info on europe-Gift for 1st time stress head traveller(BF)

[reenreen]

Hi,

The boyfriend finishes uni one semester before i do and has decided he'd like to explore and travel. I have the travel bug so i jet set all the time but he's a first timer

I wanted to make him a little book with all the travelling tips i could think of I was wondering if anyone had any good tips or ideas on what i can get?

Also, he's going to europe...england first and then surrounding european countries. Only problem is he doesnt know how to go about it and is a bit of a stress head.Only european place i have been to is amsterdam

I wanted to ease the pain. Anyone from the UK, France,Malta or any other nearby european countries have tips on saving money and must-see's (not just the tourist attractions but ones ppl who live there might know)

Thanks in advance for ur help!

[sarush]

check out lonelyplanet.com. it has great travel guides, online for free and the ones you can buy in stores are good too. very extensive and they have sections for "off the beaten path".

if he's flying to the other european nations, he should look into cheap airfare options like easyjet and ryan air. my friend and i went to london for spring break and took two day trips. one to dublin and one to barcelona. they were both under $100 and they would have been cheaper if we had bought the tickets in far enough advance. easyjet just started an easycruise line too, that charges something like 10EUR a night to take a cruise from one port to the next.

i've never backpacked through europe but i know there are tons of hostel sites that people can make reservations, read reviews, etc. he should also look into getting passes ahead of time...in japan, they have "tourist passes" that you have to order from your home country and they're cheaper. i had one when i was in london too, that worked for the first two phases of the metro.

i hope this helps

[reenreen]

Hey thanks heaps for the help. I'll take whatever i can get!
My other problem is while he's saving up to travel and i have travelled around, we're both pretty broke so thelonely planet link will come in handy.

Thanks heaps!

[sarush]

wow, sorry for all the typos/bad grammar. i know you asked more for tips about traveling, so here goes:

there are not a lot of public bathrooms in england, and the ones that are there you have to put some coins in to use and they're gross. save your potty breaks for when you're eating. if it's just your boyfriend though, it probably won't be an issue. boys are so lucky when it comes to peeing.

call your bank ahead of time about being overseas. my friend didn't tell her bank, her atm card wouldn't work and as a precaution, they wouldn't let her card work for 3 days. know ahead of time that banks also normally charge you an international money fee, sometimes it's only a couple dollars and a set fee and other times it's a percentage of the money you take out. also, if you can, take your money out of the atm as the country's currency. otherwise, if you take dollars out then you have to not only pay that atm fee but also to convert the money at a money change place. some banks do it for free, so if you're fine with carrying loads of money, you can even exchange all your money before you leave, etc.

if you're going to bring electronic equipment, splurge and get a recognized brand of converters. my friends and i blew out the electricity in our hotel in greece when our converter fizzed out. the blowdryer broke too.

if you do go the hostel route, know when they close their doors at night. they won't let you back in.

likewise, know when the metro/public transportation stops running (different schedules su-th and f-sa) so you're not stuck in the party district when no one savory is out.

write some basic phrases in the different foreign languages of the countries he'll be in so if he is completely lost, he can show someone what he's looking for, or where his hotel is, his allergies, etc. in case of an emergency.

if he'll have calling cards, find out the access codes and directions of calling from each different country before he leaves. calling the help line for calling cards overseas uses up all of the minutes. and calling collect is like $20 for two minutes (at least in rome) so get calling cards. gas stations normally have the cheapest ones, like 1.2 cents a minute.

if people want postcards, print out labels (like from avery) with peoples' addresses so all he'll have to do is buy a post card, and put the sticker on...no remembering addresses or lugging around an address book.

i'm a big shopper, so i try to pack in a suitcase but throw in a duffel bag too. then i can fill the duffel bag with my clothes on the way back and fill the suitcase with all my shopping.

tipping is different in other countries, make a cheat sheet on a business card so when your boyfriend is whipping out his wallet to pay, he can know how much to leave for a tip too.

find out ahead of time if there are any weird food things, like rocky mountain whatever here in the US is actually bull testicles. find out if anything "normal" sounding is something you wouldn't be caught dead eating. especially important if you have special dietary needs like being a vegan. other countries will tell you something is meat free but it has all sorts of stuff that is not animal free.

be open minded and gracious, always.



wow, i don't think i can think of anything else. i'm so jealous of your boyfriend's upcoming travels. i just started working and i am really missing my 3 month summers and spring breaks every year. i hope he has a blast 



 

[reenreen]

I know i am so jealous too! I wanted to be there when he went overseas but i'll still be in my final year, very important and this will be the onlytime he has before he starts full time work...which means he'll have to wait, and by that time i'll be getting into full time work

Your tips were so so helpful! Some of the stuff i hadn't even thought about like tipping and the phone codes! Thank you so much

One more thing...bulls testicles? Good thing you warned me on that. My boyfriend not only hasnt travelled but hasn't really been exposed to different cultures either (meanwhile he's european, dating a non european for the first time -im indian). But like i was saying, he'll try new things but if he finds out its made of something strange/"gross" he'll puke

Thanks for the heads up *so excited for him*

[L-train]

You said he'd be going to England, so I assume London is on the agenda somewhere. It's a very expensive city, but the good news is most of the big museums are free: the Tate & the Tate Modern, the Royal Academy is free, but you have to pay to see the special exhibitions, the Victoria & Albert, the Natural History museum, the British Museum, all free. You could look up their websites & include any information you think might be relevant  in your book, such as location & opening hours. And of course a long walk along the Thames is free as well

If he's staying right in central London and likes walking, he might be able to get by without having to spend much on travel, but he'd have to invest in a good map (the "London A to Z" is the Bible of London travel). If he's buying a daily travelcard (a ticket that lets you travel all day on the Underground & buses), it's cheaper to buy it after 9:30 am (when the morning rush hour is officially over). The tube stops around midnight on weeknights, and I think around 1 am on weekends. I assume buses stop around the same time, but don't take buses much, so I'm not sure.There are night buses which go all night, but they're best avoided as they are infrequent, take convoluted routes, and are full of drunk people See tfl.gov.uk for information on the tube. If he plans on traveling by train to other parts of the country, check out www.thetrainline.co m where you can buy tickets in advance. You can save a lot of money buying them in advance.

He should order at the bar in pubs. If he's ordering food in a pub, a lot of places will ask for a table number, so he should try and work out where he's going to sit first. Tips are not expected at a pub, but if you're in a restaurant for a sit-down meal it's nice to leave a tip between 10 & 15%.

That's all I can think of at the moment. I hope some of it is useful!

[reenreen]

Hey, thanks so much, you have been very helpful. I wouldnt know the first thing abotu london. Thankfully the boy likes walking. We often have little adventures walking for hours exploring every inch of sydney! In fact last time our friends came on holidays with us, they called one day boot camp caos we enthusiastically walked everywhere just for the fun of exploring.