Euros or prepaid card

The cheapest and most convenient way to obtain local currency is via a debit card and a local ATM. Prepaid cards tend to have hidden fees and, historically, a bad deal.

Your best deal on getting cash is to use ATMs. If you are concerned about using your regular ATM card, you can start a separate travel account so that it only contains your travel funds. I carry cards from my local credit union (no fees) and an online bank (1%). You won't find better rates than that in a prepaid card. Carrying two cards to two accounts offers you a little backup in case one card doesn't work at a particular machine. too.

We use the ATM debit card and have a small loaded debit account just in case there is a problem with the ATM card. Not all ATMs will take all debit cards all the time. Once in a while, like once in a month you may have a problem so you can use the other card. It happened to us twice in forty-seven days in Ukraine. The second card worked. We put four hundred dollars in the loaded account and that has always been enough.

My suggestion is two ATM cards on different banks. In 2009 my wife made all the calls to her bank before we left the country but the first time she went to use her ATM card it was rejected and the account was frozen. Bank of America dropped the ball and the card didn't work again until she went in person to our local branch. Rather than apologize for their mistake, BofA did point out how happy she should have been that their system had protected her money. We got all our cash for three weeks on my ATM card with a different bank. Actually they should each take about $100 in Euros (mostly small bills) so they are not in the position of starting the trip off looking for an ATM ... there are better ways to start out. Also if they can score some coins they are handy since many public bathrooms are pay facilities.