Foreign Perspectives

Archive for the ‘Holiday Planning’ Category

After you book your holiday, there are a number of things that you need to do in advance of the vacation itself. This is a fairly comprehensive list so not all items will be required for every country you visit.

Visas. Check with the embassies in your own country if you need a visa to visit the countries you are going to (this information is usually available online). It’s best to do this well ahead of your vacation as visas can take months to issue.

Vaccinations. Ask your doctor which vaccinations that you should have for the countries that you are visiting. For the most part, you don’t need vaccinations to visit mainstream countries but there are some surprising exceptions to this eg Tetanus for Hawaii, Typhoid for New Zealand so it pays to ask. You need to have some injections months ahead of your travel date.

Passport. You obviously need a passport but check that it will have at least six months remaining on it by the time you are coming home. A number of countries require this.

Insurance. Whilst you might think you only need insurance for the trip, you actually require this insurance as soon as you make the booking in case something comes up requiring you to cancel. If you already have health insurance, you may be able to extend this to cover you abroad. House insurance may cover your belongings whilst on holiday too (check this with your insurance company).

Debit/Credit cards. Change to a four digit numeric PIN. Not all countries accept more than four digits. Check the cost of using your cards abroad both in shops and in ATMs. If you don’t have both Visa and Mastercard, get the one you don’t have as not all countries accept both in equal measure. See our holiday money article for more information on this. Make a list of the numbers and cancellation phone numbers for the cards that you plan on taking. It’s best to limit the number of cards you take to about three or four in case of theft. Don’t forget to check the expiry dates!

Driving license. Check if you need an International Driving Permit (IDP) for the countries you will be visiting. Even if you aren’t planning on driving, it’s best to be able to drive. You can get an IDP from the motoring organisation in your own country. Check the expiry date on your driving license.

Guidebooks. Whilst the Internet is wonderful, it’s not practical to carry it around in your pocket so buy a good guidebook for the areas that you will be visiting. Buy the guidebook covering the area closest to that which you’ll be visiting. So, if you are visiting Paris, buy a guidebook for Paris, not one for all of France. Excellent series are Lonely Planet and Rough Guide. Fodors and Michelin aren’t really as useable or as useful.

Tickets. Check exactly when you are travelling. Remember that you need to be at the airport a minimum of two hours before the flight leaves. Be wary of the actual date of flights departing at 00.00.

Is it safe to go? Check the travel advice sections in the American State Department and the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

Are you allowed to visit those countries at all? America forbids its citizens to visit both Cuba and Vietnam all the time and sometimes adds other countries to that list.

This article is part of our series on holiday planning which covers things like how to book your holiday, how to take your holiday money, what to pack, etc.

I was reminded by Jimmy over at Your Credit Advisor the other day that Americans and Europeans treat holidays in very different ways and as my readership is split more or less equally between the two, I thought I’d share some thoughts and ideas that us Europeans have which could be even more useful to the American readership in a little series on holiday/vacation planning.

Where you should go is really determined by how much time you have available. That in turn creates five basic types of holidays:

1. Daytrips.

2. The short break consisting of anything from a few days up to about a week.

3. Normal holidays, usually 10 to 14 days.

4. Extended holidays of three to six or seven weeks.

5. The “big trip” of several months to a year or more.

In practical terms, the big trip type holiday is almost always best considered as a series of extended holidays with 4 to 6 weeks in each location. Usually this is limited to students on their gap year although retired people also take similar scale holidays. The world is your oyster with this scale of holiday but in practice most people seem to give a theme to their big trip so you could have someone staying in various countries in the far east, or perhaps a series of essentially citybreaks around the world, exploring Africa, etc.

Whilst our American readership probably counts 3 weeks as an extended vacation, in Europe almost everyone gets four weeks vacation time per year (not counting public holidays) so it’s quite common for Europeans to take quite substantial holidays as a matter of course each year.

Typical extended holiday destinations are vacations like New England, round the world trips (usually with a week or two in each of two or three countries), the west coast of America, Australia, Europe, etc. For this type of trip you need a fairly substantial number of places to go and things to do which, in general, means covering a fairly large area of one or more countries. I separate them out from “normal holidays” because this scale of trip needs a bit of planning to make the most of your time. If you take our New England trip as an example, you’ll see that we needed to work out a rough route and that in turn meant taking the decision that there were various places we’d not be able to see because of the backtracking it would entail to reach them.

Short breaks are just that: a mini holiday. The key thing to note on a short break is that you lose both the first and the last day of your vacation because you’ll be getting to/from the airport. Therefore, a typical long-weekend holiday might count as four days (ie Friday through to Monday) but in reality you only get two of those days at your destination. This means that you’re best to concentrate on a single location for this type of holiday and that in turn usually means a citybreak. Two days in most cities is enough to see the majority of the highlights. However, the short time available means that you will benefit most by researching the location thoroughly in advance. For this, I find that EyeWitness is by far the best series of guidebooks to use as they’re aimed at exactly this market so you’ll find top 10 lists, maps, best restaurants, etc. With the growth in discount airlines in Europe, this type of holiday has really taken off in recent years.

Whilst I’m sure that daytrips in America are always local, it’s possible to take daytrips to various European cities. Normally, these leave the airport very early (6am is common) and return quite late thus giving you a fairly full day in the city that they fly to. Coach trips taking you round most of the highlights of the city are usually included in the price. To make the most of these, it’s best to buy the EyeWitness guidebook for the city a month or more in advance. Bear in mind that you’re not required to take the coach trip. It will almost certainly be the easiest way to reach the city centre but once there be prepared to get off and go around the sights that YOU want to see, which may not be the sights that the trip covers.

Normal holidays are where European and American practice differs greatly. I do appreciate that when Americans come to Europe on vacation that they want to see the “big sights” and make the most of their vacation time, but rather than trying to do Europe in a single two week trip, it’s much better to choose one European country and cover that well. After all, you can always come back. The other problem is that in “doing Europe” in one go, you will constantly be bumping into other American tourists doing exactly the same thing. You’ll see little crowds of them around the Eiffel Tower, the Tower of London, etc. Not only that, but the costs of those “do Europe” trips are VERY high and you don’t really experience Europe culture properly either.

A normal holiday for a European is something like two weeks in a Spanish resort, two weeks in a French villa, perhaps two weeks in Florida. The one thing that they have in common is that on a two week trip, there’s usually only one country involved.

This article is part of our series on holiday planning which covers things like how to book your holiday, how to take your holiday money, what to pack, etc.

I find that very few people give any thought to how they should take their money when they go on holiday beyond saying they’d like $200 or whatever to the travel agent and thereby getting ripped off. So, to help you decide, here’s a little guide:

The first thing to do is to check what currency is used at your destination. If it’s a mainstream currency such as dollars or euros then it’s best to take the money in that form. However, if you’re going off to less mainstream countries, check which of the principal currencies is most commonly used there (if in doubt, take dollars). Sometimes you can’t get the currency used outside the country or can’t get sensible amounts of it so you need to take dollars or euros eg India used to only allow you to import £5 of their currency which wasn’t really worthwhile getting.

What about taking cash? Well, if you’re in America then it’s always worthwhile to take, say, $100 with you (nothing larger than a $20 bill) and likewise for those living in euro-land. However, if that’s not the currency of the country you’re going to, it’s going to be expensive to convert to the local currency. The other option is to buy some of the local currency before you go but beware that this is usually quite expensive and not as cheap as you would think from the advertisements eg when I bought $150 for about £100 in a shop advertising that the commission was £3.50, the actual charge was over £10 ie 10%. The other main downside of cash is that if it’s stolen, it’s gone as holiday insurance rarely covers cash to any significant amount so if you are taking it, limit the amount to $100 or so. If you buy foreign currency on a card, it counts as a cash advance with all the charges that implies.

Travellers cheques (or travelers checks) are much better than cash in that they can be replaced fairly easily if stolen (keep a note of the numbers, date bought and where you bought them). However, they are equally expensive to purchase and there is often a charge to cash them too. If you’re going to America or Canada you can use dollar cheques as though they were cash in shops (even where they say “no checks accepted”). Again, take them in the currency of the country you’re going to if it’s a mainstream one, otherwise dollars or euros. If you have any left over after your holiday, keep them rather than cash them in your bank as you can use them later (there is no expiry date) and this will save you paying the commission again. If you buy travellers cheques on a card, it counts as a cash advance with all the charges that implies. Make sure that your travellers cheques come with the Visa or Mastercard or American Express brands as others may not be accepted. You can’t use American Express travellers cheques in Cuba or Vietnam nor any issued by American banks.

Credit/Charge cards are used nearly everywhere these days. If you don’t have a card already, you should get one (Visa or Mastercard) even if you only plan to use it for emergencies. Bear in mind that not everywhere accepts them though and also that not all places take both Visa and Mastercard. If pushed, you can get cash on these cards either in an ATM or over the counter in a bank but save this for emergencies only as you’ll get charged a cash advance fee, currency conversion fee and interest. The exchange rate used is much better than you’ll get for either cash or travellers cheques so that $150 that I got would have cost me around £2.75 vs the £10 that I was charged had I used the card in a shop, around £7 had I used it to get cash (assuming I’d paid the full balance when I returned home). In those countries which don’t have ATMs, you can usually still use the card to buy things and get cash over the counter in banks. I say usually because it isn’t always the case eg in India we couldn’t use the card in shops and the banks weren’t practical either.

Credit/Charge cards come in four basic international-use versions. Visa/Mastercard are the most accepted worldwide but note that in some countries one may be more accepted than the other and in particular don’t rely on shops accepting both cards so, if you can, take both types. American Express is the next most accepted but it is widely accepted only in countries that are “American/British” influenced; the one principle advantage it has is that it can be replaced by any American Express office although note that these are not very widespread and may be difficult to get to. One thing to avoid is their Travellers Check Card: best to get one of their proper cards if you can, but only if it’s free in your country. Diners Club is very far behind Amex in acceptance worldwide and not worth paying for. You cannot use cards issued by American banks in Cuba or Vietnam which notably includes MBNA (owned by Bank of America). Discover isn’t accepted outside America. JCB acceptance is patchy: good where Japanese tourists are common, poor otherwise.

Debit cards are almost always branded Visa/Electron/Plus or Mastercard/Maestro/Cirrus and work in the corresponding systems however sometimes you may be issued with a card which can only be used in your own country: check that one of the Visa/Electron/Plus or Mastercard/Maestro/Cirrus symbols are on your card as if they aren’t you probably can’t use the card internationally. Charges are as per credit cards except that you don’t get charged interest on cash advances.

Cash cards are often limited to the country in which they are issued but if they have a Plus or Cirrus symbol on them, you can use them abroad too (this was to have changed in 2008 with the introduction of the Single European Payment Area ie all European cards should be useable in all European countries, but hasn’t [as of 2010]). Charges are usually the same as for debit cards in ATMs. The principle advantage of having a cash card is that they are a lot less attractive for thieves as they can’t be used without the PIN.

Prepaid cards are becoming increasingly popular with travel agents, mainly because they see it as a way of getting even more commission than they can on travellers cheques. Whilst buying these from a travel agent is usually just a way to pay them even more commission, there are some very good ones around which will save you a lot. See our detailed article for more on these. For example, had I got my $150 on a card, the cost would have been close to zero if I had used the pretty much perfect FairFX card.

As well as the above options you also have a choice of providers of the various methods of payment. Travellers cheques may be offered “commission free” by your bank (and the UK Post Office), although note that this is not the same as “free” eg my $150 would have cost around £7 “commission free” (vs £10 with commission).

In the UK, the Nationwide Building Society offer a totally free debit card (ie no transaction fees, no ATM fees, no currency conversion fees) [sadly withdrawn from November 2010] so my $150 would have cost nothing; their credit card is almost as good in that it’s free for purchases but is a bit expensive for cash advances. Most UK cheque accounts come with a debit card with Maestro or Visa Debit facilities. For a UK cash card you seem to be limited to Royal Bank of Scotlands Instant Savings account and the Coventry Building Society’s cash cards (both Plus system).

In America you can get quite a range of systems listed on the card eg NYCE, Star, etc. but in reality the only two that matter are Plus and Cirrus for cash, Visa and Mastercard/Maestro for debit/credit card use as none of the others are accepted internationally. The costs for international use are rarely clearly laid out on American card agreements and smaller banks may not even know how much you’ll be charged for using your card abroad.

If you use one of the banks within the Global Alliance banks (BNPParibas, Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of America, Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Westpac) you can use machines from one of the other Global Alliance banks without transaction charges (currency conversion fees still apply).

This article is part of our series on holiday planning which covers things like how to book your holiday, how to take your holiday money, what to pack, etc.

[updated October 2010]