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-   -   Travelling to Europe. Need advice (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-travel-queries/56810-travelling-europe-need-advice-44.html)

I am confused. Are you planning to skip both Sistine Chapel & the Vatican? I think it would be better to skip Rome totally & to some other place if that's the plan.

Lol
😀.. haha, that was funny.
I was thinking that either I will have to skip Sistine chapel or colosseum inside tour. And as I understand, Vatican is not just about Sistine Chapel. The main attraction is the St Peters Basilica which I will definitely visit. Hope that clarifies.

Also, I would like to know how much time I should budget for the Colosseum tour

You may try as follows

7:30 AM: St. Peter's Basilica
9:00 AM: Vatican Museum
11:30 AM: Sistine Chapel
12:30 PM: Lunch
1 PM: Taxi/bus to Colosseum
2 PM: Colosseum
3:30 PM: Roman Forum
Get skip the line ticket for all above from the official site.
Get Rick Steve app downloaded in your mobile as audio guide

Thanks everyone for your replies.
I have more or less finalized my plans -

Day 1 - take some rest, start around 4:30-5 PM or so in the evening and take the Steve Ricks Heart of Rome walk -
Campo de’ Fiori -> Piazza Novano --> Pantheon --> Trevi Fountain --> Spanish steps.
Have dinner, back at hotel

Day 2 - early morning start, go to Vatican, see the St peter's basillica and then Sistine Chapel. Lunch break and then go to colosseum and Roman forum. I have booked a guided tour of Colosseum at 4 PM. I am yet to book the Sistine Chapel tickets.

I know this is jam packed, but I guess this is the best option I have.
Since my hotel is a bit far off the metro lines, I am planning to take taxi for traveling. I have a few questions -
1> How easy is it to get taxi in Rome, particularly at night 10 PM?
2> Is traveling my taxi safe at night?
3> I heard Uber does not operate in Rome, is that true?

I've been told by my former colleagues that by road is slower. So I'd suggest to take a taxi to the metro and use the metro from there. Collosseum is right out of the station. Vatican, I remember was about 10 mins walk.

Usually the A-line (where all attractions are located) can get more crowded than the B-line.

Pickpockets are aplenty, so just be on guard with your belongings. It (pickpocketing) happens a little more blatant than what we are used to seeing in India, especially in Pisa and Rome. We've walked back from metro to hotel closer to 10 PM, just were a little more cautious.

Need advice on cash during a Europe Tour:

Mom is heading for a 15 day package tour - London, Paris, Switzerland, Austria & Italy.


I am checking out a travel card from ICICI. Is ICICI good enough, or we check any other bank ?

How much cash to carry, in what denominations ? Will Euro be sufficient or carry some dollars too ?

Any pointers on usage of card vs cash ?

In most countries in Europe you can do without any cash on you. Visa and Mastercards are widely accepted. Amex and Diners Club not so much. Some small business won't accept cards for transactions less than 10 Euros, but these are rarities.

ICICI forex cards are pretty good.

If you want to carry cash around, stick to Euros, no need for dollars. Some countries have their own currencies. So whether you can make do with Euros, will depend on the country you are travelling to.

My experience is from Austria, Hungary (uses HUF instead of Euro), Estonia, Denmark (uses DKK instead of Euro), Ireland.
Before you go, make a list of countries you are visiting and check the local currency.

For the countries you have mentioned, you need euros for all except UK where you need pounds (GBP).
Various banks offer prepaid foreign currency cards. You can get it in ICICI also. You can top up a particular amount as per your needs in the card. If the amount is near completion then your relative or you yourself can top up from the internet. Another feature which is very important is that when you come back, you can reclaim the balance amount on the card. You can also withdraw cash at a small premium.

Most banks offer single currency in one card so you may need two cards (Euros + GBP). Since stay in UK may be for few days, you can skip the GBP card and carry cash (GBP) or use your own credit card.

Among most of the banks that offer these cards, YES bank offers a multi currency travel card where you can load more than one currency in a single card, which sounds very useful.

In addition to above, carrying a card is very essential but it does not negate the fact that certain amount of cash should also be carried for an emergency and should be stored safely away from the card (in case of theft).

She's doing a package tour, right? From what I've heard, the package generally covers everything so she'll perhaps need money only for personal expenses like souvenirs, shopping and if/when she separates from the group.

She'll only need Euros; most shops/stores/restaurants will take card but very small establishments/road side stalls might not. I feel 100 Euro in cash should be more than sufficient.

On that note, make sure she has travel insurance: the most generous (in terms of coverage and inclusions), the better.

Somehow missed the list of countries earlier. Switzerland uses CHF and UK uses GBP. Italy and Austria use Euros.
ICICI also has a multi currency card, maybe you could use it.

If it is only for shopping, souvenirs and stuff and the rest is covered by the package like food, transport and accommodation, they would not need more than 400EUR even with a very liberal spending habit. I would suggest carrying around 100-150EUR in cash and along with that an international card, credit or debit. Except small street shops, practically every other place accepts card and as long as it allows international transactions, its good enough. No need to get a prepaid forex card especially if it involves additional charges. However, please note that I had come across a few incidents of people using someone else's cards and the shops creating an issue about that. So preferably the card must be in your mother's name else its safer to go with a travel card.
I usually use my official and personal credit card during my travels in the EU. It works irrespective of the currency and avoids any exchange related fees except for the 2.5% surcharge. Only when I need to withdraw cash I use my official credit card which doesnt have withdrawal fees or interest bundled. If you're looking for some small denomination currency I can help you out with that. :)

I am traveling to Europe on 9th May covering Italy and Greece.
I was also thinking of picking up some Euros. Is there any need of taking Euros from India? We should be able to withdraw from ATMs at roughly the same cost.

About SIM card, any advice? I was checking Airtel and they charge 4K for 30 days. Idea is even costlier.

We converted some INR to Euro at the airport because we hadn't carried anything. Most of our travel (hotels, tours, entry tickets) were pre-booked so we used the India credit card for payments. Got some cash converted for local stalls which wouldn't take cards.

Withdrawing from ATMs carries a higher charge (flat fee + conversion charge); currency conversion (withdraw in INR in India and convert at airport) might work out cheaper.

Across Europe, every hotel and even the smallest of store/restaurants have wifi that they encourage guests to use.

Here's what I did: download local offline maps of all the places we were visiting. Used those for navigation and logged in guest wifi in case I needed anything. Use WhatsApp/FaceTime to call family. I had international roaming activated (300 for a month on Vodafone I think) but didn't use it for calling.

That is good advise. Also in most if not all of Western Europe it is worth to pay a visit to the local tourist centres. They will have a lot of knowledge about what to do, how to get there. All free advice. They will have local maps, usually free of charge as well. And there will be hundreds of free brochures available with stuff to see / do / explore. So in addition to online research I always find the tourist offices a good place to pay a visit.

Especially if you go and visit major towns/city we usually look for a bustour on the first day. We find that is often a very enjoyable and easy way to see a good chunk of the city and pick up lots of pointers of places you would like to go and see in some more detail the next day or so.

Jeroen

So the Schengen Visa came through. It's London-Paris-GER-Netherlands-Austria-Switzerland-Italy.

Our travel agent suggested picking up a prepaid SIM (at Bombay for us) from Matrix. 15 day cards, with 2GB data. However, use Wi-fi at the hotels and call via Whatsapp.


thanks - will do GBP + Travel Card for Euro's.


Sunil, again - agent says EURO should be fine even in Switzerland. Rather than having to buy some CHF. But will plan for some GBP.


@Audioholic & @Libran -yes, Food, Acco, travel and entrance fees at all locations is already included in package. It's only the incidental expenses. No plans for shopping as such, except small items like souvenirs.

Will re-check the insurance part.

*

Travel agent here says upto 25k in EUR, and 50K minimum on card - but again depending on how much our shopping plans are.