Things that surprised us
flying to Europe with kids.
Not the big stuff, the small stuff. After years of trips out of Boston, the things that trip up a first-time family are rarely the flight itself. They are the details nobody thinks to mention.
Skip the airport currency counter.
An ATM withdrawal on a no-foreign-transaction-fee card almost always beats the rate at an airport exchange desk or a hotel front desk, often by a lot. We land, find an ATM past baggage claim, and withdraw what we expect to need in cash for the first day or two. Cards work everywhere else.
An adapter is not a converter.
This one cost us a breast pump in Iceland. A plug adapter only changes the shape of the prongs so it fits the outlet; it does nothing to the voltage. Most phones, laptops and camera chargers are dual-voltage and handle this fine, but check anything with a motor or a heating element (hair dryers, pumps, some white-noise machines) before assuming an adapter alone is enough.
Nobody is trying to turn your table.
In most of Europe, a table is yours for the meal and the check will not appear until you ask for it. It is a genuinely nice pace once you expect it, and a source of real confusion the first time you do not: we have sat wondering where our server went for a solid ten minutes before realizing we simply needed to ask.
Some tickets need a separate step before you board.
Certain paper train tickets in Europe are not valid until you stamp or scan them at the platform, a step that catches a lot of first-time visitors off guard. Digital tickets tied to a specific train and time usually skip this entirely, which is one reason we book that way whenever we can. Our full breakdown of how to validate a train ticket in Europe covers exactly when this applies and what happens if you miss it.
What families ask us.
What surprised you most flying to Europe with kids?
How many small logistics add up: plug adapters that do not convert voltage, ATMs that beat airport currency counters, restaurants that never rush a table, and train tickets that sometimes need a separate validation step.
Is it better to exchange currency at the airport?
No. Airport currency counters and hotel exchange desks almost always give a worse rate than a local ATM using a no-foreign-transaction-fee card. We withdraw local currency from an ATM after landing rather than exchanging cash beforehand.
Do European restaurants rush families out?
The opposite. In most of Europe a table is yours for the meal, and a server will not bring the check until you ask for it. It is a nice change of pace, but it also means asking for the check yourself rather than waiting for it to appear.
Do plug adapters work for things like hair dryers or breast pumps?
Not safely, unless the device is dual-voltage. A plug adapter only changes the shape of the prongs; it does not change the voltage. In a 220-volt country, plugging a US-only appliance into an adapter alone can fry it, which is exactly what happened to a breast pump on one of our own trips.