3 ms·

I've been traveling out of carryon luggage for almost 15 years, and I really disagree with a lot of the stuff in this post. I find many of the people who say "I

• lg 4y ago
  > The packing tips here are utter nonsense, as well as the suggestion that you get better exchange rates with cash than with credit cards. I was surprised on a recent trip to Europe that my (fee-free) credit card got me almost exactly the exchange rate I see on Google. Much better than ATM withdrawal with fees or any posted rate I saw in towns. Also all the internet advice about needing cash left me with lots of unspent euros and zlotys, I used apple pay almost everywhere (in fact my cash was refused in some places!) Maybe a covid-times switch away from cash, not sure.
  • ghaff 4y ago
    >Also all the internet advice about needing cash I always want to have some cash but it really depends on the country and location how much. I just got back from London and Dublin. I took my ziplocks of pounds and euros over and, aside from tossing some coins in the donation bucket at a London museum (and I think you could donate digitally) and using my Oyster card, I didn't spend a single coin or note. On the other hand, if I were doing an extended walk in the English countryside, I would absolutely want to have a couple hundred pounds with me. I have a feeling my widespread traveling pre-COVID during which I pretty much figured I'd always have a use for most of my baggies of foreign currency is going to leave me with a fair bit of unused cash going forward.
• hooverd 4y ago
  Credit cards worth their salt don't have any foreign transaction fees and convert transparently.
  • no_butterscotch 4y ago
    Unfortunately it seems like every card I have has a foreign transaction fee. I'm traveling now and everytime I use my Chase/Visa "Freedom" card I get the fee. And every time I use my Amex I get it too.
    • ghaff 4y ago
      I have a premium travel-oriented Chase card that doesn't have a fee. My free cards do as does my corporate card.
    • yosito 4y ago
      Open a Chase Sapphire card if you're planning to travel.
• laundermaf 4y ago
  Rates yes, but fees not. Unless you're a US resident and can get a Charles Schwabs, you're going to pay all those ATM fees that a lot of countries charge, for example the inescapable US$6 fee in Thailand.
  • yosito 4y ago
    Well, Chris is American. There are dozens of credit cards that have no international transaction fees.
• jakub_g 4y ago
  The general rule is: the more affluent the country, the better off you're with paying with CC. The cost of exchanging paper money is proportional to the prices of other things in the country. Especially in big touristy cities in affluent countries like France, you can easily lose 10%+ on currency exchange. So in EU, stick to CC, and maybe just have 50 bucks of emergency cash. On the other hand, in cheap countries like say Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, exchanging paper currency (especially USD) to a local currency and back to USD is almost free (<~1%)
• blast 4y ago
  How can someone's packing tips be "utter nonsense"? That's completely personal.
  • yosito 4y ago
    It's not personal. Bad advice includes: - rolling things into logs (time consuming and not space-saving), rather than using compression packing cubes which are quick and easy, organized and actually save a significant amount of space. - Packing your own tide pods (risky, heavy and unnecessary), just buy detergent locally or use a full service laundromat which is common for locals in many countries - If you have to wrap cords with hair ties, you have too many cords (I'll admit this one could be personal) - Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are a terrible option for travel food. They're soft, squishy, messy and don't last long. If you want to travel with food, pack granola bars or trail mix.
    • blast 4y ago
      That's all pure preference. If you have different preferences fine, but calling someone else's preferences nonsense doesn't make sense to me.