(upbeat jazzy music)
- Thank you all for joining us
for another Travel Top Five,
and today we're talking about our top five tips
for people taking their first trip to Europe.
And so joining me is gonna be Erin and Kathy
and I'm Philip.
And so we came to our top five tips,
and Erin let's start with you.
What is your number five tip for people
going to Europe for the first time?
- Alrighty, so my number five tip is to make sure
that you call your credit card companies
and debit card companies,
let them know that you are traveling
and get a PIN number associated with the card.
A lot of times people just call and let them know
that they're traveling,
but when you actually get there,
you pop your card into an ATM or something
to withdraw money and they forget
that a PIN number's supposed to be assigned,
and then you don't have any way to get euros.
So anyway, definitely get the PIN number assigned
and let them know that you're traveling.
- And more than one,
have more than one way to get cash.
- Exactly.
- 'Cause if an ATM card machine eats your card,
you gotta double check that. - Then you're out of luck.
- Yes, yes.
- Your bank should be able to help guide you on that,
but yeah, absolutely.
Okay, my number five is in the same ballpark-ish.
Going to these tourist areas,
you wanna be very careful of your cash.
So guys, you probably don't wanna
have your wallet in your back pocket,
you get a lot of pickpockets there.
Keep it in your front pocket or even go to a,
be more safe and get a money belt.
You don't wanna go there and have your cash stolen,
so I think a money belt's the safest thing to do.
- That's my number five as well, wear a money belt.
And I would expand on that,
and I always feel safer
if my passport is in my money belt as well,
rather than in the hotel safe.
Because I just wanna, if something happened
and I had to drop everything and fly home,
I have everything I need to get home.
So, yeah, wear a money belt.
- And along with the money belt, I have a neck wallet,
and so it basically, it's just flat.
- Yeah, same thing, yeah. Oh good.
Keep it under your clothes.
- So very impressed.
You didn't throw me under the bus on the money belt thing.
- I didn't.
- So I will do it myself real quick.
My first time using a money belt,
this was years and years ago.
My wife had suggested get a money belt.
So we're in a restaurant in Paris,
and the check comes,
and I was like so how do you get the money out of the belt,
now that, you know, it was a money belt.
And she goes, well you don't keep all your money in there,
you have some easily accessible.
So I had to drop trou in the middle of a French restaurant
to get money out to pay the bill.
But anyway, so yes, keep some money in your pocket.
- Right your money for the day, keep it,
and then your big money and your alternate credit cards
and things like that.
- My number four, we're going to number four.
My number four tip is the first day you're there,
you know, power through.
If you are someone who needs to get on,
most of you when you go to a good sleep schedule,
so power through.
If you get there at three or four in the afternoon,
you may be exhausted,
fight through until eight o'clock.
And go to sleep then.
Also, side note, on the same thing,
you want to get acclimated as soon as possible.
People say, and they are 100 percent correct,
as far as accidents go,
when you're traveling in Europe,
by far the most accidents happen the first day.
You're exhausted, you're not thinking straight,
it's a new city.
So you may want to have a planned activity,
like a tour set up.
But be very, very careful that first day.
You're going to be tired,
power through.
Make extra precautions that you're not stepping
out into the wrong place in traffic, that kind of stuff.
Be very careful first day, fight through,
get a good night's sleep.
Start fresh the next day.
- Not only accidents, but we have a term
called arrival grumpies.
That's a thing.
You've been traveling all night,
so you get there and things bother you,
you might fight with your family or something.
Just be aware that you're gonna
be grumpy and tired that first day.
Just give everyone an extra measure of grace.
- Yes.
- What's your number four?
- My number four is to understand
the adapter/converter issue.
And to illustrate, I actually have some.
- Nice.
- You have two power issues when you're in Europe.
One is that,
the power that comes out of,
depending on where you are,
but I'm just talking continental Europe basically.
The power that comes out of the wall is what,
240 volts? I think so.
220? 240?
- I think maybe 220.
- It's more than we're used to, okay?
So the power that comes out of the wall
is a lot stronger power than what comes out of our walls.
So all of our appliances and whatnot,
are set for the lower power that we have.
So if you're gonna plug in something,
you need to have something that's going to convert
220 to 120.
Which is what we have over here.
So that's that issue.
The other issue is that the actual plug in the wall
has different holes in it.
So for instance, this is the one in the U.K.
This is the way the plugs look in the U.K.
So you plug yours in here, and then there.
And so for instance,
this one is ready for a two-prong U.S. plug.
This is for Europe,
continental Europe, as is that.
Different things all over the world.
The other thing is there are appliances,
like for instance like your iPhone adapter,
the little iPhone charger thing,
if you read in the small print,
it is already set up to accept 220.
So if you just have a physical adapter,
you can plug it in.
You don't need a converter for your iPhone thing.
Also like my MacBook,
and I assume all MacBooks,
do your own due diligence,
already can accept 220 so you just need a physical adapter.
So just be really aware that the biggest vulnerability
here is hair appliances.
- Yes, exactly.
- I have lost big chunks of hair before.
- Yes.
- I would recommend don't bring any U.S. hair appliances
at all unless it's already dual voltage.
All the hotels are gonna have hair dryers,
and if you really have to have a flat iron or whatever,
buy a dual voltage one or buy one when you get there.
- And that was exactly my number four as well.
So same thing with the appliances,
it's very easy to get them.
You can buy them on Amazon,
you can go to Walmart, or Best Buy,
they have them everywere.
Usually they'll label them within the packages,
what countries they go for.
So a lot of times you don't have to buy them
like for all of Europe,
or for all of, you know, wherever else you are going.
But they do label them.
It's very, very easy.
- Sorry.
- Typically the hotels rooms,
and like if you're on a river cruise or something like that,
they'll have a decent amount of plugs,
so that you can utilize multiple outlets.
So you might think about buying a couple of converters,
a couple of adapters to charge different things.
- One of my favorite purchases,
when we were headed off on a river cruise
a few years ago,
I bought a power strip for Europe.
- Yes, that's amazing!
I should have done that.
- Yeah, yeah.
- That's a good tip.
- You can borrow it.
- You're up to number three.
- Okay. Number three.
Okay, so a lot of people go okay,
I'm gonna stay up really late the night before,
so I can get on the airplane
and I can sleep on the way over there.
Bad idea.
Get on the airplane fully rested.
Because here's the thing,
unless you're on business or first,
with the lie-flat bed,
you aren't gonna get meaningful sleep on the plane.
And so remember those arrival grumpies we talked about,
they're gonna be even worse.
So, I also have props for this.
- The prop queen.
- I didn't bring props.
- I didn't either.
- So I have owned every kind of travel pillow
in the world.
And here is my favorite one as of right now.
It's called Turtle. T-R-T-L.
And yeah, T-R-T-L.
I'm not being paid by them at all.
But basically, and it just depends
on how you happen to sleep.
So what you do is,
you just put this wherever your neck usually ends up going,
and you wrap this around,
and so now you're in your airplane seat,
and so wherever your head tends to drift.
And it makes it just easier to sleep.
This is my favorite one.
Your mileage may vary.
One that I liked for a while is this one.
You go like this,
and it's, you know, against the airplane seat.
And again, but this to me tends to slip out.
So once I saw this,
this is my favorite one. I am totally gonna buy one.
- I'm gonna get one of those for the Greek trip.
- Yeah, yeah its' pretty cool.
But again, it's not deep meaningful sleep,
it's just, you know, slightly tolerable.
So get on the airplane rested.
- Yup.
- That's what you aim for, slightly tolerable.
That's the goal.
- Hey if you're flying coach that's all you can go for.
- Athens, here we come.
- Number three.
- My number three is bring copies of your passports.
Along the same lines of theft with the money belt
and everything else,
there was a unfortunately very personal story
that I encountered all of this with.
My family was in Florence,
and we went to a restaurant
that was recommended by the hotel,
very long story.
But basically,
my mom was in the corner and she had copies
of our passports and everything,
but it was all together, all in her purse.
With our original passports and everything.
And she was tucked away in the corner,
and she had it on the back of her chair,
because she was in the corner.
But anyway, it was stolen.
I think one of the waiters lifted it.
So we basically spent the next day and a half
you know, getting our pictures taken,
running to the embassy,
but we had literally nothing on us
because everything was stolen.
So not only should you make passport copies,
but keep them in different areas.
You know put them in your luggage,
put them in your money belt,
put them in different areas.
It doesn't hurt to have multiple copies.
- Also you can take pictures of it with your phone.
And also you should leave copies
with a trusted person at home.
- Yes, agreed.
- Along with keeping copies of,
what are all the 800 numbers,
or even international numbers
for credit card companies in case you have to call.
- Mine is basically what Erin did with her number five.
Mine is talking about ATM.
And she's right,
notify your bank.
Notify credit card companies you are going over there.
But also,
people ask about converting money.
Converting money here in the U.S.,
or going to a place at the airport to convert money.
At this point,
ATM is still the best place to do it.
Now check your fees with your bank,
but for the most part,
the exchange rate is better through the ATM
and the fees are less for the ATMs.
You may have to give a little bit of pocket money,
you know, a few bucks,
at the airport for when you land,
but beyond that,
I go to ATMs and get money out that way.
Number two.
- Number two?
So my number two is don't plan every minute of every day.
- Oh hallelujah.
- So a lot of people get really excited
when they are going over to Europe.
There's so much to see.
So much to do.
It's really exciting; very fun.
Especially the first time you're going over there,
people might have a week,
and they want to you know,
go to seven different cities in seven nights.
And they want to have three tours in one day,
and then four tours in the next day.
And every second is planned.
One of the things that is important
about being a good traveler is being flexible.
Because there's always the unknowns.
You could have flight delays.
A train could strike.
Certain roads could be shut down.
Restaurants could close that you wanted to go to.
Rain might happen on a tour where the tour cancels.
There's a million different things that could happen,
and it would be setting yourself up for failure
if you plan every moment of every day.
So I always recommend,
whenever clients come to me and they really want
a super fast-paced trip,
I always end up having them slow it down.
And in the end they thank me for it.
Because it allows them to experience the culture
that they are going over to experience.
And it helps them relax a little bit
and really get to know the destination.
So, definitely slow it down just a little bit.
Allow for just regular life to happen
as you travel.
- Very good.
Mine is a travel app.
And a specific travel app that we have.
When you book your trip through us,
it's a very cool app called Axis,
that we provide.
It's no cost to you.
But the agent, like Erin,
will download your itinerary into the app for you,
and that way it's all done here in the States.
So then when you're in the location,
you're not having to be on data to get the information.
It's there, and it does it by location
and GPS.
Triangulating your location,
not really sure how they do it,
but they do it, it's magic.
Pixie dust or something.
Another very cool thing about it is the way
you can communicate back with your agent.
You can message back and forth
if there are questions that come up,
or I know you had it come up,
didn't you use it for somebody whose flight was delayed?
And y'all through access and stuff.
- Mm hmm, yeah.
- Able to communicate back and forth.
A great app.
But yeah, get with your travel agent,
ask about the in destination apps.
They are really great these days.
Number two.
- My number two,
already mentioned by Phillip,
but I'm gonna reiterate,
is that stay awake until an early bedtime that first day.
If you take a nap when you first get there,
it is gonna hose your whole trip.
So stay awake, power through.
And I recommend, you said plan a tour or whatever,
and that's so true.
But the first time we went over,
our first city was Paris,
and we did this, you know,
bus tour thing through Paris.
That was not a good idea.
Because we were sitting,
and I was like this.
- Yup.
- Yeah, maybe a double-decker in London,
with its open air,
you're getting wind in your face the whole time,
something like that then maybe.
But yeah, you don't want to be sitting too much.
- Yeah so I think walking, and things like that.
So yes, absolutely, just power through.
In fact, I would say when you get on the airplane,
set your watch to the time of your destination.
- Absolutely.
- That's what I do.
- Yup
- Yeah.
- And remember if you're doing a walking tour,
be very, very careful.
Don't get hit by a bus because you're tired
and not paying attention.
- Yeah.
- You have to be very careful.
Number--
- Did you do number two?
- Yeah, I did number two.
- Now I'm on number one.
My number one is splurge for a destination specialist.
And what that means is,
that's what we call them here in the office,
basically we have got contacts with hundreds
of these small companies,
all throughout the world,
that all they do is set up local tours for people,
and experiences for people.
So it is an extra cost,
but boy it makes a world of difference.
I do what I preach.
I put together a trip for my top agents,
went to London last year,
and we used a destination specialist.
I had them help me set up some amazing experiences.
We're doing the same thing going to Costa Rica,
for our top agents,
and I'm using the destination specialist
we used for that also.
They're putting together some things,
and on our,
we're having a personal trip where we're taking
our son to Greece.
And he's not huge into academics,
but always loved Greek mythology.
So I got ahold of our contact in Athens
and said here's what we are interested in,
and they put together,
helped us put together an itinerary,
a custom itinerary,
that's going to get us a guide
to go to all these Greek mythology sites.
So it's more expense,
you may not be able to do it for the whole trip,
but at least pick a day or two.
You say, okay, we're going to use
a destination specialist with these towns
and do some really cool guided stuff.
Number one for you.
- Number one, and Erin did already touch on this,
but I'm gonna say travel like you're going back.
So like don't pack in too many things.
Assume you're going back.
Because the thing is,
think about it like a meal.
If you were to take huge bites that you could barely chew
you wouldn't enjoy your meal.
Take manageable bites.
And really enjoy what you experience.
Even if you never go back,
it's still a better idea to enjoy
what it is you're actually doing,
rather than try to consume all of it at one time.
- Very good.
And you're gonna close us up.
Your number one.
- Yes.
My number one kind of goes along
with the destination specialist.
So one of the things that I run into a lot,
is when people come to me for Europe trips,
they don't know what they're looking for.
Which is fine,
that's exactly what I'm here for.
To help guide you in putting together an itinerary
you're going to love and enjoy.
One of the things that sometimes,
especially for people that are going for the first time,
that I get pushback on,
is pre-assigning a couple of tours.
One of the things,
I try to not overload itineraries with tourism or whatnot,
because like I mentioned,
you want to give yourself some downtime,
but it is important to include,
allowing me,
allowing any agent that you're working with,
to include some tours ahead of time.
Because, for example, things like the Vatican,
if you don't preassign that tour,
and we don't get you the skip-the-line access,
something like that,
you could waiting in line for truly,
three or so hours.
Same with the Colosseum.
A lot of times there's a long, long wait,
and if you just try and wing your entire trip,
you could really miss out on some great things.
So kind of going back to my other point,
where you don't want to do too much, too quickly,
you also don't want to completely show up
with nothing planned.
So allow us to help you plan
an itinerary that is a good pace,
but still includes some things
that you will want to have pre-booked.
So you're not spending the majority of your time
just waiting in line.
Along with the destination specialist thing,
it normally includes some phenomenal tours,
all of your transportation,
and everything allows you to just truly relax
and enjoy your vacation as you should.
So they're getting you to all the sites,
and handling all of the behind-the-scenes background work,
while you just get to relax and enjoy.
- Yeah, the destination specialist we used in London,
all that tours she did,
I thought she was a wow.
- Yeah, yeah.
- I thought she was just a blue badge.
- Yeah that's a thing in London.
A blue badge tour guide.
That's not a company,
that's a designation. Right.
- Not easy to get.
Not easy to get that designation.
So those our tips.
Thank y'all for watching.
And I hope you have a great time on your trip to Europe.