myTobago – your questions, review and comment about Tobago

We will be flying out to Tobago on 20th May and have been monitoring the exchange rates which seem to be falling slightly at the moment. Would we be better to take all currency out with us, bearing in mind that most high st banks do not charge for this, or would we get a better rate of exchange taking travellers cheques and changing them there? We do appreciate the fact that travellers cheques are the safer option in case of loss or theft.
Also we will be taking credit/debit cards to cover additional expenses (like when I spend all the cash in the first few days ), are we likely to get hammered with charges on these?

Thanks

Linda

Hi Linda, we have just come back form Tobago and we took both cash and cheques, we used the RBTT bank at the airport to change the cheques and got a good rate of exchange, we used this particular branch as it seemed to open longer hours than other branches, unfortunately had to use the exchange at the hotel once, would'nt recommend this, it was a very poor exchange rate, they charged 25p per pound exchanged, hope this helps,

Steve & Hilary

25p per Pound exchanged? So for a £100 travellers cheque you'd get £75 worth of TT$ and at a poor exchange rate if you exchanged it at the hotel?

Sounds like now is a good time for me to find the nearest bank to the RTB...

I made a little error when giving details of the exchange rate at the hotel ( Coco Reef ), i got TT$ 775 for a £100 travellers cheque, so it was £22.50 charge !, at the bank the exchange rate varied between TT$ 10.5 to TT$ 11.5 to the pound and they only charge TT$ 10 commision !, hope this is of some help.

Steve & Hilary

The golden rule is to NEVER change travellers cheques or cash at a hotel, shop or other regular business. ALWAYS go to a bank - particularly when you have one less than a two minute stroll away, as you do at the Coco Reef.

I know it's not the cheapest of options, but I've always found that for the small amount of cash that I need, getting it through my card has been the easiest. You can use the machines 24 hours a day and there's no need to queue in the bank. Checking back, I notice that a typical withdrawal of TT$2000 gave me £180.70 after a commission charge of £4.91 and a credit card handling fee of £2.75. Travellers Cheques might be the most sensible option, but assuming I don't have to draw cash more than a couple of times during the holiday, its a damn site cheaper than the cost of petrol and time taking my gas guzzler down to the nearest branch of my bank.

Thanks Steve,

Will prob take cash and cheques, but make sure we change them at the airport, shouldn't be aproblem as we will be staying in Scarborough.

Linda

Tickets arrived today

NOW, in them Virgin holidays were recommending taking US$. Sorry that this is seemingly answered elsewhere, but for one final time, put my mind at rest. TT$ better option, yes?

Many thanks!

You could take beads

Or you could look at
http://www.currency-express.com/cgi-bin ... Template/5 and make up your own mind.
Last year took small amount Of TT used ATMs for rest of the time by far the best rate. And plastic.

Happy Holidays

We live and work in Tobago, so here's some info from our perspective:

US$ are accepted in quite a few places, especially by tour operators/hotels/some restaurants, and there is a generally accepted straight exchange of US$1 to TT$6 which is what you would get for exchanging them at a bank... However US$ are not universally accepted and please, double-check that you ARE getting the 6-to-1 exchange if you want to pay in US$. At the moment you actually get a good exchange rate for TT to the GBP, so you may be just as well to bring some pounds and exchange them when you get here to TT, which of course is accepted everywhere here! It is always a good idea to carry at least some TT$ especially if you plan to sample from local fruit stands, coconut vendors, take local taxis etc.

Credit cards are also widely accepted and can be used to get cash so that you don't have to carry too much around. I would just advise you to bring another credit card as a back up (if you have one) - the credit card system here can be abit temperamental and cards from some UK banks seem to cause more problems than others. The second reason is should the worst come to the worst and you lose/damage/have the card stolen, you are not completely without funds. An astonishing number of people come here on holiday clutching just their credit card and run into difficulties when things don't go to plan!

Hope this info helps!

Rachel & Marlon
'Cocomotion'

Thanks Rachel, great and timely advice!

We just took TT$ but I was misinformed by my local travel agent who said that we were only allowed to take $TT 2000 (£200). We just used a cash machine to get extra cash - don't know what the rate was - but it was so easy.

Not much point in taking US$ unless you already own them. Sterling easy to change up, but mostly hit the wall with Debit/Credit card. Rates were reasonably favourable.

In principle though nearly everywhere including supermarkets and restaurants take cards. This is usually safest option and no need for bundles of cash.

Easy drive in ATM near Crown Point.

When travelling to Tobago from the UK the best solution is to use the cash machines. there are three located at the airport and several around the island. You will find not only do you avoid exchange commission charges but you will get a better rate.

If your the kind of person who is scared to get of the plane without cash, then take £50 or so. you will not need much more than this, most hotels can be reached by taxi for $50 - $100 tt thats £5 - £10.

However you are seriously wasting your time and money if you follow the advise of travel agents who tell you to buy US $.... this is nonsense, and DO NOT order TT dollars from your bank or thomas cook either as they will rip you off selling around $8 tt = £1. The current rate is around $11.4 tt = £1.

I totally agree with the reply above - just use one of the many cash machines on the island.

We returned from Tobago on Friday, and the last advice was totally correct, the exchange rate was much better using cash points, the bank one at Crown Point is in an air conditioned seperate room - I was tempted to move in at times!!!

One of our party was reccomended by a travel agent to take US dollars - DON'T, although most of the shops we visited did accept them, the interest rate was lousy and it was so complicated keeping track of her cash, after a couple of days she changed all of her US dollars over to TT dollars.

If you do want to change currency or travellers cheques, we found the Bureau de Change better value, the exchange rate is slightly lower that the bank, but they do not charge commission, so you still ended up with more cash.

Very suntanned,

Linda