How Much Cash Should You Bring on a Trip Abroad?

Start with what still needs cash where you are going

The right amount of cash is almost entirely a property of the destination, not of you. In Sweden or the Netherlands you can go a week without touching a banknote. In Japan, plenty of small restaurants, shrines, and rural ticket machines still want cash. Across much of Southeast Asia, markets, street food, songthaews and tuk-tuks are cash businesses. In parts of Europe, small cafes have card minimums, and coins do the work at lockers and public toilets.

So before picking a number, spend five minutes answering one question: at my destination, what does a visitor typically pay in cash? Recent traveller reports are easy to find, and the answer usually sorts into a short list - transport from the airport, small food, markets, tips, temples or attraction entry, and emergencies.

Make that list concrete for your own itinerary. A resort holiday where breakfast and dinner are prepaid needs a fraction of what an independent trip through small towns needs. The list, not a generic rule of thumb, is your starting point.

• Card-first destinations: cash is nearly optional - carry a small emergency reserve.
• Mixed destinations: cards in cities and chains, cash for small vendors and transport.
• Cash-heavy destinations: assume most day-to-day spending happens in paper money.

Size it by days, then convert at the real rate

Once you know what needs cash, the arithmetic is short. Estimate a daily cash figure in local currency: what a day of street food, local transport, and small purchases costs where you are going. Multiply by your days. Add the fixed items that must be cash - a visa on arrival, a tourist tax collected at the hotel, a guide you agreed to pay directly. Then add a buffer of around 20% for the things you did not plan.

Now convert that local-currency total at the mid-market rate - the neutral market rate, not a kiosk's board. This tells you what your cash budget genuinely costs in your own money, which is the number to sanity-check against your overall trip budget. Doing this conversion honestly matters: pricing your trip at a marked-up airport rate quietly inflates every estimate that follows.

One warning about large amounts: most countries require you to declare cash above a threshold, commonly around 10,000 US dollars or euros in equivalent value. Holiday budgets rarely get near it, but if you are carrying money for a big purchase, check the rules for every country you transit.

Where to get the cash - and where not to

The airport exchange desk is the most convenient and almost always the most expensive option - spreads of several percent are normal, precisely because arriving travellers have no alternative. If you want cash the moment you land, exchange only what gets you to the city, or skip the desk and use an ATM in the arrivals hall, which usually converts at your card network's rate.

For most major currency pairs, the practical choice is between ordering currency from your bank at home and withdrawing from ATMs after arrival. Bank rates at home are transparent and let you land prepared; ATM withdrawals abroad often price better, at the cost of per-withdrawal fees - so fewer, larger withdrawals beat many small ones. Whichever route you take, decline any ATM offer to convert to your home currency and let your own card network do the conversion.

Do not exchange the whole budget on day one. Rates move, plans change, and unspent foreign cash converts back at a second spread. One batch to start plus a mid-trip top-up covers most trips - and to know whether a street kiosk's board is fair, compare it against the live mid-market rate on your phone.

Track it during the trip and adjust

1. Build the estimate before you fly. Use WaveRate's calculator to price your daily cash figure and fixed items at the mid-market rate. Recently loaded rates stay available offline, so the numbers still work when you land without a SIM.
2. Log cash spending the day it happens. Add each cash expense to your trip in WaveRate in the currency you paid. Each entry keeps the reference rate of its day, so the running total in your home currency stays honest.
3. Watch the daily pace, not the wallet. A couple of days in, compare actual daily cash spend with your estimate. If you are running 30% over, you want to know on day three - when a cheap ATM is an option - not at the last-morning market.
4. Top up at a sensible source, not a desperate one. When cash runs low, choose a bank ATM in town over a tourist-strip exchange booth. Check the live rate first so you recognise a fair offer when you see one.
5. Plan the leftovers before the last day. Spend down coins and small notes - they are usually not exchangeable at home. For notes, decide deliberately: keep them if you will return, or exchange them back knowing the spread costs you a second time.