Euro Universal Travel

Value of American Dollar..traveling to UK & parts of europe?

I'll be renting a double room in London for about $140 pounds (7nights, includes meals by host family). Then I'll be renting a room for 1 month in Florence, Italy for $360 euros. For me, at the current rate, that is about $260 for the room in LOndon, and $ 560 for the room in Florence. Do you think the dollar will continue to decline against the euro and sterling pound? Should I buy currency online (Xe universal converter website) ahead of time, or wait to get the money at atm when I get there to get the best rates? I will be out from May 24-July 15th, and then a few other places(mainly germany).
Ok, that it what I wanted to know. Thanks guys.

Great question. I am backpacking for 2 1/2 months through Europe starting next month and have been trying to figure out the same.

According to the numbers, the Dollar has climbed in the past few weeks against the Euro and Pound, and all forecasts show it gaining another 15-20 cents before July, which would be fantastic!

The problem with pulling out cash now is two-fold. First, you are seriously gambling that the price will go up, and when the financial analysts are predicting better conditions, its playing against the odds. The second problem is going through customs with large amounts of cash. If you just pulled enough out for the hotels you would probably be fine, but once you start moving around with too much cash you can find yourself some problems going in and out of countries.

Personally I'm playing the waiting game. If it gets any worse, its only going to change a couple of cents or so, and that really wont make a huge difference. Plus it saves me the worry from carrying large amounts of cash with me everywhere.

As a side note...from the boards on Rick Steve's travel site, the general consensus is to wait it out and not cash in for Euros and pounds right now.

Hope that helps.