Where and when to buy Euros

Just a quick note: you mention England as part of your trip that you need Euros for. They’ll will do you no good at all in England…

I got a few Euros at a bank-connected ATM at the main train station in Amsterdam but to be honest I mostly just used my debit card in most shops and restaurants and barely touched cash.

I can't think of anyone to tip at the airport.
If you must leave a tip to the cab driver (i.e., round up the fare by a few euros no more - no obligation), you can do so by card (just tell the total amount you wish to pay).

Buy $100 (or less) of euro in the US, if you feel uncomfortable having none when you land at the airport. The exchange rate (and commissions) you pay in the US is always unfavorable compared to an ATM in Europe, but on $100 it won't be much more than a handful of dollars.

We use a travel designated CC to withdraw euro when overseas. To avoid any large fees, as soon as it hits the card we pay the bill.
We are in Paris now and very few times have we needed cash. We did have to pay our Paris Walks guide in cash, but that’s about it.

That true, England used pound/sterlling, not Euros. Can I swap any leftover Euros for pounds once we arrive in England? If not, what do I do with leftover either/or? Thx

Thanks. I'm bringing some US $5's and $1.s just in case. Will they accept these in England? I've traveled not a lot but some, and have never had someone refuse an American greenback.

You will barely need cash at all in England. I have used cash twice in the last six months, and I live here. So I wouldn’t bother changing leftover Euros to pounds as you will struggle to use the pounds. Far better just to come armed with a tap-and-go enabled debit card.

Thanks. I'm bringing some US $5's and $1.s just in case. Will they accept these in England? I've traveled not a lot but some, and have never had someone refuse an American greenback.

And no, no one will accept dollars in the UK. It would feel really offensive, like you’re treating us as a third world country happy to accept “greenbacks” as you say. What use would the average Brit have with them? Honestly, I can’t emphasise enough how rapidly the UK has moved to being almost cash-free.

Euros from an ATM, whether at the airport or elsewhere, will be all large bills—usually €50 notes unless you force it to give you a €20 by requesting an amount that is not possible with €50’s. For example, I ask for €90 and get one €50 and two €20’s. But even the €20 is way too big for a tip.

I doubt there will be any luggage porters, and you don’t need to tip the taxi driver. So you can wait until you reach a city bank ATM to withdraw your cash.

We generally get $100 in euros here in the states, then withdraw cash as needed using a Charles Schwab card (no fees) only at bank-associated ATMs. Whatever leftover euro we have at the end of the trip comes home with us for the next time.

Best way to get small change is buy a couple of coffees at the airport with your 20 euro bill.

No one wants American dollars. You are placing the burden of exchange on the person you are tipping, not a great way to show your appreciation of their service.

“ Will taxis and porters accept US dollar tips at the Amsteram airport? “
There are no porters at Schiphol, you will need to manage your luggage yourself. There are luggage carts available, but you don’t need to tip those :-)
Why would you want to tip a taxi driver while you’re still at the airport??? He hasn’t done anything for you yet! Once he brought you safely to your destination, you can tip a few euros by rounding up the fare. For instance if the fare is €47, you pay €50 and tell him to keep the change.

As a general note; the tipping culture in The Netherlands isn’t the same as in the USA. You only tip if you’ve received good service and then you tip a couple of euros. Please don’t tip in dollars, our currency is the Euro, please respect that.

“Also, will ATM's in the city surcharge non-customers?”
The 3 largest banks in the Netherlands, who together operated about 95% of the ATM, started a joint venture called Geldmaat. Geldmaat now operates all of their ATM’s. These ATM’s are bright yellow ATM’s with the name Geldmaat on it.
If you want to withdraw money from these ATM’s from a non-Euro bank account, you either pay a fixed fee of €4 OR you agree to Dynamic Currency Conversion.
The location of all the Geldmaat ATM’s can be found on the website of Geldmaat; https://www.geldmaat.nl/information-english

In Amsterdam there are also other ATM’s around, operated by Travelex etc. These ATM’s charge a higher fee, so they are best avoided.

“Euros from an ATM, whether at the airport or elsewhere, will be all large bills—usually €50 notes ”
This is not true, at least not for the Netherlands. ATM’s contain €10, €20 and €50 bills. Once you’ve selected the amount, you can indicate how you would like to receive this amount. So if you want to withdraw €50 for instance, you can tell the machine that you want 3x €10 and 1x €20. Or 1x€10 and 2x €20. Or 5x €10. Or 1x €50.

Please, please, please, don’t try to use Dollars in Europe. To me that is pretty insulting in First world countries and is kind of a 1950’s thought process. Would any US tourist industry people you know be thrilled to get Euro for a tip? Leave the $5’s and $1’s at home unless you are going to have a wheelchair assist thru a US airport and then you can tip.

Save your Euro for your next trip. I usually leave with 50-100€ so I’ve got seed money for next time. Ditto GBP. I may not leave with that much as this time I’m trying to use Apple Pay or contactless for everything and so far have only made small cash purchases to get Euro coins to tip housekeepers at the hotel and, yes I do that.

You really don’t need cash unless you want to go to coffee shops or the open air markets in Amsterdam. We’ve been here almost a week and have had NO issues using our American Debit cards

I started out my 10 day trip last week in France, then Luxembourg and Germany and finished by getting on a boat in the Netherlands for the trip home to England.

I used no cash in England.

Or France.

Or Luxembourg.

In Germany I used around 12€ cash for us to visit a rebuilt Roman Fort because they were cash only. That's all I used of Euro cash for the trip.

I was feeling short because I was now down to 15€ which I've had floating around for several years and went to an machine in the Netherlands to sort of top up to 100€.

I spend no cash in the Netherlands and just put the Euro in the travel drawer for the next time.

My last trip last year (France, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Germany, France), I spent a few Euro (probably under 10) buying apple pancakes from a fund raiser at the Apple Fest.

So over the last two trips I spend around 20€ in cash total. The previous two trips I spent zero cash.

Living in England, I spent zero Pounds cash in the last 3 or 4 years except one Farm Shop needed cash for a dozen eggs and a couple of vegetables in 2022.

Don't get more cash than you need.