! Is the US dollar-Euro exchange rate better than last Sept.?
 

Don't yell at me...I am "old' -sort of !! Can't remember what the exchange rate was last Sept...My grand-daughter handled the money.
I thought it was $1.50 equalled one Euro??
am I even close?

The rate is MUCH better now. It is hovering just over $1.22 per Euro. The easiest way to check the rate, IMO, is to go to http://www.xe.com/ The site will also produce graphs, so you can track the trends.

I just sent a deposit on an apartment in Paris, and my few weeks indecision over which apartment to book saved me about 12% as the rate fell. That will buy me a glass of wine or two!

:-)

And the pound too. I'm kicking myself for prepaying my hotel for Oct a month or 2 ago!

As a French citizen, I'm very happy I booked my hotel in Brighton (for July) a couple of months ago...

Coco -

As a French citizen, what the heck are you doing going to Brighton ??

-Kevin

p.s.: hope your season is going well...

Here's a site I like because you can enter a time period and look at the fluctuation. I found this because someone told me historical the Euro goes up in the summer due to tourist season. Fun to look at:

http://www.oanda.com/currency/historical-rates

Doesn't everyone on Fodor's check the exchange rate of the dollar against the euro and the pound every day, or am I just weird? And I do that even now when I have no hope of going to Europe for at least another year.

I really really really want to go to Europe but I foolishly scheduled a trip to San Antonio in July and another to Hawaii in late October. Right now I don't dare take any money out of my savings, which are in mutual funds.

I'd cancel the Hawaii ticket, but it and one of my hotels is already paid for.



Have I mentioned that I really really really want to go to Europe?

Peg, I agree, I thought everyone who posted on Europe boards checked as well.

My wife an I finally agreed on a trip to Paris for March 2011 last November, when rates were @ $1.52. I see they are at $1.195 today, which turns out is a great $325.00 savings on the apartment were looking at.

I'm of a different mind. I plan my trips based on schedule, cash in bank, etc.. While I know the exchange rate (I purchase a lot of items from there), I don't factor this into my planning. I get my euros from an ATM when I'm there.

I'm thinking that people who follow the rate end up: buying euros now/booking now...then follow the rate, if it gets better, they keep regreting having bought "early". Or don't buy and get in a tither, should I buy today, or wait a week, or...

Why "ruin" a holiday such that when you are there, you keep thinking...this cup of coffee would have been 10 cents cheaper if I had waited a month. :)

In the end, with airfare paid in my local currency, A swing of...10%, might mean an extra...$20 a day? Should I care a lot or a little?

And since none of us are FOREX experts...

I was in Europe at the end of September and our poor dollar wasn't worth anything..I need to buy some Euro now that their values are low.

I think for some people who are on a tight budget, the better exchange rate allows them some wiggle room.

We were in Europe last September and the rates were near $1.50. It certainly didn't stop us from having a great vacation but it will be nice to save a little money this year.

I've already saved $60 on our rental car by calling AutoEurope and having them rebook our car at the lower advertised rate.

I use coupons at home and comparison shop to save a few bucks. Why would I not care about this when I go on vacation?

Oh dear ...


Seems Bettyk doesn't recognise humour ?

And her comment at 10.36 has already been deleted.

Peter

If you call that humour then no I didn't recognize it.

Seems the moderators did ?

While $20 a day on a 10% change won't make or break most of us, it can be significant for some travelers at the margin. Besides which, going from $1.20 for a euro to $1.55 or vice versa is about a 25-30% swing in a relatively short time.

Paul,
Agreed.

In Feb/09 the exchange rate was 1.28...if I had bought then for a trip that October, the rate in October was 1.50. You would have saved 17%...minus commissions.

But what if in October/09 I decided, buy then, the US$ is collapsing, bet in before it gets even worse...and the rate today is 1.19. I would have been wrong by 26% PLUS commissions. Oops.

So how do you know the direction the currency is going? Ask sombody in October and they would have been very negative and feeling like should lock in then...and they would have been wrong.

I guess I'm saying, it's a gamble. What happened in the last few months may not keep happening (part of any financial small print!)

Even today, if you were to go out and buy 1000 euro, you would probably pay a 5-7 % commission. If the currency did not move a cent between now and your holiday...you would have overpaid by about 3 or 4 % versus getting it at an ATM while in Europe. Nothing happened...and you "lost" money.

My example of a daily cost is to put it into a number that makes it more down to earth.

For example....assuming 150 euro for a hotel and 150 euros for meals,etc per day.

With my first example above, that ~12% savings is $36 a day...not bad. Pays for a meal a day!

My example of buying on October...a %31 loss is $93 a day...ouch.

A $129 a day swing depending on whether you guessed right.

"OUCH' was undoubtedly the word that I kept saying every day while I was in Europe last October..

I'm hoping for euro-dollar parity by this September for my Italy trip... c'mon, U.S. Dollar, let's go!

As Wesley said to Inigo Montoya: "Learn to live with disappointment." The Euro is currently at $1.27 - no way it's going to be anywhere near parity anywhere near September. I wish it were otherwise, but that's just the way it is.