Getting stuck in an airport without any local currency? It nearly happend to us and it could happen to you. We were flying to Brazil and didn’t get any currency in advance. We had various bank and credit cards with us and assumed we would be able to get money at a cash machine when we landed. At Heathrow my wife suggested we get a little bit of money just in case. I think she was more worried about getting cash from a machine late at night when we arrived in Brazil rather than the fact that we might not be able to get any out at all. We went to three currency exchange bureaus at the airport and none of them had any Brazilian Reas. Luckily the fourth had about £120 worth and we got it all. Afterwards on the plane we heard complaints from other people that they hadn’t been able to get any.
When we finally arrived in Brazil we decided to get some more currency at the airport. There were about 4 cash machines from different banks and we had 3 different debit cards and another 3 credit cards. We didn’t think there’d be any problem. Especially as there was a HSBC cash machine and we had a HSBC debit card. We were wrong after about 20 minutes of trying we gave up and went to our hotel. Luckily we had the currency we managed to get at Heathrow to pay for the taxi ride. The next day we spent our first morning in Rio trying to get cash and luckily after much walking and trying different banks, we eventually managed to get some. However it was not the start of the holiday we had anticipated.
So the moral of the story is to make sure you always take enough money with you to tide you over for at least a few days. If you’re travelling soon I recommend Travelex to check exchange rates and get money delivered to your door.
