|  Saving money, staying safe, etc., traveling in Europe
When we were investigating for our trip to Italy this past summer, we looked into ways to save money. Here are a few that I learned that helped us and others that we did do but may be of help to you.
1. Hotels are expensive. Renting apartments or villas, and even Bed and Breakfast is a lot cheaper. If you like camping, they do have campgrounds, too, and that is the cheapest of all. There are also hostels where you rent a bed rather than a room. It all depends on your comfort level. I liked renting apartments because we had a kitchen and saved a lot by eating breakfast and other meals in the apartment and making lunch and meals to carry.
2. Search for some budget hotels. They are out there, maybe off the beaten track. We found, renting an apartment in Rome, not to stay near the main part but over by the Vatican was cheaper and we still had public transportation to get us everywhere, or cabs, too. Walking to many places (we were right near the Vatican and could walk there) was good, too.
3. Many hotels will allow you to pay a small amount to add extra beds. If you can do that, you will save money. We still preferred the apartment and all split the cost of the rental. Also, stick with no-frills hotels, if you use one. It does not have to be four star. If it is clean and has beds and bathrooms, that is all that you really need.
4. If you stay in a hotel and breakfast in included, get it!! If it is not included, pass it by. It is not worth it. Find local cafés and coffee shops. Do not eat in the high tourist areas, go where locals eat. The same goes for lunch and dinner. We ate in a few nice touristy places but most we went away from the tourist areas or ate in bars and coffee shops to save money, if we did not pack a meal to bring. Packing a picnic type meal is always the most cost effective.
5. If you are grocery shopping, stay away from convenience stores and go to supermarket stores. Better value, and that is no matter where you go.
6. If you eat in a restaurant, save money by ordering a salad and then split the entree with someone else. Many times I could not finish my entire entree so splitting it saved money.
7. Be careful of tipping. In the USA 15-20% is the norm but not always overseas. Check with locals what the rate is and make sure that it is not already included on the tab (if you have a group of 6 or more it may already be included).
8. It is cheaper NOT to rent a car. Parking fees are high, gas/petrol is high (USA people should not complain about the price of gas). Unless you are renting scooters, you are better off with public transportation and even cabs. We got our international driver's licenses, just in case, but really, we were happier NOT driving. When we went from city to city the high speed rails were a great value in comparison to driving. We were relaxed, could nap, eat, play games, be on the computer (they have computer hook up), etc.
9. When you are shopping, do not shop in the tourist areas if you are looking to save money. I found the same great stuff that was expensive in Florence, Venice and Rome, in a small town in Sicily. Big department stores have a lot of the same stuff you are paying for at the street shops and vendors, for a nice chunk less.
10. Use your ATM card instead of your traveler's checks. Before we left, we opened a checking account at PNC bank that did not charge us foreign fees if we went to any ATM to take out cash. We still would pay a POS (point of sale) fee if we used it like a credit card, so we would just go to an ATM at the start of each day and take out what we thought we needed. We all took out money in case one of us ran short, we could temporarily lend the money to the other instead of them paying a POS fee. If you cannot get a bank that charges you no ATM fee, make fewer and larger withdrawals as they usually charge per withdrawal.
11. When making purchases, use your credit card and NOT your debit card.
12. I found it better to use a major airline to fly over there but better to use local airlines, trains and buses to travel within the country. Try to find promotional deals with airlines and plan your trip out of high season, too. That makes a HUGE difference! We found flying on the weekdays that we paid lower rates. Or better yet, take a cruise ship. It is all inclusive. You will have less time at each destination but for the first time going somewhere, it is great.
13. You may think it costly but DO GET TRAVEL INSURANCE!! Veteran travelers NEVER travel without it. There were four adults and one baby traveling for a month in our group. It was $1,000, which for five people is $200 each ($50 per week), not a bad thing for peace of mind. It covered medical problems, canceled, missed or delayed flights and trains, accidents, lost luggage, arrests, and a host of other things. We had a few minor issues that were covered.
14. Drink a lot of water. Drinks in Europe can be costly. Many places, like in Rome, you can drink the water from the street fountains but not the tap water. Check out in advance. Bottled water is not cheap so we used to carry a refillable bottle and fill it when we could, but water was still cheaper, and better for you than other drinks.
15. If you do a tour, sometimes you can a self tour with a book and cd that you can buy. When we went to Pompeii it was hard keeping up with the tour guide who moved along too fast for us with my older cousin, so next time we decided our own tour that worked out great.
16. If you live in the USA, there is so much made easier for handicapped people (wheelchairs) but I thought that if I were handicapped, living in Italy would not work well. Keep that in mind.
17. Postcards are cheaper souvenirs. If you figure out how much you are paying per ounce for an item, you will see how expensive it really is. We bought simple things like hat pins from each place that my husband keeps on a bulletin board.
18. If you are going to places that you are dying to visit, try to do it when there are less tourists, out of season. You will pay more, many times, and also not see all you want because it will take longer with the lines and crowds.
19. Make sure you research the countries where you are going, their laws, and find out what is unacceptable in dress. We made sure that we did not dress like tourists.
20. Spend the money to get Pimsleur or other forms of language lessons on CD. It helped me a lot when I ran into people with little or no knowledge of the English language and I always carried my English/Italian dictionary.
21. Find out, in advance, the basic costs of things you might not think about. Contact lens solution, over here is under $2.00. I ran out at the and paid the equivalent of $16 for the same size bottle. But, in the scheme of things, if your luggage weight is high, you will pay more than the cost of the items.
22. Pack light!!! Airlines are charging for every extra ounce. We know, we got hit with some hefty fees and the kick in the butt was the rules changed the DAY WE LEFT. We had checked weights on their website and even called. The day we got there, they had just changed the weight restrictions and we wound up paying more. We even did pack light, as we hand laundered our clothes each night if we did not have a washer in our apartment. Next time we will bring much less.
23. Make a budget and stick with it. Set aside how much you will allow yourself to spend each day, tack on a little for emergencies, but stick to your budget. It is easy to go overboard. I know, I have been there and done that. Some countries can be $35-50 per day, others as much as $70, per person.
24. Make sure you buy a good pair of walking shoes and/or sandals. Do not go with cheap stuff. Also, make sure you have good suitcases or backpacks that will hold up. I love a company called Pacsafe. Costly? Yes. Worth it? Yes. They are more secure than any other company's. Here is their site. http://www.pacsafe.com/www/index.php. Once you own their bags, backpacks, purses, etc., it is hard to feel safe without them and they last forever. You can expect your expenses for gear, tickets, passes, passport and visas and insurance to easily amount to $1800.
25. Most places you will not need to get vaccinations but make sure that you always check before you travel. There are recommended vaccinations which you may have already had, like vaccines against polio or tetanus and you could get a booster before you go but I have never done so.
26. Double deck tour buses and boat tours gave us great tours of the cities and sites and so much information and were quite affordable. If you are using public transportation or EuroRail, buying passes will save you money if you will be using them a lot.
If I think of more, or if any of you have more advice, I would love to see it.
Happy Travels!!!
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