I was wondering ....My friend and I are arriving in Brisbane on Oct 16/02 and staying in all Hostels.I was wondering if anyone could guess at how much would be good for spending ....I will be bringing 4000.00 with me for all our meals,acc,everything <BR>Do you think that is good??????

barbie<BR>I hope you mean you'll have that much on your ATM card and NOT in cash. I think if you are staying at hostels you'll probably need much less. But then again how long are you staying and how many cities are you visiting?<BR><BR>Please do NOT carry a lot of cash anywhere.

4000 in what currency? How long will you be staying?

Sorry <BR>Im staying one month ....<BR>And no Im not carry all cash ..<BR>I just have that much to spend.<BR>I will be carring credit and my debit card....

We recently returned from 3 weeks in Australia; we are a family of 4 and were traveling with 4 other people. I carried approx. $400USD with me and found that I had no problem at all getting whatever cash I needed from the ATMs. When we returned and I got my bank statement, I was pleasantly surprised that because the exchange rate was so good, my ATM withdrawals were no problem on our bank account. I would strongly recommend you take a minimal amount of cash with you, and then if you wish to pay with cash, get money from the ATMs. If you wish to charge things, I suggest you call your bankcard company and ask if they charge you a surcharge. In addition to the exchange rate, Bank of America charged us 3% on all of our overseas transactions. When I inquired, I was told it was the cost of their having to exchange the money! Anyhow, it can be a tidy sum so unless you want to charge things for a reason (such as mileage), use the ATMs. Have fun. It was our third trip to Australia and we can't wait to go back AGAIN!!

$4000.00 US seems pretty reasonable to me. I spent that much on a two week trip staying and eating at pretty high end places.<BR><BR>I'm assuming the hostels are going to be around $50 Australian a night maybe? You can probably get by ok on say $50-$60 Australian a day on food. That leaves you plenty of money left over for tours, gifts, a few nice meals, etc. Should be fine.

Before we went to Australia, we got our travelers checks in Australian Dollars. Most banks can get them, it took about five days, and we got a better exchange rate. Be careful on using credit cards outside the US, many banks are adding a 1 - 1 1/2 % fee for for using cards outside the US. I found that out after getting back from China. It seemed that VISA was the worse.

Barbie,<BR><BR>I also used Australian Travelers Cheques when we went to Australia, in addition to our Credit cards. I got them at the American Express office before I left the States. Walked right up and purchased them. If you have an AMEX card there isn't a fee. <BR><BR>It was nice because I knew with all the AMEX offices around, we could get our money back ASAP if all our other cards (atm, credit) got stolen. Might not hurt to have a couple hundred dollars just in case.<BR><BR>$4000 USD is plenty. You will have tons for spending & doing lots of cool activities. Although if you plan on flying from city to city to city, you will probably spend about another $1000 USD.<BR><BR>Have Fun!