HELP! I'm going to Europe, what do I do? - EUROPE MEGATHREAD OWNZONE

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tourism & Travel > HELP! I'm going to Europe, what do I do? - EUROPE MEGATHREAD OWNZONE

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tyang209: Feb 17, 2007

I found a great looking place that looks legitimate enough.
http://www.amsterdamprivateapartment.nl/

The owner is asking for the entire amount of my stay upfront when I get there. Is that standard or does that sound sketchy? he's pricing it at 45 euros a night for 8 nights and another room for 55 euros for 5 nights. Too good to be true or is this just a good deal?

# ? Dec 15, 2010 02:08

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# ? May 10, 2024 05:59

Omits-Bagels: Feb 13, 2001

tyang209 posted:

I found a great looking place that looks legitimate enough.
http://www.amsterdamprivateapartment.nl/

The owner is asking for the entire amount of my stay upfront when I get there. Is that standard or does that sound sketchy? he's pricing it at 45 euros a night for 8 nights and another room for 55 euros for 5 nights. Too good to be true or is this just a good deal?

payment upfront is pretty common. it sounds like you're paying in person so I'm sure it is fine.

# ? Dec 15, 2010 02:19

Rojkir: Jun 26, 2007; WARNING:I AM A FASCIST PIECE OF SHIT.
Police beatings get me hard

Pretty good location, fine deal, if he really exists

# ? Dec 15, 2010 14:57

Allia: Oct 6, 2010

Fists Up posted:

Ive always wondered. What do you do with your stuff then? Do they have lockers at the beach? Pretty much always leave my poo poo lying around in Sydney. No problems

Lock it in your car/leave it at home? Have someone (you know personally) to watch it for you?

I grew up near the beach, so I'm not a big beach-goer anymore. Usually I'm the designated stuff-watcher. Otherwise, making sure it's waterproof (like tying up car key in a plastic bag) and tying it to your clothes/making sure it's firmly in your pocket works too.

# ? Dec 15, 2010 21:12

wins32767: Mar 16, 2007

My parents are in Grenoble for the next couple years and my wife and I are planning to visit them next fall. We figure while we're in Europe we might as well go and see as much as we can. At this point we have a list of various things we want to do and we're trying to pare it down somewhat. We want to see and do stuff all over but the bulk of the stuff on our list is concentrated in Italy/Germany/France. Given about 20 days of time how much stuff could we likely cover? What's a good ballpark figure for how much time you need to spend to cover the bases in a city? How about getting really in depth? My only vacations have been in the US and Canada so I'm a bit lost trying to plan to travel to a place with a ton of history.

# ? Dec 16, 2010 02:49

greazeball: Feb 4, 2003

wins32767 posted:

My parents are in Grenoble for the next couple years and my wife and I are planning to visit them next fall. We figure while we're in Europe we might as well go and see as much as we can. At this point we have a list of various things we want to do and we're trying to pare it down somewhat. We want to see and do stuff all over but the bulk of the stuff on our list is concentrated in Italy/Germany/France. Given about 20 days of time how much stuff could we likely cover? What's a good ballpark figure for how much time you need to spend to cover the bases in a city? How about getting really in depth? My only vacations have been in the US and Canada so I'm a bit lost trying to plan to travel to a place with a ton of history.

My personal rule of thumb is to plan one "thing" each day and then just let the rest of the day go wherever (obviously not without getting some very general ideas before setting out). So for example on one of our days in Paris, the wife and I decided to see the Centre Pompidou. After 3-4 hours of modern art we were pretty numb so we took the Metro up to Sacre Coeur, took in the views and just wandered around until it was time for dinner.

It may seem like you won't see anything this way, but I get really frustrated when I make plans and they don't come off. This way I manage to do everything I really want without running around like a mental stress case on my holiday. It also allows for lots of poo poo to "just happen" which IMO are some of the most memorable events because this is the only way to get "in depth" if I understand you correctly.

Basically, ask for some travel guides for Christmas, look at their recommended 3-day and 7 day trips and ask yourself if you really want to run around that much. You say your parents will be there for a couple of years so try not to act like you'll never get another chance to go again.

# ? Dec 16, 2010 10:40

Dog Blogs Man: Apr 16, 2007; how are you gentlemen i am a god amongst goons

thepokey posted:

I'm an Aussie that's pretty set on doing some kind of work program in the UK next year. I've been to the UK before and hold an Irish passport so the whole visa thing is not an issue. But I have a friend who has just moved over there with his girlfriend to live and work for awhile and is struggling already with trying to get a decent job and hasn't got any real accomodation yet so it's costing him a fortune into his savings already.
So I was thinking about doing one of those live-in type deals where you work in a pub (for poo poo pay I know) but you have it ready to go by the time you arrive. Thinking of doing a Europe tour first and then finishing up in the UK.
I've found a couple of websites and just wondered if anyone has either used any of these before or could reccomend anything different?

http://www.londonpub.com.au/
http://www.owh.com.au/uk.cfm?product=151
and this one from the same site seems a little different, they look to set you up in a share house with other people of the same program but you do temping jobs close to the house, things like furtniture fitting it says, not too detailed on the jobs themselves - http://www.owh.com.au/uk.cfm?product=146

I figure doing this for a few months gives me a better way to scope out other jobs or living arrangements rather than arriving to nothing. They all look sort of the same so it's hard to know what the real pro's and con's are between them.

Way too late for this I know... but I did the london pub program. It is overhyped and exaggerated, and you should go with the liveinjobs site if you must do pub work. Do not pay anyone. Work is not that hard to find, but you won't get anything over minimum wage which is about 6 pounds an hour. Or really 4 pounds an hour after tax and NI. Can you handle that?

I did about 1.5 months of pub work and decided I'd rather not bother any more. Oh by the way, they couldn't even find me work at first, I was waiting nearly a week in London paying shitloads at hostels wondering what I was going to do, then I got a 1 month temp pub position. We got 2 meals a day that we were forced to pay for, no exceptions, it was taken from our earnings before we ever saw it. That was around 35 pounds per week for basically leftover pub meal poo poo like steak and kidney pie that would otherwise be thrown away. I put on weight and wasn't very healthy at all, just from a short period of that. We were often rostered for 50 hours a week or so, and anyone who complained would be given 20 hours the next week (i.e. not really enough to live on). Nevertheless, it was character building. Ah, getting up for an 11 hour split shift most days of the week, lugging coal in a bucket up stairs to light fires, my throat burning from the coal fumes and occasionally getting nosebleeds from my airways being so dry and parched no matter how much water I drank. Good times.

The next job after that which the london pub company also gave me was in Walworth. Now this was basically the crime capital of London a few years ago, and probably still is. My manager at that pub was mugged in the park opposite the pub by a gang of kids with knives. I quit after a week because what was the point? My life was not worth wasting doing that, getting up early and spending every waking moment serving people and getting a small bundle of notes at the end of the week that I earn the equivalent of in 1.5 days here in Australia in a lovely retail job. Except here I can walk around outside at night, carrying an ipod or a laptop, and I won't be stabbed to death for it.

Feel free to ask me for more details if you want, but that's the gist of it. I'm glad I did it for the experience, but there are much better things to do with your time.

# ? Dec 16, 2010 14:05

wins32767: Mar 16, 2007

greazeball posted:

Basically, ask for some travel guides for Christmas, look at their recommended 3-day and 7 day trips and ask yourself if you really want to run around that much. You say your parents will be there for a couple of years so try not to act like you'll never get another chance to go again.

The issue is money. I'm not sure we can afford to make two trips in two years so I'm treating this like it's our only shot. Certainly even if we can make two trips we won't have as much vacation time the second go as we do now. Still, "one thing" per day is pretty good advice. When we went to NYC (which is our only other big trip as a couple) we tried to fit in about four things a day and that was way too much.

# ? Dec 16, 2010 14:42

thepokey: Jul 20, 2004; Let me start off with a basket of chips. Then move on to the pollo asado taco.

Dog Blogs Man posted:

Way too late for this I know... but I did the london pub program. It is overhyped and exaggerated, and you should go with the liveinjobs site if you must do pub work. Do not pay anyone. Work is not that hard to find, but you won't get anything over minimum wage which is about 6 pounds an hour. Or really 4 pounds an hour after tax and NI. Can you handle that?

I did about 1.5 months of pub work and decided I'd rather not bother any more. Oh by the way, they couldn't even find me work at first, I was waiting nearly a week in London paying shitloads at hostels wondering what I was going to do, then I got a 1 month temp pub position. We got 2 meals a day that we were forced to pay for, no exceptions, it was taken from our earnings before we ever saw it. That was around 35 pounds per week for basically leftover pub meal poo poo like steak and kidney pie that would otherwise be thrown away. I put on weight and wasn't very healthy at all, just from a short period of that. We were often rostered for 50 hours a week or so, and anyone who complained would be given 20 hours the next week (i.e. not really enough to live on). Nevertheless, it was character building. Ah, getting up for an 11 hour split shift most days of the week, lugging coal in a bucket up stairs to light fires, my throat burning from the coal fumes and occasionally getting nosebleeds from my airways being so dry and parched no matter how much water I drank. Good times.

The next job after that which the london pub company also gave me was in Walworth. Now this was basically the crime capital of London a few years ago, and probably still is. My manager at that pub was mugged in the park opposite the pub by a gang of kids with knives. I quit after a week because what was the point? My life was not worth wasting doing that, getting up early and spending every waking moment serving people and getting a small bundle of notes at the end of the week that I earn the equivalent of in 1.5 days here in Australia in a lovely retail job. Except here I can walk around outside at night, carrying an ipod or a laptop, and I won't be stabbed to death for it.

Feel free to ask me for more details if you want, but that's the gist of it. I'm glad I did it for the experience, but there are much better things to do with your time.

Not too late at all, probably won't be in a position to go for another 6 months I imagine. I appreciate the insight, sounds like you had a rough, but as you said character building time. I know that I expect to not be getting the most ideal job in the world while I'm over there because you can't be picky, but I really don't want it to be like this where I am regretting doing it because the job is worse than the experience in total.

I'm not sold on the idea of this yet, I would much rather find a better paying job than everything I've seen advertised with these live-in programs. But the uncertainty of arriving with no job and no accomodation and only a hostel booking is pretty daunting.
I think that's it though, I am not really looking at any of these programs as "the experience" or seeing them as the makings of my time living overseas, but more a tool or stepping stone from arrival and transition to what finding a better paying job and better accomodation. But the fact so many of the ones that set you up with the job before you leave Australia say there is a 3-4 month minimum committment makes me uneasy at 3-4 months on those lovely wages.

I suppose if I was doing the whole thing myself and arrived to a backpackers and then went job searching, then when I found a job move to a backpackers closer to the job whilst I looked for accomodation .. does anyone have some good links to store up of sites that advertise jobs or reputable agencies?
I've found http://www.reed.co.uk/ which seems decent enough for a job site and also http://www.livein-jobs.co.uk/ is extremely low frills looking but seems to get a good word around the net so far. Anyone have any knowledge/dealings with these or reccomend others?

The only other thing I've thought of is that I just recently got a job with a company that is international and based in the UK as a HQ, other people have transfered jobs to Australia so I'm wondering the chances of getting a transfer to the UK. I can't really bring it up just yet as I've only been there 2 weeks and have a 6 month probation period, but I guess that would solve a lot of problems. But I won't really broach the idea for a few months yet. It's also something I can't really bank on being doable, just that it has been done before with the company at low levels like I'm at.

# ? Dec 16, 2010 15:42

bitmap: Aug 8, 2006

Dog Blogs Man posted:

Way too late for this I know... but I did the london pub program. It is overhyped and exaggerated, and you should go with the liveinjobs site if you must do pub work. Do not pay anyone. Work is not that hard to find, but you won't get anything over minimum wage which is about 6 pounds an hour. Or really 4 pounds an hour after tax and NI. Can you handle that?

I did about 1.5 months of pub work and decided I'd rather not bother any more. Oh by the way, they couldn't even find me work at first, I was waiting nearly a week in London paying shitloads at hostels wondering what I was going to do, then I got a 1 month temp pub position. We got 2 meals a day that we were forced to pay for, no exceptions, it was taken from our earnings before we ever saw it. That was around 35 pounds per week for basically leftover pub meal poo poo like steak and kidney pie that would otherwise be thrown away. I put on weight and wasn't very healthy at all, just from a short period of that. We were often rostered for 50 hours a week or so, and anyone who complained would be given 20 hours the next week (i.e. not really enough to live on). Nevertheless, it was character building. Ah, getting up for an 11 hour split shift most days of the week, lugging coal in a bucket up stairs to light fires, my throat burning from the coal fumes and occasionally getting nosebleeds from my airways being so dry and parched no matter how much water I drank. Good times.

The next job after that which the london pub company also gave me was in Walworth. Now this was basically the crime capital of London a few years ago, and probably still is. My manager at that pub was mugged in the park opposite the pub by a gang of kids with knives. I quit after a week because what was the point? My life was not worth wasting doing that, getting up early and spending every waking moment serving people and getting a small bundle of notes at the end of the week that I earn the equivalent of in 1.5 days here in Australia in a lovely retail job. Except here I can walk around outside at night, carrying an ipod or a laptop, and I won't be stabbed to death for it.

Feel free to ask me for more details if you want, but that's the gist of it. I'm glad I did it for the experience, but there are much better things to do with your time.

jesus that's bleak.

# ? Dec 16, 2010 23:15

a creepy colon: Oct 28, 2004; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

So i leave for my 2 weeks in europe tommorrow. One last question. What is the best way to exchange currency over there? I dont want to use a card everywhere I go so should I be hitting ATMs? How does that work? Do the atms automatically apply an exchange rate and issue you euros rather than dollars? Also i will be spending some time in prague and I know the czech repub isnt on the euro so is there anything different there I should be doing?

# ? Dec 17, 2010 17:52

greazeball: Feb 4, 2003

Use your ATM card and make large withdrawals (�200). This will be the easiest and fastest way and probably the cheapest. Basically everybody who handles your money is going to take some of it so just deal with it and have as few interactions with them as possible.

Get some euro before you go (change $50 at the airport) so you don't have to search for a bank machine before you can buy a coke or train tickets or whatever when you get off the plane. I haven't been, but if you're going to Prague they'll probably accept euro at hotels and restaurants if you don't have koruna (because it's a big tourist destination) but those exchange rates will be terrible so get to an ATM and repeat paragraph one.

# ? Dec 17, 2010 18:12

a creepy colon: Oct 28, 2004; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Awesome. Your post is just what I needed, thanks.

# ? Dec 17, 2010 18:20

wins32767: Mar 16, 2007

My plan thus far:

Grenoble: 2 days (visiting with my folks, getting over jet lag)
Paris (via Rail): 4 days (Versailles, The Louvre, Musse D'Orsay, The Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame)
Trier (Rent a car in Paris and drive): 1 days (Porta Nigra, Konstantinplatz)
Aachen (Drive): 1 days (Aachen Cathedral, maybe the Rathaus)
Cologne (Drive): 2 days (Schlossburg Castle, K�lner Dom)
Munich (Drive): 2 (Schloss Nymphenburg, Tierpark Hellabrunn)
Zurich (Drive): 1 (Not sure, my wife wants to do this one)
Grenoble (Drive and return car): 1 (Laundry, unwinding, visiting with my folks)

And then off to Italy and maybe Croatia for another 10 days+

Anything to add or subtract? I'm not a huge fan of having a car but I figure it'll probably be as cheap as taking a train between the cities and substantially faster between Trier/Aachen/Cologne.

# ? Dec 17, 2010 18:59

Butt Soup Barnes: Nov 25, 2008

So I am trying to work out a budget for my two week trip to Brussels, Berlin, Munich, Prague, and Amsterdam.

Not including hostels, is it realistic to spend <75 euros a day in those cities for food, daytime stuff (sight seeing, etc.) and going out to bars/clubs at night?

Edit: Also, I'm getting ready to purchase a Eurail pass and I think I'm going to do the Germany-Benelux pass and purchase a Czech Republic pass separately. I have a question about how it works though. If I am going from Berlin to Prague and then Prague to Munich, is it right that that would be one travel day on the Germany-Benelux pass (Berlin to Prague) and one travel day on the Czech pass (Prague to Munich)? Or will it count one day on each since it's two different countries?

Butt Soup Barnes fucked around with this message at 20:16 on Dec 17, 2010

# ? Dec 17, 2010 19:47

a creepy colon: Oct 28, 2004; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Ok one last question; what do I do with my phone? Im on tmobile and my wife is on verizon, should we just leave our phones home to avoid extra charges?

# ? Dec 17, 2010 23:30

Saladman: Jan 12, 2010

Limastock posted:

Ok one last question; what do I do with my phone? Im on tmobile and my wife is on verizon, should we just leave our phones home to avoid extra charges?

Verizon phones won't even work in Europe, at all, so you might as well leave it at home. You might want to bring your phone just in case, just leaving it off unless there's an emergency.

# ? Dec 18, 2010 00:34

Josh Rogan: Aug 10, 2010

Limastock posted:

Ok one last question; what do I do with my phone? Im on tmobile

You have to add international roaming to your account on t-mobile.com (it's free but they might run a credit check). The rates vary per country but I was charged $1.29 / min and 35� per text in France and Holland. I'd say it's worth signing up for because occasionally you're in a situation where you just really need a cell phone.

American GSM frequencies are different from the rest of world, but even my cheap phone is quad-band GSM so it may be standard by now. For Verizon I think you'd a "world phone" or whatever they call their GSM-capable models. If you've got a smartphone, make sure to turn off data roaming so you don't spend :10bux:

checking your email.

# ? Dec 18, 2010 19:15

Riven: Apr 22, 2002

All runways at Heathrow are closed, and BA's call centers are completely swamped. Well, this is why we bought travel insurance.

# ? Dec 18, 2010 20:25

a creepy colon: Oct 28, 2004; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

flight through paris got canceled for today as well. They rebooked us for monday but i got my departure date pushed back a few days as well so im not losing any time really.

Still bummed though.

# ? Dec 18, 2010 22:44

Ziir: Nov 20, 2004; by Ozmaugh

Can anyone tell me about Sensation White specifically in Dusseldorf? Is it worth 80�?

# ? Dec 19, 2010 14:23

Suntory BOSS: Apr 17, 2006

Getting really worried about this European snow clusterfuck :ohdear:

I'm flying out Christmas Day from Tokyo>Guangzho>Paris>Amsterdam and then back again on New Years Day, even a day's delay will make me late getting back to work. I doubt if China Southern would provide a refund if I cancelled so I guess I'll just have to hope for the best?

edit; Somebody reassure me :smith:

Suntory BOSS fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Dec 20, 2010

# ? Dec 20, 2010 01:18

Fists Up: Apr 9, 2007

Do you have travel insurance?

# ? Dec 20, 2010 02:23

Suntory BOSS: Apr 17, 2006

Nope...

edit; VVV Thanks a ton, I also checked the weather and came to the same tentative, hopeful conclusion. Fingers crossed...

Suntory BOSS fucked around with this message at 14:08 on Dec 20, 2010

# ? Dec 20, 2010 02:27

schoenfelder: Oct 16, 2009; Grade moj...

Suntory BOSS posted:

Getting really worried about this European snow clusterfuck
I'm flying out Christmas Day from Tokyo>Guangzho>Paris>Amsterdam and then back again on New Years Day, even a day's delay will make me late getting back to work. I doubt if China Southern would provide a refund if I cancelled so I guess I'll just have to hope for the best?

edit; Somebody reassure me

Checking the weather forecast for the next few days it looks like your outbound flight on 25 December should be fine. The next few days should bring temperatures above 0�C and some light rains. The operations at airports around western/central Europe are slowly going back to normal at the moment (still this morning about 300 flights were cancelled in Frankfurt, though). What the situation will be on New Year's? Nobody can tell.

# ? Dec 20, 2010 12:58

greazeball: Feb 4, 2003

wins32767 posted:

My plan thus far:

Grenoble: 2 days (visiting with my folks, getting over jet lag)
Paris (via Rail): 4 days (Versailles, The Louvre, Musse D'Orsay, The Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame)
Trier (Rent a car in Paris and drive): 1 days (Porta Nigra, Konstantinplatz)
Aachen (Drive): 1 days (Aachen Cathedral, maybe the Rathaus)
Cologne (Drive): 2 days (Schlossburg Castle, K�lner Dom)
Munich (Drive): 2 (Schloss Nymphenburg, Tierpark Hellabrunn)
Zurich (Drive): 1 (Not sure, my wife wants to do this one)
Grenoble (Drive and return car): 1 (Laundry, unwinding, visiting with my folks)

And then off to Italy and maybe Croatia for another 10 days+

Anything to add or subtract? I'm not a huge fan of having a car but I figure it'll probably be as cheap as taking a train between the cities and substantially faster between Trier/Aachen/Cologne.

I don't think a car is a bad idea, although I'm not sure if you can pick up and drop off in different cities--you should definitely look into that. You do have a lot of driving on a couple of days so keep in mind that things close early (and don't open on Sundays) so you may have to get an early start especially on the way to Trier if you only want to spend one night there. Or you could get the car in the morning, drive to Versailles, enjoy your visit there and head to Trier in the early afternoon?

# ? Dec 20, 2010 23:42

Riven: Apr 22, 2002

Suntory BOSS posted:

Nope...

edit; VVV Thanks a ton, I also checked the weather and came to the same tentative, hopeful conclusion. Fingers crossed...

Just a Note: this trip has taught me to ALWAYS buy travel insurance. I bought $6,000 in coverage for $125. Its now going to cover the $470 for our three nights of unrefundable hotel nights in Paris, $300 for a replacement train ticket to get us to Freiburg and $90 our new hotel in Paris for the one night we're now going to be stuck there. Plus any more issues we have up to $6000.

Best. Purchase. Ever.

# ? Dec 21, 2010 00:10

wins32767: Mar 16, 2007

greazeball posted:

I don't think a car is a bad idea, although I'm not sure if you can pick up and drop off in different cities--you should definitely look into that. You do have a lot of driving on a couple of days so keep in mind that things close early (and don't open on Sundays) so you may have to get an early start especially on the way to Trier if you only want to spend one night there. Or you could get the car in the morning, drive to Versailles, enjoy your visit there and head to Trier in the early afternoon?

I asked my folks to look into the car rental details the last time we chatted on Skype, I'll hopefully know soon. They knew from their own experience that you can't drop a car off in a different country than the one that you pick it up in but their initial thoughts were that same country/different city were ok. The point about Trier is a good one and that Versailles suggestion is awesome.

# ? Dec 21, 2010 04:30

Saladman: Jan 12, 2010

wins32767 posted:

I asked my folks to look into the car rental details the last time we chatted on Skype, I'll hopefully know soon. They knew from their own experience that you can't drop a car off in a different country than the one that you pick it up in but their initial thoughts were that same country/different city were ok. The point about Trier is a good one and that Versailles suggestion is awesome.

You can rent a car in one country and drop it off in a different country; I've done this probably a dozen times. You'll usually get hit with a one-way fee, but this is true even if you return it to same-country-different-city.

Sixt has been my favorite car rental company in Europe, but YMMV, so check them all.

# ? Dec 21, 2010 08:23

love truncheon: Feb 1, 2006; toot toot!

wins32767 posted:

They knew from their own experience that you can't drop a car off in a different country than the one that you pick it up in but their initial thoughts were that same country/different city were ok.

All the big companies let you drop off in at least neighboring countries (avis, europecar, budget). it can become expensive with fees and sometimes insurance costs, but its easily do-able.

# ? Dec 22, 2010 00:05

smackfu: Jun 7, 2004

Back from Europe, and managed to just avoid the snow craziness. I flew into Dublin the day after the airport opened a couple of weeks ago, and flew out Prague -> Dublin -> US right when Heathrow airport was closed. Kept meeting people who were stranded in the airports for days, and the couple sitting next to me on the flight to the US drove from Belfast to Dublin just so they could get on a plane.

FYI, don't go to Dublin or the UK when they have snow on the ground. They don't know how to deal with it so everyone just stays inside until it melts. OTOH, Prague had a freaking blizzard and I flew out just fine.

# ? Dec 22, 2010 15:17

Suntory BOSS: Apr 17, 2006

I'm leaving Japan tomorrow without having been able to exchange my dollars ($1500) for Euros. I was even told by a bank teller here that I can't even do it at Narita International Airport and will have to wait until I actually arrive in Europe to make an exchange.

Can I rely on being able to change $1500USD during either my Paris layover or in Amsterdam (Schipol) airport? Is there anywhere in Amsterdam itself that I might get better dollar-Euro rates than the airport?

edit; In case anybody else is ever in the same boat, I'm at Narita and found out that you can indeed only exchange to/from (whichever foreign currency) to yen and back. So if you have a bunch of dollars, as I did, you would have to change from USD to Yen and then to Euros or whatever (incurring double fees). Long story short, definitely wait until arriving in Europe since they can exchange any currency directly to Euros.

Suntory BOSS fucked around with this message at 06:58 on Dec 25, 2010

# ? Dec 24, 2010 08:23

a creepy colon: Oct 28, 2004; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Im in prague and its the most awesome place ever. To the guy thinking about renting a car i would never ever do that. People drive crazy here and there are hardly any traffic lights.

# ? Dec 24, 2010 23:31

Ziir: Nov 20, 2004; by Ozmaugh

Suntory BOSS posted:

I'm leaving Japan tomorrow without having been able to exchange my dollars ($1500) for Euros. I was even told by a bank teller here that I can't even do it at Narita International Airport and will have to wait until I actually arrive in Europe to make an exchange.

Can I rely on being able to change $1500USD during either my Paris layover or in Amsterdam (Schipol) airport? Is there anywhere in Amsterdam itself that I might get better dollar-Euro rates than the airport?

edit; In case anybody else is ever in the same boat, I'm at Narita and found out that you can indeed only exchange to/from (whichever foreign currency) to yen and back. So if you have a bunch of dollars, as I did, you would have to change from USD to Yen and then to Euros or whatever (incurring double fees). Long story short, definitely wait until arriving in Europe since they can exchange any currency directly to Euros.

Don't change at an airport.

# ? Dec 26, 2010 11:41

NihilismNow: Aug 31, 2003

Ziir posted:

Don't change at an airport.

Could you explain this? As far as i know Schiphol has at least a ABN AMRO bank, ING and a GWK (travelex) office. Where could you get better rates than that?

# ? Dec 26, 2010 17:04

a creepy colon: Oct 28, 2004; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

I dont get why people change money anyway, just go to an atm

# ? Dec 26, 2010 21:00

unixbeard: Dec 29, 2004

Limastock posted:

I dont get why people change money anyway, just go to an atm

Yeah this is what i do. I keep 100 USD and 100 EUR with my passports in case of emergency, the rest i just get from ATMs

# ? Dec 26, 2010 22:02

Fists Up: Apr 9, 2007

What is the name of the transport companies in the basque region? I forgot them.

Also if anyone has any pointers for getting from San Sebastian to Bordeaux I would appreciate

I can get to Bordeaux from Hendaye train station just across the border in france easily but getting from San Sebasitan to there seems to give me a few options. Theres trains that run to Irun in Spain and I walk across to Hendaye or there might be a few direct to Hendaye. Same with buses.

Or its only a ~20km trip. How much would a taxi from san sebastian cost me?

# ? Dec 27, 2010 03:29

Rojkir: Jun 26, 2007; WARNING:I AM A FASCIST PIECE OF SHIT.
Police beatings get me hard

NihilismNow posted:

Where could you get better rates than that?

Airport rates are usually worse than rates outside of airports. Only for physically changing your money. ATMs at airports are fine.

# ? Dec 27, 2010 15:15

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# ? May 10, 2024 05:59

Butt Soup Barnes: Nov 25, 2008

Quick question about eurail reservations. I am taking the train from Brussels to Berlin with a switch in Cologne. Do I need to pay for two separate reservations? Also, do reservations give you an assigned seat? If so, is there any way to ensure that the person I am traveling with sits next to me?

# ? Dec 27, 2010 16:36

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tourism & Travel > HELP! I'm going to Europe, what do I do? - EUROPE MEGATHREAD OWNZONE

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