Top 5 Essential Facts You Need To Know Before your Europe Travel

Traveling to Europe is like a dream comes true to many of us, including me. Though more than 480 Millions travelers from all over the world are flying into this the smallest continent to visit one or more of its 27 EU (European Union) member countries, Europe is still one of the most expensive continent to travel to. In order to plan your Europe travel to appreciate more on your precious moments in Europe with limited budget, there are essential facts that you ought to know before you travel or plan to travel to Europe.

I’ve listed down here the Top 5 Europe Travel facts that I think are the most important:

1. Visa. – Depends on your entry point, you need to check with your local embassy or EU website online whether you need visa to enter that first country of Europe. Once you gained access to your first E.U. country, you can travel to any other 27 E.U. countries freely without further visa. People coming from Commonwealth countries such as Malaysia, do not need visa to travel to UK thus to any other EU countries. So it’s in fact quite easier to plan for my Europe tour in this case. I did not apply any single visa for my whole trip to Europe! 🙂
2. English is not necessary the most widely used language in Europe when you step out of UK. French, Italian, Spanish or Deutsche are equally important there. Beware of communicating in English with merchants, restaurants or even police in Italy or France, they might not understand at all. Even worse if they caught what you meant wrongly and answer you wrongly then serious communication breakdown would happen! However, communicating with hotels receptionists in English, be it Hotels in Edinburgh, Hotels in France or Hotels in Italy, did not give me much problems so far.
   
3. Most merchandise buying from participating shops in EU are eligible for VAT (Value Added Tax) refund of up to 25% (Rate varied from 15% to 25% depending on country of purchase) at your exit point of Europe, which would be the last port to leave EU, if the goods were purchased within 3 months from the date of leaving EU. Always check with the merchant for availability and the minimum amount of purchase from 1 single receipt (could range from 50EURO to 175EURO. Fashion craving ladies from all over the world love to buy branded celebrity clothes, handbags and leather goods in Europe since those goods are much cheaper in Europe after the VAT reclaim.
4. While most of the tourists attractions in EU travel destinations are within walking distance, if you are too tired to save a few euro, you can always take public transports which are very convenient, flexible and close to hotels and tourists spots. While not necessarily cheap to buy a single trip ticket, plan ahead and get a daily or 3-day travel card is more advisable. Single trip underground ticket in London is £4 while daily travel card for unlimited travel by tube, train or bus within zone 1 & 2 (which covers most London’s attractions) would cost you £5.60 only. Roma Pass is another cheap option to travel around Rome attractions for 3 days. Most Rome hotels are just next to public transport that could take you to all attractions around Rome.
   
5. Though  it is the smallest, Europe is also the most visited continent in this world with hundreds of millions visitors each year. So you must expect huge crowds in every travel destinations 365 days a year, whether free or entrance with tickets. Eventhough entrance tickets to those popular travel sites or museums like Vatican Museum and Eiffel Tower are quite expensive, you will still need to queue up for at least 45 minutes to get in! If there is an option, always buy tickets in advance online to skip the queue and save you at least 2 hours a day!

With these 5 common facts about EU that I have just shared, planning an Europe tour in future would be a breeze. However, there are off course other travel facts you shall need to know also from each one of the EU countries, like individual practices and cultures in each country. Keep updated from this blog to receive more upcoming FREE travel tips for London, Paris, Amsterdam and Italy by subscribing to my RSS feed or email. Until then… – Travel Feeder, your ultimate travel photo blog

About The Author

Cecil Lee

The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.