Travel Money Question

carrliadiere

Hello, I am new to the site.

I was just wondering - I am going to Rome with my girlfriend in January for four days. I have the flights and hotel all budgeted and everything, but what would be a good amount to budget for per day, and what is the best way to get the Euros? I am fairly sure that purchasing them at the airport will be the worst way...

We want to go to the major sights and to some museums, and probably a few restaurants. I don't want to take too much though, because I know you have to pay a commission to get it changed back into stirling.

So, any advice or suggestions? And has anyone been to Rome before? I am really looking forward to it!

RedBern

If you haven't already - get a Nationwide account - you can use their card abroad to buy stuff and at ATMs. There's no added charge - so between now and January you can stash away a few quid spending money. I did this during the summer when we went to Croatia and found it was excellent.

carrliadiere

Cool, I hadn't even considered that as an option really. I might check out my own bank's policy on it, and see if they have something comparable.

Would you recommend Croatia!? I have been bitten by the travel bug ever since I moved out of my parent's house, all I'm doing at the moment is saving money to travel.

jdee23

REmember to get your euro's before you go. Was in Rome a couple of weeks ago and my SIL changed £40 and got 41 euros in return. :eek:

carrliadiere

jdee23 wrote: »

REmember to get your euro's before you go. Was in Rome a couple of weeks ago and my SIL changed £40 and got 41 euros in return. :eek:

Gah! That is extremely poor! That is the kind of thing which would make me full of enraged angry madness...

Forgetful

i find it better to change pounds to euros when in that country,,,
I find here in the uk we get a very bad exchange rate..
no commission..just a fob off!!

RedBern

I hadn't even considered that as an option really. I might check out my own bank's policy on it, and see if they have something comparable.

If you're with Barclays - forget it. I was charged £4.10 commission, a fee of £3.05 on a withdrawal of 1600 HRK (croatian kuna) and got an exchange rate of 10.468 with Barclays. So to withdraw 1600 HRK cost £155.89 with Barclays.

With Nationwide however, I got a rate of 10.787 which hardly fluctuated over the week - and no commission. I withdrew 2000HRK for £185.51 with Nationwide

Would you recommend Croatia!?

YES - beautiful country - we went to Dubrovnik. We rented an apartment which was just fantastic - and cheap. if you could get cheap flights out would be a bargain break