How much cash spending money do you take?

[Chilledmummy2016]

Hi all,
we are heading on our first family holiday abroad 2x adults 2x kids, it’s an all inclusive hotel for 7 days. I’ve not done a beach hol in years! I will be using debit card if needed but how much cash do people actually take these days? I took cash last year to the USA especially due to tipping etc but this is a different type of hol and my mind has gone blank!
any advise will be much appreciated ☺️

Depends on what country and what payment cards you have and what you might do.

People on AI holidays might spend almost nothing. Or they might do lots of extras that cost money.

Some countries you can pay by card all the time, others require cash. In Menorca there are two bus companies and when we went, it seemed one was cash only and the other card only, we had to let one of the cash only buses go and go get cash because we couldn't pay by card. On a recent city break in Germany, we found many restaurants didn't take cards at all. Most places in Spain do, but sometimes depend where and the size of the transaction.

Some cards are fee free with the best exchange rate, others charge a fixed fee per transaction which makes it very expensive to pay for lots of transactions by card.

But if it's a Eurozone place, we tend to take 50 ish euros (in practice whatever we have already), pay by card as much as possible, but be prepared to take some cash out if needed - we have Chase, Kroo and Starling cards and all are fee free.

That’s true but we were in cape verde and had been told the locals prefer cash so that’s what we did. We also didn’t see an ATM while we were there, apparently there was one at the hotel but it was broken so wouldn’t have been any good to us anyway.
£1,000 was not a great bundle, it was 20 notes folded into dhs wallet 😂

£1,000 was not a great bundle, it was 20 notes folded into dhs wallet 😂

It wouldn’t be MN without a bit of gratuitous hyperbole.

I would take £500 in local currency for visiting markets, buying ice creams and snacks out, boat trips, things like wind surfing lessons for DC etc. if I don't spend it I put it in safe at home for next time.

None usually.

If you go to a market etc that requires cash I just draw an amount out at the atm.

Check exchange rate with your bank and any charges and compare it to exchanging before you go.

None usually, I have a Wise card so can take out money from ATMs as needed.

Don't you worry about pickpockets or losing your wallet if you carry thousands in cash on you?

Just done 10 days in Tenerife2 adults 2 DC AI and took €140 cash, gave €20 each to the DC. Rest went on gifts, occasional drinks and ice creams out - was about right.

We've been travelling around Europe for 5 days. We've spent €25 in cash, and €5 of that was a tip. Everything else on a card.

Thanks for your reply everyone :)

We always take €1000 if going somewhere where accepts them, that’s for 2 adults staying A/I, we don’t spend much of it, but we always take it, my husband is one of those “in case of emergencies” people 🤣

when in Iceland we were advised £100 per person per day, because we were only B&B, and literally did spend £1000 in 5 days 🤦🏻‍♀️

Depends where we’re going. We took a couple of hundred each in cash to Japan (and withdrew a bit more from an ATM) but took no cash at all on a recent trip to Europe and used apple pay for absolutely everything.

We take what is left at home from the last holiday, this time is was €220.
We pay a mix of cash for small purchases and card for things like tickets, meals and larger supermarket purchases (s/c this year).

If we need more we go to a cash machine, but we are in a normal town with banks at every corner.

Eesh yeah. I nearly ran out of money in Sweden and Norway. The Scandi countries are expensive 😱

No. It’s never happened so I presume what we do is sensible enough.
Cash goes into a safe when we arrive if we are dubious but otherwise left in a wallet in a suitcase and shoved out of the way (under a bed or inside a wardrobe), we wouldn’t walk about with more than a few hundred on us at a time generally.