I have had this website for converting money before from Fodors,but cannot locate it now. Putting it on the Europe forum as I need to convert US dollars into euros. I am finding the hotels in Italy to be expensive if you pay in Euros.
Also used the website in Costa Rica to get colons into US $.
Thanks.

http://www.xe.com/ucc/

http://www.xe.com/ucc/

www.exchangerate.com is my favorite.

Let my make sure I'm understanding your statement. You say you are finding hotels in Italy to be expensive if you pay in euros. The euro is the currency of Italy, so how else would you pay? Surely you don't think you'll get a better deal by paying in dollars? Please help me to understand where you're coming from in case I'm not reading this right.

If you type "currency converter" into any search engine you get a long list of options

I think what Maryanne1 is getting at is that when you convert the euros into USD, what looked like a reasonable price is actually more expensive than you thought.

My favourite tool is http://www.oanda.com/convert/cheatsheet - you plop in the target and home currencies, and it produces a nifty little "cheat sheet" that you can cut out and put in your wallet, so you can refer to it while you're travelling.

I like the Oanda site because it's so easy to get historical values. Note that there are slight differences between the values xe.com and oanda.com provide - I'm not sure why.

Oh and another nifty feature of the cheat sheet is that you can insert your own margin, depending on what is meaningful to you. For example, my credit card tacks on a 2.5% premium on foreign currency transactions (bastards!), so I put that in there, and the cheat sheet reflects this premium.

OK, thanks for clarifying that, goatee.

Thanks so much, Goatee. That is exactly what I meant. On the internet sites such Orbiz, Expedia, etc. prices for the sme hotel are given in US dollars whereas if you go to the hotel's website it is in Euros which you would expect. I certainly understand other currencies as I have traveled in Europe, Asia, Latin America,but it is confusing because the Euro as bounced from rate to rate. In Munich I saw my hotel bill go up over a few days time so it is difficult to know many times exactly what to plan.

With the US dollar being so volatile these days, I wonder if U.S. banks are going to start offering accounts and credit cards billed in euros.

Funny, goatee.

Since the introduction of the euro, I have gone to Europe about twice a year. It is depressing to see how the US$ has sunk against the euro and GBP. I liked it in 11/2002 when I went to Italy and the US$ was roughly the same as the euro. It was nice not having to do math when looking at a price!! I wonder if we'll ever see that again....

Well, it is feasible.. for years here in Canada, many people saw the U.S. dollars as much stronger and more desirable, so many people who travel frequently to the U.S. get U.S. dollar bank accounts and credit cards that are offered by Canadian banks, meaning that their transactions are going to be much more predictable. Now, coming from a height of CAD1.60=USD1 to the current rate of about CAD1.28=USD1, I'm not so sure these USD products are such a good idea now (but I digress)

Oanda.com

Do you have a PocketPC? Check out this free download that automatically updates its conversion tables from the European Central Bank:

http://www.indecka.com/software/currencyconverter.exe

While I can understand the concern about the Euro versus the dollar, if you recognize that a large reason why the dollar has declined versus the Euro is related to relative interest rates, then that reduction in your purchasing power while in Europe is the price you pay for having been able to refinance your mortgage at rates of 5% of less the last few years.

I realize there is a good side to a weak dollar, as my father owns a business that exports it's products. This makes our products cheaper overseas, so he has been able to sell a lot more. Speaking as a tourist, it sucks. But speaking as a homeowner, I am enjoying that money I saved by refinancing last year.