Traveling to Europe can be a very rewarding experience if you plan carefully. I myself have made many trips to Germany and Holland, and quite a few times I have had problems of one kind or another, most which would not have happened if I had better foresight/ better planning. Plan for the Euro Exchange. Your budget can be butchered by the unseemly high cost in tourist areas. Case in point while shopping in Frankfurt, I decided to take a break and sit down. I just happen to sit down in front of a Pizza Hut, a short while latter a waitress came out and ask if I wanted anything? So I thought what the heck I’m thirsty so I asked for a Coke. She came back with a .5 liter (16 oz.) glass of coke and ice. I enjoyed the tasty glass of pop and was ready to leave so I went to the window to pay for my drink 5 Euro, Please she says. 5 Euro? You must have made a mistake, I just ordered a drink! I replied, She kindly pointed to the menu board behind her, and sure enough.5-Euro for an Lg.Coke. Which is about $6.25 USD for a Coke, I couldn’t believe it. The rest of my time in Germany was a lot like that, 35-50-euro for half-day stuff like small museums and tours, 70-120-euro for full day attractions. It kind of makes Disney’s $53.00 tickets look very cheap. My solution to this price Dilemma was to do more local shopping and less sight seeing. A local mart sells 1 liter of Coke for 1.20- euro. And local stores are reasonably priced and there a great place to pick up sovereigns, Cheap! If you are wealthy this article might not apply to you however if you have to watch wasteful spending. Keep a close eye on the Euro Dollar. And plan for the extras. Watch the extra percents that you lose when exchanging your Dollars for euro-dollars and then when you spend the euro dollar. In general every time you spend 1-euro it could cost you $1.60 USD. Depending how you get charged at the exchange window and then the exchange rate. Some banks and few ATMs don’t charge for the conversion. Plan for Safety while traveling in Europe, Train Stations are a haven for the homeless and vagabonds. Watch your pockets and your Bags. Never leave your luggage for a second, keep your hands on your bags while around the train stations. Beware of Taxi Drivers abroad. In my experience a good percent of taxi drivers are what I can only describe as gypsies. Some of these operators have scams for all occasions, anything from their kid hiding in the trunk going thru your bags or just driving around pretending not to know where your building is, running up the fare. Needless to say don’t put your purse down and don’t flash things like wallet, passports, airline tickets, even wearing a lot of jewelry can be trouble. One other thing to remember is to read the Taxi’s number and time of day, and traveling late at night is always a bad idea. For more travel tips check out my web site http://eurotravelinfo.com Enjoy your Travels