We were there for three weeks, and I just want to do a travel tip video based on what I learned from my experience.

We visited Germany, Switzerland as well as Italy, and it was my real first time.

I've been to Germany once before for a short period of time,

but it was my first time really going experiencing some Europe for a real long period of time.

So I'm just going to run on some tips I learned, and we'll start with booking your hotels.

So, in terms of booking hotels, we used a website called Trivago, which I highly recommend.

And I've seen their commercials on TV, and that's what made me become aware of them.

Basically what they do is that they'll take one hotel room, and they'll compare the price of that hotel room across a number of different websites,

so you basically get the best price for that hotel room.

And what we found by booking out hotels is that we saved anywhere from 30-70% our hotel rooms by booking through Trivago, so I highly recommend Trivago.

Next thing is when you're booking you flight, I really recommend Google Flights Explorer.

Google Flights Explorer, if you don't know, basically lets you set your destination, and you pick your dates,

and they'll actually give you a bar graph of how much the prices vary day to day.

And you actually look at the bar graph and see what the cheapest price is per day. And if you're flexible, you can get the best value for your money.

The other thing, too, is that when it comes to budgeting, we didn't really know how much we would be spending per day,

but what we found and we journaled every day when we were there.

That typically, excluding hotels, we would spend anywhere from 40 to 75 Euros a day on food that includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Some hotels have complimentary breakfast as well as sightseeing as well as taking public transit as well. Even shopping includes.

So we typically spent 40-75 euros per day. However, in Switzerland, it is so expensive,

and places like Zurich, St. Moritz and Zermatt which we visited, I would probably budget a little more like 150 swiss francs per day

because everything is just so much more expensive in that country.

The other thing I really recommend is that: if you're flying on an airline, you should really check if they have like a free members program or a free miles program

because we flew with Delta, and we just signed up with their skymiles program, which is free.

And normally we bought economy class tickets, but because there were vacancies in first class,

Delta will actually bump up Skymiles members, and so we basically got to fly first class on the way back.

And the cool part, too, is that skymiles members get priority boarding as well as you earn points from travel.

So why would you not sign up for that?

The next thing, too, is that: when it came to actually checking our hotels, we used TripAdvisor

to, you know, see reviews of the hotel [and to] see pictures of the hotel from the people who had stayed there.

We also used TripAdvisor to find the best restaurants in the cities we were visiting in the places as well as see the top sites as well.

TripAdvsior has the top things to do in each city, and you can exactly see one of the most popular tourist destinations,

[and] what do people have to say about those places. So I really recommend TripAdvisor as well.

The other thing we learned, especially in Italy, is that when you are planning your trip,

you should really see where everything is in the city you want to visit in relation to your hotel [and] how you get there by public transit

because the Wi-Fi in parts of Europe is a little spotty.

So it's better to do it at home [and] print out the maps,

although in Italy, we found that a lot of the street names on the actual Google Maps did not match the street names out in the actual cities.

So we'd be walking in Milan or Bologna, and a lot of the street names didn't even match, even though we were in the exact same spot in the map,

the street names would be completely different. I don't know why that is, but that was something we found.

So I really recommend you guys use street view when you're trying to figure out how to navigate from your hotel to whichever place you want to visit.

The other thing that we were really careful about was protecting our passports

because if you lose your passport, you got to go through a bunch of hurdles and you got to talk to the embassy or consulate.

So the first thing we did before we left is [that] we actually look to see where the closest embassy and consulate were for the Canadian government,

and then whenever we were out and about traveling and sightseeing, we would always carry our passports in these pouches.

So, we just basically put them around our necks, [and] put them under our clothes.

We even put our money in here, too, so there's a little slot for your passport as well as for your Euros or Swiss Francs.

And you know that way, especially when you're in Italy, people, you gotta be a little careful, especially in the bigger cities

that people may pickpocket you, or try to get your money or steal something from you.

And it's also good that you're carrying your passport at all times because that way you don't leave it in the hotel room and the cleaning staff may not steal it. So that's really important, too.

The other thing is that it's really important that you carry change whenever your going to washrooms and stuff.

One thing we take for granted in Canada and the US is that public washrooms are free in most places.

In Europe, I don't think I saw one free public washroom.

You either had to pay for a public washroom, or, if you're in a restaurant,

you had to buy food there and then you'd have to pay for a washroom even after you'd pay for service at a restaurant.

So always carry change on you.

Another reason to carry change is because, even stuff like condiments at a McDonalds, they actually charge you for ketchup as well as, you know, hot sauce.

So when we were in Switzerland as well as Italy, they charged us like 35 or 50 Euros for hot sauce and ketchup. So it's important to have that.

The other thing, too, is that when you're using public transit, like in Germany, it's important you don't carry large denominations of money

because the actual machines will only give you a maximum amount of change.

So when we were in Frankfurt, the maximum of change they'll dispense is 19 or 20 Euros.

So if you're paying with a hundred, and your train only costs 15 Euros, you're only going to get a maximum of 19 or 20 Euros back, and you'll lose all that money.

So it's important you carry smaller denominations of bills.

The other thing, too, is really important is that we carried bottled water wherever we went.

[In] all the cities we visited in Europe, you could easily drink the water because it was clean and you wouldn't get sick.

And [when] you go to a restaurant, a lot of restaurants charge you for water.

So when you're going having three meals or four meals, you're paying for water each and every time,

why not just fill up your bottled water at the hotel and just carry it with you wherever you go?

And the last thing I want to say is that: when it came to actually traveling, I am a pretty light packer,

so we basically use these travel cubes, which you an buy at an outdoor store or even online, I'm sure.

They're pretty cheap, and, you know, there's two different sides.

You can actually fold your clothes and put them in each pouch.

And then what it allows you to do, is that you can actually sort your dirty laundry from your fresh laundry, as the trip goes on.

It actually saves you a ton of space. Like I was able to put a couple of pants in here as well as maybe three or four shirts as well as socks as well as my undergarments.

So I really recommend traveling with a packing cube.

The other cool thing is that you can save a lot of space by folding or rolling your clothes, which is another cool thing, too.

So that basically does it for my experience in Europe.

I'd love to hear you guys' comments [and] questions, and I'm more than happy to answer them.

I just want to wish you guys a happy new year, and don't forget to hit the subscribe button. Take care, guys!