Talk to me about Europe

lauraukoctober2014 · February 2015

Also Amsterdam Holland is a hub so you might get some good deals to fly there first if you can maybe pop to Holland too which is near and so beautiful :-)

southernbelle0915 · February 2015

Traveling in Europe can be as cheap or expensive as you make it. If you're willing to stay a bit outside downtown in a hostel in a room with several people, you can spend €10/night (including breakfast). And on up from there.

I can only speak to Berlin and Munich but I found most people speak English. I don't speak a lick of German (except hello, please and thank you) and got around just fine. The public transportation was easy to navigate, too. Easier in Berlin.

My bible traveling Europe was Let's Go Europe. Lots of good info on Germany in there. That books guided everything we did and we had great luck with it. But the Let's Go series also has a book specifically on Germany.

Also, make sure you get street sausage with mustard. OMG.

flbride2015 · February 2015

You've gotten a lot of good advice. I can only add to see what international fees (if any) your credit cards charge you. I travel a lot and put everything on my CC for the purchase protection my CC company provides me with and because I get the best exchange rate that way (my CC company doesn't charge me any international fees).

novella1186 · February 2015

southernbelle0915 said:

Traveling in Europe can be as cheap or expensive as you make it. If you're willing to stay a bit outside downtown in a hostel in a room with several people, you can spend €10/night (including breakfast). And on up from there. I can only speak to Berlin and Munich but I found most people speak English. I don't speak a lick of German (except hello, please and thank you) and got around just fine. The public transportation was easy to navigate, too. Easier in Berlin. My bible traveling Europe was Let's Go Europe. Lots of good info on Germany in there. That books guided everything we did and we had great luck with it. But the Let's Go series also has a book specifically on Germany. Also, make sure you get street sausage with mustard. OMG.

I LOVE the Let's Go series. It has been so super helpful to me!

novella1186 · February 2015

flbride2015 said:

You've gotten a lot of good advice. I can only add to see what international fees (if any) your credit cards charge you. I travel a lot and put everything on my CC for the purchase protection my CC company provides me with and because I get the best exchange rate that way (my CC company doesn't charge me any international fees).

This is a really great point. If you happen to be in the market for a new CC, I would recommend a travel card. I have the Capital One Venture Card specifically because I travel a lot, and I got screwed so bad with foreign transaction fees on my other CC when I went to Canada. It sucked. It was insane.

Also, (and I know these are just details) it's a good idea to call/email your CC company before you go just to say "hey I'll be traveling in this country through these dates." One of my cards has crazy fraud protection and will shut my account down if I use the card in a city I've never been in before, unless I give them a heads up first.

JoanE2012 · February 2015

STARMOON44 said:

I would HATE to be surprised by a trip so very very much. Especially to a destination I'm familiar with when the trip is planned by my travel novice partner. This would rob me of all the fun of planning and contributing to setting the itinerary and getting excited. I'm trying to say I wouldn't mind you saving up the money to pay for it, but I think I actually would. Because we're a team and I want us to be saving together. Maybe if you started a seed fund, got a few hundred dollars in there and the surprise was "hey I think we can actually afford this in a couple years!" But in general unless you 100% know that someone would love a surprise I think especially expensive ones are just a terrible terrible plan.

Yeah, I think this is how I would feel!

DH and I do alot of traveling. I do most of the planning and research, he approves. I'm pretty picky with the planning too.....from where we sit on the plane to the location of the hotel.....even requests for a certain floor or part of the hotel. I would NOT want to be surprised. Several thousand dollars spent and I had no say on any part of it? No way.

I think this is especially important to consider considering your FI has been to Germany and has family there. If that were me, I'd DEFINITELY want a say in some of the major parts of the planning.

I like the idea of getting the fund going, then surprising him with the idea and then planning together. Remember, planning is half the fun and it will be fun to do it together!

moosette113 · February 2015

novella1186 said:

flbride2015 said:

You've gotten a lot of good advice. I can only add to see what international fees (if any) your credit cards charge you. I travel a lot and put everything on my CC for the purchase protection my CC company provides me with and because I get the best exchange rate that way (my CC company doesn't charge me any international fees).

This is a really great point. If you happen to be in the market for a new CC, I would recommend a travel card. I have the Capital One Venture Card specifically because I travel a lot, and I got screwed so bad with foreign transaction fees on my other CC when I went to Canada. It sucked. It was insane.

Also, (and I know these are just details) it's a good idea to call/email your CC company before you go just to say "hey I'll be traveling in this country through these dates." One of my cards has crazy fraud protection and will shut my account down if I use the card in a city I've never been in before, unless I give them a heads up first.

I mostly lurk, but Iive in Germany now and wanted to second the calling your bank/CC company about travel. I also wanted to reinforce something a PP said about making sure you have cash on hand. You'll be ok with most of the tourist attractions and hotels with a CC, but a lot of shops and grocery stores only accept cash or German EC cards.

And a quick side note: most of Germany shuts down completely on Sundays. Museums and restaurants are still open, but the malls, shops, grocery stores, drug stores, etc all close up (except for a couple Sundays a year). Have fun planning!

Kahlyla · February 2015

I can generally find flights to Europe for less money than flying around Canada, so I wouldn't let the plane tickets put you off. We've flown to Scotland twice and both times paid about $600 per ticket.

I can't speak to Germany in particular, but one nice thing about the areas of Europe I've seen is that hosteling is a good, valid choice there. We stayed at several hostels and even campsites that were very nice and quite inexpensive. Some of them are basically just like hotels or inns, fully private rooms with ensuite bathrooms and everything (some aren't like this, of course, but every one I stayed in felt clean and perectly safe). Getting around by train (and foot!) is another nice feature of much of Europe.

adettma32 · February 2015

@loveislouder, Sorry, I completely forgot to come back to this thread! Bad poster!

We are living in Hamburg and although it isn't a city many tourists go to when they visit Germany, it is worth it in my opinion to see. But, I've been here as long as we've been in Germany, so I'm biased. As it isn't extremely touristy, you wouldn't need a lot of days here, 2/3 would be good. But Hamburg is the 2nd or 3rd largest city in Germany so still lots to see. Canal Tours, amazing window shopping (or actual for those that can afford really high end ;-)), a couple beautiful churches, great views along the Elbe River or Alster Lake.

We've been to Berlin and I think you would need more days here than Hamburg. There are so many different tours you can do and museums you can see. Lots of English, very liberal and laid back, we felt SO comfortable in Berlin.

That's about the only traveling I have done so far in Germany, unfortunately. We believe with FI's job that we could move down to the Southern parts of Germany sometime in the future so all of our traveling has been taking advantage of getting to other countries. FI travels all over Germany for work so he's been to many more German cities. He loves Cologne (great walking along the Rein I have heard from others as well) and Munich is always a staple.

As for time of travel, there are three times of the year that are perfect to see Germany. The summer is obvious because you really get to enjoy nice weather when sightseeing but it is also VERY busy then with other tourists. Oktoberfest/end of September is also a great time to come. Munich will obviously be very busy during that time but fortunately you can get some good weather yet in September/early October. The other great time to come is December-right after New Years. The Christmas Markets in Germany are something I have never experienced before along with New Years. I call the Christmas Markets here "the happiest place on earth" and our most recent visitors told us our city looked like Whoville at Christmas. Honestly, if you can deal with the cold weather and some rainy days, New Years is UNBELIEVABLE!! I can't say anything to justify how amazing New Years is here. Fireworks everywhere, it's something else.

One other tip, after telling your bank to authorize transactions abroad, we have found that withdrawing money from ATM's can be one of the most economical. Just find an international ATM, they are everywhere, and they give a very competitive exchange rate. Be sure to take out a decent chunk, they can charge a fee from 3-5 Euro so you don't want to have that taking 20 Euro out at a time.

If you have anymore questions, feel free to message me. Good luck!

labro · February 2015

1. Travel in Germany is very easy. Most signs are in German and English, the trains are incredibly easy to navigate, and most people speak SOME English, even outside the major cities. H and I had no issue finding our way around and neither of us speak more than a few words in German combined.

2. We spent $4k on travel alone for our HM to Germany in mid-October (flying in to Munich, but there was no price difference between Munich, Stuttgart, or Nuremberg). The $4k also included an extra $400 to upgrade both of our seats for both flights to Delta's Economy Comfort (worth it!), and a really nice hotel in Munich because it was our HM. I also spent an extra $200 on travel insurance, again because it was our HM and I wanted to make sure we were protected.

3. I think you should talk to your H about it. Phrase it in a way that you'd like to have a set amount each month that you can save/spend/do what you want with without accountability. H and I each take $100 cash out of our account monthly to spend on "whatever".

4. I don't think so. We kind of winged our HM. Once I got the flight and hotel nailed down I didn't do a ton of heavy planning. We knew we wanted to hit up certain locations while we were there, and we knew we wanted to meet up with my distant German relations. We figured out what days we wanted to see my relatives and then just planned our vacation around that.

I don't know what area of Germany you're planning to go to but I'd be happy to give you ideas! I lived there for 3 years as a kid when my dad was stationed on an Army base in Heidelberg and we just spent our HM there.

Talk to me about Europe

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