There's no chance of us joining the Euro. Our economy is out of synch with Europe's (and no we aren't a part of "Europe"). It would be madness to join.

Plus johnny Europe is a bum pinching coward that smells of garlic.

<There's no chance of us joining the Euro. Our economy is out of compliance with the financial requirements needed to join the Euro Zone>

and will be for the foreseeable future so it's a non issue. Poland will qualify before England does.

Maybe England needs a new Marshall Plan from the Yanks again

I say England because London is where all the banks are and the root of all financial evil in the U.K.

Scotland and Wales will now be better off than ever before as independent countries using the Euro, like Eire does.

poor, poor us. we were so smug when the US started to have problems. now we are headed for ruin and we have had to shut our smug mouths pretty quickly.

we are just not dynamic. we don't have the energy to shake off the mould and reinvent ourselves. we are stuffed. let's all give up. we are doomed. we're iceland without the fit birds.

God save the Queen. This may be bad news for those who live in the UK. But it's good news for those of us who are planning a visit to the UK!

I'm planning a trip to Europe soon, and have been wanting to take a trip to the English countryside and to Wales. The exchange rate has certainly impacted my travel plans. I'm also keeping my fingers crossed.

Okay, so if we're pretty sure we're going to be in England and Scotland in June, should we buy our Heritage passes now? I know no one can say with any certainty whether the pound will stay this low...

The pound will vanish and the dollar will vanish too, so why care about future "exchange rates". Game over, reset to zero. Enjoy, and don't worry about yesterdays problems.

Let me ask you a question assuming you're from the USA....

Last summer, everybody was predicting a catastrophy regarding oil prices and heating oil for this winter....oil was about $150/barrel and predicted to go higher. Many people decided the prudent thing to do was to lock in the current price and signed a futures contract for home heating oil.

Well we know what happened.

Last summer, some were predicting the USD was on the verge of collapse and was headed for $2 = €1 and it was urged people buy their euro then to lock in the "good" rate of $1.60. And many did.

Look how they're feeling now.

Does anybody really really know? If you're happy with the price today, lock it in but realize it could go up...it could go down.

If it goes up and you locked in the rate, you'll feel like a genius.

If it goes down and you locked in the rate, you'll feel stupid.

As I said I felt great last week. My hotel bill for 6 nights was £348 and it was converted to USD on the day I charged it at $1.44...I felt I had done realy well till I followed the currency exchange and realized that if I had timed my trip one week later, I would have saved $25 or thereabouts on the hotel alone. Damn, I thought but then I realized one has no way of knowing now does one.....All I could tell myself was that when I first planned the trip, I figured $696 for the hotel so I saved almost $200 over what I expected to pay...

Welcome back logos...

What happened to your $2 euro?

Can't win them all eh.

I'm waiting for it every day now. So fascinating. I've shifted all I own out of those doomed currencies, except for some everyday needs. Going to be over soon. :-)

...and where are you stashing your millions now? Perhaps in Chinese currency...my prediction...by summer, the USD and Euro will be almost equal.....with sterling at about $1.20....

>Chinese currency
Do you trust them? I wouldn't. They have all the power. I sold my yen (wasn't much anyway) and put quite some money in gold. Gold may go down, but will recover fast. Maybe it shoots up, then I'll sell to buy back later. No stocks right now! Far too risky.

Feels like Scrooge Mc Duck, ;-) ;-)

&quot;<i>should we buy our Heritage passes now?</i>&quot;

Can't tell you since none of us know how low (or high) the &pound; will be in June.

But if you DO decide to buy now -- be sure to purchase it from a site quoting in &pound; and not $.

The $ prices of the GBHP were set back several months when the exchange was worse. So the current &pound; prices are significantly less than the $ price.

If I was heading to the UK this month I'd wait and buy the GBHP when I landed at LHR. In real money terms it would be about 20% cheaper than buying it from the States.

But it's a crap shoot - if the &pound; continues to drop, it would be even cheaper to buy it in June.

CAPH, I've seen those passes going for very little on eBay. Might be worth a look. Caveat emptor, naturally.

I'd personally never buy a GBHP on the resale market (eBay or Craig's list or whatever) - it would be waaaay too easy to end up w/ a pass that was already exhausted . . . .

And plenty easy to dispute a scam on eBay with Paypal. I did not suggest Craig's List. Worth a try for the prices I've seen (under $20 US), regardless.

not really - you would not know if the pass was used up until you tried to use it -- not all that convenient to protest w/ paypal until you are back home. And in the mean time you'd have to buy a full priced pass anyway.

IMO there are economies and false economies.

Thanks, Janis. Sounds like good advice!

Do what you like, janis. CAPH can do the same.