Europe, USA, Mexico Trip

[freshy13]

Hi All,

Me and two other friends (all of us are 21) have book our flights for our trip, it will look like this:

Singapore
Frankfurt
Munich (Oktoberfest)
Prauge
Amsterdam
Londen
Ibiza
Barcelona
Miami
Los Angeles
Las Vegas
Cancun
Porto Escondito

We are going for a total of 7 wks, 3 in europe and 4 in US and Mexico.
A couple of thing i wanted advice for,

1. we are backpacking, is it worth taking a sleeping bag?

2. best way to take our money over, thinking of getting a ANZ travel card, anyone used this? what are the fees like? or any other sugestions

3. best way to get around the phone de-barcle. either get an international sim (not sure if it will work everywhere we go?) and put in in our current phones, or buy a phone once we get there and use that.
We will only be using our phone to contact each other really, if we get seperated or something. will use internet at cafes, etc.

And yeh, any general advice for us.

Cheers
Luke

[Traveller]

1. we are backpacking, is it worth taking a sleeping bag?

2. best way to take our money over, thinking of getting a ANZ travel card, anyone used this? what are the fees like? or any other sugestions

3. best way to get around the phone de-barcle. either get an international sim (not sure if it will work everywhere we go?) and put in in our current phones, or buy a phone once we get there and use that.
We will only be using our phone to contact each other really, if we get seperated or something. will use internet at cafes, etc.

1. I'd say no. You will rarely use it as everywhere you will stay has sheets/blankets and they do take up lots of room. I do recommend a silk sleeping bag sheet - much nicer than some of the random sheets you will encounter.

2. I recommended the 28 Degrees mastercard. It has $0 withdrawal fees and good exchange rate. It is a credit card so you need to load it with extra money so you are not withdrawing credit (which charges interest). There are other non-credit cards that don't charge fees from NAB and Citibank but these tend to have other requirements. Those travel money cards are alright but will cost you more.

3. Phone is about the most annoying thing about traveling to multiple countries. TravelSim may be the easiest because it will work everywhere but data is really expensive. There are similar ones but I can't think of the names off the top of my head. European sims often have reasonable roaming rates in europe so you may be able to get 1 in europe, 1 in usa, and 1 in mexico.

Have fun!

And plug -> make sure you have travel insurance (http://www.travel-insurance-reviews.com). It isn't that expensive and will save you heaps if something goes wrong. If you have a gold credit card and pay for your flights on it you may be covered by your credit card travel insurance.

[EvansJasmine]

3. Phone is about the most annoying thing about traveling to multiple countries.
I completely agree. That's why we avoid talking altogether when we travel. It certainly adds some inconvenience, though, cause we are so excited to share with friends and family!

[mike]

No sleeping bags are really needed.

For the phones, I say buy SIM cards when you get to each place. My research found int'l SIMs cost more on a whole. That was a couple years ago, so tings might have gotten better. I still chose to buy them as I go and that woks well for me.