10 Travel Tips to Save Money | ( and avoid #1 scam that tricks every tourist)

in today's video I'll be sharing tips and tricks to help you save as much money as possible while on your trip to Europe while also making sure you're aware of common money scams I'll also throw in some sneaky hacks that are going to make you feel like you are one step ahead of the other Travelers I love number seven and I think you will too the first way to save money on your trip to Europe is to always pay for things in local currency so if you are in London use pounds if you are in France or Italy always opt for euros many Americans are thrilled to find a store with a sign that says we accept U.S dollars but the happy sales clerk doesn't tell you that your purchase is costing about 20 more because of the store's terrible exchange rate without knowing it you're actually just changing money at a lousy rate every time you buy something with dollars when you are outside of the US you'll also want to pay in the local currency when you are using your credit card for larger payments such as train tickets hotels or even restaurant meals credit cards with a chip and pin are pretty standard in Europe and widely accepted when you are handed the payment machine and it gives you the option to pay in Euros or in US Dollars you're always going to want to pick the local currency so in this case Euros even if your bank is in the US and it is filled with US Dollars the exchange rate that the card terminal is going to be worse than the one that your bank would automatically give you if you were to select Euros so in short pay the local currency whether it's cash or card and you will save money another hack to save money while traveling Europe is to purchase an esim for your phone an esim is a digital SIM card that you can install onto your phone and it's going to do everything that a physical SIM card does without the hassle I'll link to a video in the description where I show you exactly how e-sims work I personally use an olafly e-stem since they have options for unlimited data plans that are going to work across multiple European countries this saves me from having to buy a new SIM card for each European country that I visit during my trip and it also saves me from having to worry about paying for data top pop-ups most significantly it saves me from the crazy expensive data roaming fees that I'd incur if I tried to use my Canadian phone plan while abroad to help you save even more money I've partnered with olafly on this video and if you use my link down in the description you will get a discount on the next purchase of an olafi esim when eating at a restaurant in Europe another way to save money is to always check your bill at the end of the meal and see if a tip or a service fee has already been added you might be surprised to see how often an additional 20 has been added to your bill especially in tourist areas there is no need to add another tip on top of this or to leave Euros on the table as you leave and after purchasing anything be sure to count your change this is such an easy and common scam since the vendor can simply say they made a mistake if you call them out on the fact that they shortchanged you a bonus hack here is that anytime you withdraw money from an ATM in Europe consider typing in a strange amount that you would like to withdraw for example if you were to withdraw 127 Euros instead of an even number like 140 Euros you'll get some small coins or some small bills back paying for small expenses with small coins and bills is going to prevent the vendor from not having the change to give back to you if you were to give them a large bill and it's also going to prevent them from handing you a ton of change back at which point they could easily have given you the incorrect amount speaking of ATMs you'll save money by getting local currency by using your debit card at an ATM machine as opposed to going to something like a currency conversion counter at the airport just avoid any of the independent ATMs like euronet money box or Travelex these are a total scam and have ridiculously high fees your best bet for an ATM is to see if you can find one at a bank location and also check before you leave home if your local bank has a partner Bank in Europe as you can often avoid fees for example Bank of America partners with a ton of banks around the world and if you use your Bank of America debit card at one of these International partner ATMs you're going to end up avoiding the five dollar usage fee I discovered this next tip to save money while in a very touristy area in Paris about a decade ago and I've been using it on pretty much every European trip since scope out public libraries for a clean free bathroom experience bathrooms at European tourist sites usually don't cost more than one euro so this hack is more to have a pleasant bathroom experience than it is to really save a ton of money bathrooms at public libraries in Europe are going to be free to use and just so much nicer than the ones at the tourist sites that you will end up paying for the next tip to save money is to see if you qualify for any discounts oftentimes you won't be offered a discount but it's always going to be a good idea to ask back when I was a student I would go up and ask if there was a student discount to pretty much any attraction or for any ticket purchase that I was making and I would do this even when I had no clue if there was a student discount or not the best case is that you end up saving money and the worst case is that they tell you there is no discount for seniors students AAA members veterans or whatever other status or membership you may have you can also save money and avoid getting ripped off by confirming the price of whatever it is that you are about to do or about to eat before you do it or or eat it in the case of a taxi ask for an upfront price estimate and ensure that the meter is running to avoid being overcharged typically I'll opt for services like uber that are going to be completely transparent and upfront in pricing at a restaurant do not order off any menu that does not have prices on it menus with no prices are a common scam and it often leaves you overpaying for a mediocre meal you also may be able to save a significant amount of money by shopping tax-free on your vacation in Europe my name is Megan and I would love to see you back here again soon all the best and safe travels bye

Channel: Portable Professional (Travel Tips with Megan)

Views: 37,981

Keywords: save money europe, travel tips europe, travel cheap, europe travel mistakes, travel tips, europe 2023, travel mistakes, travel advice, travel mistakes to avoid, wolters world, euronet atm scam, dynamic currency conversion, biggest travel mistakes, planning europe trip, europe travel, europe travel tips 2023, international travel tips 2023, avoid these travel mistakes, pimsleur vs babbel, travel tips 2023, travel mistakes not to make

Id: 6ePsJdSQc08

Length: 6min 43sec (403 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 19 2023