My new husband and I are planning a trip to Ireland for nine days. The trip has us staying in a B&B for seven nights. How much US$ should we bring? I really hate using credit cards. Should we get travelers cheques or just exchange our us$. This is our first trip abroad and to say the least I am excited and petrified! Any suggestions?

My suggestion would be to re-think your aversion to using credit cards when it comes to international travel. The alternatives of traveler's cheques or converting currency as you go are frequently second best in terms of cost and convenience. Visa or Mastercard are your best bets and you should check with your card issuer about PIN codes and fees involved when you are abroad.

watched ap programme yesterday where they were researching costs of buying currency. The cheapest way was definitely using your credit card.

We traveled to Ireland in 2000 and followed the numerous recommendations of using credit cards where we could and debit cards to get any cash we needed from ATM's. We never had any trouble and found ATM's every where. As per advice we were given, the the ATM's had the best exchange rate. If you're uneasy about locating ATM's...Irish Bank websites offer lists of locations. If you know what towns you'll be in you can take note of the ATM availability. But as I said...we never found ourselves stuck!<BR>You'll have a wonderful nine days!

Heidi,<BR>I just forgot to add that we did get some Irish money before we left so as not to find ourselves there at the start without any. I think I got $200. Our local bank did it for us. There was a charge and the exchange was not as good as the ATM's in Ireland. It also took a week or two. It was pre-Euro!<BR>Cruise this and other websites mentioned here as well as a few travel books.(Like Fodors!) The Irish Tourist Board will send you a packet of free info if you ask for it. Planning is half the fun!<BR>Have a wonderful time!