Preparing vs. planning for travel

Travel and Leisure

Louis Pasteur once said, "Chance favours the prepared mind". Ok, what he actually said was, "In the fields of observation chance only favours the prepared mind", but I like the simplified version better. I often come back to this quote because I'm a bit of a worrywart; sometimes, when something crosses my mind, I tend to dwell on it, and if it's late at night, it even keeps me awake.

We are about two months away from our first European trip since the pandemic started. The river cruise that I've been wanting to try came up on a sale last summer, and we thought with the vaccines in full deployment, that surely things would be good by the beginning of fall 2022, right? So we pulled the trigger on the Enchantment of Eastern Europe cruise, and have planned for a week in Croatia beforehand. But then the Omicron variants appeared, and new concerns arose about how long the vaccine effectiveness would last, and whether we'd be in for a fourth, fifth and sixth wave of Covid-19. And then when we started to see the light with respect to the severity of Omicon, and countries started to lift measures, all of a sudden - BAM! Russia invades Ukraine! So I watch every newscast about war, and monitor the effect it is having on tourism in Eastern Europe's neighbouring countries; surprisingly, it hasn't been too detrimental, at least to the places we will be travelling to. 

But all of the things mentioned above are way beyond our control, so they didn't wander too far into my field of worry. However, there are things that are happening that can and should be prepared for, in order to improve the chances of an enjoyable trip. I'm not talking about booking hotels or Airbnbs in advance, so you're not left out in the cold, or planning ahead and booking your rental car at the best rate. And you probably don't need to book your rail tickets too far in advance, but prime TGV rates are usually best booked at four months out. No, I mean taking steps within your control that will remove or lessen the burden once you arrive at your destination. A simple example is all of the issues flyers are currently having with lost or delayed baggage; while it's not easy for some to pack efficiently for a two-week trip, going with carry-on luggage would ensure that you are well prepared for that potential dilemma.

So what else can we prepare for that might be an issue? Lineups at the airport can't always be avoided, and certainly you'd want to show up early to make sure you don't miss your flight. But there are programs that allow you to take the fast track through things like security screening and sometimes customs checks; e.g. Nexus, Global Entry and TSA Precheck. While these might seem like a hassle to get, they are very beneficial when you can bypass that endless security lineup that snakes out into the airport concourse. Another thing that can help you at passport checkpoints, is the e-passport, or biometric feature that almost everyone has now. The tiny chip embedded inside contains information that is used to identify the passport holder, and is readable by Near Field Technology (NFT). This is the same kind of thing that you are using when you pay with your Apple iPhone, or tap your VISA card. Instead of queueing up at the customs and immigration lineup, look for a row of kiosks or a separate one indicated by the symbol that matches the one on the front of your passport. Simply insert your passport into the reader, then a photo is taken, and you're off to get a stamp from the customs official. 

Another thing that I like to prepare for well in advance, is seat selection on our flights, especially the long haul ones. As I had written about in my avoiding travel mistakes post, I didn't do this on a long trip from Frankfurt to Harare, and ended up in the rear bulkhead, sandwiched between two large German men. Now, I make sure that I book our seats pretty much right after I've secured the reservation, and will look for the best options for us on SeatGuru. In fact, I'll even make flight or airline choices based on the type of aircraft offered, as some trans-Atlantic flights might not be in a wide-body jet. 

But what about catching your connecting flight and navigating in a foreign airport? Sometimes with a short layover time, you might want to prepare yourself for what to expect when you land at the hub airport. The in-flight magazine located in your seat pouch usually has airport terminal maps, but you can do much better by Googling the airport beforehand. In my case, someone had recorded a video on what you will experience transiting from Munich's Terminal 2 satellite to Terminal 2. And while doing my Google search for info on the Munich airport, I came across a link for an app called Passngr. It's a German portal for all things flight-related, and can give you insight into flight arrival and departure info, show you where to find food and drink, shopping and other services, as well as link you to wait times at various passport control points. As an added bonus, it enables you to use the free WiFi services at the airports, which would of course would be needed to look up the previous information.

So you've arrived at your destination... what now? How have you planned to get to your hotel or Airbnb? Because I'm so cheap, we often take the train/metro from the airport to our lodging, and walk the last 5-10 mins of the way. But many metro stations have two exits, and if you take the wrong one, you'll end up heading in the wrong direction. That's why I like to prepare in advance, and have a look at Google street view, as to what things should look like when we exit the station. You might think this is overkill, but you don't want to know the number of times that this has tripped us up, and we ended up walking 10 mins in the wrong direction!

Another thing to be prepared for once you arrive, is how to avoid the lineups at popular things to do. When we were less skilled European visitors, we didn't think to book museums or other tourist highlights ahead of time, and spent valuable day touring time standing in line. Most of the top attractions allow for online booking ahead of time, and it is usually cheaper to do so as well. Also, some will limit the total number of ticket sales, so you might not even get in, even with waiting in line. What's the risk? Well of course, you might end up changing your plans, and your pre-purchased entry tickets to Plitvice Lakes National Park go unused; but at only $50, you're not taking a huge financial leap of faith.

My final bit of advice regarding being prepared for your trip, is making sure you've downloaded the apps and data that you need for your vacation ahead of time. You never know if the Wi-Fi at the hotel or Airbnb is going to be dodgy, and things we take for granted like Google Maps navigation may not work well if you haven't downloaded an offline copy of the map data. More on using your mobile phone in Europe can be found in a more detailed post here. 

Top 3 river cruise questions

Travel and Leisure

I belong to a FB group for river cruising, as it's a fun way to get excited about upcoming trips, and share ideas and knowledge to others who are interested in this unique way of exploring Europe. But it would seem that many folks don't realise that you can use the search feature to find the answer to their questions, and so a number of common questions keep popping up on there. Here are the top three that seem to come up, over and over again, with my thoughts on each.

What do I wear for dinner?

Dining at the Captain's table on Uniworld

I think this one comes up so often, because of what things are like on ocean cruises (e.g. evening galas and black tie dinners). There are no such evenings on a river cruise, and for the most part, smart casual is the recommended attire. Of course when you are out and about during the day, you're going to want to be comfortable, so pretty much anything goes (within reason) for city touring as well as breakfast and lunch on the ship. However, there was one guy on our Danube cruise who wore the same tank top every day; I overheard that a staffer had polite words with him, as he stopped showing up in the dining room in that attire. I get that you want to minimise the amount of clothing that you pack in your luggage, but that guy was taking it to the extreme. But back to the question at hand. Yes, there will be a few folks who stroll in for dinner in the same outfit that they were wearing for that hike up to the ruins of Dürnstein castle, and you can't help that. I myself, tend to perspire somewhat during my day outing, so I welcome the opportunity to freshen up in our room and put on something different. On our last cruise, they discussed appropriate dinner attire at the welcome briefing, which sent a few men scurrying back to their rooms to put on some trousers and a collared shirt. But there won't be any fashion police at the entrance to the dining room, as much as most would like, turning away guests in their shorts and T-shirts; they will be getting some unwelcome side-eye from other well-dressed cruisers however.

River cruising has fine dining;
why not dress up a little for it?

Think of dinner on board as you would an evening out at an elegant restaurant back in your hometown; what would you wear in that instance? I think most would prefer that smart casual was the norm, but if the best you have is a nice, crisp pair of unfaded jeans and a collared, or polo shirt, then that will have to do. However, I personally don't recommend jeans (unless it's late fall/winter), as they get hot and uncomfortable on warm, muggy days in Europe. I like 5-pocket chinos and a collared shirt, whereas she will likely put on a skirt with her outfit; it tends to be cool in the dining room, so ladies may want a wrap/sweater. On the evenings with the welcome reception and the Captain's farewell dinner, she wears a dress, and I might throw a blazer on; this would be certainly not be mandated, and you won't be out of place without either. For heaven's sake, don't go out and buy a blazer if you don't have one, but if you're going to get one, I've discussed what kind to get here. I've discussed my clothing/packing tips in this previous post.

Do I need a travel adapter/converter?

Disclaimer: While I am/was an electrical engineer, please do your own due diligence with respect to using electrical devices in Europe. Since power technology evolved differently in other parts of the world, instead of the 120 volt/60 hertz that we use in North America, Europe uses a 230 volt/50 hertz system, and unfortunately, a few different outlet styles. Luckily for most of us, the only thing that we need power for, is to recharge the batteries in our iPads, smartphones and other portable devices. 

These are typically powered or charged by a USB Type-A port, with an output of 5 Vdc drawing from 5 to 18 watts. The power supply that you already own performs the conversion from AC to DC is typically rated for 110-240V, 50-60Hz, so it is going to handle the power conversion for you. The only thing that you need to be concerned about, is adapting the two flat prongs to the two round pins used in most of Europe. Now some of you may have NA-spec, 120V/60Hz sockets on your ship, but that's not going to help you when you are at hotels before or after your cruise. 

Since the Swiss socket (Type C) is like a flattened hexagon, getting adapters that will fit those will be the most versatile, as it will also fit into the round socket (Type F) in other EU countries; these are usually available 2 for $6 on Amazon. Note that you can get them for even less, as I did, but on my super cheap ones, the slots for the NA prongs are the same size, and some plugs have one prong that is slightly larger than the other; these might require a tiny bit of modification with a utility knife to make the slot slightly wider (I chose to file down the wider blade on her travel iron's plug instead).

But what if you have other electrical devices that do not have their own power conversion? That's where you will need a power converter. Note that these all-in-one converters from Amazon for $16-25 usually DO NOT convert voltage, and certainly are not be rated for high wattage devices like hair dryers and straightening/curling irons! For those, you need to look for converters that are rated for 2000 watts or more; I had one for my wife's straightener, but it was so hit and miss for some reason, and so she ended up getting a dual voltage one instead, avoiding the problems with trying to convert the power altogether. Update: I wrote a little bit more detailed piece on adapters here.

Do I need/where should I get euros/foreign currency

We needed cash at the Lorenzo Street Market

While the almighty US dollar is the benchmark against which all other currencies are measured, places that don’t take credit card DO NOT want your American dollars. Imagine that you are running a hot dog stand in the US, and some tourist offers you euros? Anyhow, it used to be that you pretty much needed to have some running-around money, as some small restaurants, shops and street markets would only take cash. But with the pandemic, contactless payment options became the norm, and almost anywhere you go, you will be able to use your credit card (take note of your provider's foreign transaction fees; we use the Home Trust Visa for Europe). Regardless, I like to have some local currency on me, as there are a few things that you do need cash for. One is the public toilets; unless you use your cash to buy something small, you won't have any coins to use the facilities. And don't forget that not everyone uses the euro; even though they may be part of the EU Schengen zone, they might still have their own currency. e.g. Hungary uses the forint, the Czech Republic has the koruna, etc. Sure, some folks might accept euros, or even US dollars, but they will not give you a very good exchange rate.

While there are those that would swear that they are getting the best exchange rate at the Forex kiosks in the airport, I'd tend to disagree, as I can usually get the best value at my home bank, and typically can even do a little bit of bargaining with the teller. Of course, you can/should be able to get cash from the ATMs that are everywhere in Europe, but make sure you are going to a trusted financial institution, and not some dodgy location inside a pub or at the entrance to the casino; these will give you a terrible exchange rate as well as slap you with a high transaction fee! And when the machine asks you if you want them to do the exchange for you, always decline that, as your home bank will give you a better conversion; the same goes for using your credit card in a retail store or restaurant. How much cash you need is subjective; we don't do a lot of shopping, so would probably only bring the equivalent of $300 USD for a 2-week trip, and then top up at an ATM if we needed more. We did run into one situation in Portugal however, where every cash machine we went to would not give us euros!

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