HELP, NEED ADVICE RE: HOLIDAY SPENDS

[bouncy]

Hi,

I have never been abroad, and have decided to take the plunge this September. The thing is we are staying in a self catering apartment, and I would not have a clue how much spending money it is best to take. There will be me, my partner and my 4 yr old son. We are going to Greece and wondered if they have cash machines where we can draw money out or do we need to take travellers cheques etc etc. I dont want to be left short, or take too much as I know we will only spend it. I know these questions might seem obvious to some, but I have never been abroad and wouldn't have a clue.

Thanks

hi, whenever we go s/c we find that we spend approx £500 in a week, that gives us a small shop at beginning of week for essentials in apartment ie bottled water, bread ,crisps biscuits , juice etc.
we have a full brekkie every morning (PIGS!) a snack ie bagueete and chips for lunch, and we go out for a meal at night and then drinks etc of an evening, i have about 4 glasses of wine and dp 4 pints and our ds1 glasses of pop and some crisps.
(DS2 is still a baby so i wont include him in this)
throughout the day ds1 will have ice lollies etc.

however we go to majorca which has always been more expensive than greece so id say about £400 travellers chqs and if you have a bank card, take that just incase you need it, there will be cash points our, where abouts are you going to?

sorry that as meant to read there will be cashpoints out there

Apparently the best bank for getting money from foreign cashpoints is Nationwide - good conversion rates and no charges. (It was in Which recently). So might be worth opening a Nationwide current account just for hols - stick some money in it before you go.

Otherwise, get money out in large amounts because most banks have a transaction charge which is the same for £10 or £50 or £500.

Just found this on a travel site:

Money

Currency (from 2002): Euro
Exchange rate: approximately £1=1.64 Euros
Changing money: most hotels and restaurants accept credit cards - Visa, Mastercard, Eurocard are the most widely accepted. You can use most Visa, Mastercard and British bank/cash cards as well as US cards for withdrawing cash from ATMs (instructions are often available in English). Most banks will exchange traveller's cheques and give cash advances on credit cards. Banking hours are generally 8.30am-2pm.

(The site is i-escape , it has lots of useful info about Greece. Have a lovely time, it's a nice country and they like the British IME!)

You can get money out of most hole in wall machines with visa or mastercard (if you know your pin!)

Call your bank and see if your debit card works, dh has barclays connect and that does.

Take travellers cheques for emergencies