Brian, I just came back from a weekend in what I think is your fair city, Toronto-- again, good news for gringo dollars! I was in a jacuzzi suite at the sheraton centre for the = of $90 USD a night. man, can't do that on my side of the border! I never take more than 5 mil pesetas to spain (um, probably worth $20 today!!!). I just use the bank machines at barajas, or figure 5 mil will get me into the city and from there i hit the machine. I carry traveler's chex as a back up but never use em. Credit cards is the way. ay, MM, cannot believe you are going and we are all stateside!

Yes, rgf, Toronto is my fair city snd the Sheraton Centre is two blocks from my office - hope you had a good time.

I know, the $US is very strong against our dollar these days too, even though our economy is doing very well. I had the opposite experience in the spring when I was at a conference in Philadelphia (fortunately on the company's nickel) and then in Connecticut and New York for vacation - adding 50% to the price of everything really hurts!

If my past experience with travelling in Europe is anything to go by, the peseta will rally strongly against the Canadian dollar in late October, when I go. I am definitely a jinx!

there isn't a lot to worry about right now in terms of inflation within spain. as everyone said the euro is so desperately weak that the peseta falls with it. as of january 1999 the euro was put into place for business and stock transactions. its not going to be official as the common currency until january of 2002. i think amazingly what people have to look at within the spanish economy is that inflation is low unemployment has shrunk to 9.1 percent.(lowest in almost 20 years) the euro will be like any new currency/new monetary concept...those early years are wrought with growing pains. each country knew this when going into it.
191 pesetas to the dollar is pretty ridiculous. just 18 months ago when i was last there it was 163 to the dollar. if anyone can find actually this exchange while still in the u.s., by all means change it now. be prepared to pay a hefty service charge.

rgf, you're right, we "euro"-peans have at least no worse conditions IN the countries members to the monetary union, our economies recover, our export industries blossom from the weak euro... Basically, the only persons in trouble are those that have decided to spend their money in the United States. And I unluckily enough picked a bad year to be in the US. But it is right--it was OUR turn a couple of years ago to enjoy travelling to the United States with a weak dollar and now it is YOUR turn to enjoy travelling to Europe.
Happy birthday!

Some information by your friendly EC lawyer:
The euro IS the official common currency in the 11 states members to the monetary union since the irrevocable locking of exchange rates and the taking-over of responsibilities by the European Central Bank in 1999. 1 January 2002 is just the date for the introduction of banknotes and coins, which will gradually replace the national ones.
That is why everyone in the news just talks about the relationship between euro and dollar and not between dollar and German Mark, French Franc etc. The exchange rate between currencies such as pesetas, French francs, German marcs etc. and the dollar change automatically according to the relationship euro-dollar. In case anyone is interested in more information, check http://europa.eu.int/euro/html/entry.html

I was half-joking - sort of "take my few dollars and run to Spain for as long as possible". A dream is to be able to live there six months out of the year - six months indicating there is still some "reality bites" in my outlook. In answer to your question Brian - like you, I take very little cash - I use ATMS and credit cards - one less thing to loose.

[from earlier today]
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The El País headline story title: "El dólar alcanza el valor más alto desde 1985 y se cambia a 192,6 pesetas" is a HUGE BONUS for those of us from the US going to Spain soon (like me in October!). Woo Hoo!!! I just went to the Universal Currency Exchange website and it's true!! 191 pesetas to 1 US dollar (at least for today)! Time for a shopping spree!!! On the down side, I realize that what's good for us is usually economically bad for Spain.

Cha-ching!, MadridMan

What kind of service charge are we talking about when we exchange travellers cheques while in spain. I have already changed most of my money to travellers cheques in Canadian dollars. Any info would be helpful.

All banks charge a comission. Some have a minimum comis. no matter how much you change. Some places, like at the airport, charge no comis. but give you a rip off exchange rate! why not deposit a bunch of those traveler's checks back into your ATM-linked account and count on using the ATm most of the time? the other p-i-t-a (pain in the A##) thing w/ banks is they close at 1 usually. I guess if you have American Express chex you can change them at the AmEx office in madrid and that's a good deal. But i've found the chex to be more and more a pain, and prefer credit cards for purchases, ATMs to grab my weekly cash supply.

In the fall of 1984 the peseta hit 201 to the dollar. My father RAN to the BMW dealership and bought our beemer! Ahhh, those were the days. guess it was to make up for when we lived in Zaragoza during Franco's time, and the exchange rate was 60 pesetas to the dollar!!!
I have never seen such a mobile bunch of people, everyone but me is going to, coming from or studying in Spain! My friend just bought a house in Avila last week, Jeez, I feel a little jealous!
Some Spain bound-person please adopt me! I don't eat much, just love the dance places!!!