No insult intended for most travellers who fly "budget" airlines. It has been my obervation ( I see airports everyday; you figure that out you get a cookie!?) that some travellers who use budget airlines lack basic curtesy, manners and any knowledge of their intended destinations, no matter where they are traveling to. My job affords me the "pleasure" of watching individuals and families, who loose all common sense as soon as they enter the terminal. Do not expect any of them to have had the forethought to get even the most elemental travel guide/ phrasebook, let alone know the currency or basic customs of where they are going on vacation.

ssheppard <<One of the first lessons I teach before we leave the US is that Europe isn't the United States and we need to accept our guests' terms and conditions.>>
OOps. Scott, I hope that is just a slip... if not it is part of the problem.

>who absolutely couldn't understand why they couldn't take his euros
Those poor supermarket clerks will never be able to make money or find a better job. Why? Any business minded person accepts anything he/she is able to assess in value, adds a decent markup for handling (and whatever) and that's it. No matter what it's called ($, € or yen). It's easier in Asia, and it's not because those countries are rather poor!

NeoPatrick, we have agreement! It's equally arrogant to presume that euros will be accepted outside the eurozone.

logos, you are being unfair to supermarket clerks. You can be sure that they are not given discretion to accept other currencies. For the proprietor, it is a straightforward business decision: will accepting other currencies generate enough extra profit to justify the trouble and costs involved?

I live near the border between the Irish republic and Northern Ireland. Many, probably most, traders near me on both sides of the border are happy to accept either euros or Sterling; it's good business. The farther from the border one goes, the lower the percentage of traders who operate a dual currency policy: they judge it is not worth the trouble.

>Author: ira
Date: 03/01/2007, 09:42 am
> if you're visiting a wealthy country with a stable economy, the cash dollars thing just doesn't work.<

True, which is why I take cigarettes and nylons.

Author: audere_est_facere
Date: 03/01/2007, 10:07 am
And very fetching you look in them too.<

TOO hilarious! I was reading the above thread and couldn't get beyond this. I'm still envisioning an older southern gentleman, eloquent yet friendly, strolling past Hotel Bonaparte smoking a cigarette and wearing nylons.

>being unfair to supermarket clerks
Yes, that may be correct. The owner, however, is free to make it a policy to accept other currencies, the clerk can't do a thing (And doesn't need to be business minded as long as he gets his check.)

I have read this post with interest since Americans are being shown as either ugly or ignorant etc. etc. Having travelled fairly extensively in the past 50+ years (born in London, living in the US) we have found many countries where people will still welcome US$ and others (like a specific Dublin pub) would not only not take dollars but sterling or anything other than Euros. Times have changed.. people are slower to change - after the dollar being welcomed, indeed preferred, as the currency of trade, why are so many of you indicting Americans as "ignorant" or these world changes.. Many Americans (as well as Europeans) do not travel out of their sphere of comfort and are not familiar with either currencies or customs.. So.. come on.. relax.. not all Americans are ugly/stupid.. and not all Europeans are looking for "Red Indians" on a reservation!! Leisure travel is for enjoyment- business people presumably will know the money. Give your fellow traveller a break..

I have just returned from Israel. Upon my arrival in Tel Aviv, I went to the ATM and withdrew a few hundred dollars worth of sheckels. However once I began travelling around Israel, I was shocked by how many people preferred the US dollar to the sheckel. At the time of my trip, the exchange was about 4.25 sheckels to the dollar. Almost every store I visited quoted prices to me in dollars. Restaurant menus were in sheckels, but most would gladly accept dollars at a fair exchange rate. There were times when I told them I wanted to pay in sheckels, and they sometimes converted the price where it was UNFAVORABLE to pay in sheckels!! I learned very quickly to ask the price both ways (dollars and sheckels), then use whichever currency is most advantageous to me. I discovered that about half the time it was best to use USD, and half the time sheckels were best. It feels weird to say this, but I now wish I had taken more USD and only withdrawn a few sheckels from the ATM at the airport.

So I've learned my lesson, folks. Until this trip, I really thought that every place in the world wants the local currency, and if you try to pay in USD, you will get a very bad exchange rate. But there are exceptions to this rule.

"I'm still envisioning an older southern gentleman, eloquent yet friendly, strolling past Hotel Bonaparte smoking a cigarette and wearing nylons."

But being a true gentleman, he's also wearing a coat and tie.

Sorry, ira, just couldn't resist.

logos, I'm sitting here dumbfounded. You're actually suggesting that every supermarket in Europe SHOULD take US dollars? And I suppose every other type of business establishment as well? That just amazes me.

Patrick I think that logos is describing a procedure which any person in retail in Canada close to the border or up in the Muskokas employs quite freely if they have the option. We had many of our American friends come into our stores and were surprised that our currency was different from theirs. Being good Canucks we obliged by exchanging their money at par. Friends help friends, right?
Our reasoning was if they didn't know about different currencies, they didn't know about exchange rates.
Is it coincidence that there are currency exchanges close to Niagara Falls on the QEW charging inflated rates?

4th of July in Italy. Well let me tell you we did sort of have it celebrated years ago. We went to Capri with the intention of staying three nights but ended up staying ten nights. One of the days was 4th of July but of course we expected nothing as 4th of July needless to say is not an Italian holiday.

We went to the dining room for breakfast and were shocked as every table had a center piece with four American (US) flags along with flowers in red, white and blue. Even the table linen colors had changed, dark blue tableclothes with red napkins. The same thing by the pool and at the poolside restaurant.

The hotel had arranged all of this for us (we were the only American's staying at the hotel at the time). We could not believe it! Of course there was not fireworks, lol, but the entire day we were constantly told "Happy 4th of July" even by the hotel staff such as Housekeeping that did not speak English. The hotel manager had arranged everything. A 4th of July I will never forget!!

P.S. Noooo, I have never tried to use US dollars in another country even in our neighboring countries Canada and Mexico.

>supermarket in Europe SHOULD take US dollars?
They would, if only custumers were willing to pay for it. I do take $$, but I'm more flexible and business minded than they are :D :D

I still respect those people who travel and try to use dollars in Europe more than a couple of my neigbors who own luxury homes in Hawai and the Bahamas but absolutely refuse to go anywhere where they can't use dollars to pay. They have no desire to visit even Paris or London, why? they asked.

Hi Rob,

>Being good Canucks we obliged by exchanging their money at par.<

Very kind of you, considering that the USD is worth $1.17 Canadian Dollars. :)

((I))

>I'm still envisioning an older southern gentleman, eloquent yet friendly, strolling past Hotel Bonaparte smoking a cigarette and wearing nylons.<

Only when it's particularly cold; and, yes, the jacket and tie come in handy then, too. :)

((I))

Yes, ira, that was a funny comment from robjame about accepting US dollars in Canada at "par". Surely he didn't mean that they'd let US tourists give them 50 US dollars and call it even for something that was marked 50 CAN? If so, that means the tourists were paying about 17% extra for the goods. Is that what's meant by "good neighbors"?

Or were you being facetious, robjame?

Or were you being facetious, robjame?
Absolutely - we were students working up in cottage country scrambling for every penny we could. When the (rich we thought) American campers poured out of the Taylor Statten Camps, they were fair game.
17%??.....I am afraid if you knew the exchange back then you would feel even less kindly.

I know that this is the Europe board, but when I was planning a trip to Costa Rica last year, I was grateful to the folks on the Latin America board who told me that they really DO gladly accept US dollars in Costa Rica. EVERYTHING was priced in US dollars there. In 10 days, the only place that didn't take US dollars was a guy "guarding" a parking lot near Manuel Antonio National Park. It felt odd, but there was literally no reason to exhange currency there.

OK, you just sounded so kind and serious in your post. You devil, you.

Meanwhile, I remember being in Niagara-on-the-lake when the exchange rate was much greater than now and seeing some very strange offers in the windows of shops of what they gave for US dollar exchanges -- like 10% discount for US dollars, when the US dollar was worth about 1.50 Canadian.