A side note to the traveler from the Americas, when traveling in Europe, make sure that you are not relying on Credit Cards to pay for stuff, they are simply not accepted.

The consensus in Holland at least is that if you can’t afford it, you aren’t going to buy it; that for American’s is a little stunning sometimes, since they live on their Credit Cards with huge Mountains of debt, and never within their means.

I’ll illustrate the problem, say you’ve taken care to budget properly and incorrectly assumed that you will need X Euros a day and converted just that amount. Then you have the realization that you really need 2X Euros per day, but can’t pull it out of your checking account because it isn’t there or your ATM card won’t work in the European ATM system, you can’t afford to pay the $5 / transaction Fee, or simply resent having to pay it.

Well in that case you’re screwed.

You can only really buy stuff on credit card here at a few places, most of them in Amsterdam, or online.

So, if you have an inkling about coming to Europe, please do, but remember to have an ATM card that works so you can pull money out of the ATM (It’s cheaper than converting Cash at some place like GWX. which charges a 21% premium over market.

I recommend that when staying in Europe, if you have to book a Hotel, book it online, and have at least €65 / day ( ~$100 USD) Anything less and you’ll be hurting by the last few days of your trip!