Preparing to Travel Overseas - What Do I Need To Know?

In My Humble Opinion
1

On November 5th we are going on our honeymoon to Finland. It will be my first ever trip out of the country and it will be the first time my husband has been out of the country as an adult (i.e. without someone else in charge of all of the planning and such) so we are a bit nervous. We have our passports and have input the information on the airline website per their request, we’ve verified that we don’t need any vaccinations to go to Finland, and we’ve paid for our train tickets and the hotel reservation has been verified. I’m working on learning some Finish so we aren’t stuck with absolutely no way to communicate if the need arises.

Now what? I know their currency is the Euro but where the heck do I go to convert dollars into Euros? Will the bank do that for me or do I need to do that in a specific location?

I know it will be cold in Finland and we will be dressed for warmth. We live in the northeast so we have hats, coats, gloves, scarves, etc. already and I will be bringing long underwear for both of us. Do we need to bring anything else to stay warm?

Our train from the hotel to the airport only leaves us an hour to get through security and stuff on our way back. Is that enough time to get through or is customs going to cause a big problem?

What else should I know before we go?

2

Will you two be the only honeymooners in Finland?

In any case, do not bother to change money. Your US ATM and credit cards will work just fine.

3

You can use the ATMs there, which is a quick and hassle-free way to convert to currancy. Just call your bank and make sure your card will work.

4

I’m sure there will be other people on their honeymoon there but we aren’t going with a group or anything.

I will contact the bank and make sure that my ATM card will work over there before we go.

5

Cool! Finland! One of my favourite places! :slight_smile:

Are you going into the countryside?

Money? Do what I did when I went to Finland in 2000: use ATMs. Insta-conversion! If your card is on the Plus or Cirrus system, it should work. Just to be safe, I got some Finnish marks (this was pre-euro) at a currency exchange booth in downtown Toronto before I left. I was surprised that they had Finnmarks; it’ll be easier for you because everyone has euros these days.

When I got to Vantaa airport outside Helsinki, I cleared customs and immigration and just walked out the front and there were buses into town. It was much smaller and nicer than the Toronto airport, even the new terminal. Mind, I had to change planes at Schiphol in Amsterdam on the way there; I was traveling KLM. That involved a bit of trudging, but mercifully no customs inspection between planes. Customs was in Helsinki.

Finland bears a startling resemblance to the Shield country in central Ontario: the rocks, the trees, the lakes. I was quite surprised. There were landforms that were completely familiar, but with other stuff on them: a Russian Orthodox cathedral instead of a McMansion, for example.

The country is bilingual Finnish and Swedish; there’s a small Swedish minority, around 10 %. Lots of people speak English.

There are freeways and apartments in the Helsinki area, but on a much smaller scale than, say, Toronto or New York. Helsinki has few buildings over 15 storeys tall, and a rather unique style of modern architecture involving midrises along the main streets. Check out the Stockmanns department store and the train station. Older areas near Senaatentori were built by Russian merchants and are different again.

Helsinki has a metro system hollowed into tunnels in the granite. The station platforms are huge, and the rough shape of the granite tunnel looms overhead like an effect in a 1960s Bond movie.

November… you might be into the first of the show, generalizing from the climate here in central Ontario, but that’s not certain. If there is no snow, there will probably be cold rain and/or ice around the freezing point. These are the worst conditions for travel. Helsinki is actually near the 60th parallel, so there will be a big difference in day length compared to New York. We’re past the equinox, so the days will be shorter.

Ride the trams. Visit the Sibelius monument. Check out Suomenlinnea, which is a sea fortress built by the Swedish against the Russians a few hundred years ago. You take a ferry to get there. Go to a sauna. (There’s a whole sauna culture in Finland. Every house has one. You will encounter the word loyly, which is mostly untranslatable, but has to do with the aesthetic qualities of being saunaed. I think. I’m not completely certain.)

All in all, Finland looks like Canada run by smarter people. :slight_smile:

6

Good plan about the money! As for where in Finland we are going, we are flying into Helsinki and then (pretty immediately, actually, about 2 and a half hours after landing) taking a train north to Kajaani and then hopping on a bus or into a taxi to go over to Vuokatti. It will be a hell of a trip there but it should be a fabulous vacation! Ruins from the 1500’s, skiing, the aurora borealis, and all sorts of great stuff will be available for our entertainment. There is also karaoke at our hotel which could be really fun or really horrifying.

7

When you contact your bank, ask them if they can get some Euros for you before you leave. They probably won’t have them on hand, but should be able to get them for a customer with advance notice. My mom’s done this with the Pound for a trip to England - her bank didn’t have them there, of course, but could get as much as she wanted within a couple of weeks.

I don’t know about bank fees, but I do know that credit cards are now adding surcharges to purchases in a foreign country. If you go the ATM route, ask your bank about any additional fees, just so you’re not surprised later.

8

Is there a train station at the airport? If not, you may need to go into downtown Helsinki and catch your train at Central Station.

I’m sure there are Finns on the board who can give more up-to-date tips…

9

Make color photocopies of your passport.

10

Be sure to let any of your credit card companies or banks know your plans to travel, lest they freeze your card at an inopportune moment. When I went to Peru two summers ago, I had let my bank know of my plans, so my card worked the entire trip— my friend’s… not so much. Thankfully, I was more than happy to front him some $$$, but if I hadn’t, he’d have been stuck on another continent with nothing to work with.

11

I’ve already alerted one of my credit cards of the dates of the trip. They put it in their system and even gave me a number where I could call them collect from anywhere in the world if it does get rejected for some reason. I heart my bank!

12

And your ID and stuff. Keep one copy separate but with you, and give the other copy to someone at home. That way, if someone steals your ID, you can go to the backup copy to read off the passport numbers and such when calling your consulate/the credit card company/etc.

Phones. Are you taking a cellphone? If so, it has to be GSM or UMTS (3G) with the 900 MHz and optionally the 1800-MHz band and I think the 2100-MHz band for UMTS).

CDMA (Verizon, etc) phones will NOT work, though CDMA carriers will rent you a “world phone” for traveling. Many earlier GSM phones sold in North America do not have 900 or 1800 and they won’t work either.

If you bring a phone, you’ll be “roaming”. Expect to pay something like $3.00/min to make calls on the Finnish network, unless your phone is unlocked and you buy a local SIM with a local number to stick in it. Another gotcha: if you roam, the roaming charges can take up to a couple of months after you get back to hit your bill, making a surprise when you thought you’d paid for everything.

Pay phones: I have no idea how they worked there because I had a cellphone. :slight_smile: And was roaming. :frowning:

13

Good advice! The phone thing is a bit stressful. I don’t want to pay crazy roaming charges and I don’t even know if they will work there anyway. I know our room at the hotel will have a phone and that there will probably be pay phones where I can use a phone card or something if I need. Otherwise I have no idea what we will do for phones. Can you buy a temporary, disposable phone? If you can do it anywhere I would be it would be Finland, the home of Nokia.

14

You can also scan your passport, and store the encrypted photo online so that you will always have access to it.

15

I’m not sure. If your existing phone is GSM, handles 900 and 1800, and is unlocked, you can get a temporary disposable SIM to put in it… if not, might be a good idea to look for a simple unlocked GSM phone at home. I have an unlocked Motorola PEBL that I got for $60 or so at an independent dealer in the Eaton Centre. I’m sure you can get them cheaper in NYC.

I wasn’t sure whether you wanted a phone… after all it’s a honeymoon you’re planning. (And congratulations, by the way!)

16

And if you call home, make sure you take into account the time zone differences! I called in the afternoon from Helsinki and woke my friends up at 6AM (I got a maddeningly-nonspecific message on my cell from my Dad’s nurse and was freaking out before I called my friends to ask the nurse at a better hour what was going on. Sometimes cellphones are a disadvantage.) Finland is GMT+2; the East Coast is GMT-4 (EDT) or GMT-5 (EST)–and I’m not sure when Daylight Time ends this year.

17

:stuck_out_tongue:

I do want to have a phone of some sort. My husband is diabetic and being in a strange place with no idea where exactly hospitals and pharmacies might be located means a cell phone is probably a necessity.

18

This. Scan it and email the scan to yourself (assuming web-based email). In the email message, include any other important numbers you might need, like bank, credit card, emergency contacts, etc. Also check to see if your bank or credit card co offer a chat service online. In the case of an emergency, it might be easier and to find an Internet cafe and connect through have cards cancelled than deal with figuring out international calling.

If you’re bringing a laptop make sure you have Skype installed.

I also always make and bring a wallet-sized currency conversion chart.

Make sure you don’t need a visa for Finland.

Have a good time and don’t overpack.

19

That sounds like cutting it fine, to me. Of course, I’m used to English levels of transport congestion and airport queues, where they advise you to be at check-in two hours before long-haul flights. Maybe it’s not so bad in Finland.

20

Get a book called First Time Europe, or get a Finland-specific travel guide.

There are apparently certain pharmacies that stay open 24/7 for the tourist trade, but you need to know where they are. And it’s a good idea to know what to do and who to speak to if you need to call 112 (the EU equivalent of 911).

Also make sure you get traveller’s health insurance! National plans don’t cover outside the country.