hi me and my fiancee are off to cancun on honeymoon in august this year and travelling from scotland, we were wondering what currency is best to use? peso's or dollars? i know its mexico so why use dollars, but are things mostly priced in dollars or pesos? cheers
Pesos for sure. Prices are in pesos, your change will be in pesos, you don't have to worry about doing multiple conversions in your head. There are ATMs all over the place where you can withdraw pesos, notify your bank that you will be using your card out of country in order to avoid any problems making withdrawals. Have a great trip!
just got back and I would say Pesos. They all take dollars of course but it really is a lot harder to know if you are getting the correct change in pesos if you give them dollars (the rate changes every single day). Have fun, we did !!!!
I rarely go to Plaza La Fiesta, the big gift store in the hotel, with more than one store actually. But they do price in US Dollars and their exchange rate sucks if you ask about paying in pesos. But as Canuck says, nearly every one else prices in pesos. Many restaurants bring you the check in both pesos and dollars. As ncsurf says, the exchange rate changes every day and it can go in your favor or against you. But the others are correct about paying in pesos. You might want to ask about paying in dollars on larger items as the merchant may need dollars and may be offering a rate that it favorable to you. Main thing is to have a great time on your honeymoon and don'[t worry too much about the exchange rate. Just pay in pesos and you will be fine. If you want a rule of thumb, today the bank exchange rate is $12.78 pesos for $1. So if something is priced at $128 pesos, it's about $10 US. So just multiply the price by 8 and point over two places, or if you are math challenged, multiply by 10, subtract 10% twice and then point over two places. You must be really confused by now.
thanks folks thanks for taking the time to reply. ok ill be taking my bank card then or even UK Sterling travellers cheques as theyll be changed straight into pesos. thanks
Be aware that the travellers cheques may have to be exchanged at the bank and there can be some long waits at the bank. Dont want to spend 30 to 45 minutes in line. Unless your hotel would exchange them. I brought travellers cheques my first time and found them to be a hassle.
notice you are from glasgow clock we are just back and to be honest the best way is to take english notes as scottish ones are not legal tender over in mexico well!! not in cancun anyway. I changed and bought with english notes and got an exchange rate of 18.75 pesos to the pound. I also used my nationwide flexi card and made the big mistake of withdrawing in dollars from the hbsc in the caracola centre instead of pesos as the peso was giving me a far greater return than the dollar. but its swings and roundabouts in some places like its cheaper to give thomsons 50 dollars for coco bongos as against paying them in pesos which for some reason works out dearer. another good point was a taxi from puerto juarez to the riu cancun was only 150 pesos so dont be afraid to use a taxi but ask the fare first. but the logical thing to do is use pesos after all that is the currency for mexico
aye cheers. im just goin to take sterlin travellers cheques. save all the hassle of using dollars and then calculating 3 currencies. might take around $400 just to get me buy if i need it for anything but the rest will be in sterling
tis safer than carrying all that cash on holiday with me though. maybe the ATMs are the best way to go.
What we did was took about 150 pound in pesos =2700 pesos +100pound in dollars =165 to see us throughour first few days and were vere nicely surprised how far it went mostly everybody will carry english money as well for the likes of spends and duty frees etc on the way out plus security in case of needing taxis at your local airport etc on the way back plus more duty frees we then deposited the rest of our spends in to our nationwide account and withdrew from the atms over there. my only mistake as said before was withdrawing dollars instead of pesos first time round but we learned from that. there are atms almost everywhere you look.
