What are your biggest budget travelling annoyances/problems?

Read response #15 then katafrass. Then get the right cards to use.

In general, using credit cards to pay for things and a bank/debit card to withdraw cash from ATMs will ALWAYS get you the best exhange rates. Forget carrying a lot of cash, forget travellers cheques.

Take a couple of hundred $ in 20s for emergencies. Take second cards as backups and keep them separate somewhere. Take photocopies of your cards to help report them lost or stolen. Or scan them and download them to your e-mail account so you could print them out if needed. Do the same with passport,driving license, air tickets, etc.

Depending on where you travel to, you have to use some common sense regarding getting cash along the way. If you are heading for some truly out the back of beyond place where you are not likely to find an ATM then obviously you need to get cash out before you head there.

Just know cards are the best way to access your money and some cards are better than others for exchange as shown in the link in #15.

Travellinstyle46,

all that means kilbar is that you haven't travelled enough to reach the point where you accept things as part of travel.

Yea, that must be it. Or, the places I travel to have a) been changing so rapidly that such information dates rapidly, and/or b) my destinations are sufficiently uncommon that information re- such things as prices is likewise.

Letting little things like outdated information re prices annoy you makes no sense to me.

That suggests two things to me: a) you have no comprehension of budget/shoestring travel, and/or b) you don't spend half your travelling time now doing so with four children, thus having to multiply your costs accordingly.

My points: a) do try not to jump to conclusions, and b) perhaps best not to presume we're all in the same boat.

katafrass,

Depends on where you're hailing from. If that's Australia, would recommend the 28 degrees Mastercard, which has been my primary plastic when OS over the past few years. No transaction fees, which saves a considerable amount over time. Works like credit cards used to - any funds in credit over your limit not charged a cash advance fee when withdrawn.