taking Euros from home

It's handy, but there are ATMs at the airport.

I agree with Doug. When and where I travel I purchase at ATM once I arrive.

I am an old engineer by training -- I like redundancy and backup. I like having a hundred Euro in my pocket when I hit the ground. One less thing to worry about. Also I avoid stand alone ATM machines typical of most airports. If I don't have a hundred left over from the last trip, I will bite the bullet and buy a few in the states.

It really depends on how much peace of mind you want when you arrive. There have been many posts on this site on this question. Some travelers really worry. It's really a minor expense to buy 100Euros or so from your bank to make sure you have Euros. For us, we had Euros in advance of our trip. It was our plan to get Euros at an ATM at the Frankfurt airport as we transitioned to our flight to Florence. We remained in a secure area during the transition and there were none. There were none at the Florence airport either so we were just fine with our advance euros when we hopped into our taxi to the hotel.

Look at the newer posts above. Someone has excess Euros. Trade for dollars at the current value and you both save money.

Vanilla or Chocolate? you will always get a 50/50 answer to this question here. Im with the engineer (also one myself) - I like to land with some local $$ for the same reason - one less thing to do upon arrival! You can find a big bank ATM the next day or two. So as to vanilla or chocolate? I like both! cash in hand and atm soon after!

Even pre-Euro always tried to get before leaving home the equivalent of about $100Cdn of the country to which I was travelling. Easier now, it's mostly Euros or GBP instead of Guilders, Lire, Francs, etc. You don't want to arrive, jet-lagged, find the baggage carousel and (hopefully) your luggage, then try to locate an ATM (easy but nonetheless) and also try to figure out a money machine that isn't quite like the ones back home. Save that for the next day in Paris when you're rested and ready to dive into the best croissants you've ever imagined.

With the plunge the dollar is taking, you may want to consider converting even more dollars to euros NOW, and take them with you. I am considering this, as I have a five week work trip in Europe this summer and we could see the dollar fall even more.

I'm with the other Posters who carry at least some Euros as cash from home. I try to always have a stash at home from left over trips...
With the dollar plunge, rather than buying Euros now...I'd rather pay off my high interest debts like keeping my credit card balances at zero or as close to it as I possibly can. It's time to tighten our belts if we want to continue to enjoy European travels in the style in which we've become accustomed!

I agree with the engineers! I usually have to pay for an airport shuttle van when arriving, and need cash for that, and I don't want to spend time after a long flight searching for an ATM at the airport. It's also a good idea to have extra Euros to bring home and use on your next trip, rather than spend them all before leaving, as I have blithely done in the past. No more-- I'm going to bring home as many Euros as I can next time!

I am an engineer with another outlook at the Euro conversion topic - I go to Europe every summer and I have never purchased any European currency ahead of time and have never had a problem getting local cash from an ATM when I land. HOWEVER, given the continued slide of the dollar, I am contacting my bank here to see about purchasing Euros now for my trip in Aug/Sept. What we all go thru just to see the sights of the world! Skip Starbucks and keep on traveling!

Charles, I think we'll do the same! Can't believe it continues to fall.

We always order some before we leave.

After flying for 10 plus hours it's one less thing to think about.

Also, our bank offers this service for 10 dollars flat fee utilizing the interbank rate..we can order as much and as many currency's for that one time fee.

Acutally we ordered when it hit 1.50, so we've already saved a few pennies

I'm ready to purchase some euros in preparation of a trip next fall. I checked with AAA and while it "only" charges $7.50 for any amount of euros, is is also charging a higher conversion rate (about 10 cents on the dollar) than what is posted on the currency converter site that RS references. Does anyone know of a cheaper place to obtain euros here in the states? My credit union doesn't offer them.

Wells Fargo offers a 1.6334 conversion rate today (Euro), plus $8 to ship the currency.

https://www.foreignexchangeservices.com/

Thanks for your insight. I called AAA and it is selling euros for 1.6694 exchange rate. I normally only get a few before a trip but this time I plan to stock up (I'm such a pessimist!) I'll go over to Wells Fargo and buy some.

XE.com reports $1.54 per Euro right now. I understand that you rarely ever find a perfect conversion anywhere, but how do you know what rate you'll get with an ATM? You just do it and find out when you get the bank statement in a month?

The US $ is even getting stronger against our CAN $. Since I'm going to New York for a quick trip in a month, my brother told me to exchange my money early. I'm pretty glad I did. I payed 505$CAN for 500$US (that was a week ago with all charges included). Today, I would have payed about 15$ more. That's quite a big difference for just a week.
That's one of the reasons why I would get more currency from home when the rate is favorable (or at least stable) if you don't mind carrying money around in your money belt. This way you know you won't lose too much money if the rate suddenly drops (though it could do the inverse as well).