International Travel for n00bs

^ This. Just keep a small wallet with what you need for the day in your front pocket and you will be fine. It is easy as balls to get around if you have a little patience, Paris included. Me (sounding American) and my GF (German) had no problem in Paris. They were dicks, but what are you going to do? Just roll with it and enjoy it for what it is. Nobody could care less where you are from, especially if you are in a major tourist destination.

As a little side story, we were taking a tour once in the tower of London, and they asked everyone in the group where they were from. Everyone listed a country until it came to the American couple, who just said their 500 population middle of fucking no where town as though everyone knew where it was. It was awesome.

Late reply but here goes :
Money : as said by pretty much everyone else : withdraw cash from ATMs. Call your bank and verify with them what the daily/weekly limits are for ATM cash withdrawal are on your card when you use it outside of the US.
Don't look like a tourist. Don't keep all your money in one place. I usualy keep small bills and a few larger ones in my front pocket (not in wallet) and pay all small transactions with that. Depending on the area, I will keep my wallet either in the oposite front pocket, or in a rear pocket, with larger bills, and some more in my camera backpack if I have it with me. I also keep just a bit of emergency cash at the house/appartement/hotel I am staying at.

Phone : buy local simcards, or just use roaming if it's cheap with your carrier/provider (depends on the country).

Jet Lag : Force yourself into the timezone. It starts during the flight already. If you are going from the US to Europe on vacation, it's very easy : you will be sleeping late in the morning, and wide awake very late at night. The hard part will be when you have to get back to work back home When you do, if you have 1 or 2 "buffer" days, don't sleep if you are tired during the day. Wait as much as you can till it's getting close to your usual sleeping time.

Don't be afraid to ask stuff to locals, most of the time people are very happy to help or give tips about areas they know well.
Younger people tend to speak better english than older ones. Pretty much every person in Europe in their 20s to late 30s will know how to speak english. Most 50+ won't, because back when they were at school, it was not being taught to them.

This thread really got me thinking about my trip to Vancouver next month.

I'm assuming most places will take US credit cards there, correct? I just need to check to see if my cards have any foreign transaction fees (edit: Our normal daily use one does not).

I mostly need to know if I should exchange some cash for CDN dollars, or if I'll be fine just using a credit card for everything. My main concerns would be taxis taking credit cards and restaurants (and possibly the hotel, although I'd assume since it's already paid for that that's less of a worry).

Just to hit on some comments about credit cards with chips. Europe have been using these for a long time, but the old magnetic swipe still works perfectly fine. Every machine I have ever run across has had both. (I have lived outside the US for the last 15 years)

Credit cards also have the best exchange rates. Though in some foreign countries, some businesses will dump the Credit Card fee on the customer and tell you it costs x% additional fee to use a credit card. (Businesses in the US mostly all pay this fee themselves) Also, as has been pointed out, American Express if fucking useless outside of the US for the most part. Save yourself a ton of headache and rely on a Visa or Master Card. Most banks do charge foreign transaction fees, so do not be surprised. It's usually around 1%.

Like others have said, just use an ATM for cash.

Alex_sl said:

I'm taking my first international trip (I know, 28 and never left the US beyond visiting Niagara Falls) in August and I have some questions for the RR crew.

What's the best way to handle currency? Unfortunately, I'll be in three different countries where each accepts different currency (pounds, euros, swiss francs). Are there credit card benefits? Should I just convert a shitload of cash at once?

What's the best method for phone use? I probably won't be using the phone much, but Google Maps will be a must. I have Verizon. They have an international travel deal but I heard it sucks?

Anyone have jet lag remedies or ways to avoid it? I'm gonna try to sleep on the flight since flights knock me out anyway, but sleeping a full seven hours or so on a plane sounds tough.

Anything else I should be thinking about?

Thanks in advance.

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Don't be a hipster in another country. You will get mugged / raped.

Just want to rant again about American Express.. the multi billion dollar company that I work for has some stupid agreement with AmEx and use it as their corporate card for the last couple years. I can not begin to tell you how god damn frustrating it is trying to use this piece of shit anywhere that is not the USA!! Talk about a stupid fucking corporate decision.

*had to get that out*

Elurin_sl said:

This thread really got me thinking about my trip to Vancouver next month.

I'm assuming most places will take US credit cards there, correct? I just need to check to see if my cards have any foreign transaction fees (edit: Our normal daily use one does not).

I mostly need to know if I should exchange some cash for CDN dollars, or if I'll be fine just using a credit card for everything. My main concerns would be taxis taking credit cards and restaurants (and possibly the hotel, although I'd assume since it's already paid for that that's less of a worry).

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You should be fine for CC's, although chip enabled cards are becoming a requirement slowly but surely (just because the vendor has a strip reader, doesn't mean that they can or will use it). In any case, you should be able to withdraw cash from an ATM with your debit card fine.

Also just an FYI, US is moving to chip-&-pin cards with the goal replacing all cards with c&p by the end of 2015.

In the future, chip cards should become standard issue in the US. Visa and MasterCard have asked US banks and merchants to use chip-based cards by late 2015; those who don't make the switch may have to assume the liability for fraud. There's been lots of resistance, as the conversion may cost up to $8 billion. But businesses and consumers are feeling the pain as international criminals exploit our antiquated magnetic-stripe technology to hack into and compromise millions of US accounts every year. When your bank next renews your credit card, it's likely there will be a chip in it.

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Yeah, it's definitely already happening. My wife got a new Amex with a chip in it a couple months ago.

Also I haven't had any issues using my swipe cards in Canada and I go up to Sun Peaks twice a year to vacation. Although they always try to run it like it has a chip at first.

if you're not feeling a money belt, the neck ones work pretty good under your shirt.Sea to Summit Travelling Light Neck Pouch - Security & ID - Rock/Creek.

Check with your bank if they have any partners in Europe, most ATMs only allow you to withdraw ?200-250/day for cards not issued by the bank operating the ATM. Definitely get a chip card, swipes are often not accepted anymore. VISA is best for acceptance rate, Amex will be okay for airlines and major hotels but restaurants less so. Supermarkets may not take credit cards at all.

How to get the French to not be assholes to you: ask them nicely (almost apologetically) if they speak English first, instead of just asking whatever you were going to ask in English right away. From their (admittedly chauvinistic) perspective they are doing you a favor by speaking English, go in with that in mind and you will have zero problems. If you can manage a "excusez-moi, parlez vous anglais?" they will bend over backwards for you.

Some smaller differences between the US and Europe:
-No need to tip waitresses at a US rate. Nobody here tips more than ?5-10 in a restaurant even on a ?100+ bill.
-All prices in shops will already have sales tax included in them
-No white socks outside of a tennis court.

I've been to Paris half a dozen times and all over the countryside / riviera. I can honestly think of only 1 time ever that I had the "stereotypical" French attitude from a waiter. Everyone else has been pretty damn friendly overall. Like Lambourne said, just dont go walking up blabbering in English. Most Americans would be offended if other nationalities did this on our own turf. Butcher out some French and they usually just smile at you and then converse in English.

Alex_sl said:

Also, thanks for the oodles of advice everyone. I never thought to notify my bank of upcoming international travel. It would suck hard to get my funds frozen if they were suspicious of fraud!

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it's worth the notification. There is a thing called bust out accounts.. It's pretty popular to bust them out over seas. Basically, someone with a fake SSN or some other ID will build credit on a card and get the max raised as high as they can, then go over seas and run them up and never pay them off. Happens here too but Ive seen it go down on a much larger scale in Europe.

If you are scared of being pickpocketed, then don't use a wallet and just drop your needed stuff (which shouldn't be much) into your pants' pockets. No need for a belt pouch, which looks silly.

Alex_sl said:

I have a co-worker who just returned from Paris and he said that the economy must not be doing very well because it was the nicest Parisians had ever been.

I'm not going to France anyway. And I'll be in the UK, but not England. Visiting my sister in Northern Ireland, taking a weekend trip to Switzerland, and spending the rest of the time in Madrid and maybe some other parts of Spain.

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Madrid has really good food, especially in el mercado de san miguel. If you can make it to Barcelona hang out and get trashed on Las Ramblas anywhere on it, local Indian dudes sell Estrella Damn for 1ERU per frozen all night.

Alex_sl said:

Also, thanks for the oodles of advice everyone. I never thought to notify my bank of upcoming international travel. It would suck hard to get my funds frozen if they were suspicious of fraud!

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I'm travelling with at least 2 different credit cards from at least 2 different banks whenever I'm not in Europe, because even when I do warn my bank about my travels, they still manage to randomly block cards. Maybe that's because sometimes I'm in 3 differents asian countries over a couple of weeks, but still it's fucking annoying. So now I try to have at least 500? in cash + 2 credit cards and sometimes that's barely enough.