We are travelling from the US to Budapest so we plan to get Forints from the ATM at the airport. We have rented an apartment that has a driver who will pick us up at the airport. We are supposed to pay the driver cash in Euros for the apartment. What would be the best way to get the Euros? At an airport exchange or before we leave or ?? We switch planes in London, but I would assume their ATM's only give Pounds.
Posted by
St Petersburg Florida
951 posts
A lot of accommodations state the price in euros but take only forints for payment. I think they do it so we are not turned off by the 15000 forint price per night for the room. 70 euros is way more enticing than thousands of forints.
Posted by
PA
2746 posts
Why not send them an e-mail to find out?
Posted by
Tampa, FL, USA
417 posts
I would send an email. The apartment we rented in Budapest only took Euro, which was not a problem, we just changed some at the airport. Not the best rates, but oh well. Forints are better, of course.
Posted by
Chicago
2876 posts
Kathy - you're right, ATM's in London will only give British pounds. Probably your best bet is to buy the euros from your own bank before you leave. If your own bank doesn't do this, try a major bank like Wells Fargo or Bank of America.
Posted by
Seattle, USA
990 posts
And if you take Tom's advice and buy your euros ahead of time, don't forget to take them with you! Once my husband and I were headed to Australia to an apartment rental on Hamilton Island where the owner wanted cash upfront for the rent. We were worried that there might not be an easy way to get that much Australian cash all at once on the island, so we figured we'd just bite the bullet and get it ahead of time. And we did just that. On the shuttle on the way to the airport, I turned to him and said, "So where are you keeping the Aussie money?" And he looked at me and said, "Don't you have it?" Luckily the apartment owner was nice and let us max out our ATM withdrawals for a couple of days to pay for the rent. And when we got back home, there was the Australian money, neatly clipped together, on the kitchen island, waiting for our return.
Posted by
Tel Aviv
15591 posts
I would definitely check again to see if you could possibly pay in forints or dollars. Try posting on the London Forum of tripadvisor to ask if there are any ATM's at the airport you are flying through that give euros. Some ATMs around the world give you a choice of dollars, euros and local currency.
Posted by
Ottawa
1446 posts
I have used the ATM at Budapest airport and it dispensed only Florints. I would e-mail and confirm that, indeed, Euros are necessary. Then I would order them ahead of time. The exchange rate will, for sure, be poor for buying Euros from an exchange desk in London or Budapest (non-Euro countries).
Posted by
Pensacola
9110 posts
Somebody posted a long time ago (hopefully not the UnspokenOne) that some London airports had euro-dispensing ATM's.