Planning a trip to Europe...

I miss Loislane myself (we corresponded for a while, sharp woman).

On maps - when I look at a website like Booking.com, I find it very handy to have a very good city map in front of me. Besides, that is fun.

Margo, sweets, if you don't write about your Vienna-Florence trip in October, I'm going to take away your travel badge. (What will you pack?)

It doesn't really matter what phone company you're using but if you've got a phone with "tri-band" or "quad-band".

Buying a phone here ... well, you would need a "pay as you go" mobile, but in every country (otherwise, you get roaming costs, or a French pre-paid sim-card doesn't work in Denmark or ...).

Nearly all hotels have WLan, mostly free of charge. If you're not in urgend need to make calls - use skype.

HERE is some really good advice re mobile phones ...

Or, like, take a vacation from all that.

In my (and Ulla's) case, we need a phone - to be reachable. But during the four weeks, we have been in France and England recently, only our phone companies made calls: offering "better" tariffs re roaming.

It's an emergency thing. I need to be accessible in order to take that much time off from work. So, I'll have to get SOMETHING figured out.

Cycloptichorn

That's good, no argument. France and England are really in your neighborhood to me.

I'm a semi dinosaur, though I had a cell phone earlier than a lot of my pals - but they weren't prevalent on my last trip so I've no advice. I do remember a certain peace the first time I went in '88 - had passed my boards a few years earlier, no vacation past five days for a lot of years, when we went for a month. I gave our few known hotels to family and close friends. Essentially we were phone free. And so was I on my last trip, '99 - though then all those people had my worked out itinerary and phone numbers. A pal was in Bergamo around the time I was in Viterbo and we had a small chat about food and wine - my only phone conversation with friends and family that month.

That would probably cause anxiety pulsing to many now, only a decade and a bit later.

That's a great link Walter. SIM cards made all the difference for Brenda on her recent travels.

No argument with reachability - just can't imagine constant contact like people do , including me, here, and those who use facebook.

cyclo

Do try and pay attention!
Maps are for planning, for the bigger picture, for thinking, for daydreaming, for what if....

I use all manner of electronics; but for the very start of a trip - particularly at your stage, when you haven't been anywhere (and probably have a pretty hazy idea of European geography), maps are ideal.

You asked for advice. You're at the beginning of planning. This is no time to be a smartarse!

One of the things that paper maps give you is scale. I find it really hard to find maps of the same scale for different regions and sometimes I just need to have that paper in front of me to go "oh yeah, this is the same distance as that drive was" or " oh crap, that's actually twice as far away as yesterday's trip"

I've got a peculiarly good sense of direction and place, but scale can be odd (and I'm not always careful to save everything in the same scale ... trust me, it can really matter)

like ... I look at the maps you posted on the previous page, and I think, oh look at all those cute tiny countries

I need something like this (though I wouldn't use Texas for my purposes) to get me started on scale





this one's kind of neat ( you can pick your overlay)

http://goeurope.about.com/od/europeanmaps/l/bl-country-size-comparison-map.htm

You are working out where you are going on a wee screen?

Suppose topography is added?

I have all three, but I didn't start with it, years of this and that. Plus sometimes I mess up if Roger is driving.

Point taken, though it won't be long now till paper maps are a curiosity that our grand kids have a hard time believing we ever put up with.

Cycloptichorn

I have doubt that you can apprehend a whole territory on a small computer module. Give it a break and relax.

Maybe my computer screen is bigger? lol. Anyway.

That picture of Texas superimposed on Europe is funny - I used to have a t-shirt that said 'Texas - bigger than France!'

Cycloptichorn

Let me know after your trip.

I am doubting your world will stay so deliniated. That's not a knock.

People think semi zombies wandering with cell phones are bad -

just wait until all kids have pods in their hands.