If you’ve been following along, you know that for our daughter’s high school graduation, we took the whole family across the pond for a road trip through Europe. We hit Italy, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia, and all were fantastic. If you want more details about the trip itself, please reference our three previous posts. This post is really going to speak more about what we learned, what surprised us and what we found out along the way.
Currency: Prior to heading over, we exchanged $615 for 500 Euros. I thought we would need more cash in some of the smaller towns, but we really didn’t, It was nice to have the cash, and since we had it, we used it, but we could have gone with less. That said, we didn’t have to pay any foreign transaction fees when we payed with Euros. Something else to keep in mind is that tipping is a relatively American creation. Eating out is a lot less expensive when you don’t have to add 15 to 25%.
Credit Card Fees: Unless you have a certain type of credit card, expect to pay foreign transactions fees on almost everything purchase you make. At the hotels, we put charges on our room, to minimize the fees, but there is only so much you can do.
Language Barrier: In Italy, almost everyone spoke English, if not fluently. This was not the case in Austria, Slovenia or Croatia. We never really struggled to communicate, as generally speaking, someone spoke English, but it was far more ubiquitous in Italy. If you’re linguistically gifted, you can download several languages on Google Translate, which will even pronounce most words for you. We had very little difficulty communicating, overall.
International Flights with Kids: Our kids are great at traveling, but an 8+ hour flight is a long one. British Airways does offer free drinks and food, so that’s something. About an hour into both the flight there and back, we gave the two younger kids melatonin gummies. I am not giving any type of medical advice, but this knocked them both out within minutes.
Driving: This was one of the more nerve-wracking parts of the trip, going in. It turned out not to be too bad. Much of the time, we were on smaller highways but had very little difficulty. It is worth keeping in mind that traffic, especially in Italy and Slovenia, can get really backed up. We used Google Maps, which allows one to download directions in advance. We also used Apple Maps from time-to-time, which was helpful. Waze is not nearly as helpful in Europe as it is in the U.S.
International Driving Permit: We got one of these from AAA prior to going. It only cost about $20, but I am not sure we needed it. No one asked for it, neither at the rental car pick up or any border crossings. Had we gotten into an accident or been pulled over, perhaps it would have been necessary.
Driving Vignettes: If you look online at the requirements needed to drive in countries like Slovenia and Croatia, you’ll get info stating that you need something called Vignettes in place of having to pay tolls. This was honestly not super clear. We bought one at a gas station after crossing into Slovenia, for like 10 euros, and got another for Croatia online. No one ever asked for them, but again, we weren’t really stopped, so it’s hard to say how necessary they are.
Border Crossings: We weren’t stopped at a single border crossing, as all the countries were visited are EU members. We did consider a quick hop into Bosnia and Herzegovina, but that is not a member country, and we were worried it would be too much of a hassle or that they might not actually let us in.
ETAs/ETIAS: Whilst researching our trip, we came across info that stated we would need Electronic Transit Authorizations for several areas in Europe. This is not yet the case, but evidently, will be in the future. Do not buy one from a third party website, like I did. There are already fake sites available, so be careful.
Housing: We found AirBNBs a lot easier than hotels. Europeans can be very fickle about the number of people staying in a room, so renting from individuals was easier. We were even quite late for several check-ins, but all of the hosts were very accommodating.
Our trip was amazing and exhausting, and I hope that it created great memories for our kids. We actually have plans to return to Europe next year for a river cruise out of Germany, but until then, we’ll be back to exploring our local 50.
