BehindBlueI's
Grandmaster
- Oct 3, 2012
- 26,608
- 113
We travel a fair amount and usually leave the country twice a year or so. You hit a lot of good points.
Speaking of US dollars here is my fun fact: The $ is the only currency symbol based on the name of the country. It was designed as a 'U' with the bottom cut off and and an 'S' superimposed over it. United States.
- Get a ride to/from airport if at all possible. Indy economy parking is $9/day and it adds up (mentioned upthread).
- Watch the rental car deals during the runup to your departure. They can fluctuate wildly. We've seen them go from $200 to $1000 and back for the same week.
- Always sign up for the airlines frequent flyers clubs and try to stick to one if you can. We fly Delta.
- Air BNB has some great prices. We usually get a very small place in a very good location. We rarely stay in a traditional hotel.
- Some credit cards have very high exchange rates when used overseas. Check out your companies terms before you leave.
- Plan your cash usage so you bring home the minimal amount of non-US currency to change back to USD.
As to #6, as long as it's a country I plan to return to again, I don't change currency back. I just stick it in the gun safe for the next trip. Given how many countries are on the Euro, I'll probably die with a couple hundred Euros in the safe for the next trip that didn't happen.
The US dollar thing is, to my understanding, a theory that was mostly invented well afterward and popularized by Ayn Rand. Contemporary documents show it's a combination of "P" and "S", for Spanish Peso which was widely used as a universal currency before we had our own currency. It appeared on receipts in both colonies that would become the US and trade ports in Europe like Portugal before the "United States" was a thing.