Europe tips?

[jacinda]

Going through the gallery I see there are quite a few Sweet Shoppers that either live in, or have been to Europe. I'm in the middle of planning a Europe trip with the family (eek! ) and thought I'd ask here for your tips and tricks.



We want to start with a 7 day Mediterranean cruise (Barcelona, Tunis, Palermo, Naples, Pisa, Marseille, Barcelona) then we'll spend 3-4 days at the following places each:
Rome
Switzerland
Munich
Paris
And lastly a day or two in London before flying home.
Then our bank will be empty

It'll likely be late June/early July, so super hot I'm sure.

How do you manage all the different currencies? Is WISE the best card? Will we still need cash for anything? Is tipping a thing in Europe? (It's not here in NZ so I never know about anywhere else)

Our exchange rate in New Zealand is horrendous for Europe and the UK, so any budget saving ideas will be gratefully received. There'll be 4 of us travelling and we'll mostly be using the trains or flying between cities, though have decided to hire a car just for the Switzerland portion.

Ahhh so much to plan and decide on. We never thought we'd make it to Europe, but I figure the world is just getting more and more volatile - we should travel while we still can!