MrVacation

Our first cruise was on the SS Amerikanis of Chandris Cruise Line in February 1976. We sailed on her for a seven day Caribbean cruise out of San Juan. It was a wonderful experience. Our second cruise was on the SS Norway a few years later.

We recently enjoyed a 7-hour tour in Buenos Aires with ToursByLocals guide Elisabet Jeckel. The tour was very comprehensive, well planned and went beyond our expectations. Elisabet is extremely knowledgeable, pleasant and well spoken.

We also booked with Edgar in Ushuaia. We were very pleased with the tour. The guide was informative and the National Park scenery was beautiful.

I would be grateful if any recent visitors to Argentina could tell me the current situation with the local currency and with using U.S. credit cards.

 

Ideally we would just like to use our credit card (no foreign transaction fee) for most purchases and hit ATMs and withdraw smaller amounts of pesos as needed, rather than carry larger amounts of U.S. cash. Our Argentine ports are Buenos Aires, Ushuaia and Puerto Madryn.

 

I have seen confusing information about the "blue market," about buying pesos from shady characters on the street, and ATMs being unreliable and running out of cash. I suspect that some of this info is dated, so any recent experiences would be helpful.

 

We will also be in Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Peru and Ecuador, and I believe ATMs and the use of credit cards will be dependable in those countries. But if anyone has information to the contrary, I'd appreciate a heads-up.

 

Thanks to all,

 

Roger

We just arrived home last week from a 14-day Zaandam SA cruise. We found that credit cards were readily accepted in Chile, Uruguay and Argentina in most shops and larger restaurants. Many but not all street /market vendors would accept US cash but some of course were local currency only. Generally a gratuity could not be added to a restaurant charge so we would leave a tip in local currency. We often tipped tour guides with US cash, especially if the tour was paid for in US dollars. Based on our experience, flat-rate transportation arranged inside a cruise or airport terminal could be paid for with US cash or credit card but cabs with meters were local currency only. We purchased enough currency for Chile and Argentina to meet our needs, from a local currency exchange before leaving home so we did not use an ATM while we were away. We did leave home with a fairly large amount of US cash but used money belts while travelling to and from SA. When touring locally we carried only small amounts of cash and utilized the safe in our cabin or at the hotel.

Keith

Does anyone know why the change is being made? It appears that Valparaiso is a much better choice for tourism so I'm wondering what has prompted this apparent change.

Thanks

Cheers!

This link may help to explain the situation.

http://www.seatrade-cruise.com/news/news-headlines/valparaiso-cruise-calls-at-risk-on-berthing-labor-issues.html