Machu Picchu and Money

[katz]

We will be doing a pre-cruise for three days in Machu Picchu. Will we be able to use American dollars for purchases or should I plan to get nuervo sol?

 

Thank you for your help.

[1982CruzStart]

We did a trip to Machu Picchu last year and mostly used USD and credit cards. We did convert some money to local currency to use when buying from small vendors. One thing to keep in mind when traveling in SA is that to use USD they must be crisp and virtually new or the locals will not take them. What we were told was that their banks will not accept USD unless they are unblemished even to the extent of not wanting them to be folded. As well take smaller bills. You may have trouble using $50 bills and especially $100 bills as there is a lot of counterfeit large bills there so they don't like to accept them.

Because we are from Canada we buy USD each trip so they are usually always brand new. We really lucked out as we had arranged a lot of private tours so had the crisp currency the tour guides required.

[katz]

Thanks 1982. Now I know to save my brand new dollars that we got for our China trip this summer. We were told that the vendors would only take crisp, new bills, but they didn't mind what condition the money was in.

 

Thanks, also, for letting me know that the tour guides require new money. I had not thought of that. They only said that we should pay in cash, but didn't say anything about new bills.

[1982CruzStart]

We weren't told in advance either. We found out when members of our tour group went to pay and the tour guide said the bills offered were not acceptable. One lady had to search through all her cash to find bills that the tour guide would take. That is also when we found out they wouldn't take $100 bills. They reluctantly took one brand new $50 bill from us. We were able to get some acceptable smaller bills from the ship's office when we went there to exchange larger bills.

[Glendakayself]

I have been corresponding with several private tour companies concerning tours in Lima. I always ask what form of payment they will accept. I offer to pay in local currency, with credit card, or American dollars. The answer is always new, crisp American dollars.

 

Thanks for the info on denomination of the bills. I hope $20 bills will work.

[as19111]

This is a real concern to me. We have a six day MP land tour and a 14 day cruise. So far, we are signed up for 4 private tours. These tours are not cheap. If I only pay in $20 bills or less, we are carrying a thicker stash of cash than if we could bring $100s or $50s. I feel like we have the movie version of a brief case full of bills along for the trip!!

 

I need to start collecting these bills now so I'll have enough by the time we leave!

[1982CruzStart]

This is a real concern to me. We have a six day MP land tour and a 14 day cruise. So far, we are signed up for 4 private tours. These tours are not cheap. If I only pay in $20 bills or less, we are carrying a thicker stash of cash than if we could bring $100s or $50s. I feel like we have the movie version of a brief case full of bills along for the trip!!

 

I need to start collecting these bills now so I'll have enough by the time we leave!

 

You could always contact the private tour operators and ask them if they will accept new $50 or $100 bills. Some may do that.

You are going to have a great time. Loved MP.

[as19111]

Thanks for your kind reply. If I wasn't reading these boards, I would only have large bills. What's a tour operator to do when that's all you have?

 

I will contact them and see what's acceptable.

[1982CruzStart]

Thanks for your kind reply. If I wasn't reading these boards, I would only have large bills. What's a tour operator to do when that's all you have?

 

I will contact them and see what's acceptable.

 

On one tour before we knew about them not accepting large bills all we had was a brand new $50 bill and limited small bills. They reluctantly took our $50 i think because it was obviously brand new. In another instance a fellow passenger didn't have new bills and she had to go through all her money until she could find enough small bills that were in good enough shape for the tour guide to accept.

I don't know what we would have done if they didn't accept the bills. We made sure from then on that we brought a supply of $20 or smaller bills on every tour. Thankfully overall we had brought enough.

Because we are from Canada we always have to buy USD before traveling and 99% of the time they are brand new bills. We just lucked out.