MeMe: It's unclear to me why you called your bank and credit card companies to "flag" your accounts when traveling. Please explain.

Thanks,

Pinksoda.

If they see activity thousands of miles from where you live and in another country, they might freeze your account. Then you will be unable to access your own $ while traveling. I always notify my bank and credit cards of my travel dates when I'm out of the country, or even in Hawaii.

Alison57: Thanks for the explanation. It makes a lot of sense

Pinksoda

Pinksoda,

Allison is correct. Always let your bank and credit card companies know you will be accessing your accounts from overseas. Give them specific dates and countries.

My daughters were in Innsburck, Austria, and although we had notified the cc company, their account was "frozen" because they had used 2 different ATM machines in a 5 minute period. They called home in a panic and I was able to set the matter right after a fast call to customer service. It was nice to know the company was watching the accounts for possible fraud.

You can do a search on this site to learn more. MeMe

Also, check with your bank that you will be using your ATM to double check your daily max for withdrawing cash. I think the default limit can be around $250. We were able to raise ours to $1,000, although I doubt we would ever need that much in one day - just making sure we are covered for any unforseen problems.

Sorry........have read too many posts and just realized that was one of the very first items Eternalcity1 suggested to do......

As long as the information is good, then repeat it! Doesn't hurt to hear it twice.

:-)

We depart in 34 days and I purchased my airline tickets and put a deposit on our apatment back in December '06... can you tell I'm getting antsy?

We're going to do a "test packing" today to see if we can fit what we want to bring into 2 overhead sized roll alongs and 2 under the seat backpacks... wish us luck! I've had so many good suggestions from this thread that I might not be able to zip the bag closed!

I'll also be printing out a page of addresses so that I can send postcards to friends and family.

And I have to get my book on Garibaldi back to the library! So many "to do" items on my list... most boring/mundane, all necessary!!

...adding from my list:

travel pack of charmin TP (you never know...)

small cooler bag for picnics

small ziploc freezer bags for food

travel size wine corkscrew - which may cause checked suitcase to be opened, leave on top where can be seen

michelin.com directions to each hotel, town, etc.; altho taking Tom Tom with us (to be renamed Gina, hubby likes the girl voice with the British accent)

...leaving Sept. 10th - hooray, hope I dont forget something...

I'm going on the advice of EternalCity1 so pardon me if this has been stated here already (admit I've only read snippets of this post so far). However, one thing that I do is create a currency conversion cheat sheet that I reference when shopping, etc. The exchange rate may fluctuate while I'm there, but usually not anything very significant. This really helps when bartering in a market situation... gives me a reason to walk away which usually results in the stall person lowering the price!