How much cash do you take?

[LisaAJ]

Hi All

Just finalising out spending money and wondered how much US cash I should take. Most of our spending money will be in our travel card but wanted some $$. Is $1000 too much?

 

[losfp]

Well, $1000 would be extravagant for a day, but a bit light on for 8 weeks

I found that having cash made life a lot easier, especially if you're buying food, getting cabs etc etc. Large meals and purchases went on the card, but cash was simply a lot more convenient sometimes.

I can't remember exactly how much cash we took with us, but I think it was somewhere in the region of $2000 or so for 5 weeks, and I'm pretty sure I withdrew a couple of times from the travel card as we went as well.

 

[minneylovesmicky]

i have $1000 US dollars as cash, bulk of money on a travel card and then as a "last resort" money on a debit card.

In that $1000, I have heaps of $1 & $5 notes, for tipping. i thought it better to have some cash on hand, to save using the travel card for simple things like a bottle of water and such.

 

[davedmaine]

Hi All Just finalising out spending money and wondered how much US cash I should take. Most of our spending money will be in our travel card but wanted some $$. Is $1000 too much?

Just use a credit card.. No reason to carry that much cash

 

[losfp]

In that $1000, I have heaps of $1 & $5 notes, for tipping.

QFT. We landed in LAX with about 30 $50 notes. Don't talk to me about how much of a pain that is to try and break.

 

[minneylovesmicky]

QFT. We landed in LAX with about 30 $50 notes. Don't talk to me about how much of a pain that is to try and break.

I could imagine, my travel agent warned me that we will need lots of small notes from the get go, as you are tipping from the airport on.

 

[dabecs]

We are taking about $500 in cash this trip. Last trip we took about $5000. The difference is the bulk of this trip are on a Disney Cruise and at WDW - both places we can charge to our room and pay one final bill at the end.

Last trip we did WDW, Washington DC and NY so needed to make lots of small purchases: taxis, food, entrances to tourist attractions, shopping etc and found cash easier than always using a card.

 

[losfp]

We are taking about $500 in cash this trip. Last trip we took about $5000. The difference is the bulk of this trip are on a Disney Cruise and at WDW - both places we can charge to our room and pay one final bill at the end.

Actually that's a good point. This next trip we will probably take much less cash because we'll be in WDW, Disney Cruise, DLR and Aulani, and can charge to the room. Last time, we did a big road trip and needed more cash for meals and sundries as we were going.

OP, how long are you going, and where are you going? It's difficult to offer advice unless we know.

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

We took $1000 last time and will be taking just over $2000 this time in various denominations. I hope that that this will last us for a significant portion of our 5 weeks.

 

[Princess Jes]

We did 3 weeks for our honeymoon (9 nights WDW/UO, 4 nights New Orleans, 5 nights NYC and 3 nights Las Vegas) and took a fair amount of cash, all $50 and $100 notes.

I wouldn't be changing over too much in smaller notes because as soon as you break a few, you'll end up with a heap of these smaller notes, and its quite cumbersome.

In WDW, we used the magic bands almost everywhere so that came off the travel card, and any of the larger purchases went on that, otherwise, all cash.

My sis and her hubby also did 3 weeks in the US (10 nights NYC, 4 nights Las Vegas and 10 nights Hawaii, nothing Disney) and they took USD$10k cash, zero card action.

If I was doing WDW again, EVERYTHING will go on the magic band, it was so unbelievably convenient!! I want a Magic Band for my life... car key, house key, credit/debit card etc...

 

[zanzibar138]

We took less than $500. That lasted me and DH for 2 weeks and just me for another 2. It was basically for tipping, snacks, drinks, and small purchases like national park entry fees. We put everything else on the credit card. Worked out well for us because the dollar peaked while we were there. My parents ended up putting a lot of their expenses on their credit card too, even though they had plenty of cash, to take advantage of the great rate.

 

[LisaAJ]

Thanks everyone. We are away for nearly 5 weeks. A week in NYC, 4 days off site in Orlando, 5 day DCL cruise, 3 days at Universal and 9 days on site at WDW. Most of that time we will be able to chargeD I just don't want to to have to worry about changing money straight up as it will be late Christmas Eve when we arrive.

I might do $500 and put to rest on the travel card. I don't want to be carrying around too much cash. We will have an emergency credit card as well.

Thanks everyone