London and France Guide Tip and Luggage Questions

[Foreveraprincess17]

Hello everyone,

Just to confirm, for the England and France adventure. Are there two ABD guides total? Or two guides for each country?? Do we tip the local guides. I want to make sure I bring enough tip money.

Question on the green ABD luggage straps-do we place these on our luggage for the flight to London or are they just for the Eurostar trip?

Take care,
Renee

 

[Woodview]

Just to remind you that U.K currency is £ Sterling

France is € Euros

Plugs U.K . use 3 pin Flat

France & Europe use 2 Pin Round

 

[jimmymc]

Two ABD guides in total, and you don't need to tip the local guides, your ABD includes that.

In London, you will get your own bags from baggage claim before meeting a guide. The green strap is optional and just helps you find it easier. The paper luggage tags that ABD sends you go on your bag for the London to Paris train.

 

[Steven G]

On my trip, there were two guides total. One was English (Melissa) and one was French (Damien), but that isn't necessarily guaranteed. Also, both guides know both countries (or at least the areas you will go to) very well.

As well, there are local guides, typically one or two per day. We split up into 3 groups, and sometimes the local guide would guide us. The local guides know a LOT more than the ABD guides of the specific areas that you will visit. You don't have to tip the local guides.

I don't remember green luggage tags specifically, but we had tags. You should not need them for the flight, but they are probably for the bus/hotel/train parts of the trip as you mentioned. There was an orange strap that you could use to make it easier to identify your luggage, but it's not required.

For the airport, we picked up our own luggage, and the person pickup was waiting for us at the exit of the luggage/customs area (inside the airport).

 

[Foreveraprincess17]

Just to remind you that U.K currency is £ Sterling

France is € Euros

Plugs U.K . use 3 pin Flat

France & Europe use 2 Pin Round

Thanks for confirming this. My bank told me I only needed Euros. I remember using Pounds in London on a prior trip.

 

[Foreveraprincess17]

Thanks everyone!! Just the info. I needed. Blessings to you All!!

 

[sayhello]

Thanks for confirming this. My bank told me I only needed Euros. I remember using Pounds in London on a prior trip.

Your *bank* told you that you only need Euros if you're going to England??? That's not very encouraging! You might want to inform them that they were wrong. It's definitely British Pounds there, especially since Brexit!

Sayhello

 

[tink1970]

Your *bank* told you that you only need Euros if you're going to England??? That's not very encouraging! You might want to inform them that they were wrong. It's definitely British Pounds there, especially since Brexit!

Sayhello

as we would say here...oh bless their heart...

and yes, definitely pounds *sterling* are needed (sadly not the extra ones I'm carrying- THAT would be useful!)

 

[Eree418]

You've already gotten good answers above, but I thought I'd pay it forward and share the good info that I got from this board when I was in your shoes a few months back.

It was recoommended that I set up a PayPal account in case one or both of our ABD guides wanted to receive their gratuity that way. We had a British guide and an American guide, so we ended up paying the British guide in Pounds Sterling through PayPal and the American guide in USD through Venmo.

Have an awesome trip! We loved it!

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

Also in case you haven’t been to Britain in a while, pound notes look different now vs. a few years ago. I just got some from my bank and was a bit confused, as they are more plastic-y now and have clear spots. I confirmed with someone in the UK that they changed the material to make them harder to rip. And counterfeit? Who knows. But in any case they aren’t “your parents’” pounds anymore.

 

[sayhello]

Also in case you haven’t been to Britain in a while, pound notes look different now vs. a few years ago. I just got some from my bank and was a bit confused, as they are more plastic-y now and have clear spots. I confirmed with someone in the UK that they changed the material to make them harder to rip. And counterfeit? Who knows. But in any case they aren’t “your parents’” pounds anymore.

I haven't seen the new ones yet. I'm still not sure what to do with the leftover pound notes I have from 2015...

Sayhello

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

I haven't seen the new ones yet. I'm still not sure what to do with the leftover pound notes I have from 2015...

Sayhello

I can’t imagine they’d turn them away. I just didn’t want anyone to think they got swindled with whatever shows up from the bank, because I definitely had a moment of “what is this?!?"

 

[aggiedog]

Actually, they will turn them away. We just got back from Scotland and my friend had old pound notes. She had to find a bank to exchange them (which the bank did no problem.) AND, it turns out that some of the notes are true bank notes, only from one bank, and she had to find the right bank to take them. If it is paper, it's old, and needs to be exchanged for the more plastic-y bills.

As an aside, I also found out that England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland also have their own notes that are NOT taken in the other countries. I managed to receive a Northern Ireland note in Edinburgh then couldn't get rid of it for anything. Every sales person I gave it to was like "wow, I've never seen one of these, cool....but I can't take it." LOL

It was interesting, and a little inconvenient.