Hi!
We just booked our vacation and felt the need to share our experience as a reminder that if you start to book your summer vacation within the next few weeks, try to choose a European toolset!
So, what did we use, and how was the experience?
First, we searched for flights.
We used skyscanner.at and kiwi.com to search for flights from Austria to our chosen destination.
We did not book our flight via those, however, but directly with a European airline we found through them.
Ok, the flight looks good. Now, accommodation. Typically we are hotel vacation people, but this time we decided to go for an apartment + rental car. We hope it’s a bit more adventurous, and we get to see more beautiful places and meet nice people.
So we searched for apartments via hometogo.at and holidu.at.
We found quite a lot of super nice apartments on both and ultimately decided on one on HomeToGo and booked it directly with them. The process was super smooth, just as one would expect.
So the flight is done, and we also have somewhere to sleep. Now, how to get there?
We used check24.at (mietwagen.check24.at) and europcar.at to search for rental cars. Europcar is only one provider, while Check24 is a comparison portal that searches for the best offers.
We ended up booking a car from a Spanish car rental company through Check24. Again, so far, the process was flawless, and I felt very well informed about insurance and everything else I needed to pay attention to.
And that’s it; the only thing left is how to get to the departure airport. We haven’t decided yet on that, however.
One major drawback: almost all of them allow payment via PayPal, credit card, or SEPA Direct Transfer (which is just not comparable to the payment protection the others give).
That’s really a bummer, as still, through the use of credit cards/PayPal, the money does not solely stay in Europe. That’s such a pity.
I do hope the payment problem is solved soon via the digital euro or possibly WERO or other alternatives.
Other than that, we are super happy with how the process went and are looking forward to our vacation this year :)
If you have any tips for former hotel vacation people who just switched to trying out apartment + rental car, let me know. I’m grateful for advice from experienced people on this matter. :)
One more thing: While checking out the area, we used mapy.com, and for navigation during our vacation, I already downloaded www.comaps.app for offline navigation. :)
And for correcting this post, I used languagetool.org (but I stop now to not go off-topic 😇).
I have almost solely traveled in Europe so I’m constantly surrounded by European tools, apart from some tourists who have come from further away
ZING!
Hehe
Just one thing to note for travelling in general. In Germany, but I believe this law is derived from EU legislation, there is this thing called Pauschalreiseverträge. Basically 2 or more travelling related things booked together, most often flights and accomadation.
When those are applicable you have a very strong legal status. Your flight is delayed or cancelled? Not your problem, the travel agency has to find a way to fix that. Same for any other problem that might arise and that includes insolvent airlines natural disasters and so on.
Basically if you want the most legally secure way of travelling, this is it. And there are a number of travel agencies in Germany alone
Sounds similar to ATOL in the UK. That ensures you get somewhere to stay if your hotel is unavailable and a flight home if your airline fails. It saved me in 2019 when Thomas Cook went bust - my hotel let me stay for the rest of the holiday and I had a rescue flight home from EasyJet. Wherever possible I will always book my holidays in an ATOL wrapper.
SEPA Direct Transfer (which is just not comparable to the payment protection the others give)
The payment protection (which is a valid concern) is payed with the fees they collect from the vendor. It’s not fair you can’t choose to get a discount and use this for some sort of insurance of your own choosing - but choosing for a sepa transfer does mean the vendor ends up with more of your money. No judgement though, i might have made the same choices.
through the use of credit cards/PayPal, the money does not solely stay in Europe
That surprised me - if I use a credit card from a European bank which places does the money move through?
They are all either visa or MasterCard, which end up taking a cut. On top of that there is the whole massive problem of these two companies being gatekeepers and deciding what can or can’t be traded in the world, whether it is legal or not.
Not all Visa or Mastercard, some ancient ones are still EC.
Are you 100% sure about that?
We are specifically talking about Credit cards, not bank cards.
Further, I think EC is a German only payment system, so it won’t get you terribly far.
We def need an european alternative to their thing.
The only alternative i know can be used only in my nation and not even onlineKlarna is pretty established now from what I understand, and they’re Swedish. That said, if a bank transfer is possible I’d go with that. Klarna is a terrible company, and the founder is as evil as you’d expect.
They’re so engrained here in Sweden that even when you choose other means of payment, it’s often funneled through Klarna. Had a problem with my dog’s food subscription at one point and was directed to Klarna, which puzzled me because I set up the payment thing via my bank. Turns out Klarna had basically been picked to deal with all payment related things, so unless you physically go to the store and pay there, you can’t avoid them.
Wero is being rolled out slowly in Western Europe. I believe it’s already a thing in Germany, France, Belgium, and followed soon by the Netherlands.
That look good! I hope they will roll out soon in the other european countries
Literally any and all payment systems that aren’t hyperlocal (generally limited to a single country or jurisdiction) is forced to use one of the four Payment Card Industry providers: Visa, MasterCard, AmEx and Discovery. There’s a fifth, the Japanese JCB but they don’t really provide service in Europe as far as I know - at least no European bank seems to issue cards from them.
We do need a proper, open European alternative that isn’t as predatory and does not bend for fucked in the head alt-right propaganda groups like Visa and MasterCard did, but breaking into this sector isn’t easy as the aforementioned four/five control the PCI Standards Council, establishing a quasi monopoly.
There’s others : Unionpay in China, Mir in Russia… France has CB. The problem is those are rarely valid when paying abroad or online.
Since creditcards are either Mastercard or Visa they are moving through their payment network. That results in fees that go to them.
Since Mastercard and Visa are american, money eventually travel through the US
