Should I exchange U.S. dollars to euros before leaving on my trip?

We found that Bank Of America online had the best exchange rates. You
could charge the money to your credit card and have it sent directly
to your house. Get enough for a few days - in case of emergency. You
don't have to be one of their members (we aren't), but if you are then
you can probably order it right from the bank. Talk to your bank about
doing this.

You'll need cash when you get there to pay for a cab, tip your driver,
tip your bellhop, get food, and possibly other things.

Then, if you have a credit card that doesn't charge any fees or has
very low fees for rate conversion, use that as much as possible. The
credit card companies get excellent rates, and it's safer than
carrying cash around. We have one card that charges a 1% fee on
foreign transactions and that's it. It then gives us a 1% cash back at
the end of the year, so it's a wash.

Once you are there, look for a bank that accepts your ATM card type.
Ours is anything with the STAR logo. You'll have to set up a 4 digit
pin before leaving so that you can access your account. And, ONLY USE
ATMS THAT ARE ATTACHED TO BANKS, AND ONLY USE THEM DURING OPEN
BUSINESS HOURS. This way, if your card gets eaten, the cash doesn't
come out, or anything else goofs up, you can march right into the bank
and talk to someone.

I recommend NEVER exchanging currency at the airport, at an exchange
office, or at the hotel. The rates are terrible compared to those on
your credit card or from the bank.

And remember to call your credit card company and your bank to let
them know you will be traveling. When you call, get a 24 hour
toll-free international number from them. We also scan a copy of our
cards (both front and back), passport, and DL into our computer and
send it to ourselves on several e-mail accounts. Do this for each
person traveling and print out at least one copy of each person's
scan.

This information was obtained from
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060716134329AACO5Ng