Always look up the currency of the country you are visiting prior to leaving. We recommend you check at least 2 months before you go. If you like to pay in cash, we recommend you order your currency from your bank before you go. It can take up to 2 weeks before you get the desired currency from your bank so plan accordingly. We don’t recommend taking out money from your bank or that countries bank while in another country as it will likely cost you a pretty penny. Plus, it may not be as secure as it is in your home country.
We prefer to use credit cards with zero foreign transaction fees. This way you can keep track of your expenses and earn credit card points. Using your credit card can serve as a form of protection from unauthorized purchases that you can dispute. Always keep your receipts of course. We have had to dispute once or twice in the years of our travel.
Even though we primarily use our credit card, we still recommend keeping cash on hand. Many non-developed countries, cities, or even smaller areas accept only cash. And we feel it’s better to have it in that countries currency so the math is equivalent when getting change back. Sometimes the error made in the change you get back isn’t always maleficent in nature but rather a human error in calculation. Here’s a good currency converter site. You should also keep some cash in your own countries currency. We once had to share a cab in London to get back to the airport as the trains were out of service the morning of our flight. Sadly, we didn’t have enough U.S. currency to split the cab fare with the other person while traveling. He of course did not want money in euro currency which we had more of. We were thankfully able to Paypal him, but that’s not a mistake we’ll make twice so we are sharing this with you now so you don’t either.