Travelling to Europe can be the trip of a life time for Canadians. However, European sojourns can be both expensive and dangerous for the unprepared. Listed are a few tips for European travel, ranging from safety to shrewdness.
Even if you shrewdly plan your trip down to the last detail, and take great pains to save money in every place you possibly can throughout the travel booking process, all that planning can go out the window with one incident of pickpocketing. Pickpockets and con schemes run rampant in Europe. Any area that is crowded is a target for pickpockets. In order to avoid getting pickpocketed, try to only carry what valuables you need on your person. If you have a safe in your hotel, be sure to use it to store important valuables such as your passport. Additionally, you should not carry large sums of money on your person if it can be avoided. If you have a pouch that can be strapped around your torso, this will be a safer place than your pocket to hold your money in.
If you are taking an overnight train in Europe, ensure your valuables are looked after as you sleep. This is another prime place for pickpockets to target tourists. Taking pains to save money doesn’t mean much if it gets stolen!
When you’re looking to book your trip and examining your options, ensure that you get your quotes in Canadian dollars when looking to book. Exchange rates fluctuate quickly, so you could believe you are paying one price for your trip based on a previously quoted price, only to find out on your bank statement that it was more costly than you had planned.
It’s much easier to make comparisons ceteris paribus if you get your prices quoted in Canadian dollars, and it will allow you to budget for your trip more effectively.
For Canadians, European trips can be extremely costly. If you’re planning a family vacation, this is especially true, as France, Germany, Italy, and England are some of the world’s most expensive places to visit. This makes it likely that your transaction size could be quite sizeable, and when changing a sizeable amount of money, it is very important that you shop around for the best exchange rate if you are looking to save money.
Pooling your funds to exchange them at a currency exchange provider, such as Knightsbridge Foreign Exchange, can allow you to save 1-2% on your exchange rate for the trip. On a trip that costs $20,000, this could save you between $200-400, a substantial amount of income you could have to spend during your trip, instead of spending it on your trip.
If you want to visit Europe but have a tight budget, take pains to get a great exchange rate, and ensure that you incur any unexpected costs in the booking process. Once you save the money throughout the booking, don’t let those savings get stolen!
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