Foreign Currency (So. Caribbean)

[Chimpy Boudreaux]

I leave on the So. Caribbean itinerary next week and our ports include Aruba, Curacao, St. Maarten and St. Thomas. With regards to the first three, I know they accept American $ but for those that have cruised there before, do you get change in American $ too or in whatever their local currency is, ie. Euros, Croners etc..?

 

If the latter, did you find it better to exchange money for the local currency first? Not sure what the exchange rate is.

 

TIA

[uksimonusa]

I leave on the So. Caribbean itinerary next week and our ports include Aruba, Curacao, St. Maarten and St. Thomas. With regards to the first three, I know they accept American $ but for those that have cruised there before, do you get change in American $ too or in whatever their local currency is, ie. Euros, Croners etc..?

 

If the latter, did you find it better to exchange money for the local currency first? Not sure what the exchange rate is.

 

TIA

 

We were given change in US$ Bills, sometimes the coin change was local and sometimes US, depending on what they had, but the Bills were always US

[cb at sea]

If you purchase a $3.00 item with a hundred dollar bill, you'll most likely get back THEIR currency. Try to have smaller bills for those smaller cash purchases, and you'll get American dollars as change.

No need to exchange your money!

[Chimpy Boudreaux]

cool....thanks!

[55J5-5]

Last Feb we went to all of those islands and we used US money. They gave back change in US also. But I agree use smaller bills so the change will be in American. If you want some of the local $ ask some of the vendors they might have some to exchange with you. We like to get a few of the coins for the scrapbook.

[Hypo]

Try to get your change back in American dollars. Some merchants will try to give you their currency as the dollar is usually of more value to them.

 

Also, in Mexico, be aware that the peso sign is the same as the dollar sign. ($) If they can get you to believe that the price is in dollars, whereas it is actually listed in pesos, you will be paying approximately ten times too much. Also, they usually are willing to bargain.

 

Hypo

[Guest scfjjb]

Try to use as exact change in U.S. $ as possible. We are taking Eastern Caribbean $'s DH got from dive shop he used in St. Lucia last year with us on our November cruise. On 2 islands we had this problem.

[karena1]

We always take a bunch of 5's and 1's so we have small bills for little things on the islands. Most times you will get US$ back, but by taking little bills, you don't really have to worry about it. We have never had any issues with using US$ in any of islands.

[KT32]

The French side of St. Martin uses Euros as the official currency and US$ as the unofficial currency. If you've got euro coins leftover from a Europe trip it can be a good way to pay for tips or smaller items.

 

We did this same itinerary and once got some small change in Aruban currency, othewise it was always US$. We too carried no bills larger than $20s and mostly 1s, 5s, 10s. We were also able to use our credit card and avoid the whole cash issue.