How many euros should I take to Ireland for a 7 day trip?

Jo - Are you asking what you should budget per day for food, Entrance fee & misc? When my wife and I go we start out with about 200 gbp/euro when we arrive. We normaly budget about 150 gbp/euro a day for the both of us(that's on the high side).

200 euro is plenty to start with. We use credit card whenever we can but is necessary to have some cash on hand for maybe buying a snack someplace, buying postcards, etc. Enjoy, Ireland is wonderful!!

You won't need to take much, if any. Just hit the ATM when you arrive. Getting cash from an ATM is the easiest, cheapest way to get local cash. If you want, take enough to last you through your first day so that you don't have to find an ATM immediately. Make sure that you notify your bank when and where you will be traveling so they dont block your card, and you should be fine.

You will probably need cash for any tourist sites. You should look into the ROI's OPW card. If you are going to be hitting many OPW sites, it could be a big money saver. On a 10 day trip, it really paid for itself. It certainly isn't as good of a deal on a 7 day trip. I suggest you do the math. The other question is will you try to use your credit card for meals or a beer in a pub? Will you pay for gas with the credit card? In so many ways, I find life simpler when I can pull out some cash for relatively small euro purchases. Since you probably don't have a chip and pin credit card, you'll be pulling out your ID every time you use your card. If you have a no transaction fee debit card, I suggest you get (as suggested earlier) 200 euro and see how long it lasts. You'll figure out real quickly how much you're spending and how often you'll need to revisit the ATM.

Don't forget to factor in gas.

If you are renting a car in Ireland, note that most U.S. credit cards do not extend their collision coverage in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland. You will need to accept their full CDW coverage if you want to be fully protected. Not sure how much of Ireland you are visiting, but note that the Republic of Ireland uses the Euro as currency. Northern Ireland uses the Pound Sterling.

Thank you all for your posts! We have decided to take 200 euros with us on our trip. We plan on getting them through AAA at an exchange rate of 1.4089 with a $12 processing fee = $293.78. Our bank was 1.39 with a $25 transaction fee. We have to pay cash and order them at the AAA store a couple days before picking them up. We will try to use our CC when accepted, but it will be nice to have a little cash for smaller purchases or where credit cards are not accepted. Larry - good thought about collision coverage. We bought the extended coverage from Sceptre tours since our credit card and AAA coverage did not include Ireland travel.

My Visa credit card insures my husband and any driver he designates to drive entire coverage of CDW. Otherwise it would cost me 18E per day for 20 days....a $450 CAD extra fee! I have a personal letter from my Ins. co and Visa that I am covered...
Jean

Jean, sorry to disagree, most credit cards exclude Ireland. Even though you have letter from them, what happens if you have accident there and then have to fight with insurance company to fight charges??

Jo: The rate you will get today at an ATM in Ireland is $1.31.

I had written confirmation, too, and can tell you that if they later refuse to pay, you are out in the cold with NO coverage, since you have to turn down the coverage from the rental company in order to activate the VISA insurance.

Hi Jo! Not sure if you already left for the trip or not. We just got back from 2 weeks in Ireland. I was also going to get some Euros ahead of time to start the trip but when I found out the charges and exchange rate from AAA and my bank I decided not to do that. We did not take any euros ahead of time. We just went to the ATM at the airport and used our ATM card to get the max we could which was 250.00 I believe. That lasted us almost a week as we used our credit card (not a chip and pin by the way) almost everywhere, restaurants, gift shops, entrance fees.... We were never even asked for ID when using our credit card. We then just used an ATM again in local city/town when we ran low, it was easy and much cheaper than paying the exorbitant rates/fees charged here in the US! Just an fyi, if you are going to northern Ireland, they accept only pounds sterling for cash purchases there. Enjoy - we loved Ireland!!!

I would take 50 euros at that disgusting deal( your bank charges you 12 dollars, really, seems like a crime, you already pay an inflated exchange rate)
At airport use ATM and take out money. I never pack alot of cash around to Europe, I get it there using my ATM card.

I would wait til you get to Ireland and use your debit card at the airport. Your bank will probably charge you some fees, but it will be cheaper than the AAA charge.

My credit union charges the daily rate, on the day that I apply, plus .50 cents to mail a letter. No extra charges. Last summer I bought Euros at 1.24 and the daily rate was 1.24. I took 150 Euro per day for the two of us, about about 2500E worth and another 400 Pounds (went to Edinburgh for 6 days).

I try to use my Capital One debit card,although I have several others,just in case. Capital One does not charge me fees and reimburses the foreign transaction fees. Please note: 1. The exchange rate from the the ATM in Heathrow was worse than in the city-you might want to wait til you are in an area with more ATMs 2. On our October trio to Hadrian's Wall, I took the offered extended liability coverage even though I used my Visa card-I would have had to deny all the coverage offered by the rental car folks and counted on dealing with Visa if I'd had an accident. 11 pounds seemed like a good trade.
3.When in Edinburgh, the ATM fed me Scottish, not English, banknotes. As RS notes, while these are all in pounds, not everyone readily takes them. We ended up going into a bank in Wales and exchanging them for English notes-with funny,askance looks from the tellers. Who would have thought? Kind of like Atlanta not want your Yankee dollars, I guess.

"plus .50 cents to mail a letter"
What's that about? Are you saying that you bought all of your euros ahead of time and took them with you? Wouldn't you have gotten the same rate by just taking what you need out of an ATM as you go?

I know this an older post, but... "The exchange rate from the the ATM in Heathrow was worse than in the city-" Heathrow is one of the exceptions to the "just get your euros/pounds/kroners/etc. at the airport ATM" rule. It's rather sneaky, but those aren't actually ATMs attached to a bank, they're automated exchange kiosks. For the record, the only other airport I've encountered that also has this situation is Copenhagen.