USA/Florida Travel & Money

cazkendal

Hi, I'm off to Florida for 2 weeks in August. I am looking to take around £600 as a budget for food and around £500 for souviners etc. I had planned on taking the food money in travellers cheques and the £500 in cash, is this a good idea?

I don't have (or particuarly want) a credit card and my credit rating isn't good at all!

Any suggestions gratefully received

Caz :):)

Murphy_The_Cat

Caz, is the £1100 just for you ?

dzug1

The £500 in cash (particularly sterling cash) is not a good idea - too risky, and you won't get that good an exchange rate there. TC's (in $$) are better but not cheap.

I'd suggest you get one of the better prepaid 'credit' cards - fairfx and caxton fx are among the best, and travelex also - if you get the right one, they have several. They'll cost you less than TCs and you've still got some security if you lose them. Get started now - the better ones take a while to get. You don't have to put ALL the money on until nearer the date

johnnyroper

cazkendal wrote: »

Hi, I'm off to Florida for 2 weeks in August. I am looking to take around £600 as a budget for food and around £500 for souviners etc. I had planned on taking the food money in travellers cheques and the £500 in cash, is this a good idea?

I don't have (or particuarly want) a credit card and my credit rating isn't good at all!

Any suggestions gratefully received

Caz :):)

i took $500 cash and used my nationwide debit card to either pay or draw cash out as required.
how many people is the £1100 for? i went with wife and 2 year old daughter for 14 nights in march and spent about £2500 in total while there not including park pass's

flight1

We went to 2years ago, a family of 4(1 child eat free as under 11) and we spent about £1000 on eating out, This was breakfasts and tea, mostly had breakfasts in sizzlers and like wise. I am going again in 4 weeks and realise the exchange rate is not nearly as good as the last time but don't see us spending much more as we are going to villa this time and will buy breakfasts in on some days.

Murphy_The_Cat

gill_murray wrote: »

We went to 2years ago, a family of 4(1 child eat free as under 11) and we spent about £1000 on eating out, This was breakfasts and tea, mostly had breakfasts in sizzlers and like wise. I am going again in 4 weeks and realise the exchange rate is not nearly as good as the last time but don't see us spending much more as we are going to villa this time and will buy breakfasts in on some days.

Hello Gill
I came back from the US a month or so ago, and the exchange rate does make a mess of things - roughly, what used to cost £3 now costs £4.
BTW, we never came across anwhere that offred free meals for under 11's !

eslick

Hey Murphy, in laws took our two and their 2 other grand kids to IHOP (I know) in April because they had a kids eat free deal, when the bill came they had charged for the kids meal as well the resturaunt hadnt realised that the offer was on, they gave them it in the end though. First time in all of the years I have seen kids eat free.

We found things more expensive than normal this time around it could have been that this time there was four and kids eat off the proper menus but even when we bought from the outlets the wife found the same items here for a pound more when we returned.

Ah the last couple of years have spoiled us with the $2 or near to it to the pound.

FH_Brit

Beware with TC's - some tourist places and restaurants are not acepting them (had too many forgeries).

So if you may have trouble - but some hotels and most banks will change them no problem although that don't help if you are not at the bank when you need to use them.

photome

I usually use a debit card abroad but this year have ordered cash at a good rate from Crown currenecy

This may be of interest to you

Delivery Between: 12th July 2010 - 19th July 2010 CURRENCY SPECIAL RATE AMOUNT AVAILABLE

Euros1.1990 €131,000

US Dollars1.4927 $89,000

Delivery Between: 10th August 2010 - 17th August 2010 CURRENCY SPECIAL RATE AMOUNT AVAILABLE

Euros1.2104 €112,500

US Dollars1.5107 $59,000

Visit our website www.CrownCurrencyExchange.com for more details, or call us on freephone 0800 612 7273.


You can request either cash or TC

johnnyroper

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

Hello Gill
I came back from the US a month or so ago, and the exchange rate does make a mess of things - roughly, what used to cost £3 now costs £4.
BTW, we never came across anwhere that offred free meals for under 11's !

in all the holiday brochures they offer a kids eat free card if accompanied by a full paying adult in florida,most of them get issued at welcome meetings etc by the reps.
they had them in march when i was there but never bothered as my daughter is only 2 so did not pay anyway.

littlemissbossy

I took half cash and half travellers cheques when I went to Florida. I stayed at one of the Disney Hotels and you could change them at the conceige desk which was really handy.

They also do a "key to the world" card, bit like a credit card which gets charged to your room and then you can just pay the one amount at the end of your holiday. Think you'd need to keep a mental note of what you were spending so not to get a nasty shock though.