bilboburgler

If this helps
1) I budget for £10 for a light lunch (soup or a sandwich with a drink) in the UK and £25 for supper though that can rise to £40 with wine shared between two of us
2) In France I budget Euro 14 for lunch and Euro 40 for supper with sine shared between two.

Collect foreign money at the airport When You Land in the country using the ATM. You only issue is you will only have biggish notes so you may need to buy stuff to get coins and normal notes.

bilboburgler

wine not sine!

Do not drink fizzy, sugar laced, addictive drinks in Europe. They are bad for you and they cost a fortune. Drink wine, if the kids cannot drink wine (see local laws) then let them drink tap water called "Tap Water" or "Robinet" depending on the country you are in. Once they cold turkey off the sugar stuff life becomes easier.

StCirq

Average $40 per person per meal? No way, KK. SO and I ate very well on our last 3-week trip for about $50 a day between the two of us. Granted, we were working at being austere with our budget, but back when I was gallivanting all over Europe with little regard to budget, I never spent $40 per meal.

nytraveler

You will be able to pay for most of your meals with a credit card and should do so whenever possible. Visa is accepted almost anywhere as long as you are spending more than $10 or so.

Expect food to cost about 30% to 50% more than in the US for the same type of meal/restaurant - especially if you are from a small town with modest prices.

(You can save money by doing picnics or buying food in supermarkets - but since we don;t eat that way at home we don;t want to do it on vacation either - unless for the fun of a picnic in a beauty spot - not sitting on a bench in the tuileries. Much prefer to have lunch in a nice cafe while people watching.

MarySteveChicago

Myrrha, you will find wonderful savory filled croissants (cheese, ham, etc) at most patisseries. And the cafes are many. I can't eat enough salade nicoise when i am in Paris at the cafes. So delicious!

xyz123

1. I bring nothing with me. Cash is a pain in the potuna anyway. I make a €20 or £20 withdrawal from the first ATM I see at the airport of arrival and generally need no more.

In both Paris and London, perhaps a tad more in London, credit cards are taken everywhere with the exception of food vendors in the street perhaps. If I should run out of cash, it's another €20 or £20 withdrawal. Never happens.

Use your credit cards for everything no matter how small (a few merchants, especiall in Paris might have minimums true but not all that many). Make sure your credit card is from a bank that charges no foreign transaction fee.

The Metro in Paris and the Underground in London both take credit cdards for single tickets.

This way you don't have to worry about exchange rates (lthough some merchants may ask for a convenience if they should write the charge up in dollars...just remember Nance Reagan's advice, just say no.

ellenem

I like to arrive with enough cash to get me from the airport to my first hotel and have a first meal, just in case I have unforeseen trouble with the ATMs. So in the OP's case, I would have enough cash to cover the transportation and a first meal for a family of four.

amer_can

Yes, xyz123 is correct....by all means ask to have your bills in euros or pounds..You get a better rate of exchange and you really do have to watch the cashier/clerks etc. They will try to put the item in a dollar amount. So take care.

StCirq

.

That happens only rarely, so no big deal, but use an ATM, simple answer.