PAYING FOR TRAVEL IN EUROPE
How we’ve been handling day-to-day purchases
We exchanged a small amount of euros when we first arrived in Lyon, mostly just to have some on hand. We still have them—we haven’t needed to use cash so far. Tap-to-pay has worked everywhere we’ve gone: grocery stores, restaurants, transit, museums, and ticket machines. Using our phones has been faster than taking out cards, especially when moving through stations or paying quickly in a line.
We use digital wallets instead of physical cards. Once we added our cards to Apple Wallet / Google Wallet, that’s what we’ve used for everything. The physical cards stay stored safely, and we haven’t taken them out while paying.
When a terminal asks whether to charge in dollars or euros, we choose euros and let the card handle the conversion. It keeps prices consistent later when they post. We also stick to cards with no foreign transaction fees so we’re not paying extra in the background.
This setup has made everyday costs simple. No ATM stops, no carrying cash "just in case," and no sorting through cards to see which works where. If we run into something that needs euros, we have a small stash, but digital payments have covered everything so far.
– Scott & Liza
