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distortion park posted:Medoc is a kind of weird region, I've been and it's interesting but not really what I expected. Flat-ish, very intensely cultivated for wine, and dotted with very frequent farm buildings and wine chateaus all mixed up, and basically nothing else. This turned out to be true in the east along the estuary, but not in the west along the Atlantic where our campsite was at. The seaside was much like the Dutch or Danish one, but at a larger scale. No wineries there, just sand dunes and forested dunes and swamp and some big shallow freshwater lakes. It was quite nice for hiking and cycling and canooing and such. It was also a German colony, just like the Dutch/Danish coast. The vineyards only appeared after crossing the D1215 basically, which is only a relatively small eastern edge of the Medoc natural park.
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Aug 29, 2023 23:21
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Qubee posted:I'm only taking a backpack with me, and I have a 10kg allowance. It's a 7 day trip, so I plan on taking 14 pairs of underwear so that I can poo poo myself twice a day. But more seriously, I'll take 4 pairs of underwear, 4 shirts, 2 flannel shirts, 2 jeans, a pair of tracksuit bottoms, socks and a toothbrush. Toothpaste to go with toothbrush. Deodorant, other toiletries you need... Sun cream, unless you buy once you land. I'd definitely want more than 2 shirts for a week. Also Rome and Sorrento get pretty hot in September so make sure your clothes are appropriate for warm weather! High 20s (Celcius) should be expected. A waterproof layer is always a smart thing to take. Painkillers can be useful as often you can only buy them in pharmacies in Europe, and you might not find one easily/it might have inconvenient opening hours. Plug converters, as someone else said. With a 10kg limit, I'd consider grabbing some packing cubes so you can pack really effectively and add the extra bits.
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Aug 30, 2023 14:23
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Or just buy a European USB charger at the airport or trainstation or whatever. edit: I'm mainly saying this because in Italy its very common to have narrow (so not round) wall ports that not all travel adapters will fit. https://anamericaninrome.com/2010/10/the-problem-with-italian-plugs/ Rojkir fucked around with this message at 15:30 on Aug 30, 2023 |
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Aug 30, 2023 15:26
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If you're moving around a lot, the lazy solution is to only take 2 pairs of pants, half the shirts and cram it into a carry on. For those kinds of trips I like to buy a cheap shirt or two there, which I'll discard at the end of the trip. Instead of shaving kit (may not be applicable to you) I stop at a barber halfway when I find one. ymmv, if you don't travel often it may feel like it's less of a hassle to just check a suitcase. Fruits of the sea fucked around with this message at 15:40 on Aug 30, 2023 |
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Aug 30, 2023 15:38
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Rojkir posted:Or just buy a European USB charger at the airport or trainstation or whatever. For the poster going to Italy (and anyone else on this issue), what you want to look for is a "Europlug" (Type C) adapter. This will work anywhere in Europe besides Ireland and the UK (edit: and Malta and Cyprus), even in countries with weird plugs like Switzerland, Italy, and Denmark. Every "multi-country" travel adapter I've ever seen uses EuroPlug, but single-plug adapters sold for "Europe" often get you the fatter ones that won't work in Italy and Switzerland, and very occasionally in other European countries if you go to a hotel or house that hasn't had its sockets updated since like 1970. Unless you're travelling with a blender or iron or something that draws a lot of power, in which case the difference could theoretically matter. Probably an iron is not on your packing list. Saladman fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Aug 30, 2023 |
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Aug 30, 2023 19:18
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code:Qubee fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Aug 30, 2023 |
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Aug 30, 2023 21:12
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Yeah that sounds solid. The restaurants are probably fake but anyway it’s Italy so just pick wherever and double check to make sure it’s at least a 4.0 on google reviews. For Vatican museum, buy your tickets now. Also Roman forum, I forget if you can buy those online now but you’ll want to if you can, but for Vatican museum it’s required to do it in advance, unless you enjoy standing in Disneyland lines.
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Aug 30, 2023 21:28
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I went from anxious to excited. I'm ignoring the restaurant section, I just use Google Maps to find nearby restaurants with good ratings whenever I'm in a new place. Thanks to everyone for all the advice, tips and guidance! I have an illogical fear about these pickpockets I hear a lot about. It'll be like literally any other major city I've visited so I don't know why I feel like these Italian pickpockets employ ninjutsu to teleport my belongings outside of their secure surroundings. As long as I'm not an idiot and don't get distracted, I'll be fine. I'm most self conscious about the parts of my trip where I'm travelling from one place to another, as I'll have my backpack with my. But I'll just swing that down to my front to keep an eye on it.
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Aug 30, 2023 21:38
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If you’re a man - or a woman who somehow found women’s pants that have not-tiny pockets - then pickpockets are really not an issue. I’ve heard of the strategy where a bunch of people swarm you or someone pretends to drop something in front of you or whatever to distract you, but it’s not super common, and if your wallet and phone are in your front pocket it would be super hard to steal. Doubt anyone will go after a guy’s daypack as it’s likely to just have a sandwich and a bottle of water in it. It’s more of an issue for women with handbags (which contain valuables, unlike daypacks) and phones that don’t hardly fit in pockets. No one carries cash anymore and phones are fairly hard to resell, so I think anyway pickpockets are a dying breed. I guess contactless has raised the risk a bit. My grandfather was pickpocketed several times in the 80s in Paris, but he always had a huge fat wallet that was like 60% hanging out of his back pocket, which even as a kid I thought was dumb and looked absurdly easy to steal. It can happen but theft in Europe is generally of unattended belongings. So when going from place to place definitely keep a good eye on your stuff.
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Aug 30, 2023 21:56
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When I travel in Europe I keep my wallet in one of my front pockets with my hand on the wallet, in my pocket, while in crowded conditions. If they can get my wallet from me with my hand on it, they can have it. My father got pickpocketed on the Paris Metro back in the '90s, took his cash and threw the wallet in the trash. Police found it sitting right there on the pile of garbage, all his credit cards and IDs intact, just money gone.
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Aug 30, 2023 22:02
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Qubee posted:
Edit: also since you're going to be there for 3 days, you can grab a 72 hour Roma Pass for public transport and some museum discounts. mmkay fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Aug 30, 2023 |
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Aug 30, 2023 22:56
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I heard that in Brazil a new fancy way of "pickpocketing" is coming up, where someone just sweeps a preprogrammed contactless payment device along everyone's pocket and charges whatever is the max value without verification. Wonder when that'll make its way into Europe.
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Aug 31, 2023 07:16
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Doesn't a PIN defeat that?
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Aug 31, 2023 07:19
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Contactless doesn't require PIN up to a certain amount.
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Aug 31, 2023 07:21
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Sounds like I need to set a limit on that before I go to LATAM next month
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Aug 31, 2023 07:28
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Saladman posted:Yeah that sounds solid. The restaurants are probably fake but anyway it’s Italy so just pick wherever and double check to make sure it’s at least a 4.0 on google reviews. Just don't be like me and buy the Roman Forum only tickets, without an entry to the coliseum! I didn't mind but my travelling companion did. kiimo posted:Sounds like I need to set a limit on that before I go to LATAM next month If you're really worried just get a Wise (or any of the other modern debit card issuers) account and you can have lots of control via the app 
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Aug 31, 2023 07:33
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Just realised I should turn off the magnetic stripe option!
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Aug 31, 2023 07:34
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I think there’s wallets you can get that have some sort of protection against remote activation like that? I’d add to the snatch & grab thing, don’t leave your phone sitting on the table while you eat at an outdoor table. I’ve seen people either just run up and grab it, or steal it subtly like holding a menu or petition over it, then using their hidden bottom hand to swipe the phone while you’re momentarily distracted.
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Aug 31, 2023 08:19
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Yeah, RFID blocking wallets. I think a lot of wallet manufacturers started marketing their wallets as RFID blocking when tap and pay cards became prevalent here. I think you'd need to be real close to someone's credit card for that scheme anyway. Like, uncomfortably so. Maybe in a super crowded metro? Only place someone tried to pickpocket me (at least the only one I've noticed) was in metro in Mexico City. A guy came standing right next to me, holding a coat over his arm and sort of awkwardly draped it over my purse. I just moved away and stared at him lol. Doll House Ghost fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Aug 31, 2023 |
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Aug 31, 2023 21:33
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I'm surprised it's happening only now. I was very concerned about this when contactless payment first became a thing, and refused a card with the feature as long as possible until the bank forced it upon me.
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Aug 31, 2023 21:38
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You also need to disable 'tap and go' (e.g. Google Pay) on your phone, or only have it enabled when the phone is unlocked. I have seen footage on YouTube (perhaps staged but who knows) of people scanning people's phones as they walk past. You're more likely to have your phone in your hand as you walk around than a payment card. I made sure both my cards and passport were in RFID protected wallets, and that google pay was disabled on my phone before travelling
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Aug 31, 2023 21:56
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I'm sure those are real but OTOH I've never actually heard of it happening to someone I know IRL. If you don't take those metros where they use people-packers to shove you in next to each other it's probably fine. Also my "wallet" is just a hairband double-looped around 6 or so cards, and I can say from experience that contactless does not actually work if I just stick that stack of cards on a card reader, even if the bottom (or top card) is my contactless. I have to separate it out when I want to pay, otherwise the contactless terminal freaks out as it tries to interface with like 4 cards simultaneously. If it does ever happen to me then I guess I will see a mystery CHF50 charge on my bank statement a month later and be like "dang, I should get one of those metal wallets, that was a good 56 dollar lesson". Until that happens I'm going to stick with the hairband. The phone thing doesn't make sense to me, Apple Wallet is not at all readable by someone walking around unless you've specifically activated it. Maybe Mossad has some way to do it, but it's absolutely not a thing a petty street criminal could do. Or at least, Apple Wallet doesn't work unless the phone is unlocked, at least. Does Google Pay? That seems like it would be dumb.
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Aug 31, 2023 21:59
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Reminds me of this https://www.reddit.com/r/maybemaybemaybe/comments/r0c6x7/maybe_maybe_maybe/
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Aug 31, 2023 22:09
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I mean look, everything is only an outside chance, and it was probably overkill, but my paranoid rear end would prefer to remove all doubt
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Aug 31, 2023 22:17
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The tap in terminals at Dutch train stations were recently upgraded to allow contactless bank cards (before that you could only use dedicated public transit cards for them). Apparently this actually caused some trouble for people who just tap their entire wallet against the thing. I think the bank card sometimes took preference for some reason and if you got a transit card with a reduced price for certain journeys, well, the reduced price won't apply to your bank card.
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Aug 31, 2023 22:56
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coming from a country where contactless is the norm, good luck getting it to work from a distance of more than a few cm and through multiple layers of clothing also most if not all contactless readers beep when they've read your card all in all I'm sure someone somewhere's tried it but I don't think it's particularly worth worrying about
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Sep 1, 2023 01:37
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I have a currency conversion / how to spend my money abroad question and would appreciate seasoned big spenders giving me their advice.
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Sep 1, 2023 16:09
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Get a credit card/ATM card without international fees.
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Sep 1, 2023 17:28
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Depending on how much you are expecting to spend, when your travel is, your credit score, and who you already bank with, might be worth it to sign up for a premium credit card with no foreign transaction fee to get the sign up bonus. This is a good thread - https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3679537
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Sep 1, 2023 17:33
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CCs in the US without foreign transaction fees: Chase Visas, CapitalOne cards, Discover but lol at Discover in Europe, some BoA cards (but oddly enough, not their World Traveller card). Easy way to quit worrying about cash fees - open a Charles Schwab Investor Checking account and carry their debit card. No minimum balance, no foreign transaction fees, they’ll reimburse you for ATM fees at the end of each month, and as a little bonus your balance earns about 0.5% interest.
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Sep 1, 2023 18:55
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If you’re travelling for Italy for 10 days and this is your first overseas trip since 2019, then it’s probably not worth dealing with minmaxing credit cards for what will sum up to maybe $25 over your entire stay, unless you expect to travel more frequently in the future. But in case it’s not a rare one off, just check with your bank to see what their best options are for international travelers. US banks tend to have really good options for clients (in stark contrast to Europe, where all banks are poo poo), even including small regional banks. My US bank account is for a fairly small, landlocked, flyover country state bank and their card is so much better than any of the garbage they offer in Europe that I’ll occasionally transfer a few grand from my EU account to my US account, and then I use that card for withdrawals and etc when outside of EU-Schengen areas. It’s even free, I just had to ask. In Europe they have garbage traveller cards and they charge you like €200 a year for the privilege of eating their poo poo. The US is generally way, way ahead of Europe for client-friendly banks, and like a billion times better for credit card-client relationships.
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Sep 1, 2023 21:36
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I use Revolut which is a UK based bank that does a pre-paid card with no fees or commission on Forex transactions. I don't trust them enough to like really bank with them, I only use the pre-paid card, but I've spent thousands through it by now and use it to receive money from abroad too and transfer it to my local account without fees. They're offering me €100 for anyone I can get to open an account and do 3 transactions or something by 12 September so I'll split that with anyone who thinks the card will be of use to them. PM me if you've got questions or if you want the referral link cos I don't want to crap up the thread shilling for my bank.
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Sep 1, 2023 21:52
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Thanks for the Veneto recommendations. I got back earlier this week, it owned. The last two days rained so we decided not to do the Garda trip as it wouldn't really be enjoyable. One fun surprise was the airport bus, my slightly out of date guidebook said the city bus is 1EUR and express is 3, but they were all 10EUR lmao. In retrospect we should've taken the boat directly to Venice as it stops near Celestia where the hotel was located. Saladman posted:If you’re travelling for Italy for 10 days and this is your first overseas trip since 2019, then it’s probably not worth dealing with minmaxing credit cards for what will sum up to maybe $25 over your entire stay, unless you expect to travel more frequently in the future.  I only ever hear complaints about how US banks are loving over customers with fake accounts, overdraft fees, account fees, poo poo service and all that. My Raiffeisen account is free, has good online banking and app, the cards have free international ATM withdrawals and exchange rates that basically similar to what Revolut offers. The only downside is that credit card benefits are usually not as good as in the US (with airline miles or car insurance or whatever) but they refund like 2% of spending back or so.
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Sep 2, 2023 14:58
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mobby_6kl posted:I only ever hear complaints about how US banks are loving over customers with fake accounts, overdraft fees, account fees, poo poo service and all that. My Raiffeisen account is free, has good online banking and app, the cards have free international ATM withdrawals and exchange rates that basically similar to what Revolut offers. The only downside is that credit card benefits are usually not as good as in the US (with airline miles or car insurance or whatever) but they refund like 2% of spending back or so. My US bank charges me nothing, has no minimum balance, doesn't care that I don't live in the country, and has been super easy to deal with every time there is a problem, and my card there has no ATM fees, uses so close to the forex rate that I don't think there is any surcharge, and it even refunds any ATM fees charged by the ATM itself, so I don't even have to gaf about which ATM I use when I'm travelling or deal with always withdrawing the maximum amount to avoid per-withdrawal fees. Conversely my Credit Suisse card charges me $120 a year to use it, charges $400/year if I moved abroad and wanted to continue to use the account, it has no free withdrawals, charges $1 per credit card use while abroad (not including Eurozone, but including e.g. pre-Euro Croatia last summer) + something like a 2.5% transaction fee, and the ATM card charges $3 on top of whatever fees are charged by the foreign ATM. My wife's Raiffeisen card is slightly less lovely but still pretty bad - but I think Raiffaisen is a totally different bank in each country. Also I just mailed in my documents literally yesterday to close my account after having had it since 2009. Now I have a BNP account which is marginally less lovely. Many banks in Europe also won't open accounts for US citizens (including dual, although there's no actual penalty for lying-by-omission) so my options are also really limited if I don't want to put 50k or more into the account as a minimum balance. The US bank is so good that I've never really bothered looking at Revolut, but I absolutely would if I were not a US citizen. Also at one point I found out that I had like $1500 on cashback on my US credit card which was totally out of the blue and a nice bonus for a card I don't even use all that much. Cashback and bonuses for European cards are lol, if they even exist. I had one before that I think was literally something like 0.05% as I had a bonus of like 40 CHF after literally 10 years of using the card. E: US banks and credit cards are terrible if you overdraft yourself and are on credit card debt, but if you're not financially insolvent they are way better in every way. Definitely on account fees they do not have any as far as I have ever heard or experienced, unlike Swiss banks which all have account fees, with minor exceptions like those under age 25 and people at Post Bank without credit cards. They definitely all charge you if you want a credit card - which you'll need to like, buy a plane ticket, although now that V-Pay and Maestro are dead maybe that has changed. Swiss banks might be the loving worst, no idea how EU banks are. Saladman fucked around with this message at 21:23 on Sep 2, 2023 |
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Sep 2, 2023 21:15
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The reason why some banks seem poo poo and expensive and others are good and cheap is usually down to the question whether the bank maintains walk-in locations. For the terminally online population it is probably useless to be able to talk to a service person face-to-face, so for them a cheap internet-only bank is the obvious choice. In Switzerland there might also be a decent amount of protectionist laws going on, allowing the banks to charge you more because there is no cheap competition.
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Sep 3, 2023 08:42
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Honj Steak posted:The reason why some banks seem poo poo and expensive and others are good and cheap is usually down to the question whether the bank maintains walk-in locations. For the terminally online population it is probably useless to be able to talk to a service person face-to-face, so for them a cheap internet-only bank is the obvious choice. There are somewhat decent banks in Switzerland, but there are only two banks in Switzerland willing to deal with the bullshit of baking for US citizens (private banks for the wealthy aside), and both of them hate you, specifically, and clients in general.
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Sep 3, 2023 15:00
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I paid £150 for my schengen visa and I was only given six months. I'm so gutted lmao, especially since I have a British passport and am only doing this visa silliness for formalities and to keep my backwards-rear end GCC country calm instead of digging into my dual nationality. God drat.
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Sep 3, 2023 15:34
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Jean-Paul Shartre posted:There are somewhat decent banks in Switzerland, but there are only two banks in Switzerland willing to deal with the bullshit of baking for US citizens (private banks for the wealthy aside), and both of them hate you, specifically, and clients in general. Yeah this may be my main issue. I didn’t shop around much because almost all small and midsized banks say they won’t accept American clients, except the biggest of the biggest multinationals, and I’m not going to hide having US citizenship when opening a bank account. Hurray FATCA. Although most midsized banks will open accounts for Americans if it’s related to a large loan like a mortgage (or for HNWIs, obviously). IIRC several had cutoffs of like, CHF500k minimum deposit or mortgage, which would cover pretty much every residence in Switzerland. Honj Steak posted:The reason why some banks seem poo poo and expensive and others are good and cheap is usually down to the question whether the bank maintains walk-in locations. For the terminally online population it is probably useless to be able to talk to a service person face-to-face, so for them a cheap internet-only bank is the obvious choice. For business clients that deal with cashflow that would definitely make sense as a significant benefit. Maybe there's just not a lot of consumer-focused banking in Switzerland, or at least not that's open to Americans. I think I've been into physical bank branches like five times in the past fifteen years. I can only remember going into a bank twice for reasons other than setting up new accounts or setting up our mortgage, both times to withdraw cash amounts beyond the daily ATM limit. An increasing number of Europeans I know now have a Revolut account. Not sure why being "terminally online" would be relevant. I'm not terminally online (and doubt many T&T posters are) but I'd definitely rather do my banking from my laptop than have to go into some bank branch and deal with it. Saladman fucked around with this message at 15:47 on Sep 3, 2023 |
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Sep 3, 2023 15:34
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I had a lot of issues finding a bank to open an account with in Bolzano. The reason the banks usually gave me was FATCA.
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Sep 3, 2023 15:44
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Saladman posted:[…]An increasing number of Europeans I know now have a Revolut account. Not sure why being "terminally online" would be relevant. I'm not terminally online (and doubt many T&T posters are) but I'd definitely rather do my banking from my laptop than have to go into some bank branch and deal with it. I apologise, the term I used was stupid hyperbole. In fact, it’s actually the other extreme: for private individuals, it’s tech-illiterate people that rely on in-person banking. For those it makes sense to pay more for the ability to walk up to a counter.
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Sep 3, 2023 18:07
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