amount of money

[jeeva]

hi, my friend and i are going on a trip around Europe for a month but we're not sure how much money to take in travellers cheques and euros. we both have bank accounts with money in and we are staying in inexpensive hostels.

[morg_monster]

In general these days cash is preferred to travellers cheques, especially if you aren't going to be living it up in big hotels.  Small businesses don't usually like them and so you may find problems in acceptance, especially if you go to non-Euro countries.  You may wish to take some money in travellers cheques for an emergency - but really, it is not as if you are going to the middle of nowhere, I wouldn't bother.

I would stick to using cash.  A method which is often trumped on these pages and which I can personally recommend is to open a Flex-account with Nationwide.  Their Visa-delta / Link debit card can be used in ATMS worldwide and they do not charge a penny.  This is brilliant as it means you do not have to get out loads of cash everytime to minimise the charging.  Their exchange rates are also very good.  Check their coverage in Europe though first - I have never actually used mine in Europe.