they look on the map. You can not "stroll across Hyde Park to Buckingham Palace" from Paddington without lots of time and shoe leather.

3. That, sometimes, it's ok to do a "touristy" thing; in fact, it can be considerably more relaxing than always trying to be a "local".

- how fantastic Barcelona is ( instead of waiting for years before visiting)

- to carry toiler paper when traveling on Italian trains

- how to use the damned public phones in most countries.

Just marking.
Great stuff in this thread.

1. Take my nose out of the guidebook and look around! I can reread the guidebook the other 51 weeks a year when I'm home.

2. People in Europe eat, sleep, dress and shower like we do. Most things forgotten can be replaced. Don't worry about it.

3. Even if it isn't on your route/itinerary/printed out postings from this forum, if it looks interesting go down that side street, into that church, eat at the delicious smelling restaurant. Guidebooks and other people's advice are certainly helpful and a good start but trust your own instincts and you'll have a great adventure.

danon, how DO you use those pay phones (LOL)? I've tried in Italy and France, and I have officially given up!

RebeccaYouSee:

"2) Money can equal happiness. "

Oh, I was thinking that the top thing I wish I knew before I traveled to Europe was that I should have thought a lot more about money when I was young. I never thought it was important to me to be a big earner until I got the Europe habit, and by then, I was way on the wrong earning track.

Linda


I just ask some kind soul to dial for me !

goferfan512: My flat iron didn't work at all with the adapter we brought and so we requested one from the hotel. It worked but would overheat the iron so that it would turn itself off after a couple of minutes. I just did without for most of the trip.

>Top 3 things I wish I knew...

The way of a bird in the air.
The way of a fish in the sea.
The way of a man with a maid.

((I))

You all gave me some good chuckles! Especially LoveItaly's comment about lines in Italy. Here is my top 3:

1- Give up trying to look/dress/live like a local. They all know you're not.

2- White sneakers are worn by locals all over the world.

3- Don't touch the produce! You touch it, you buy it!

4- The cute little wooden shoes you buy from the cute little wooden shoe place in the Dutch country side may give you splinters despite what the nice (but now insulted) shoe maker tells you about how smooth the inside of the shoe is, and how no one has ever gotten a splinter from wearing his master crafted shoes.

And I have to second Ira's suggestion...learn to say those important phrases in the local language. Especially "where is the toilet."