If the Europeans could charge tourist for standing in the shade they would.
 

So into my third week of my European vacation and GZUS christ Europe is fucking expensive. In Rome right now after leaving Venice and everything is crazy priced. Seems like everytime I go eat I'm dropping 80 Euros. Is soda a luxury? Some places charge you 4 Euros for a can of coke, WTF! A small cup of coffee is 7 Euros. Not only am I getting fucked on the coversion from US to Euros, but man they charge you to even take a piss. If yuo're planning a European vacation make sure you double what ever you were saving for the trip.

</rant>

On the flip side Europe is beautiful. Skip Venice and make sure to check out the small islands around it, Murano and Burano. Less crowds and the places are beautiful. Rome is amazing, just the history of everything. On my way to Paris in three days.

Yeah that charging to take a piss really got me when I first moved here...It's just as bad when you live here. I closed a bank account like 1,5 yrs ago and they didn't shut it down in their system, and now they want me to pay $30 in account fees before they close it. Rather then waive that $30 that they earned by having a database entry (and I dont have the docs for the account closure anymore), they'd rather lose a customer forever. I'm only 28 and plan to live a while longer.

Fuck Europe. Go to Asia instead.

Want to talk history...culture...amazing food and people who actually are considerate and appreciate tourists who have an interest in them.

I don't fully agree with this, I love Europe and its beautiful but I do agree with the go to Asia part. For the next couple of years, I'll only be going to Asia or South America on holiday with my wife. The only time I will go to Europe is to go home to Scotland to visit family/friends and for business. I've saw enough of Europe for a while, I've saw more than enough of North America in my 3 years living here, I've only touched the tip of Asia and plan to go to 5-10 more countries there in the next 2-3 years. It is so cheap from my experience, granted my experience is only 3 countries so far but they were what you'd consider the more expensive places and I still found them cheap in comparison.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

There's lots of countries in Europe you cunt, some more expensive than others...

Even though the culture shock is understandable, the experience you describe is more attributed to tourist trap cities than Europe in general.

It's hard/misleading to paint an entire continent with such a broad brush. There's vast differences between regions, countries, cities, etc. within Europe.

Italy takes the piss always has done, I remember going 30 years ago and a can of coke was a quid, when in the UK it was only 20p.

you are in tourist areas. you get tourist prices. I just came back from Italy. In most local cafe's coffee is 1-2 euro. This is my 4th time in 4 years. I went once to Rome, Florence, Pisa, Como etc to see tourist things. Now I just go to 1 place in Tuscany for the last 3 years and venture off from there. Rome is cool once, its worth the extra expense to see the history. I went to a few cafe's in Rome that weren't that much.

I would take Europe of Asia any day of the week. I never have problems with people not liking me because i'm a tourist in Europe. Not sure where this comes from.

Walk 10-15 minutes away from the centre and you will start paying local prices.

I got a coke for 1 Euro in many places in Italy. To bad you havent been there in 30 years ;)

even 1 euro/ coffee is expensive (a pack of 250gr coffee = 2.5 euros)

it won't get any better in Paris, 8 Euro for an OJ, 9 or 10 for a beer, but the food is delicious and so are the ladies!

to poor people in poor counties in expensive. Come to america where starbucks in 4 bucks in rich or poor areas. If you complain about a 4 dollar cup of coffee on vacation. You probably should have stayed home.

Italy is really expensive for tourists. Italians are shady as fuck. But for most countries - do not eat/drink on the main street where most tourists are since those places are ripoff... just go one street away and you'll find genuine places with friendly prices, good food and friendly locals... just my 2c

Yep Italy is probably worst place for tourist in entire europe there is somanyyyyyyyyyyyyyy choices to explore just make sure you visit those overpriced places like Uk,france,netherland and Italy only once.

Yeah it's not so bad if you stay away from the tourist traps. Even in Rome I had an amazing espresso for 1 Euro, this was in 2007.

you guys do it to north america all the time :1orglaugh

I found Rome reasonable if I'm honest, we ate at nice restaurants close to tourist spots and didn't over pay. My wife had a lasagne that she still talks about to this day as the best she ever had and it was 12 Euros, that's roughly $16 USD, not terrible by any means.

Yet another proof EUR > USD :1orglaugh
80 euros per meal... welcome to the real world :1orglaugh

i can totally understand the tourist trap thing. I live in San Diego and that is a big tourist attraction, but we dont gouge like I've seen. Sure you pay a lot for a drink at a nice bar on the beach, but I dont pay a cover charge. Some places in Venice charge you up to 30 Euros cover charge. A guest at the hotel we are staying at that some tourist get hit with 60 Euros for sitting fee at some places in San Marco square in Venice. We did find a few places that were resonable off the beaten path. Also whats with Starbucks closing at 9pm here in Europe? People dont drink coffee that late?

same time for Canada/Vancouver area

however, i think that's more 'nice cafe' than 'need.. 9pm... coffee'

Reading all this, I would guess there has to be a number of books about doing the major cities of Europe on the cheap..

Guess I'll start a little search..:)

Please define "you guys".

just need to re-read what i was responding to :pimp

Its funny how some people talk tourist trap prices and think its normal. Those people deserve to be overcharged :)

Nothing having to pay to piss. When I went to Egypt all of the public bathrooms have a "attendant" in them that you have to tip. Some of them will actually do something like hand you a paper towel to dry your hands with, but most just stood there by the door and you tipped him as you left.

The worst thing about it was most didn't even clean the bathrooms. You would walk into them and the place had water on the floor and was disgusting and he was just standing there waiting for your tip. If you didn't tip all hell broke loose and he would scream at you and a few other people would show up and try to force you to pay.

I would have thought this common knowlege. It was certainly the case when I was in Mexico, I see no reason why it wouldn't be the same in every tourist destination.

I'm familiar with the content of the post you replied to (I wrote it). My question still stands. :)

Great thread title by the way.

:D

Last year I went to Cannes, France and it was ridiculously expensive. We saw a $17,000 purse.

Then we went to Belgrade, Serbia and it was around $1 for a beer at the bar, $80/night for a 5 bedroom apartment with full kitchen, a few dollars for a long cab ride, etc etc. We went to one of the highest rated restaurants in the city with 8 people, ate and drank really well, and the bill was $200.

Nice city, nice people, everyone speaks english, we felt safe walking around at night, they have a casino, would love to go back.

This makes no sense.

Tourist areas, yep if you stroll into a supermarket, or side street you can get it cheaper.
But as an 11 yearold at the time, I remember thinking damn that's expensive.

Please dont be stupid..

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ is your friend on that: maps with restaurants divided into price categories etc..

There is a huge difference in prices (and everything else lol) between the eastern (old soviet countries) and the western block...

Hehe we had a meal in Amsterdam in a small restaurant, nothing fancy at all and they charged 4 euros for coke for a small bottle -> 0.2l.. that thing wasn't even 0.33l :D

I remember at WMA Amsterdam in 2007. Went to the bar, for a double vodka and redbull.

I received, as expected, two shots of Smirnoff (My vodka choice) in a glass, along with a 'glass bottle' of redbull The bottle of redbull was less that a cans worth. Total cost?

22 Euros!

Went outside the hotel to the liquor store, and bought a Litre BOTTLE of Smirnoff, plus 8 cans of redbull - Cost? Under twenty Euros...

Retarded comment....

if it only was as safe as tasty

:1orglaugh at judging a continent based on a few shitty tourist traps in a couple of cities.

I was just in Italy and didn't experience any of this...

Cannes is promoted as "luxury" or "glamour" place but it's a shit hole... You should go to Monaco or Nice... Much better looking and more things to see... Lots of celebrities go there during the festival and rich folks go there in the summer...

As for Belgrade - it's lot cheaper than Cannes for sure...

Maybe instead of eating at a tourist location, you should move a little out of the "centro" ring, spending half and eating twice as better. Paris is just the same, don't eat downtown, there are many fantastic restaurants out of the view of the Eiffel Tower that are very good.
I didn't find Cannes shit, I actually liked it a lot more than Monaco that has nothing more than a great view.