Large amount of money due at start of trip

If you open an account with www.xe.com/fx, you can have a bank draft in euros mailed directly to the B&B. I use my account to send money to relatives in the UK and to pay deposits for B&Bs that don't take credit cards. Money is taken by electronic transfer from my checking account, a bank draft is issued in the currency of my choice, and the draft is mailed to the recipient of my choice. The exchange rate is only slightly higher than the international rate on the day the transaction is processed. There are no other fees (unless I were to choose to do a wire transfer). For security reasons it takes some time and effort to set up an account, but everything goes smoothly and swiftly after that.

The other options (in addition to what Tim has described) is: 1) get the euros by pre-arrangement from your bank here, before you go (there will be fees); or 2) some B&Bs will accept a travelers check, don't do this unless they say they will (I'm not suggesting using travelers checks for anything else, almost nobody wants them anymore).

I don't have any problems travelling with many Euros. Just "hide" them in a safe place inside your coat or monet belt and you will be fine.
There is a company called Western Europe we can s. You pick up the monet at your destination in that country's currency.Last time when I checked the fee were quiet high. For $500 was $50 fee.

We're going to the ATM (maybe several if there's a limit on the machine) when we get there to get the balance on one of our apartments. I'll also be doing the same later in the week for a private tour that we've booked. As RS's says, taking large sums out is easy and better because you only get charged the one transaction fee. You can even do this at the airport.

Nancy:

If you are planning on making more than one withdrawl per day you need to be aware than most, if not all, ATM's will only allow one per day per account and that may be for a relatively small amount. You should consider having several different ATM cards if you need a large amount all at once.

Or arrange with your bank to increase your withdrawal limit while you are gone.

Arranging a higher limit with your bank can helpful, but don't rely on it. We noticed in recent trips that some banks set the ATMs with lower limits. We found many times that we couldn't withdraw anywhere close to our limit in the equivalent amount of Euros. Locals in several places told us that the machines in many popular places are limited because tourists were withdrawing all the money. They also said that some places were implementing restricted machines to ensure locals could use them. We didn't believe it until we were in Bruges and noticed some of the machines would not take non-European ATM cards no matter what network they were on. It was kind of funny seeing the locals heading to any ATM (there were plenty of them) and then a long line of foreign tourists at the one outside the Post Office.

Wire the money. Fast, simple and fairly reasonable price (my credit union wanted $30 but my brother's bank did it for $20). You might ask what the exchange rate will be (ask if it is the interbank rate). If it is good as compared to ATM rate, then wire extra after arranging with B&B to refund you the overpayment in cash on arrival.

opps. made a imistake
The name of the company s Western Union, not Western Europe.

Thank you all so much usfor your thoughtful responses. They are appreciated and have helped sort this out.

Jeff- What's a "small amount"? I'm wondering what the smallest limit you've found on these machines is? RS's suggests taking out a weeks worth of money needs at a time (so how does he do this)? I know we can use CC on most purchases but ie. I need 450 euros in cash for our Normandy tour. And can't I just go to several different banks ATM machines if I haven't reached my US Banks limit on my card for the day?

In a couple of places we found that 100-200 euro (well under my card's limit) was the most that the machine would give us and that for the next 24 hours, not just the next day, NO machine, even in a different town, would work.