nytraveler

Dottiman -

I don;t know what planet you live on - but there is now way you traveled all over europe on this earth using only dollars. (Unless you were on a tour and only paying the tour guide for extras in dollars.)

Very few places in any of the countries you listed will take dollars at all - and at the few very tourist-oriented shops that would you would get a truly dreadful rate of exchange.

(Are you actually claiming that you took the Paris metro by paying with dollars, or used them at a local restaurant in Spain, or on the train or in a cab anywhere???)

This is too ridiculous for words.

So - either you are "misspeaking" yourself or you have a really bad memory.

And based on some of the other comments - you need to do some serius reading before you go anywhere else.

Or perhaps - just a very unfunny troll?

FainaAgain

"Is it necessary to convert US Dollars to British Pounds or can US Dollars be used in Britian?" - unfortunately, the "real money" are not accepted there.

Were you on an all-inclusive tours of those countries listed, where the tour guide asked to pay for optionals in US currency and local guides accepted it too?

easytraveler

Maybe dottiman very carefully dyed the US bills before going over there.

Then, spent the dyed money in Europe - and only the locals got confused!

I kinda like the purple bills ...

rex

I suppose that if you simply pay for everything denominated in euros by just multiplying by two, and offering that amount in dollars - - well, then, yes, perhaps they're "accepted" in more places than we might imagine.

As elaine suggests, I guess I would take pounds sterling as interchangeable for dollars, if I were a restauranteur, and some English visitor insisted on paying that way!

Best wishes,

Rex

crefloors

Harrods offers to let you pay in dollars. I wasn't interested in that so I don't know if they would actually take US currency or they were going to charge your credit card in dollars instead of pounds. Also, when we were at the Tower of London, my brother saw a sketch he wanted to buy and idiot that he is he had not gone to the ATM and only had dollars. He was "singin' the blues" until the artist said he was happy to take his dollars because he was going to Philidelphia in a couple of weeks. I paid no attention as to whether he adjusted the price...if not..oh well. The last instance where I saw dollars being spent was in Lucerne. We were on a tour that trip and there is a huge store there and they opened at night especially for the tours. Nothing there that I wanted but there were a zillion Japanese tourist and this one guy was buying watches and jewelry like crazy and was paying cash with American dollars. He had a wad of bills on him that would chock a mule. I was fascinated. These all were unusual circumstances. dottimann is not the ONLY one who has ever asked that question and it just always kind of amazes me when I see someone asking it.

suze

<I have traveled to France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Holland and the only place, I ever had to exchange currency was in Holland.>

I too am very curious. Were you traveling with a tour? Did you always use a charge card? What kind of places were you spending US dollars?

I simply can't believe you can travel in all those countries paying for hotels, eating in local restaurants, shopping in stores, and paying in US Dollar. Something about this just does not make sense.

FainaAgain

Maybe the OP meant DCC not cash? Do they charge credit cards in Euros only in Holland?

chatham

Many,many years ago when I lived in Greece, we wanted American dollars as we could not take out of Greece more then I think $200. At that time nobody wanted drachmas. I had to bring a child of mine to the States for surgery and my husband would ask his American patients( he practiced in Greece) to pay him in dollars so he could send the dollars to me. The Greek government did let him convert some drachmas for the medical bills. The physicians here gave us medical courtesy and the hospital(Emory) was kind enough to wait for the payments. Also my parents helped out when it was needed. Believe me at that time dollars were very welcomed in Greece. Really in 1996 on a trip back, I could use dollars for tips, taxis. Now course the Euro is king.

chatham

topping

aschie30

Patrick - I think you're on the money (no pun intended). There's NO way dottiman traveled around Europe, ordered coffee at a cafe or rode the metro, for example, and paid for all of this in dollars UNLESS she was on one of those tours that traipsed you around in a bus to all the sights and where they include every last crumb in the price. Thus, the only other things she probably purchased were tchochkes (sp.?) in the gift shops where they gladly accepted good ol' US dollars at jacked up rates.

dottimann

I can't believe there are so many nasty people on this site. I asked the question because I obviously want to do the correct thing.

In response to my traveling to all those other countries, yes I was on cruises for all of the places that I visited and now I can see why I didn't have any problems. Yes, I probably paid too much for things using the dollar and I knew it at the time. I used my credit card in those countries for most purchases.

crefloors

Well, I've only done one tour and other than those kind of "strange" circumstances, we needed local currency in every country or our credit cards. No one was looking to take our dollars and actually I think all I had was about 40.00 for "going home" money and never considered tying to pay for anything with American money. As far as the Japanese in Lucerne...I don't know WHAT that was about, they weren't in our group. As far as tours go, I get kind of tired sometimes of people constantly putting down tours. Personally, I went on my own my second trip to Europe because that's what I wanted to do. Tours can be a good value and you don't know everyone's circumstances. Maybe people choose because of convenience, or maybe they are elderly and not in the best of health, have never been to Europe and they want to go..time is getting short..they may need the assistance that your get with a tour, the luggage handling, not having to worry about trains, planes, map reading...maybe the eyesite isn't so good anymore..so what should they do? Stay home? Sit in the rocker until they die? People pick their travel style for a lot of different reasons and some people just need to get over themselves.

Neil_Oz

"Nasty people", dottimann? If you're genuine, they've been too kind. (But I suspect you're a troll who knows that previous posts of this nature have drawn flak.)

Robespierre

Yes, you can still pay for things all over the continent and Great Britain using U.S. dollars.

Hand the clerk/server your credit card. When (or, rather IF) you are asked if you want to pay in dollars, say "yes."

You will be given the "special exchange rate" reserved for U.S. tourists.

&gt

rex

Now that we have heard the explanation (which, it seems is actually more than one explanation, including use of a credit card and NOT cash from the US), I'll apologize, as one of many who participated in "piling on".

And I will say in that certain kinds of establishments (most notably bars), the willingness to take US dollars runs rather loose, in direct proportion to the over-indulgent, free-spending and generous tipping behaviors exhibited by the cuwtomers (imbibers). The servers already know the value of being able to communicate (some) in English... so, when asked "will you take this Benjamin Franklin and bring another bottle for the table?" I'm sure they know what to do.

suze

dottimann- i think any 'nastiness' came because your posts only 1/2 explained your situations.

Even to the current question about Great Britian, it still depends. Maybe you can get buy with if hotels and transportations are pre-paid and by using a credit card, you may not need to exchange dollars to pounds for this trip either.

Again back to the original question, you don't need to "convert" but you can use an ATM card upon arrival in London and withdraw pounds directly at that time.

suze

oops- can get BY (not buy ~LOL)

elaine

"I have traveled to France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Holland and the only place, I ever had to exchange currency was in Holland. Everyone in the other countries accepted US dollars, so you see why I posted my question."

"In response to my traveling to all those other countries, yes I was on cruises for all of the places that I visited and now I can see why I didn't have any problems. Yes, I probably paid too much for things using the dollar and I knew it at the time. I used my credit card in those countries for most purchases."

So, the travel to all those countries was on cruise stops, and the 'everyone' was whoever sold him things on the cruise excursions, and as it turns out, mostly a credit card was used. Guess that vast travel experience got scaled back a bit. I think there would have been quite a different response here if the OP had called himself strictly a cruise traveler from the get-go, and that he wasn't experienced with how to handle cash transactions. As the question was posed, I think the reactions are understandable.

Marilyn

"I think there would have been quite a different response here if the OP had called himself strictly a cruise traveler from the get-go, and that he wasn't experienced with how to handle cash transactions."

So true, Elaine! For years I have seen fodorites be kind and helpful to new travelers asking the most basic of questions. We are also exceptionally good at sniffing out inconsistencies and knowing when there is more to the story.

suze

Answering this post has been like aiming at a moving target ;-)