Eruope trip

[Jammrock]

My wife and I are heading to Europe in a couple of weeks. 12-night cruise going to spots in Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Greece, France, and Spain.

I have a couple of questions for the EU MURCers. So far...

How does tipping work in restaurants? I keep hearing conflicting opinions on this matter. Some say you do, some you don't, some say yes but not as much as the US (~10% vs 15%-20%). What's the general rule?

Are there good places to convert USD to Euro? We're flying through Munich to Venice. Curious if there are any good places, especially in Munich during our layover, to get currency converted.

[Umfriend]

On tipping, it may vary by country but over 15% seems quite high to me. I am a bit of a miser and typically do close to 10%, a little bit over only if rounding makes it easier.

On conversion, I would not really know. Typically with my debit card or credit card (when in the US or the UK) I simply get funds out of the ATM. But when I am given the choice who is to do the conversion (either the ATM-firm or my bank) I _always_ have my own bank do the conversion. Either the ATM-firm charges USD/GBP to my bank and it converts for me or the ATM-firm does and charges EUR to my bank. The latter case, in my limited experience, is always more expensive.

[UtwigMU]

For Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany tipping is purely optional. They expect you to pay what says on receipt and you get receipt everywhere because our version of IRS in this part is very strict. If you really liked service you can tip about 10%. Usually people round up the receipt. For example if pizza+beer is 9.20€ you say make it 10 and it's OK. Also you only tip if you pay cash, if you pay with cards you don't (unless you give 1-5€ cash as tip extra). In Italy some people have had bad experience using credit cards. Friend bought shoes in italy and then they nicked her card data and spend her money online.

It's not like in USA where they embarass you infront of friends if you don't tip.

I live on Slovenia/Italy border about 150km / 1.5h drive from Venice.
Best way to convert is to just withdraw from ATM. Otherwise the further you go from airport generally better the rate. Since Euro there are not that many exchange offices so you will likely only be able to convert at banks. I remember exchange offices around Venice when I was taking my friends around about a month ago. I think in Munich just find a bank and convert money there.

If you need any help or just want to go for beer between Venice and Croatia, etc... let me know.

[UtwigMU]

Also in Italy they have a funny thing.

Some places charge 1.50€ for coperto (table cloth, plate pereparation) and then additional 10% for service. Also in some places it's cheaper to order coffee at the bar compared to having it brought.

No one speaks English in Italy. You have to learn at least couple of basic phrases such as where is, how much, thank you, sorry and numbers. I'm at a level where I was able to design and order kitchen in Ikea completely in Italian now just from interacting with Italians.

Expect to pay 10€ for coffee in St Marc square in Venice but otherwise places outside but within canal city have normal prices. 2.50€ for coffee. In venice you can park outside in coast suburb and get to canal city by street car for like 1.50€. For boat (vaporetto, like city bus but boat) ride from St. Marc to Piazzale Roma expect to pay about 8€. If you want to be taken around in gondola it's 80€ but you can maybe negotiate price down to 75€.

So you can go to Venice on a budget but if you want to be fancy, sky is the limit.

[Jammrock]

Thanks everyone.

We land in Venice on the 11th, leave on the cruise the 12th of October. Some of the bigger places we are doing excursions that either provide food or take breaks in tourist areas where you can get food. I hope that language won't be an issue, but it wouldn't hurt to learn those basic phrases.

One of the big differences with restaurants in the US and EU, from what I understand, is the wage. In the US the wait staff is paid below minimum wage (special exception) and basically live off of tips. While in most places in the EU zone they make a living wage so tips are more of a thanks for great service or food. But you always hear differently from place to place.

We are not coffee drinkers so I'm not worried about the cost We're also skipping the gondola. Most of those are big boats with 8-10 people, and not the idealized 2 people romantic rides through the canals that we Americans have. And if those exists they are crazy expensive.

Speaking of Venice though, do you know any good places to eat in the canal city? We are doing an opera and orchestra concert on the first night at a theater. Then grabbing dinner afterward. This is the concert location.

http://www.imusiciveneziani.com/contatti.php

[UtwigMU]

You have many reasonable pizzerias and restaurants with good food in Venice. Food in Italy is good everywhere, even in reasonably priced places - their standard for good food is much higher than rest of the World. One indicator is that there are fewer McDonalds and no Starbucks in Italy.

Venice is not big, takes about 40 minutes of walk on crowded street from Piazzale Roma where bridges lead and car park, bus and street car station are to St Marc square (main attraction). Just go a few minutes from St Marc and pop in a place you like. I go once every 2 years or so, mainly when some foreign friend visits and I always remember having good food. I don't go so often to have a particular place to recommend. I remember pizza being like ~10 EUR and pasta dish ~15-20 EUR.

In Europe minimum wage is relatively high. In .si some of waiters are students (you can work in more free arrangement wrt to being hired and fired) or some other forms (self employed, part time...). Still they get paid minimum wage which in .si is ~700 EUR per month or minimum hourly wage. While this sucks with some magic you can make it over month.

[dZeus]

My wife and I are heading to Europe in a couple of weeks. 12-night cruise going to spots in Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Greece, France, and Spain.

I have a couple of questions for the EU MURCers. So far...

How does tipping work in restaurants? I keep hearing conflicting opinions on this matter. Some say you do, some you don't, some say yes but not as much as the US (~10% vs 15%-20%). What's the general rule?

Are there good places to convert USD to Euro? We're flying through Munich to Venice. Curious if there are any good places, especially in Munich during our layover, to get currency converted.

no need to tip in Italy, France and Spain. Don't know about the others.

Check the foreign currency transaction and ATM withdrawal fees that your cards charge.
For my (UK) HSBC debit card it is 2.75 % and 0 respectively, and for my AMEX credit it's 3% and some absurdly high amount for ATM withdrawals.
For this reason, I signed up for a pre-paid card called 'WeSwap', that allows pre-loading your card with your native currency, and then convert to foreign currencies at Mastercard's conversion rate + 1.4 %, 1.3% or 1% commission, depending on whether you want the conversion to happen within the hour, within 3 days or within 7 days (7 days gives 1%).

There's also a competitor to this system, called 'Revolut', that supposedly is even cheaper, but requires you to run an iOS or Android app for charging the card. As I have windows phone, I cannot use it.

My card arrived within 7 days, so you should have enough time to sign up if you want to get cheaper currency conversion rates through one of these systems.

oh and in Italy, you can expect most hotels to accept card payments (or at least, chip & pin), while a lot of restaurants and retailers only accept cash (and if you ask about payments by card, they'll come up with excuses such as 'sorry our card terminal just broke down', etc.).

[UtwigMU]

Cash is fine in this part, restaurants like cash the most. In Italy highest amount you can pay is 1000 EUR but they can split the bill in multiple bills.
If you get good rate in USA you can come with few 100 EUR of cash in advance.

Another thing is Croatia. They have Kuna (currency), not Euro and they have artificially gouging exchange rate for tourists. There I just use debet card or go to ATM and make withdrawal in their currency. Bars, restaurants will take Euros but the exchange rate will probably be worse.

[VJ]

Most of those are big boats with 8-10 people, and not the idealized 2 people romantic rides through the canals that we Americans have. And if those exists they are crazy expensive.

Yes... If you want to go on the water, cheapest is to take a Vaporetto: it it the Venice equivalent of a public transport bus. Those boats are quite old, so they have a bit of charm because of that, and they can give you a good view from the water. They can also be convenient to go from one place to another: Venice is not big, but you often have to make some detours in order to find bridges and to navigate around.

[UtwigMU]

venice_victoria.jpgrialto.jpg

Here is some taste of what to expect. Snapped them last month.

Queen Victoria in Venice - she's huge.
Ohter pic is Rialto bridge from vaporetto with vaporetto stop on the right.

[Jammrock]

The rates for WeSwap look amazing. An extra 8 Euro per $100 USD versus TravelEx. Are there kiosk, or banks, or something that offer WeSwap or just sign up online and and they ship you a card?

Looking forward to Venice. I hope I'm not too jet lagged to enjoy it. That's the big pitfall of starting there.

Has anyone been to Mykonos, Greece before? We don't have a lot of time there so we can't wander far from port.

[UtwigMU]

Generally for all cards you need to sign up online and send tax ID paper and personal ID, something more than a kiosk would be able to process.

[dZeus]

The rates for WeSwap look amazing. An extra 8 Euro per $100 USD versus TravelEx. Are there kiosk, or banks, or something that offer WeSwap or just sign up online and and they ship you a card?

Looking forward to Venice. I hope I'm not too jet lagged to enjoy it. That's the big pitfall of starting there.

Has anyone been to Mykonos, Greece before? We don't have a lot of time there so we can't wander far from port.

You have to sign up online. Process was quick and painless. Normally I do the 1.4 % swap, because I want the money directly.

The card you get in the mail is a prepaid Mastercard for electronic payments only. I've successfully used it for swipe and chip&pin payments in the US and Europe. It does not work for online payments (afaik). There's a minimum withdrawal amount from ATMs in order to escape fees, but that should be a relatively low amount.

just to reiterate, 'Revolut' offers even better rates, but requires use of Android or iOS.

[Fat Tone]

My son did a month going all round Europe this summer (just finished A levels, now in his first week at Uni). He used Revolut and I have to say it is brilliant. It gives perfect bank rates and is very easy to manage.

We enjoy cruising and have done a few in the Western Med. We tend to spend very little when off the boat, but we do take a few Euros cash just in case. We make all off-boat purchases on our credit cards and ask for the charge to be in EUR as that's by far the best exchange rate.

As mentioned above, Croatia is the exception. We visited Dubrovnik and paid a little in the local currency to walk the city walls, well worth it but we did have to do a horrendous exchange first, close to the ticket office.

What ship are you cruising on? Have a great time, T.

[dZeus]

My son did a month going all round Europe this summer (just finished A levels, now in his first week at Uni). He used Revolut and I have to say it is brilliant. It gives perfect bank rates and is very easy to manage.

We enjoy cruising and have done a few in the Western Med. We tend to spend very little when off the boat, but we do take a few Euros cash just in case. We make all off-boat purchases on our credit cards and ask for the charge to be in EUR as that's by far the best exchange rate.

As mentioned above, Croatia is the exception. We visited Dubrovnik and paid a little in the local currency to walk the city walls, well worth it but we did have to do a horrendous exchange first, close to the ticket office.

What ship are you cruising on? Have a great time, T.

ah yes, since a few years ago, payment terminals asking to do the conversion 'for you' (just like e.g. Amazon), and change excessive conversion fees (much worse than even the 3% that my amex charges). It's probably safe to generalise to _never_ agree with the conversion fee on a payment terminal/ATM, and let your bank/card issuer deal with the conversion.