how much money to bring? (quiz format)
 

Quesyion: You are going on a 4-week trip to Asia. You spend 5 nights in Tokyo, 4 nights in Kyoto, 4 nights in Siem Reap, 5 nights in Bangkok, 3 nights in Luang Prabang, 4 nights in Chiang Mai, 2 nights in Bangkok. You like to eat good dinners and want to do some sightseeing. How much money do you bring, and in what denominations?

Three $100 bills tucked away in my wallet. I prefer using my ATM to get cash but might change one of those bills to yen on arrival in Japan.

Plus $60 for three days Angkor Wat guide and $75 for three days driver, plus $5 for the airport transfers plus $10 or $20 total to tip the guide and driver. Plus the visa fee and the exit fee, which are about $35 each. That's about $230.

You should bring the exact amount in change for the entry visa fee. So bring one $20, one $10, and one $5 bill if the visa fee is actually $35. Also bring two $100 for your touring expenses in Siem Reap. You will be able to break those bills by getting change in $US from the hotel desk (you can do it at the Sofitel, for sure).

You should exchange your leftover yen to Thai baht.

If you are actually thinking about bringing all your spending money in cash and then exchanging it into the local currency, I would not. I would rely on ATMs to get whatever you need and when eating nice meals in upper-scale hotels and restaurants, I would just charge it.

Other than that, you should keep enough of the local currency on you on any given day to purchase items you find (esp from markets where you cannot use credit cards), for lighter meals, and for transportation. How much you will need on a daily basis depends on what you plan on doing in each place.

As a general rule of thumb, we try to always have at least $100 in the local currency on us at all times and maybe some US dollars (another $50 or so) tucked in our wallets. We figure that if we need more than that at any given moment, there will be an ATM close at hand.

If you are asking what you will need total in spending money for meals, activities, and shopping, that definitely depends on what you plan on doing and what your travel budget is.

Here are my basic assumptions: all hotels are either prepaid or paid via credit card; all air has been preparid or paid by credit card, you will use ATMs where available.

Like Mr.W., I always take a few US$100 bills as back-up. I took five on my most recent trip and returned with three.

I assume you can get yen from an ATM in Japan.

In SIem Reap, you'll need cash for the visa (US$20 when I was last there), $40 for the 3 day temples pass, the exit fee ($20?? check with someone who has bee recently), $20-25 per day for each a car and driver and a guide if you are using one, plus tips. All of that should be exact change, $20s are probably best. A stack of US$1 and $5s for incidentals, water at the temples, lunches, etc. Most dinners you can put on a credit card.

Bangkok and CM you can use ATMs.

LP you'll want US$20 bills to change into kip. Don't change more than US$20 at a time, as it's quite a stack of kip. You'll use kip for small purchases, transport, lunches and some dinners. Plan accordingly. If you are planning on making purchases from local weavers, some would prefer to get US$.

Thanks for the info.

The hotels are all pre-paid or have been reserved with credit card as has been the plane tickets. There are two of us on the trip. I have a few questions.

1. Tokyo is the first place we visit. Does it make sense to convert $100 over before we leave the US so that we don't have to worry about that when we land?

2. Are compatible ATM's really all over the place in Japan, BKK, and CM?

3. Should I really not bring any traveller cheques? Are they really hard to cash? I feel a little nervous about carrying around a thousand dollars in cash.

4. In Luang Prabang, where should I exchange my money when we land? We are staying at the Villa Santi Resort.

Thanks for all your help.

Wait until you get to the country to buy currency (exchange rate will be much better)

I can't speak for Japan, but in Bangkok and CM you'll find lots of ATMs.

In LP there are many places to change money on the main street. You can change $20 at teh airport if you'd like. I don't know what kind of exchange rate your hotel will give you. Change not more than $20 at a time. Really - $20 in kip is huge, filled my waistpack! Spend all your kip before you leave - it's worthless outside the country.

On the ATM thing (this goes for credit cards too)- make sure you call the bank/cc agency and let them know the dates of your trip and where you will be traveling, and have them not it on your account. Also get the number for your bank where you can call "collect" if there is a problem.

I can't tell you how many times I have been traveling with people who forgot to call their banks and such and they could not use their cards b/c the bank/cc company thought the card had been stolen.

Once, my bank forgot to approve my atm card for asia travel and I racked up their phone bill by calling them collect and going through a ton of menues and sitting on hold waiting for them to fix it.

Good point, SJKBK. I had to call my credit card company from Bangkok a few weeks because it wouldn't go through. It turned out they had a computer down and no one traveling internationally could use their cards for several hours. They had gotten calls from all over the world!

do they accept USD in some case in BKK? Is it a good idea to have $1 bills for tipping..or should we stick to local currency?

jacqui, you'll want to use all Thai baht in Thailand. Cambodia is really an exception in that the US dollar is the preferred currency.