Cash for Excursions

[soccermom4]

I'm booked on several private excursions that ask for USD in cash on excursion day for payment.  I had read that new $100 and $50 bills are preferable.  However, with prices like $85 or $115, what's the best way to handle it?  The excursions are in Falklands, Chile, Argentina and Ecuador.

[TayanaLorna]

1 minute ago, soccermom4 said:

I'm booked on several private excursions that ask for USD in cash on excursion day for payment.  I had read that new $100 and $50 bills are preferable.  However, with prices like $85 or $115, what's the best way to handle it?  The excursions are in Falklands, Chile, Argentina and Ecuador.

We heard the same when visiting there but it was impossible to get $100 or anything larger the $20's.  It is not the denomination but the condition of the bills:. No creases, no tears, no dog ears, no markings of any kind - basically crisp new bills otherwise their banks will not accept them for exchange.

[GeorgeCharlie]

We are presently on the Oosterdam and over the past few weeks, we have visited the countries you listed.

 

What we found is:

 

Ecuador uses USD as its official currency, the condition of bills is not a problem.

 

In Falklands and Chile, the USD is readily accepted, plus you will often get USD back in change. Did not see any concern raised as to the condition of bills.

 

So far, we have only visited the southern city of Ushuaia in Argentina. Again, we did not see concern with bill condition - unless it was in very ragged condition. But we were told that in Buenos Aires the condition of bills is of real concern. This is due to the much higher criminal activity in the central & northern parts of the country. The criminal activity of concern there is with forged large USD bills. Was previously told that the forged bills come from North Korea and to mask their poor quality of forgery, they make the bill to look like they are used bills.

 

Apparently, in Ushuaia there is very little criminal activity. Unemployment is very low, and the population is much more highly educated then the other parts of the country. I was unaware that manufacturing is the major employment driver, with a large industrial park led by Grundig's electronic factory.

 

Our guide pointed out that in Ushuaia homes do not have bars covering the windows, or doors. Plus, their yards were wide open. The houses do not have security fencing/walls around them, as we have seen so far throughout Central America, other parts of South America, along with high crime areas in other parts of the world. He also said people were normally not concerned if their vehicles were locked.

 

In countries where the USD is the official currency, obtaining crisp new USDs, is of course a problem. Whereas, in countries which do use USDs, it is common to get crisp new USDs when you buy the currency through banks and money exchangers. In fact, the large USD bills I purchased for this trip came sequentially numbered. So, if you happen to know someone who is from one of these foreign countries and is travelling on your cruise, maybe you get them to do what I have done in the past, and that is to get them to obtain some new USDs for you in exchange for your slightly used USDs.