Practice travel sense while dollar is weak in Europe

I returned to some welcome spring weather in Seattle after 21/2 weeks tromping through snow and rain in London, Paris, Krakow and Amsterdam, exploring the weak dollar’s impact on travel costs for Americans.

More later on how I fared on a $125-a-day budget. In the meantime, a few random observations, some having to do more with sense than dollars:

It’s true that the Iraq war has incited anger abroad, adding to mounting social and economic problems for those living in cities with large Muslim populations.

As travelers, we need to understand that our government’s policies, whether or not we agree with them, have an impact on the daily lives of people living in other countries. That said, there are no roving bands of terrorists out to get Americans.

If you travel in Western Europe, you will have contact with people who have emigrated from Turkey, Morocco, Algeria, North Africa and other parts of the world where Muslims live.

I suppose some of these encounters have the potential to be negative, but I like to remember the ones that went more like this:

One night while looking around for a place to eat in Amsterdam, I spotted a cozy-looking little pizzeria with candles and red-checkered tablecloths called Mama Mia’s, on a backstreet off a canal in the Jordaan neighborhood near the Anne Frank house.

I was expecting Italian, but when I opened the menu, I saw a “Pizza Borek” and a “Pizza Istanbul.” This was a Turkish pizzeria. The young waiter was from Ankara, and he was thrilled when I told him that Turkey was one of my favorite countries.

“American, American,” I overheard him tell someone in the kitchen. He brought me a small bowl of black olives and some Turkish bread to nibble on while I waited for my spinach and Gorgonzola pizza. Then when I was able to only finish half the pie, he took several dollars off the bill and left a handful of candy hearts on the table.

If I owned the red-, white- and blue-striped tie with an eagle on it that I saw one man wearing on the plane, I think I’d leave it in the suitcase, but at no time did I feel the need to hide the fact that I’m an American.

Now, back to the bucks: Despite a slight rebound recently, it’s unlikely that the dollar will regain much strength against the British pound, euro or other currencies soon.

The dollar, trading at $1.31 to the euro and $1.88 to the pound, has lost 20 percent of its value against both in the past two years. Some think exchange rates could reach $1.40 to the euro and $2 to the pound by summer.

This means either resigning yourself to paying more or learning to enjoy a less expensive level of travel. Grab take-away from a street vendor for lunch instead of going to a sit-down restaurant; stay in smaller hotels instead of chains that cater to Americans; explore what’s free to see and do; or choose less expensive destinations, such as anywhere in Eastern or Central Europe.

One way to cushion the costs is to avoid changing money at exchange counters in airports or hotels that charge a high fee. Use credit cards and cash machines instead.

Withdrawing cash from ATM machines still earns the best rate. The machines I used disclosed whether or not they charged a fee; most didn’t. If your bank charges a withdrawal fee or levies a surcharge that results in a poor exchange rate (call and ask before you leave), use a cash card from your credit union instead.

More Europeans are using the new low-fare airlines to book cheap travel within Europe. Dublin-based RyanAir and British easyJet now have competition from dozens of upstarts such as Cologne-based Germanwings and SkyEurope, a no-frills airline based in Bratislava, Slovakia.

The fares are tempting so check them out, but leave plenty of time between flights to make ongoing connections on other airlines.

I used SkyEurope to fly between Paris and Krakow, and Krakow and Amsterdam. The total fare was a bargain $112 (one leg was 32 cents without taxes), but I ended up paying a high price in flight delays.

I arrived in Krakow at 4:30 a.m., five hours late, after our flight was diverted to another city in Poland and we had to finish the trip by bus. The flight into Amsterdam was eight hours late.

SkyEurope and the other airlines are up-front about their policy of not taking responsibility for passengers’ ongoing connections. I had several days planned in each city, so this was not a problem, but I would have been out of luck had I been trying to get somewhere else.

See www.attitudetravel.com for a list of European low-fare airlines and the destinations they serve.