Travel Thread

Uber situation at Melbourne airport is diabolical.

Catch the train

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[sung to the tune of rhyme dust by mk & dom dolla:] skyyy busss

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Guaranteed to make it right if your night is a bust?

We had 11 hours at Istanbul Airport. The food in the lounge is magnificent.

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Yay, plane got changed back to lie flat beds!

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I have messaged @Koala privately and have received a very helpful, detailed and informative response but thought I’d put this out there for anyone else who has travelled to South America (Chile, Peru & Argentina) mainly (one day stop off in Uruguay) as we head over there on a group tour Friday week. We will be touring for 2 weeks before boarding a cruise ship.
My question is about how much cash is needed in the various currencies?
Which currencies did you take with you and if you exchanged over there how you did it?
What/who and how much and how often did you tip??
Any other advice /ideas appreciated.

We had 4 weeks in Chile & Argentina in Dec 23. We took a starter pack of local currency, approx AUD$100 each + maybe USD$800.

IIRC -
Chile was credit / debit cards everywhere & we needed very little cash. Things were a little cheaper than Australia, but not significantly.
Argentina was complex, but a real travel bargain in comparison. Unbelievable value for money at times. Hopefully you are aware of the current situation re. blue rates. Before leaving we used our cards to buy something in Argentinian Pesos to confirm they converted at the blue rate. Our Ubank Visa converted close to the blue rate at the time of purchase. Our 28 Degrees Mastercard converted at the official rate at the time of purchase, then credited the difference between that & the near-blue rate a couple of days later. We exchanged our USD for the blue rate at cambios in Puerto Iguacu, BsAs & El Calafate.
I don’t recall tipping much, if anything. I don’t recall using ATMs either.

Edit - have you got your Chilean visa sorted? That was nightmarish.

Have to pay in USD, in cash, right?

Thank you!
I have my Chilean visa- we’ll only need the 72 hour one as we’re only doing a stop ever and then a shore excursion there.
I’m going to have to learn about the blue rate…welcome any advice on how to go about his.

So Macquarie runs off the Mastercard rate
100000 ARS is $144 (aud) no bank charges.
Wise rate is $153 (+small fee)
Cuex blue rate says $128.56

We were planning on mostly using the Macquarie…everything is paid for except for lunch/dinner/drinks etc So I’m thinking that in the course of a day we’d spend $20 or so Aud more using the Macquarie than the blue rate?
Any thoughts?

Looks like the blue rate is not as exciting as last Dec when it bought nearly double the pesos. Looking at my statements I can see our most memorable meals out in Palermo Soho BsAs & El Chalten cost between AUD$70-$100 for three with drinks, so $20-$30 p.p… These were really good restaurants. Brunches for three were $20-$40 in Palermo Soho, so AUD$7-$15 p.p… BsAs was like Europe at 1/4 of the price.

Sigh…

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For those rare people with tastes similar to mine, Michael Portillo has yet another series, this time on Andalucía with 6 episodes. As he says, everything Spain is famous for, with the exception of Barcelona’s Gaudi, originated in Andalucīa.

Oh…and paella which originated in Valencia. To valencianos, what everyone else calls paella…which has chicken, beans, rabbit and saffron, no seafood and definitely no chorizo…is simply arroz con cosas, rice with things.

I was thinking they were short an episode on Sevilla…but it downloads tomorrow.

On Youtube, he has a 6-parter on weekends in a major city. First two were Madrid and Prague…Lisbon is ep 4.

In his Madrid episode, he talks a lot of his large family and his Republican father who had to flee Spain at the end of the Civil War in 1939. An uncle was a Nationalist (Francoist) officer and Michael could only visit with his English mother. His father couldn’t return for well over 20 years. For some Republicans, those who weren’t executed after the war, the wait was longer.

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You got ripped off. I had a burger, a wine and a beer for about $40. I thought that was bad enough compared with prices elsewhere in the city.

For the love of all things good on this earth…

Get yourself to an all you can eat Parilla…

Heaven!

Waiting for my flight. If you’re in the Qantas lounge in Melbourne come say hello. I have an efc hat.