N2it

Even though your trip was probably wonderful what was your biggest waste of money. Name a specific tour, place vsited ,hotel,
restaurant, museum, discount pass,etc.

chanle51

Waste was an upgraded ticket purchase for Eurail passage from Prague to Vienna. We paid for a private cabin, but when we arrived, the attendant informed us there were no private cabins and we had to stay in coach (hot summer day, no AC and in a smoking car.) When approaching Eurail for a refund of the upgrade price, we were all but told to pound sand.

kleeblatt

Buying a gelati next to the Spanish Steps in Rome. There was an extremely better gelati shop down one of the nearby alleys. Just goes to show: don't buy things where all the attractions are.

ira

Not a penny has ever been wasted. I either paid for the experience or for the lesson.

Elan

Meals in Venice that are severely overpriced and mediocre in the large restaurants by the canal. You can go to the bars and eat much better for cheaper with more selection. The bars have a kind of appetizer selection and you pay for the ones you choose or pay for a plate. It was much much better. I got ripped off one late night at a "nice restaurant" when I wanted to just have a salad and hot tea. I got charged a service charge of 3.40 Euro plus their tax/gratuity because I did not have a full meal. When I tried to contest that, it became a major issue.

Also, many of the hotels with "breakfast" are not worth the breakfast at all and you can get the same type of rolls fresher, tastier at the local patisserie around the corner. You can sometimes negotiate a lower price for the room if you say you will opt out of the breakfast.

If you are a teacher, you can get an international teacher card before you leave the US (check local student travel abroad offices at a local University). This pass let me in free for almost all the museums in Paris including the Louve and Musey D'Orsay.

A travel pass on the buses and underground in London saved me $$$ this last week. If you plan it right, you can do this instead of taxis from the airport and save a bundle.

BTilke

A temporary apartment we stayed at in Brussels for a month after the lease on our regular apt. expired and we didn't renew. It cost 3000 euros for the month, which was ridiculously high (it was only a studio apartment with sleeping alcove). And the phone/Internet charges were astronomical. If we had looked around more carefully,we could have gotten a nice place for less than half that. Or gone off and stayed in a hotel or vacation rental home in France (this was November, not high season). Live and learn.

kjenn

Getting fined 400 KC on the Prague subway because an Australian couple (who had been to Prague 3 or 4 times) told us that 2 pasma meant 2 passengers when it really meant 2 zones!!

chanle51

"Getting fined 400 KC on the Prague subway because an Australian couple (who had been to Prague 3 or 4 times) told us that 2 pasma meant 2 passengers when it really meant 2 zones!!"

Ouch. The weirdest thing was the guy who spot checks tickets on the platform (with his secret badge he keeps in his hand and flashes it only when prompted.) At first I thought he was a holdover StB agent from the communist days.

Patrick

Yes, chanle51, but beware. Many of those "secret agents" flashing a badge and demanding a fine in cash on the spot especially when you fail to validate a ticket are not hired by anybody. They are crooks who make a business out of watching for tourists who don't validate, charge them cash, and then pocket the money. How many tourists would know a real badge from a fake one?

Iregeo

In Florence, I very stupidly paid a rediculously expensive sum for a leather coat without bargaining a penny. My family and I met this charming (gorgeous!)gentleman at lunch on the Piazza della Signoria. He gave us his card for a leather shop ("Redi&quot he owned very close by. We went in after lunch, they plied us with wine and I walked out with this very expensive coat!! To add insult to injury, we never received our VAT refund, probably because of an error we made in submitting the paperwork. Needless to say, I bungled this one from A-Z, and it still stings to this day!!!

Poohgirl

I wish I never paid for most of the off-shore excursions I took on my first Caribbean cruise 11 years ago. But it was my first time leaving the continent and I still had a lot to learn.

rex

While I agree that "big waste of money" is probably the wrong expression, as ira says...

... one always encounters places/attractions/purchases, etc. which seem to be <i>relatively</i> better or worse value (than other things) <i>for the price paid</i>.

From this last trip I'll rate the 9 euros admission price to the Guggenheim Bilbao (reduced price from normal 12 euros, because so many of the galleries were closed for installations, including &quot;Fish&quot as one of the poorest values on the trip. As I commented on another thread about its lunch service(s), I have myself to blame, at least in part, for not visiting the website where I might have gotten an inkling that the special exhibitions of Aztec art occupied about 70% of the museum (or the parts we could visit, anyway). Just wasn't our cup of tea. And the modern collections (part of the permanent collections), dominated by some Rothko works - - interesting, but just didn't make our day; we learned that his work became less and less expressive and less and less about color (or anything perhaps), and ultimately he committed suicide. For such an uplifting architectural work - - just not the right takeaway lesson, to suit my taste!

But value comes in all price ranges - - I have also commented on another thread that our best value BY FAR was air-chateaux.com - - a 20 minute ride in a Cessna over Domme, Beynac, Castelnaud and Sarlat in the Dordogne valley, for the fare of 130 euros (two person; also available: 147 for three). Worth every penny!

Best wishes,

Rex

sandi_travelnut

Dinner at da Fiore in Venice on Christmas Eve. I'm not s huge seafood eater but found the staff to be surly, the food mediocre and way overpriced. That was the most expensive and one of the least enjoyable meals in Venice.

MaureenB

Paying 6 EU for a small Coke and 8 EU for a medium iced tea at our first restaurant in Paris. We hadn't checked the menu prices before ordering, and were astounded when we received the bill. What a rip. Could have had a bottle of wine for the price of those two! What's cheaper than iced tea to make, for pete's sake?

Ann1

I have the reverse....I should have wasted the exceptionally high price to ride on a gondola in Venice. Next time I go I will and enjoy every penny.

mendota98

This past December I bought an Amsterdam city pass (or whatever the name it's called) for my two children ages 12 and 14. The cost was around 35 Euros.
The main museums are free for children under 18. So all we needed for them was an all day tram pass for maybe 8 Euros each.

Live and learn. Loved Amsterdam.

suze

Interesting question, but I really can't think of a thing!

MaureenGP

This was not a real biggie, but we paid a lot of money for pizza and sodas at a place in Montmartre (don't recall the name) because it was the first place we spotted. We were with two other couples, and all of us were hot, tired, and hungry.
The lesson to be learned is not to wait until the last minute to choose a place to eat--especially when you are hot, tired, and hungry. I'm certain we could have had a nice French lunch, with wine, for what we paid for the pizza and soda.
On the other hand, if this was our worst mistake in Paris, I think we did very well.
Although you asked for specifics, I would say, in general, that shore excursions during a cruise are often (not always) a waste if it's something you can do on your own. Taking a tour puts you on somebody else's time schedule, and they are often over-priced. I'm thinking the Caribbean when I say this, where most of the islands are small and accessible. (I'm not sure how that works with European and Mediterranean cruises, where you have perhaps a day in Venice or Barcelona or Crete.)
I agree with the person who said it's not money wasted if you learn something from your experience. I'll never waste time and money on pizza in Paris again!

Christina

There have always been hotels that weren't quite what you wanted or meals not so great, but that happens anywhere, even at home. So I don't consider anything like that a real big waste because I wouldn't spend an abnormal amount of money on something like that if I hadn't been there.

The only thing I have ever really regretted were some of the purchases I've made when traveling. Sometimes I buy jewelry or some souvenir that seemed like a good idea at the time, but at home, I don't really like it that much or have a use for it (or it doesn't look so enchanting in the light of day).

chepar

Purchasing the Venice &quot;blue&quot; card instead of a regular vaparetto pass. Since the Venice card also covered the usage of public toilets, I thought it would be convenient not having to fumble for change each time.

Well, the toilets covered by the Venice card were far and few between - we were never in an area with one close by when we needed one. The one time we happened to be in the area, we found it had closed for the day (at 6:00 p.m.).

Luckily we only purchased a 1 day Venice card instead of the 3 day one.