Look up the monetary conversion rates before you go.
Finding out that your dollars won’t go as far as they do back home is a nasty shock.
I use currency xe online – its also a downloadable app
If you prefer a paper based tool, gocurrency has a tool that allows you to perform a currency calculation and print it on paper tuck into your wallet or handbag.
I use http://www.xe.com as well. The website can also show historic currency exchange rates so if you wish to remember what the exchange rate was on a similar trip back 10 years ago, you can certainly find out.
Thanks- use xe, and had never heard of gocurrency
Oanda offers printable travelers cheat sheets, too:
http://www.oanda.com/currency/converter/
iCurrencyPad is the perfect solution for me… even better than XE.
XE and Oanda for me – XE is good at live prices, where Oanada can handle things like Credit Card load fees
The XE app is great, and if you have a wifi/cell connection, the exchange rates are all in real time. You can list several currencies to track at once.
More concerning than exchange rates are the international transaction fees associated with most credit cards. Be sure to use a card that has NO intl fees (as I’m sure you know of many).
I almost never leave a response, but after browsing some of the comments on Keeping track of exchange rates