How much Tahitian money should I exchange?

[Dunner]

 My husband and I will be on a 10 day Paul Gauguin cruise with 2 days pre cruise at the I.C. Tahiti and 2 days post cruise at the Moorea Hilton. How much money would you suggest I exchange at the airport---or really is there any advantage to exchanging US currency to Tahitian money?

[Tahitianbigkahuna]

17 hours ago, Dunner said:

 My husband and I will be on a 10 day Paul Gauguin cruise with 2 days pre cruise at the I.C. Tahiti and 2 days post cruise at the Moorea Hilton. How much money would you suggest I exchange at the airport---or really is there any advantage to exchanging US currency to Tahitian money?

 

That is an open-ended question. What do you want to buy?  Are you doing any private excursions? Are you going to eat at the food trucks? You will usually get a better deal by paying in local currency. If you use USD most places will simply give you 100/1 ration when today it is closer to 115/1. No difference when paying by CC but many of the smaller vendors don't take CC.

 

PG will allow you to get some local currency on-board at a reasonable exchange rate but don't expect large amounts to be exchanged or charged to your room.

 

Edited August 28, 2022 by Tahitianbigkahuna

[Leejnd4]

I wouldn't exchange at the airport. Find an ATM at a bank in Papeete and withdraw money from your account. You'll get a better exchange rate. (Be sure its actually AT A BANK - not just on a corner or in a store or whatever. ATMs not at a bank are more likely to be compromised with a skimmer.) 

 

Figure out how much money US you think you'll spend (as per the answer above), then figure out how much that will be in XPF.

 

XE.com has current exchange rates.

[Dunner]

I was thinking that the smaller vendors wouldn't take CC, but I was concerned that US dollars might not be accepted either in some locations ,so I should have some XPF dollars. Now that I know you get more bang for your buck using local currency I will get more XPF dollars than I had originally thought.   

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Pre-pandemic, we have usually exchanged a couple of hundred dollars worth, and that's been more than enough for small purchases and taxis.  Not sure if these vendors have switched to systems like Square as they have here in North America, especially since the pandemic. If so, that small amount might not even be required.

[Shorex]

Some useful information is here:

https://gotahiti.com/2016/12/money-in-tahiti/

https://tahititourisme.com/en-us/travel-planner/tahiti-currency/

 

What is interesting is that the French Pacific Franc (XPF or CPF) is fixed against the euro. We will be taking some euros left over from another trip -- however, if a business accepts euros we expect to receive change in CPF. The exchange rate with the euro is constant at 100 CFP = .838 Euros (or 1 Euro = 119.33 CFP.) Of course the exchange rate with other currencies fluctuates.

 

 

[FlightMedic555]

If you don't need local currency for excursions AND you have not paid in full for the post cruise hotel, I would take out $50,000 XPF which would be about $450 US USD (add in more if you need to pay for excursions).  You can use whatever you have left over to pay down your bill at the hotel.  As TBK mentioned try not to use USD to pay for items prices in XPF as the vendor will want $10 USD per 1000 XPF when you can now get 1000 SPF for about $8.50 (more or less).

[Dunner]

Thanks for all of the info.

[BoatingBuddy70]

Good information! Thanks for posting suggestions. I have a couple hundred Euros left from a spring trip to Portugal and Spain, so it sounds like I can use some of those up when I’m in FP in October.