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jackess said:
I'm planning a holiday to Europe in June/July for a month.

Any advice from the well travelled posters on this board or even the not so well travelled would be greatly appreciated.
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Depends a lot on where you're going, but to back up a lot of Fatcat's points:

We do the same as Fatcat for money, albeit with different cards. Check your credit and debit cards for overseas transaction fees and figure out what's the cheapest way to get money/spend it. We've got a BankWest credit card (no overseas fees) and a ING saver (flat rate for overseas withdrawals) which work out quite well for us. Major banks tend to be a bit shittier but still work out better than most money changers overseas. Make sure you withdraw large amounts so you don't get hit with lots of fees.

If you want cash here, buy it from Travelex Online and get it delivered to a local branch. This is the cheapest way to get overseas currency in Australia in general, with no commission and very good rates.

I just check out the airport I'm landing in for ATM locations these days and withdraw money immediately anyway.

Train wins for transport in most cases for price and convenience unless you're traveling thousands of kms, then planes are often quite cheap and effective. Just be aware that the cheaper flights may be well out of town and at different airports to normal.

If you're booking your accommodation in advance, make sure you know how to get from wherever you're coming in (train station, airport, etc) to it. It's an easy tourist scam for taxi drivers and others to tout for business at these locations and charge exorbitant rates to screw people.

Language doesn't really matter if you're heading to main tourist areas. The only person we ran into in two trips to mainland Europe that didn't speak English was a German post office clerk and we still figured it out.

Pickpockets are a thing. Just be aware of them, don't hang backpacks/camera bags off one shoulder.

I just use TripAdvisor for accommodation and find the best rated place that fits within my price range. Pretty simple approach.

Laundry is something we check these days. Laundromat locations are surprisingly handy to know beforehand, or if you're willing to wash stuff in your hotel sink that's super easy and cheap but can be painful. If you AirBNB it, you'll often have access to a washing machine there.

If using AirBNB be aware of its dodginess - do a quick check to see if there are any regulations around it in a particular place, e.g. NYC (obviously not Europe) rules most of the AirBNB places illegal there so you can get screwed and have to recourse pretty easily. This is generally easy enough to find with a quick Google.
 
jackess said:
I'm planning a holiday to Europe in June/July for a month.

Any advice from the well travelled posters on this board or even the not so well travelled would be greatly appreciated.
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Fatcat08's info is solid - love AirBNB throughout Europe, it's an excellent way to save some money by doing some cooking at home and experiencing suburban life - shopping etc etc. Just make sure you pay attention to reviews of the host and don't take a risk on a non-reviewed one.

I generally take a Commonwealth Bank travel card - cheap/easy, but I'm a customer.

Definitely watch for pickpockets & scammers around tourist spots. Try not to look like a tourist (backpack/camera around neck/map of Italy t-shirt).

I didn't use cash at all last time I went to Europe as everywhere from Maccas to the Louvre takes cards these days.

Be embarrassed about Australians and see how easy it is to pick out Americans in a crowd.
 

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James North said:
Definitely watch for pickpockets & scammers around tourist spots. Try not to look like a tourist (backpack/camera around neck/map of Italy t-shirt).
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I came to the realisation a few years back that unless you're travelling really out of the way, the places you'll be going to are going to be the places tourists are going to. Simply by being there you've announced yourself as a tourist - map necklaces, bum bags, loud voices and staring around with a blank look doesn't make a difference. If you're hanging around on the Charles Bridge, or in Saint Mark's Square, or in front of the Louvre or the Eiffel tower - they know you're a tourist already. :D
 
jackess said:
Thanks Fatcat and thanks Tairy

I'd love to go to Iceland. Has anyone been there?
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no but its expensive to get to and expensive to stay (know someone from there). If you're single its not a bad place as girls apparently do most of the picking up. Funny fact, in iceland they don't have traditional surnames, rather your surname will be your dads name followed by the word son or daughter. This combined with the fact that they're fairly insolated means that hooking up with an unknown family member is a real problem. luckily they have well tracked family trees so they actually have an app where you can use NFC and bump phones together to see how related you actually are to the person you're going to hook up with before you go home with them. I kid you not
 
dlanod said:
I came to the realisation a few years back that unless you're travelling really out of the way, the places you'll be going to are going to be the places tourists are going to. Simply by being there you've announced yourself as a tourist - map necklaces, bum bags, loud voices and staring around with a blank look doesn't make a difference. If you're hanging around on the Charles Bridge, or in Saint Mark's Square, or in front of the Louvre or the Eiffel tower - they know you're a tourist already. :D
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They were actually separate pieces of advice ... but yeah - simply going to those places means you'll need to keep a close eye on things and not engage with sellers of anything.
 
James North said:
Man, I have this weird fascination with Iceland. If past lives ever get proven, I reckon I lived there.
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You must have .....there is an area within 2000 miles named after you........The North Pole...
 
A friend gave me a good tip about not looking so much like a tourist - if you're someone who's likely to refer to Lonely Planet or other travel guides, don't take the book. Take a Kindle or cheap ebook reader or keep all your touristy info stuff that you'll be referring to on that and/or your smartphone. Nothing paints a target like leafing through a travel guide as you're walking around.
 
I'd add that if you want to go to anything like a local market get their early to beat the crowds. Also if travelling in October/November find out when daylight savings kicks in. These two things cooincided when in Rome we had heard about these amazing Sunday flea markets. We decided to head down early and found the place quietish, building to a Fortitude Valley markets busyness in a couple of hours before going ballistic around 11am. Of course, we didn't know that DST had kicked in that day and had gotten their early. By the time we were done, mass was over and the place filled up, and everyone moving at a crawl. But for a couple of hours the place was almost ours. :thumbsu::)
 
The Flying Belgian said:
A friend gave me a good tip about not looking so much like a tourist - if you're someone who's likely to refer to Lonely Planet or other travel guides, don't take the book. Take a Kindle or cheap ebook reader or keep all your touristy info stuff that you'll be referring to on that and/or your smartphone. Nothing paints a target like leafing through a travel guide as you're walking around.
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Thanks for the reminder - latest hot tip based off recent travel is to even if you're not getting local data:

Take your phone with you but before going download offline maps with Google Maps (if possible) of where you're going. Save/star all the places you're interested in. GPS works fine without mobile data so you now have a dynamically updating map with your places of interest marked on it in a very handy package.

You can also get apps that contain specific city maps to do this if Google Maps won't download offline maps of the place in question.
 

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dlanod said:
Thanks for the reminder - latest hot tip based off recent travel is to even if you're not getting local data:

Take your phone with you but before going download offline maps with Google Maps (if possible) of where you're going. Save/star all the places you're interested in. GPS works fine without mobile data so you now have a dynamically updating map with your places of interest marked on it in a very handy package.

You can also get apps that contain specific city maps to do this if Google Maps won't download offline maps of the place in question.
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Yep, did that last year. Made navigating in Fiji possible when transport arrangements went awry.
 
Quite often, I watch a bit of The Chaser on 7, waiting for the news. Since it has been on, I never recognised the 'Chaser' dubbed 'Goliath', until tonight.
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That was until tonight, when I heard his name for the first time; Matt Parkinson. Sale Of The Century fans may remember Matt as one the champions (he's freakishly smart), but I like to think that anyone in their 40s or older remember the Matt Parkinson I do; one half of comedy duo, The Empty Pockets,


Did not recognise him all this time.
 
Skoob said:
Quite often, I watch a bit of The Chaser on 7, waiting for the news. Since it has been on, I never recognised the 'Chaser' dubbed 'Goliath', until tonight.
Did not recognise him all this time.
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I do know that what makes his story more remarkable while playing indoor cricket, he had a heart attack that left him clinically dead for ten minutes...his story was on the ABC..
 
Are we meant to feel sorry for the 60 Minutes crew arrested and charged in Lebanon?

Because I don't. Trying to monetise someone's family drama and getting involved in the story in a highly unethical way. Parasites.
 
TheBrownDog said:
Are we meant to feel sorry for the 60 Minutes crew arrested and charged in Lebanon?

Because I don't. Trying to monetise someone's family drama and getting involved in the story in a highly unethical way. Parasites.
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Of course it is sold as a noble mission (and I don't know all the facts of the case) but this ignores the many, many similar cases of parents "stealing" kids within Australia. Why aren't they rescuing kids here? Oh yeah, cultural/religious scandals are way sexier.
 
I don't feel sorry for them either.

Going into another country and attempting to kidnap (and that's what it was) children away from that country, blatantly breaking their laws, is way over the role of a mere tv crew.

They deserve whatever comes their way.
 
I think it is kind of s**t that it's just the journo and crew that were on the ground instead of the higher ups that actually approved it and signed off on it. Not a lick of sense in channel 9 whatsoever.
 
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