robrick

Can anyone tell me what the exchange rate is in Puerto Vallarta for Canadian dollars at the Cambio's? What is the current taxi fare from the airport to the Romantic Zone?

cabron

I've heard that the ATMs ar giving around 15 pesos for $CAN, the airport taxi will be 343pesos for up to 3 passengers

suze

Agree with cabron. just took a federal taxi a couple weeks ago from the airport lobby to Zona Romantica. 340 peso (posted was 345 but maybe she didn't have change). will you have peso with you when you arrive? or you are needing to change money right away?

Christina

ATMs don't decide what to give, your bank does. The official exchange rate is 15.55 pesos per CAD, that's all. An ATM can decide to levy a fee of it's own on top of the exchange rate, sure, but that's not the same thing. I have encountered ATMs in Mexico that did that from various banks like Santander.

But the OP doesn't want to use an ATM for some reason. Maybe Canada has bad card fees for doing that. In fact, in Mexico, I have usually gotten fairly decent exchange rates in cambios versus official bank exchange rate. I haven't been to PV in some years so can't speak to it today as to whether that is still true or not. And when I was there, cambios actually gave better rates than banks, as I recall (not ATMs, if you actually exchanged money at the bank itself). Which would make sense since they have lower overhead. And I think banks are not even doing as much of that business as they used to.

I don't really know the point of this question, whatever they give, that's what they give. You can always look around to a few if you want and don't want to use an ATM for whatever reason. It sounds like the OP has been there before in which case I don't think customs will have changed that much, so if they gave an okay rate before, they probably will now. It's not like you need to know ahead of time. And the value of USD and CAD against peso is pretty good right now compared to many times within the past few years.

suze

I don't really know the point of this question, whatever they give, that's what they give

Well one "point" and why I asked the questions I did... is the cambio exchange window right in the PVR airport is well known for having unfavorable rates, less than you can get in town at a normal cambio on the street. You can also usually get a tad more in Centro, than you can in Zona Romantica. Daily rates are always posted.

I was in Puerto Vallarta earlier this month.

baldone

Actually it's the network, not the banks that determine the exchange rate. VISA dominates the ATM processing world; Mastercard #2.

janisj

True - But I think the point is that the machine has nothing to do with the exchange rate. It is your own bank - via the network it to which it is affiliated - that determines the rate.

suze

This person asked only about using a cambio to exchange cash for cash. They did not even mention ATMs.

Two simple questions.

baldone

440 people have read this thread, not just the OP, I assume. What I posted was accurate and may be useful to other readers so they don't go from atm to atm hoping for the best rate. Additionally, the posted exchange rate at banks (and cambios) typically won't reflect the intraday rate (which you can come close to at an atm), but rather the prior day's close. Sometimes banks aren't too concerned about updating the posted rate you'll see in the window since that's not their main business.