My recent 6-week road trip through Europe.

[audreyh1]

Oh, I know how much work planning a European trip can be! See my sig line.

Definitely there are times when having a car is more convenient. So far I've done very well by finding a mini-van day tour to meet the places we couldn't easily visit by public transportation, and that has worked quite well. And some nice variety in travel - being with a small group occasionally and having the benefit of a knowledgeable local guide - often the best part. But I expect one of these days we'll start renting cars locally for some of our sight seeing. Unless we decide to hire a private driver .

Alsace and Provence were two areas where having a car would have been nice.

 

[NW-Bound]

Well, I never did have to spend so much time studying Google Map and Street View for European trip planning before. Never on previous trips.

Having to find a place to keep the car parked during the stay, and a lodging not too far from either the parked car and the train station (for day excursions) really cuts down one's choices. And the streets can be narrow and so convoluted; one would think he would not have a problem with GPS and a digital map, but oh boy... It's better for one to experience it to understand it.

As said, I had driven in France before, but did not have problems like this time. But then, I previously stayed on major roadways and larger cities.

 

[NW-Bound]

As mentioned earlier, most machines require you to stick only 1/2 of the card in for them to read the chip. They do not suck up the entire card, then fail to disgorge it like that machine that I encountered. So, if the card is rejected, you just yank it out and try another one.

ATMs at banks do suck up the card. I believe it is so that they can confiscate the card if it has been reported stolen. More on this later...

I am getting back to this, as promised.

My traveling companion, the husband, wandered off by himself in a city. He came back to us later, saying that the ATM machine ate his card!

He went into the bank, found a worker that spoke English to explain the problem. She was a higher official at the bank. She said he did not retrieve the card in time, so the machine took it back. The only way to get his card would be to come back the next day, when the crew that serviced that machine was scheduled to come to open it and reload it with cash.

Now that would throw a monkey wrench into our schedule, because my plan was to leave for another town the next morning. And we had some distance to cover, and the delay would mean arriving at midnight or later. And I already booked and paid for hotel rooms.

So, he agreed to abandon the card, but now had to call his US bank to cancel the card. It was not as easy as it seemed because of some dumb communication problem with the bank operator. He eventually found out that the withdrawal amount of several hundred euros had been debited against his account, the money that he never received. His bank agreed to reverse the charge, so he did not lose any money, just the use of the card for the trip. This was OK, as he had another account, and his wife still had her card on the same account.

How did that happen? It became clear as I myself withdrew some cash a few days later.

After going through the PIN validation and all that, the ATM ejected my card, and displayed a message on its screen, telling me that I had 30 seconds to retrieve it. Apparently, he was not paying attention. This man tends to be absent-minded, and with a severe lack of situational awareness. He just left the card in the slot, and after 30 seconds the machine sucked it back in, and never discharged his money.

They have been to Europe a few times before, but always with a tour. I think that suits them best, to have everything taken care of for them. We had to baby sit them quite a bit during this trip. Oh boy!

 

[audreyh1]

How did that happen? It became clear as I myself withdrew some cash a few days later.

After going through the PIN validation and all that, the ATM ejected my card, and displayed a message on its screen, telling me that I had 30 seconds to retrieve it. Apparently, he was not paying attention. This man tends to be absent-minded, and with a severe lack of situational awareness. He just left the card in the slot, and after 30 seconds the machine sucked it back in, and never discharged his money.

They have been to Europe a few times before, but always with a tour. I think that suits them best, to have everything taken care of for them. We had to baby sit them quite a bit during this trip. Oh boy!

Hoo boy! I don't think I noticed that card retrieval time limit as I always removed the ATM card immediately! Or maybe I sort of remember that. I always removed the card and money immediately and put them away quickly so as not to fall victim to a passing snatcher.

Severe lack of situational awareness! That is not a good quality in a traveler! No wonder you had to baby sit them.

There is a good reason tours do a booming business!

Really enjoying your stories.

 

[NW-Bound]

Next time, watch to see that time limit display, then let it go to see what happens.

Speaking of tours, there are now more tours than I ever saw. Of course there were tour groups of Japanese and Chinese, also Indians, but I saw plenty of Europeans, such as tours of British people, and some unknown European countries. In Brussels, we talked with a elderly man on a tour, who was from Amsterdam. Amsterdam! It was only a short train ride away. Well, maybe they would go on to other farther destinations.

People travel more and more these days. And the tours mostly consisted of people in their 70s. It's good that geezers spend money on themselves, instead of leaving it behind.

 

[Nemo2]

Speaking of tours, there are now more tours than I ever saw.

Saw them in all the 'tourist areas', following passively behind their [-]Border Collie[/-], and not glancing at anything that was proscribed.

We were, unfortunately, obliged to take a guided tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau........our tour abutted both the one preceding and the one following...."Move along, nothing to see here".

This prompted us to forego the salt mines, (which we wanted to see), in favor of our usual spontaneous and erratic wandering.

 

[audreyh1]

Next time, watch to see that time limit display, then let it go to see what happens.

Speaking of tours, there are now more tours than I ever saw. Of course there were tour groups of Japanese and Chinese, also Indians, but I saw plenty of Europeans, such as tours of British people, and some unknown European countries. In Brussels, we talked with a elderly man on a tour, who was from Amsterdam. Amsterdam! It was only a short train ride away. Well, maybe they would go on to other farther destinations.

People travel more and more these days. And the tours mostly consisted of people in their 70s. It's good that geezers spend money on themselves, instead of leaving it behind.

That's the key - elderly! (70+?)

 

[audreyh1]

Next time, watch to see that time limit display, then let it go to see what happens.

My first ATM in Paris, there was a loiterer hassling people at a the ATM trying to "help" - right! I was so nervous I tried to finish my transaction quickly and almost walked off without my card, why DH tried to fend of the "helper". At the last minute I stepped back and grabbed my card.

That was the only time we were accosted by a loiterer at an ATM.

 

[NW-Bound]

Another major difference with our previous trips besides extensive driving was that we stayed mostly in Airbnb apartments or town homes. These included in-town locations in mid-sized cities and smaller towns, to villas in the countryside, and even a tiny village or hamlet. This gave a great experience living among the locals.

The major drawback of renting an Airbnb home is that you have to set up a time to meet with the hosts to get the keys. Some of them rent out an apartment or floor in the same building as their home, and do not mind you checking in late. Hosts who rent out an investment property may not even live nearby, and insist that you do not deviate too much from the agreed-upon meet/greet time. You do not check in at an arbitrary time as you do with a hotel.

Even with the drawback, we enjoy the Airbnb rentals so much more than a hotel room. For example, one was a really quaint refurbished apartment in a 500-year old building in a forgotten village in Umbria, which was really close to Civita that was on my destination list. Another was in the attic of a building in the center of Strasbourg, only a few hundred feet from the Gothic Cathedral. Another was in the center of a town in Provence, on top of a clothing shop, and we simply walked down to join the Sunday flea market (or we could watch the action from the terrace). One was a floor of a villa in Tuscany, only a few miles from Siena, and surrounded by a vineyard and olive grove.

I can go on and on. It was great, and nothing like the hotels of our previous trips.

 

[Lsbcal]

...
After going through the PIN validation and all that, the ATM ejected my card, and displayed a message on its screen, telling me that I had 30 seconds to retrieve it. Apparently, he was not paying attention. This man tends to be absent-minded, and with a severe lack of situational awareness. He just left the card in the slot, and after 30 seconds the machine sucked it back in, and never discharged his money.

...

I don't recall ever seeing a 30 second timer but it's good to know about, thanks. I like that phrase "lack of situational awareness". Could cover a multitude of sins.

When we've gotten Euros (or whatever) before we always:
1) Get enough for several days use, probably up to the daily limit
2) Make sure the ATM is one that we can return to the next (business) day should our card be eaten
3) Have a high confidence it is in a well serviced and secure area
4) I have DW watch so I don't have one of those situational awareness episodes

 

[brett]

We travel overseas frequently-Europe and SE Asia.

I live in absolute fear of having my card eaten. It has never happened, we have always been successful in accessing money from an ATM or using one of our credit cards. Despite this, I am still anxious about it. Even now we try to only use ATMs at bank or post office locations, during business hours. When I put our card into the self serve ticket machines I still hold my breath waiting to see if I get the card back!

So, I we always carry at least two cards each that will give us four chances at accessing money or credit. And we keep them separate and safe in case of theft. The only self serve that concerned me was the first time we used unstaffed petrol station in Italy. We had to insert our euro bills to get gas. Fortunately a local understood our concern and showed us how it worked.

Your trip sounds wonderful. Will you go back. We do a combo of public transportation and rental cars. The latter provides so much more flexibility with touring and most especially with accomodation.

 

[audreyh1]

Sounds like some really adventurous lodging, with a lot of planning required!

Were you happy in general with your Airbnb accommodations?

 

[NW-Bound]

... we always carry at least two cards each that will give us four chances at accessing money or credit. And we keep them separate and safe in case of theft. The only self serve that concerned me was the first time we used unstaffed petrol station in Italy. We had to insert our euro bills to get gas. Fortunately a local understood our concern and showed us how it worked.

Your trip sounds wonderful. Will you go back. We do a combo of public transportation and rental cars. The latter provides so much more flexibility with touring and most especially with accomodation.

Sounds like some really adventurous lodging, with a lot of planning required!

Were you happy in general with your Airbnb accommodations?

Yes. Some of the apartments were just absolutely fabulous in terms of amenities and square footage. And even the smallest ones beat hotel rooms by far. That should not be surprising, because people do live full-time in these apartments, while a week inside a typical hotel room would drive them insane.

My plan was to get south as soon as possible after landing in Paris to get to warm weather. Indeed, the temperature was in the 50-60F at the beginning of the trip. We would then slowly move north, up to Belgium as the summer went on and the air warmed up.

That works, but at the 3rd week, about 1/2 way into the trip, we got hit by a sudden heat spell. And Europeans do not have the luxury of AC as we do in th US. Only the home in Florence had AC. At the end, our last two days in Paris right before flying back were miserable. At CDG, I watched the news on TV, and they said temperature in Lyon would hit 100F!

 

[Nemo2]

This airbnb studio, where we stayed in Krakow for a week this month, cost us $50 US per night, right in the Kazimierz area:

Set back off the street, with a semi-private courtyard, (after going through another small courtyard), it was very quiet.

 

[NW-Bound]

Looks nice. I see a small sink and perhaps a burner. Perhaps there was a fridge that was off the picture.

I rented larger apartments with two bedrooms to accommodate the companion couple. They all had a full-sized kitchen. Two even had two bathrooms, not at all common in Europe. They all had a separate entryway, because they were all separate dwelling units.

In two apartments inside a city, I lucked out that they had a parking slot in the garage under the building. In European cities, that is considered a true luxury. Well, it's the same in NYC or San Francisco.

 

[Nemo2]

Looks nice. I see a small sink and perhaps a burner. Perhaps there was a fridge that was off the picture.

Small fridge under where the coffee maker and water bottle are sitting, to the right of the sink. Two element burner on the other side.

 

[NW-Bound]

How much does one have to pay to get a hotel room as large as that studio, and with the same amenities? Heck, we do not even get a small fridge in a hotel room to keep some cool water bottles. All we get is just their small bar stocked with expensive sodas, and which comes with a sign saying hotel guests cannot put personal stuff in there.

 

[kcowan]

This will be our first trip using airbnb in Berlin. We are also doing Paris and Nice with the same couple in airbnb 2BR/2 bath. Between Paris and Nice, we are doing the eastern border of France by car. Likely use hotwire to get hotels along there.

 

[NW-Bound]

We did not do much cooking during this trip, being out sight-seeing most of the days. But it was nice having a place to sit to eat take-out food when we did not feel like going to restaurants, and to make coffee in the morning.

In Florence, I had made plan to have Florentine steak. But the unexpected hot weather made walking to that popular trattoria that I did research, and standing in line, not so appealing.

Still, I wanted to taste Italian beef. So, we stopped at a Coop market on the way home, got the most expensive beef they had, and I pan-seared our own Florentine steak that night. Well, it could be imported beef and not Italian, but hey it hit the spot.

PS. Just looked on the Web, and found the following paragraph. It was not likely what I made myself was a true Florentine steak. Oh well, it tasted good, and all my traveling companions complimented me on my cooking.

The Florentine Steak is a cut of meat made from the part of the loin near the leg of the Scottona (young female bovine that has never gotten pregnant, aged 15/16 months). The cut of the Florentine steak must include a Porterhouse cut between the sirloin and the tenderloin; otherwise, it will be called ‘Costata’ (the only Sirloin with bone), and it is derived exclusively from the part of the loin near the shoulder.

 

[explanade]

I'm not a big steak eater so never tried the steak in Florence. I hear they cook it fairly rare.

Also was warned it will clog you up for a couple of days.

I remember wandering around in San Lorenzo near the train station and realizing how hungry I was. So I looked around and got a cheap €9 menu. Pasta dish and a small manzo filet cooked on the grill. It was great or I was really hungry. Or both.

I didn't even mind eating at a table along the narrow street, with some traffic.

 

[Lsbcal]

Another major difference with our previous trips besides extensive driving was that we stayed mostly in Airbnb apartments or town homes. These included in-town locations in mid-sized cities and smaller towns, to villas in the countryside, and even a tiny village or hamlet. This gave a great experience living among the locals.

The major drawback of renting an Airbnb home is that you have to set up a time to meet with the hosts to get the keys....

NW-Bound (or others reading this), what do you figure is the minimum stay for Airbnb rentals?

 

[Nemo2]

NW-Bound (or others reading this), what do you figure is the minimum stay for Airbnb rentals?

One night?

 

[Lsbcal]

One night?

Maybe I am wrong on this but I thought that most people renting out on Airbnb might want several nights stay from a renter. I just looked this up and it appears that the owner can set the minimum nights on their listing.

So maybe I should have asked: to get a good range of pricing and quality what might be a decent minimum nights for a stay?

 

[FUEGO]

We're in Airbnb number 4 here in Europe and loving it vs hotel rooms. Paid $82/nt for a total of 65 nights (price is before considering the ~21% discount I got using shopping portals and buying airbnb gift cards at 20% off face value).

So far each property has had some small issue. Kitchen faucet broke in Lisbon; bathroom door in our master bedroom wouldn't close fully in Malaga; AC occasionally makes a weird buzz in Seville; toilet flushes weird in Granada and there were some ants because our kiddos left food all over the floor. Things that could happen in any hotel room and *might* have been addressed quicker in a hotel than an airbnb (but maybe not).

Still WAAAAAY better than hotel rooms considering the price. 2+ bedrooms, living room, full kitchen (sometimes lacking an oven but who's baking big stuff on vacation?), washer, usually dryer, 2nd bathroom half the time. Dining for 4-8 people. Dishwasher in half the places. For our family of five we would be booking either a presidential suite level accommodation to get to the same amount of comfort, or booking 2 separate hotel rooms and usually not have a kitchen or living room (or en suite washer/dryer). And we might have to go down the hall to wake the kids up. 3 of the places were cool with an approximate arrival time and then I email or Airbnb-message them when we're 20-30 minutes away from arriving at the apartment. The 4th place in Granada had checkin at the hotel 5 minutes walk from the airbnb (slight hassle - I had to go to a 2nd hotel to get the key due to disorganized staff - it was en route back to the apartment so no biggie).

With kids, we tend to only spend 4-6 hours out "adventuring" and then head back to the apartment for a little siesta. The spacious airbnbs help big time in relaxing during the down time. And we have a fridge stocked with basics so the kids can have cereal and milk, yogurt, croissants, cheese, ham, fruits, etc as necessary if we're feeling lazy (fridge stocking mostly at our expense though hosts occasionally leave some goodies).

 

[FUEGO]

Maybe I am wrong on this but I thought that most people renting out on Airbnb might want several nights stay from a renter. I just looked this up and it appears that the owner can set the minimum nights on their listing.

So maybe I should have asked: to get a good range of pricing and quality what might be a decent minimum nights for a stay?

On the 9 week trip we're currently on, we're doing three 2 night rentals, two 3 night rentals, and three 4 night rentals. The typical minimum is 2-3 nights. The economics of it also makes it more expensive to do 1-2 night stays if you're paying a hefty cleaning fee (for example, I've seen $30-50 fees for 1-2 BR apartments, more in expensive areas; $50 to clean after a $80/nt stay for 2 nights = big extra per night cost).

If you're searching for 1 or 2 night listings you will really narrow your pool of properties available. It might even be more optimal to search for a 3 night booking vs 2 night booking since you might get a cheaper and/or nicer place and you can throw away the 3rd night (or maybe negotiate for an exception to the 3 nt min and pay for 2.2-2.5 nights??).

The sweet spot is definitely the weekly rental as many listings come with 20-30% weekly discounts (or will negotiate to offer that) and your cleaning fee is amortized over 7+ nights. I've also found hosts will waive the extra person fees if you're staying a week or so. It's expensive and time consuming to flip a property and deal with a reservation so a weekly rental is easier money for them.