What currency would you use on South Pacific Cruise?

Will be doing a tour to Vila, Mystery Island, Isle of Pines and Noumea in November.

Vatu is local currency in Vila - have read different opinions on what is best to carry. Some say you get better value if you use just Aussie $.

Anyone have any thoughts ?

Paul

It depends on what you want to buy. We picked up a tour at the port and they asked for $AU as payment. The markets around the port were mostly in $AU, as were the prices in the main duty free shop. We went to the Mele cascades and entry was in both Vatu or $AU.

In Noumea the tour desks at the port office had $AU dollars and so did the little market set up, but otherwise all the shops are in Pacific Francs. Isle of Pines you can use $AU in the markets, same as Mystery Island.

Thanks for response Jacs. Your experience leads me to the option of just carrying $AU

Paul

Will be doing a tour to Vila, Mystery Island, Isle of Pines and Noumea in November.

Vatu is local currency in Vila - have read different opinions on what is best to carry. Some say you get better value if you use just Aussie $.

Anyone have any thoughts ?

 

Paul

We have done a number of cruises around the South Pacific and have NEVER converted money in advance. Think about it. You go to your bank and change $AUD to Vatu (for instance) - you will pay fees. Then at the end of the cruise, you have Vatu left over - it will cost you again to convert it back to $AUD. Imagine doing this for every currency you might need. Occasionally we have ended up with coins from various islands. These make good memories. Once in Vila, I was buying some items later in the day and needed change. The lady went to pay me in Vatu and I asked her nicely if I could have the change in $AUD. She happily gave me a $2 coin.

Like others have said, it will depend on where you shop and also what type of tourist / traveller you are.

Personally I prefer to spend local currency where possible for a number of reasons

1 - It's fun. I mean, I love checking out foreign coins and notes. If you're spending AUD the whole holiday you don't get to experience that

2 - It's all about immersion. Again, I like to feel like I'm not just another cruise passenger, but someone that's in the city/town trying to learn something and be a good tourist

3 - Think about it, as lilly has said above, there are fees to pay. When the stall holder goes to buy milk or bread on the way home, what currency will they need to spend? Now ask yourself - if the stall holder has to go out of their way to change the money over from AUD, don't you think they're going to charge you a 10% premium for doing so? Of course they are! Whilst there's not going to be much difference in a lot of trinkets and stuff you spend at the markets near by the boat, every few cents you can save is good, no?

4 - If you only carry AUD you are limiting yourself to the tourist centric vendors. Maybe it's just me but I'm a wanderer, but when I'm in a foreign city I want to go where the locals are eating and shopping, not the other 400 people from my ship, and I purposely try to hunt down local stores and food markets. They won't accept AUD for the reasons above (they can't spend them without exchanging them).

Probably the best thing you can do is find someone who has been on a cruise or trip to some of these places before you and trade money at the cash rate from xe.com and avoid the bank fees.