Currency - Western Carb.

[fiorile833]

I will be sailing to Costa Maya, Mexico; Costa Rica and Panama this summer and was wondering if we will need to change currency before getting off the ship or if most places take IS dollars. We'd only be buying small souvinors/food/drinks and wanted to make sure now before we got there! Thanx :)

[DaytonCruiser]

I will be sailing to Costa Maya, Mexico; Costa Rica and Panama this summer and was wondering if we will need to change currency before getting off the ship or if most places take IS dollars. We'd only be buying small souvinors/food/drinks and wanted to make sure now before we got there! Thanx :)

 

USD are readily accepted.

[caribbean dreams]

NO you will not need to exchange, infact, they love American money, but bring plenty of small bills, sometimes they say they don't have change.

[bakechef]

They love american dollars there! Also bring a credit card, the one with the lowest foreign transaction fee, they usually range from 0% to 3%. I will be using my capital one card because they charge nothing to convert currency.

 

MAC

[fiorile833]

Thanx a lot!

 

And will def bring my capital one card! I travel to Europe a lot for bussiness and like the no conversion fee ;-)

[noblepa]

While it is true that US $ are accepted just about everywhere, often, your change will be given in the local currency, so try to get as close to the exact amount as you can. You don't want to return home with a pocketful of pesos or other currency. Don't take big bills, like $100, or even $50. The biggest I would use is a $20, and I try to have a few tens, fives and lots of ones.

 

Check the current exchange rates before you go, just for reference. In Mexico, for example, the last time I looked, the exchange rate was 11 pesos per dollar. Most merchants, however, simply use 10:1. It does make the arithmetic easier. An item priced at 100 pesos will cost you $10. Actually, it should cost about $9.10. That's a nine percent premium. Even if your credit card charges 3 percent for foreign currency transactions, its cheaper to use a credit card. Over course, 90 cents isn't a big deal. On a $100 transaction, it would be $9.00.

[RjayB]

While it is true that US $ are accepted just about everywhere, often, your change will be given in the local currency, so try to get as close to the exact amount as you can.

 

I have not found this to be the case in the major cruise ports...they have thousands of (mostly) american cruisers there every single day. ;)