I am flying to Honduras tomorrow. I see that many places put prices in both currencies. Should I bother exchanging money into Lempiras? Do you get better deals in Lempiras? How much would one suggest to start us off? Is the airport the best places to exchange?
Thanks guys
i think you get a better rate converting and I have found that ATMs give the best rate. However, you can check what they are paying on the street by buying a few inexpensive items on the street and ask them how much in both lempiras and USD, in Nicaragua we found that on the Caribe coast they were paying more on the street than we were getting through the ATMs.
On the Bay Islands, you'll be able to use dollars in some places, especially Roatan. But yeah, the places that accept dollars usually end up charging you more than if you paid in Lemps. On the mainland, focus on using Lempiras, because you will almost always get screwed on the exchange rate if trying to use dollars.
I think they typically use 17 or 18 to the dollar if you pay in dollars instead of lempiras, and they are feeling fair. You are maybe losing about 5 percent here, but since you would almost certainly have lost something buying the lemps in the first place , it is a bit less than that in practice. However, if you have only dollars they might be obstinate and use a worse rate, or round up to the next dollar, or even refuse to accept it at all. Strongly advise getting some lempiras as soon as possible. There are street changers, but I didn't use them since I have a good ATM card which lets me get local currency without commission. When I left for Nicaragua and I had a few lemps left over, the border changers initially offered me 9 cordoba to 10 lempira, more than a 10% loss. I bargained one of them down to 19 c. for 20l. I don't know what rate the locals will get if they are changing a lot.
Edited by: 14mph
I would use my ATM, check out your fees first and figure out how much you will need to take out for it to be worth while.
My experience was that Lempiras and USD could be used interchangeably everywhere we went (Roatan, La Ceiba, Sambo Creek, Copan). Everywhere from street vendors to Sosa airlines would quote in both prices. It seemed my friend and I always had opposite currency, if I had $'s she had Lemps or vice versa... so we almost always got both quotes. Restaurant bills almost always in both currencies. The exchange rate was always 20:1, either direction, everyone seemed quite indifferent if they received either one.
It maybe worth noting that we never purchased anything of any significant value, so if we suffered a small loss in the exchange rate it wasn't worth calculating or worrying about.
Finally, don't worry if you end up at the airport when you leave with Lemps, the bank will exchange it back for USD. If you leave on a Sunday like we did, use the currency exchanger guy (his formal title!), we got almost exactly the bank rate. It is above board in case you were worried, the tourist police actually pointed him out to us when we asked about exchanging currency.
Have fun!
It is the usual drill. You should use local currency as much as possible or you will get ripped off for every little purchase and this adds up. Use an ATM or change money at a bank at your first opportunity. Only you can decide how much you need. Don't take out too much or too little.
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Can also add that when exchanging US$ for Lps upon arrival at the small bank branch inside the airport, there was no % fee on the transaction as found in most countries. Also when needing more money in a place like Gracias, where there were no Casas de Cambios or obvious ATM's, you'll need to time your transaction at the local bank when they're open; still no exchange fees.
Enjoy your trip!
I would say bring American $. Hondurans are pretty lazy and not willing to do the conversion work. The exchange rate is 18.89 L to $1. Rather than compute that they just round it to 20 L to the dollar(especially in Roatan). So $10 gets you about 200 L, but if you brought 200 L from the US the best you would pay would be $10.58. And that's only if you can get the $ at the exact exchange rate. More like $12.
I brought $600 in Lemps and wish I would have brought Dollars. I'm heading to Honduras in a week and a half and will be bringing $.
Good luck