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Travel in Europe Tip: How bad is theft in Europe?

Answer: It can happen to you. I have heard from my friends who traveled to Europe about their encounter of theft. I have read online people's stories about pocket pickers in Europe. It was not real until it happened to me. It was around lunch time when I visited Royal Palace in Madrid during my June trip to Spain and Portugal. I was carrying an open bag on my right side and looking at my cell phone. Suddenly I felt someone was doing something in my bag. I turned my head to my bag and saw a hand pulling tissues from my bag, I looked up at a young women and asked her "what are you doing?", then she put the tissues back and sneaked away. I was then going through my bag to see if any important things were missing, luckily nothing was stolen. That was the first encounter of theft in my first ever trip to Europe! The thief was not really leaving Royal Palace, I saw her with a few other people in the crowds, probably looking for next victim. I did some online research af...
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Travel in Europe Tip: Should I go with tour group or plan the trip on my own?

Answer : Depends. I have to choose planning the trip on my own: If I plan a family trip with kids, the only appropriate travel time is during summer and Christmas break, we have little flexibility on start and end date of the trip. And most tours have fixed start and end dates too, that will not work well with our dates. Traveling can be exhausting, getting up early everyday during the entire trip is not an option for us.  I like to take our own pace to enjoy the attractions, I do not like being told to spend only one hour to see one attraction.  On the other side, planning a trip takes tremendous effort, which is not for everyone. I spent almost a year planning the trip to Spain, which was my first ever trip to Europe. I did tons of research: watching Youtube videos, playing the routes and dates, booking flights, trains, buses, reserving attraction tickets, huge effort.  Note that I learned so much about Spain's history and culture before my trip. It w...
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Travel in Europe Tip: Should I book tickets in advance for major attractions in Europe?

Answer: Depends on how busy the attraction is during your planned visit. If it is a top destination during peak season, almost no doubt you will have to book the tickets ahead of time. You really do not want to go to the attraction and find out: You have to join a long line and wait for a couple of hours. The tickets are sold out for that day. For every popular destination, search online and ask this question:    Should I buy ticket in advance for attraction XXX in June? The search result will lead you to lots of tour discussion forums, people will suggest whether you need to book tickets in advance or not. Read comments and get a general feeling of how busy the attraction is during your visit. In general, top attractions in large cities and top attractions in that country are always busy during peak season, it is always a good idea to book it in advance. For example:     Royal Palace in Madrid     Sagrada Familla in Barcelona   ...
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Travel in Europe Tip: What type of websites should I use to book online tickets for major attractions?

The answer is simple: always use the official sites. When I search the tickets for some attractions in Barcelona, I run into all kinds of tour sites that sell tickets although they are not the official sites. There are two problems with those tour sites: 1. Those tour sites will add extra transaction fees. 2. Those tour sites might have problem processing the purchase. It happened to me once when I trie to book tickets for one major Spain attraction in Barcelona, I noticed the extra fee (around 10-15 euro for 4 tickets), I decided to still use this site to complete the transaction, after I entered credit card number and hit submit button, the transaction failed. My second attempt failed as well. So I searched the official site of the attraction, found it and started booking tickets on the official site, it has no extra transaction fee and it went through very smoothly. Search for official site is easy, just enter text like this in google or any other search sites:   ...
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