What Do I Need To Do Before Traveling To Europe?

My mom and I are traveling to Europe this weekend.  We will be visiting London, Paris and Amsterdam.  We plan on visiting Le Louvre, Versailles, the Anne Frank House,  Stonehenge and Buckingham Palace.

We only booked this trip a few months ago, so it kind of came on us a little quicker than expected.  Now, we're leaving tomorrow...and I'm hoping I've done everything I needed to do to go to Europe.  We had some listeners call into the show to offer some advice:

1.  Get plug adaptors for England, France and Amsterdam.  There may be different adaptors for each country, but they often come in a variety pack.

2.  Call your credit card company to let them know you are traveling overseas.  The last thing you need is to try to check into your hotel at night only to find out that your card has been frozen because your bank suspects credit card fraud.  Some banks, like Capitol One, no longer require this...but it is still worth a few minutes on the phone to avoid hours of inconvenience.

3.  Secure your passport.  Right now, this takes 4-6 weeks to have your passport returned from the United States State Department.  Plan accoringly.

4.  Speaking of important documents, it's a good idea to make copies of your important travel documents (like your passport) in the event that you lose them while you are on vacation.

5.  Call your cell phone carrier to find out about options while you are in Europe.  AT%T offers a $60 package that allows you to make calls at .35 cents a minute.  The package also comes with 1 gig of data so that you can upload your photos in front of the Eiffel Tower while you are on the move.  AT&T also offers a plan at $10 a day, but if you are traveling for a week...the original plan might be the better buy.  If you decide you don't need these, you'll want to make sure you put your phone into airplane mode so you don't incur very expensive roaming charges.  You'll be able to use WIFI in the cafes and hotels while in airplane mode.

6.  Exchange your currency.  Be careful though, not all countries (I'm looking at you, United Kingdom) accept Euros.  The UK operates in pounds.  AAA members can take advantage of a free service provided by Wells Fargo to exchange money free of charge.

Additional Reporting by Michael DeSouza