Pretty much what the title says. I spent my childhood as a State Department brat but haven’t been out of the country since 1988. Perhaps being yanked about so much as a kid killed the travel bug for me, but also because for a good chunk of my life making rent was not a sure thing. Travel was beyond my budget.
But now a friend of mine and I are going to Gothenburg Sweden for a week in August. So if anyone can give me some pointers on things I should be doing or not doing I would really appreciate it. Please assume I have no idea about even basic things. I have a valid passport, we’ve bought power converters, and I’ve even been learning a little Swedish, more as a sign of respect than out of any expectation I’ll be able to converse. (The last time I was in that part of the world everyone spoke fluent English anyway.)
Two specific questions:
Paying for stuff: Back in the day you just exchanged dollars for the local currency. I understand Sweden is now even more cashless than the US. How do I get my credit/debit cards to work? What’s the deal with Venmo and PayPal? Etc.
Wifi and Cellular: Do I need to do anything to access the internet and get cell service? What are the things I need to do?
Anything else: I’m sure there’s stuff I don’t even know I don’t know. If you can think of anything, I’d love to hear it.
My friend is a dual US Canadian citizen who has been to Ireland and Iceland in the past decade or so, so I’ll be following her lead mostly but I’d still really appreciate your advice.
I might start a “tell me about Gothenburg” thread tomorrow, but I’m more interested in general advice for this thread.
Also, I’m not on this board that much these days, so I might not reply quickly but I will read everything.
I’ve only been to Germany and Austria. But a huge thing that helped was ‘Travel lite’ Don’t take more than you need. Especially if traveling on trains while your there. If you really need it, you can buy it.
I would talk to your cellular company about conectivity.
Your ATM will work there, most banks don’t even require you to give them notice of overseas travel anymore. Only exchange say $100 of cash at the airport. Use your credit card or ATM for everything else.
Have your cell phone carrier hook you up with overseas connections for phone and internet. That way your phone can still receive text notifications or verifications from your bank just in case.
Get travel insurance for medical and trip related issues like flight delays, lost luggage and so on. Don’t skimp on this.
Don’t even do that. “Exchange” is code for ripoff pricing.
Use your US ATM / debit at a local bank’s ATM to withdraw roughly $100, but probably more like just $50, in the local currency. You’ll certainly find at least one bank’s ATM in the airport terminal but you may have to go to the departure / ticketing level, not the arrival / bag claim level, to find it. If not at the airport, for sure down in the city.
When you do find the ATM, get the cash in small bills, say USD 5 rough equivalent value, not $20 or higher. You need the cash for little incidental purchases, not for paying for a sit-down meal or a hotel. If you find after a couple days you’ve gotten through all ~$50, go get more; banks and ATMs are everywhere.
Bring more than one credit card. If, somehow, one gets turned off because their AI thinks you being in Sweden is suspicious, you really need a spare.
As noted above, contact your cellular company for details on their international program(s).
You can probably pay a one time charge of $10 or $20 for a month of unlimited data while overseas. Which means free internet and text messages. Make your voice calls only when hooked up to WiFi like in a hotel. In an urgent situation you can make a voice call over the local cellular system but it’ll be a $5 call.
If you’re not used to using Uber or Lyft, get the apps and take a ride to practice. Google can tell you which “rideshare” outfits like that are available in Sweden. Such a better invention than taxicabs.
Yeah definitely it’s not worth getting cash at all IMO. Cards should just work (the US has finally brought their credit cards into the 20th century)
I’m not sure if it’s even necessary to inform your bank your using your cards overseas anymore? Check with your bank.
You can (dependent on what kind of phone you have) get a foreign sim card for your phone. Though it’s fiddly and unreliable in my experience, for my trip to the UK this summer I’ll just use the international plan Verizon has, which is a rip off but to quote Danny Glover I’m too old for this crap;)
Gothenburg sounds exciting. I had great fun in merely googling it. It looks like a good culture with nice people from different cultures.
One of the Google cautions was hilarious. “Don’t mistake Sweden for Switzerland.” I figure that asking a Swede which train extensions go the Alps would just be too frustrating for both of us.
I don’t know if this is an issue in Sweden, but: Always do credit card transactions in the local currency. The card terminal might detect that you have an American card and offer to convert the transaction to USD For Your Convenience, but the rate will be substantially worse than your bank’s.
I recommend checking if your credit card has a foreign transaction fee. If it does, you’ll lose one to three percent every time you use it overseas. Plenty of credit cards don’t have such fees, so get one of those if yours does.
A related suggestion… if you know you’re going to be traveling via any other mode of transport, look up to see if they have an app and download it and register somewhere you have good service.
We just took a cab in Edinburgh, booked over their own app, but it took a while between “oh, we could really use a taxi” to figuring out that there was an app for summoning them, to downloading the app, signing up, etc etc. It would have been much easier if we had realized before leaving our hotel and had done all that when we weren’t already exhausted standing on a random street.
Excellent point!! Know before you go what local apps you might need and set them up in advance.
Anywhere in Europe I’d definitely expect to use local transit like busses and streetcars. There’s an app for that and you’ll need it. Ditto taxis or local uber-like services.
My provider has an international plan that you can sign up for that makes international rates much cheaper, you can turn it in and off when you leave the US and return.
While Paypal is international, Venmo is US only. Most countries have their own Venmo equivalents.
Apply Pay seems to work in most places, if you have an iPhone. During our Norwegian cruise two years ago, we paid for basically everything by tapping our phones.
I’ve had the same experience with Samsung Pay on my Android in many countries. If your phone can tap and pay at home, it’ll probably work in every country where tap-and-pay is a thing.
For once the USA bowed to international pressure and did what everybody else was already doing a decade earlier. Rather than inventing our own non-standard system.