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CameronisGod posted:4 Days in Napoli Unique/weird tourist stuff: Museo Cappella Sansevero - I am not all that into sculpture/marble but this place is one of the best things I saw in Napoli. It gave me an appreciation for marble sculpture for the first time ever. Veiled Christ is fine, but holy poo poo, the veiled woman and the man with the net were utterly mesmerising. Get the audio tour, and pause it before it tells you to go downstairs so you can spend a bit more time soaking up the mental optical illusions in the chapel ceiling, and all the other glory of it. Anime del Purgatorio ad Arco - Church dedicated to souls in Purgatory. Real human skulls, amazingly goth and haunted underground chapel, well worth the visit and my second favourite thing we did after Sansevero. MUSA - Museo Universitario delle Scienze e delle Arti - Didn't manage this because of wasting time up stupid Vesuvio, but it's a weird anatomy/pickled things/etc museum. Basilica di San Paolo Maggiore - Didn't actually go in the basilica itself, but did stumble into the chapel thing below it where they've got a guy who died in the 16th Century, waiting for sainthood in a glass case. General tourist stuff: Castel Sant'Elmo - Get there via funicular (always cool), pay a few euro to get in, look at amazing views. For views, spend your time here instead of Vesuvio. Plan it for a clear day if possible, but it was impressive even with rain coming in when we went. There are bars and restaurants and stuff in surrounding Vomero, but we didn't have time to explore. Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo - "The most beautiful church in Naples" - Huge and mental, proper Catholic extravagance, pretty cool. Napoli Sotterranea 'Underground Naples' - Tour underneath the city, showing you ancient aqueducts and WW2 shelters, with an extra surprise at the end. Very touristy, well worth it! Keep an eye on the times they do English tours. Food/drink: Tandem - Delicious ragu, go early at lunchtime because it gets busy. Monsù - Had some great Genovese (seek this out, it's super simple but incredibly delicious) and charcuterie. Il Cuoppo - For a menagerie of battered and fried things in a paper cone! Spazio Nea - Lovely to sit outside with a cocktail. Palazzo Venezia - Smack in the middle of the city, an oasis, we had a couple of drinks here one evening and it was lush. Would highly recommend. OAK Napoli Wine And Craft Beer - Does what it says on the tin, great vibes and great beer. I think you'd have to try quite hard to eat badly in Napoli, but as with anywhere touristic, check for places with a high score from loads of reviews. Especially in Centro Storico, there are a few shittier places (or so I assume, we didn't go to them...). Pompeii: Super easy to get to, take the Circumvesuviana from Garibaldi. You can tap on/off with your contactless card to save yourself the potentially mega queue at the ticket office, but if you need a paper ticket the office is right next to the platform barriers. Train is approx 40mins, walk straight out of Pompeii Scavi and don't get talked into going to the 'ticket office' right outside - the tickets are 2e more expensive. The entrance to the site is a couple of mins down the road and has its own ticket office. Allow at least 4h to explore, we were there for 6h and didn't manage to go to every corner. Herculaneum: Also on the Circumvesuviana, about half the travel time. Smaller than Pompeii but better preserved, and takes about 3h to get around. I was glad to go to both Pompeii and Herculaneum as they're very similar-but-different. That did me in for ruins for the foreseeable, though. Herculaneum has wooden gates and upper floors in situ, Pompeii is vast but much more ruined. Don't waste time going up Vesuvius: Same train stop as Herculaneum. Worst national park experience of my life. The bus company that takes you up there has an office right outside the train station, and that's the only place you can get tickets. You can't prebook the bus, but you do need to prebook a ticket to walk up Vesuvius to the crater. The bus company gives you 2h to do this, and for us as relatively fit and healthy people, that was barely enough to take it at a vaguely leisurely pace to both not die on an uphill hike, and to take in the spectacular views. We had to rebook our crater ticket because when we arrived at Ercolano Station, there were no buses with spaces for 90mins (meaning our timed crater ticket expired). The coffee shop outside Ercolano will also gouge you for coffee whilst you wait. We thought Vesuvius would be a nice little half day, but it took us 6h in total, cost 60e due to the ticket fuckup, and generally sucked and put me in a bad mood. YMMV knowing what you've just been told about the timings etc, but the views and fact-of-having-done-it were not worth it and I wish I'd spent that time back in Napoli. National Archaeological Museum I found to be pretty meh, but I've been to a lot of similar museums e.g. British Museum, National Archaeological Museum of Athens, so I might just be a bit archaeology-museum-sated.
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May 13, 2023 10:07
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CameronisGod posted:I will be traveling through Europe for the next month or so. For Granada, make sure you get your tickets to the Alhambra in advance and visit during non-peak hours if possible. I thought it was spectacular but my experience was dimmed somewhat by how absolutely swarmed it was.
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May 13, 2023 18:36
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If you can, get up really early and enter as soon as it opens. When the sun rises, you’ll see how it got its name, you’ll be through by the time it gets super crowded, and it won’t be too warm yet.
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May 15, 2023 17:56
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I’m in Zurich for a week, currently staying in the city center just west of Lindenhof. I’m super jet lagged still and I’m looking for a chill bar to have a cocktail and maybe socialize lightly until I can make myself go to sleep. I’ll have more important questions as my brain wakes up these next 12 or so hours but for now I just want chill drinky and sleepy.
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May 16, 2023 18:38
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Too late for you now for tonight but I’ve made some effort posts for Zürich here not too long ago, just search the thread. Frau Gerolt’s Garden and Mica’s Garden are far and away my favorite outdoor bars (including food) if you get good weather when you’re not working. Jules Verne Bar is closer and also one of my favorite spots in the city. But also Swiss - and Europeans more generally - don’t do "light socialization" with strangers at bars, that’s a famously Anglo thing to do. But if you wanted to try it Frau Gerolt’s and Mica’s would be the place. Alternately and closer to you the Mannerbadi outdoor bar is cool and pretty casual, and if you find people speaking with native English accents maybe you can try chilling with them. But yeah bars in Europe, or at least certainly not Switzerland, are very much not a typical place for random interactions to be welcomed. I mean you can try but just try and get the message and leave people alone if they repeatedly try to cut you out of the conversation, which is the standard way of dealing with unwanted socialization. I mean of course some Swiss are outgoing and will talk to whomever and Zürich is very international so it’s not impossible, it just is not even remotely like how bars work in the US.
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May 16, 2023 21:57
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Groovy, thanks a lot Saladman. I did get a little spoiled in Scotland, I made some great friends just by goin’ drinkin’. I definitely don’t mind being less social if the atmosphere is pleasant enough to be alone in. Sitting in a dark indoor restaurant at a table by myself with a beer is not my cup of tea.
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May 16, 2023 22:41
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Tourist trap Irish pubs are ubiquitous in Europe, but they serve an important purpose.
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May 17, 2023 07:21
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Rolo posted:Groovy, thanks a lot Saladman. I did get a little spoiled in Scotland, I made some great friends just by goin’ drinkin’. Looks like the effort post I wrote up last year was about day hiking. Anyway here's one relevant bit: Saladman posted:The best dayhike in Zurich is going from the Triemli hospital up Uetliberg (~45-60 min) and then Planetweg until you get bored and go back. The hike up Zurichberg sucks (no views). The best view point of the city is on Käferberg, specifically near the restaurant Die Waid. I don't know how to search posts here but if you look back in the past 5 pages I wrote a long writeup on Zurich pretty recently, so just search for Zurich and you should find it pretty quickly (EDIT: it's on page 344, check that out for suggestions... although looks like it's more "for living in" rather than "for visiting" and it's a "winter" post rather than "summer" post which dramatically changes my recommendations for Zurich). Zurich is my favorite city that I've ever lived in, by a mile. I left recently and really miss it. It has no "must sees" really, but it's a great place. There are no other real hikes in or near Zurich really. There's the Zurich Oberland like at Hornli but it's pretty far and it's not spectacular. And yeah Paddy Reilly's in downtown Zurich would be the Irish Pub style where people would not be shocked to have you approach them. I did meet my wife by asking a random girl on the street for directions to a bar, and she invited me and the friend I was with to go to a birthday party pregame at her house instead followed by a night out at a club. This girl was (well, is) 100% Swiss so... it's definitely possible to meet people on cold approach, it's just like 1/100th as common as in the US. E: I found my EffortPost about things to do in Zurich that wasn't just about hiking although I see that's a winter-focused post, here: Saladman posted:I lived in Zurich for 5 years and I've been here 12 years. I just recently moved from ZH, happy to give specific suggestions for the area. ... For outdoor drinking in nice environments then Mica's Garden and Frau Gerolt's Garden can't be beat, but The Mannerbad bar ("Rimini") that I mentioned is reasonably nice too, opens at 7:30pm. It is not a gay bar, despite being in a men's only bathhouse, and women are allowed in after 7:30pm, which is when the bar opens. The "outdoors is enjoyable" season juuuust started so it's a great time to be in Zurich, like the Mannerbad just reopened last weekend. If you have other specific questions let me know, Zurich is my favorite city in the world by the largest of margins such that every other city seems like mismanaged absolute trash in comparison, and I was very sad to leave it. Basically, it has amazing public services, spotlessly clean, low taxes, almost zero random crime, almost zero visible social problems (addicts, beggars, vandalism), and an amazing amount of cultural activities and nature activities, although the cultural activities are lol expensive because everyone is paid a living wage. I would vote for the mayor of Zurich to become empress for life, and basically she has become mayor for life because she did such an amazing job on making Zurich the perfect city. Saladman fucked around with this message at 09:18 on May 17, 2023 |
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May 17, 2023 09:04
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this thread seems to have a weirdly specific knowledge of the alps... any recommendations for an overnight hike with a stay in a mountain hut, in the dolomites? and I guess a place to base ourselves for 1-2 nights in the dolomites, preferably from where the aforementioned overnight is accessible? (no car)
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May 17, 2023 19:09
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I lived in Bolzano and Trento for awhile. I would go to Val di Fassa and Alpe di Siusi a lot. I would take the bus to Vigo di Fassa, then the funicular up to the south end of the valley. I would hike at a leisurely pace and stay either here - https://goo.gl/maps/gBEW51qaDG3NTBsF8 or here - https://goo.gl/maps/Vyz8Uch5PNGQDq5U7. From the first hut, you can easily hike up here - https://goo.gl/maps/djikDBrX2reEU1PN8. The next day, I would hike north out of the valley and cross into the Alpe di Siusi over the Catinaccios at this point - https://goo.gl/maps/NBMCJHLm9eP5xZmGA. However, this leg can be long for some people, so you can hike to this hut on the first day, located on a small lake - https://goo.gl/maps/cZ9htv8f6MYs3h5i7. From Rosszahnscharte, it's a leisurely downhill hike in the largest alpine meadow in Europe. The cable car at Compatsch will take you down to the town of Siusi, where you can pick up a bus to take you back to civilization.
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May 17, 2023 20:56
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Continuing the theme of specific walk requests, in a week I'm going to be driving between Flam and Gol in Norway (we're getting the train in the other direction). Any recommendations for short walks anywhere in that area? There seems to still be a fair bit of snow on the ground, although not on the road and we're not looking for a big hike, more something quick but impressive to take a break. Would ideally be something the Norwegians describe as "suitable for young children"
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May 18, 2023 09:00
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My takeaway so far: It is criminally unfair that German wagons got phased out for crossovers in the US.
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May 18, 2023 15:21
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Hot tip for anyone trying to get Eiffel Tower tickets through the official website - try at 4.45am Paris time (for tickets 60 days in advance of when you want to visit). After trying for a few days at midnight Paris time, this just worked for me!!
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May 19, 2023 04:09
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I have a trip to Madrid, Ibiza, and London in about a month. I have a Visa and Mastercard with no foreign transaction fees, and my understanding is I should be able to use them pretty much everywhere. But I also feel like having some cash on hand would be helpful, maybe 100 eur and 100 gbp. I've heard it's cheaper to exchange currency at a local bank (so in Madrid and London) than doing so through my local Chase branch before I leave. Is that right? Seems like they'd be in a better position to screw you on the exchange rate since you're already over there.
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May 19, 2023 21:03
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Josh Lyman posted:I have a trip to Madrid, Ibiza, and London in about a month. I have a Visa and Mastercard with no foreign transaction fees, and my understanding is I should be able to use them pretty much everywhere. But I also feel like having some cash on hand would be helpful, maybe 100 eur and 100 gbp. Exchange houses are, without exception, a ripoff. Withdraw from your ATM - even if you have like a $3 per withdrawal fee, it will still be a better deal than using an exchange house. The only reason you should use an exchange house is if your ATM card and credit card get blocked and you urgently need more cash before you can make a phone call to unblock them. The rates they give are horrifically bad, often 10%+ off the ATM rate.
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May 19, 2023 21:18
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I’d also add that if you’re getting money out, use a bank-branded ATM rather than an independent one. There’s a bunch of blue & gold Euronet machines that are notorious ripoffs. Make sure you actually know the exchange rate (not just a rough idea), so you know what you should be getting. And when you’re looking for a machine, follow signs for what locals call it, eg telebanco or bancomat. The machines with 10-foot high signs saying ATM are tourist ripoff machines.
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May 19, 2023 21:30
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Also when an ATM asks if you’d like it to convert the pounds/euros you withdraw into your local currency, always decline. In London last month the ATM I used would gladly change the transaction to be in USD for the nominal service fee of … 12.89%. The only time I used an exchange the rates seemed close to market rates but changing pounds to euros had a 5 euro fee.
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May 19, 2023 21:40
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Saladman posted:Exchange houses are, without exception, a ripoff. Withdraw from your ATM - even if you have like a $3 per withdrawal fee, it will still be a better deal than using an exchange house. The only reason you should use an exchange house is if your ATM card and credit card get blocked and you urgently need more cash before you can make a phone call to unblock them. The rates they give are horrifically bad, often 10%+ off the ATM rate. webmeister posted:I’d also add that if you’re getting money out, use a bank-branded ATM rather than an independent one. There’s a bunch of blue & gold Euronet machines that are notorious ripoffs. Make sure you actually know the exchange rate (not just a rough idea), so you know what you should be getting. I don't know how much cash I'll need for the 2 week trip. I wasn't planning to bring more than $200, in which case maybe it makes sense to exchange before the trip?
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May 19, 2023 21:52
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Absolutely nothing we found in downtown London required cash. If you have 2-3 weeks and want to completely forget about ATM fuckery, you could open a Charles Schwab Investor Checking account. No foreign fees, no ATM fees on their end, and at the end of the month they’ll reimburse you for any fees the ATMs charge you. No minimum balance. Doing so will open a Schwab brokerage account, too, but you don’t have to fund it.
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May 19, 2023 21:57
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Credit cards cannot be used everywhere in Europe. In the Netherlands, many places accept debit only. There are also still quite a few places where cash is king. Germany is the most notorious, but you can encounter it in various other countries too especially in rural areas, on islands, mountain tops or other places with bad cellular service. And yeah, there are many money scams regarding conversion and ATMs as mentioned above. Best procedure generally is to withdraw from a random local bank ATM on arrival. In my experience, the more regional/local the bank, the lower the fees. You can try a few to find lower fees, they always show you the fee with an option to cancel if there is one. Never let the ATM do currency conversion and always just withdraw the local currency you need. Any exchange office is a scam including those in your own country. Entropist fucked around with this message at 23:36 on May 19, 2023 |
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May 19, 2023 23:31
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WithoutTheFezOn posted:Also when an ATM asks if you’d like it to convert the pounds/euros you withdraw into your local currency, always decline. gently caress, I forgot my usual spiel about direct currency conversion! 100%, when you’re overseas never ever ever let any machine charge you in your home currency!! It will give you scary sounding warnings about UNGUARANTEED EXCHANGE RATES, but it’s completely fine, just ignore it. Pro: you know exactly what you’ll be charged in your own currency Con: it will be a garbage exchange rate Con: you will usually get charged a % commission fee on top of the flat transaction fee (and probably a foreign conversion fee as well)
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May 20, 2023 04:41
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Charles Schwab debit cards return ATM fees, do they make up for it with higher conversion fees or is this a good deal?
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May 20, 2023 04:47
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Always play around with those ATMs too to make sure there's nothing attached to the card reader or number pad. Good idea to just give it a little wiggle and try to use ATMs inside of a bank during regular business hours for better security. Set up a travel notice with your bank and you should be good to go. Although not sure what the exchange rate is with your local bank but sometimes paying the $5 $10 premium is nice to not have to deal with worrying about one extra thing while you're on your vacation in Europe.
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May 20, 2023 05:56
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The number of people who speak perfect, accentless* English in the Netherlands and Scandinavia is incredible. Obviously there are lots of French people or whatever that speak good English, but even the ones living in London typically keep a French accent and some grammatical tics. Sometimes in Amsterdam or Oslo you could just as easily be in LA *As in with an accent from an anglophone country
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May 20, 2023 09:29
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WithoutTheFezOn posted:Absolutely nothing we found in downtown London required cash.
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May 20, 2023 09:55
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AreWeDrunkYet posted:Charles Schwab debit cards return ATM fees, do they make up for it with higher conversion fees or is this a good deal? It looks like they charged us 2.5% over what Google says the exchange rate was for that day. I have no idea if that’s good or bad, because I don’t know if/how a retail consumer could get the publicly listed rate. E.g. Google says 100 euro would have been $111 on May 3, Schwab ended up taking out $113.50. Very similar ratio on other withdrawals.
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May 20, 2023 16:02
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WithoutTheFezOn posted:if/how a retail consumer could get the publicly listed rate On the 3rd May, MC was offering 100.00 EUR = 110.61 USD , Visa 100 EUR = 110.099890 USD Pablo Bluth fucked around with this message at 16:55 on May 20, 2023 |
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May 20, 2023 16:52
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Ok, right, but I was thinking of getting cash, not just paying for something.
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May 20, 2023 17:42
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WithoutTheFezOn posted:Ok, right, but I was thinking of getting cash, not just paying for something. Pablo Bluth fucked around with this message at 18:21 on May 20, 2023 |
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May 20, 2023 18:07
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I used to have an ATM card that charged a flat 1% fee for foreign usage which was sometimes very convenient. Particularly places where it was hard to get small bills out of the ATM and also hard to break large bills. Now we typically get 100 euros out once at the airport and it lasts the whole trip.
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May 20, 2023 18:29
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Is chip-and-PIN still a thing?
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May 20, 2023 20:04
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My American bank's debit atm card is Mastercard. I found this website helpful for locating ATMs on Mastercard's network. https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/personal/get-support/find-nearest-atm.html
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May 20, 2023 20:28
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Greg12 posted:Is chip-and-PIN still a thing? In Europe? Totally, it's usually the fallback if contactless doesn't work. Swiping your CC isn't a thing here.
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May 20, 2023 20:39
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Greg12 posted:Is chip-and-PIN still a thing? For any transaction over like €50, yes. For small transactions you can either do contactless or if you want chip and pin. Like every 30 transactions or something you have to put in a pin even for small contactless transactions; might vary by bank. Swiping has not existed for years, I don’t think it is even supported in Europe anymore by most terminals but I think all American cards have had chips for several years. I am not sure of card skimming exists in the wild for chipped cards? I have never heard of it happening IRL and with ATMs to withdraw you can’t "jiggle the card" anyway as they all suck your card in as far as I remember. Putting a card skimmer in an ATM seems way complicated compared to putting a card skimmer in a parking meter or whatever too, but worrying about it seems almost as paranoid as worrying about your phone being hacked by customs. I’m sure it happens but you’d have to be on guard constantly for something that has probably like a 1/1000 lifetime chance of occurring to you personally.
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May 20, 2023 22:16
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I haven't heard about card skimming being a thing since chip and pin became widespread which was like 10 years ago. So I don't think it really happens any more in western Europe. Before that, sure, I've identified a rigged ATM in the center of Vienna myself.
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May 20, 2023 22:21
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Can you go into banks that aren't yours to withdraw money? Is that even a thing?
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May 20, 2023 22:26
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Sure you can, you will most likely have to pay extra fees though. Edit: I meant ATMs here.
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May 20, 2023 22:52
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The only thing where I swipe anything still is at the petrol station, because some fleet fuel cards either don’t have a chip, or don’t always use it. Those are not generic credit cards, though, but those types of readers are usually at least technically capable of it.
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May 20, 2023 23:03
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Chewbecca posted:Can you go into banks that aren't yours to withdraw money? Is that even a thing? Yeah. The abbreviation ATM is "automated *teller* machine". Like bank teller, the people you go to and talk to at a bank counter. They can do everything an ATM can do plus more. For instance if you are ever in a country with low max withdrawal limits, like $100 equivalent, and you have to pay $3 each time you use an ATM with your bank card, you can go inside the bank and go to a human teller and withdraw as much as your daily card limit, paying only the same $3 transaction fee. It’s super useful to do in cash oriented countries with lovely ATMs / cash countries where the largest bill is pitifully small, like Ethiopia where the largest bill is now worth $4 at the bank exchange rate / $2 at market exchange rate. So you still use your ATM card or credit card but you can take way more money. There may be other differences too but I’ve gone into bank branches a couple times, including most recently specifically in Ethiopia for that reason.
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May 21, 2023 08:52
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Saladman posted:Yeah. The abbreviation ATM is "automated *teller* machine". Like bank teller, the people you go to and talk to at a bank counter. They can do everything an ATM can do plus more. I legit had no idea I could be served at banks that aren't mine, especially overseas. Mind = blown!!  thank you!!
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May 21, 2023 09:30
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