How Do South Africans Manage Money When They Travel?

For many travellers, exchanging their home currency when they land isn’t a big deal. The world is often happy to trade for US dollars, British pounds and Euros. What about smaller countries? Sure the exchange booth at the airport posts rates for Canadian or Kiwi dollars and South African Rand but it isn’t at rates that feel like you are getting a deal. Venturing further afield looking for a local money exchange, if they are even legal at your destination, usually doesn’t get much better. They may not even want to deal with your home currency.

Photo Credit: guuleed

This is when visiting a local travel and foreign exchange expert before heading out on your travels can work in your favour. Exchanging your South African Rand into Thai baht or Indonesian rupiah will go so much smoother when you deal with a company than knows what a Rand is to start with. Travelex SA is one of those international experts to handle your money. A local bank may be able to help with big currencies but changing Rand into another small destination’s currency could take weeks if it is even possible. The last thing you need on your travels is to stress running around before you leave or cutting it close.

Photo Credit: stuartpilbrow

Small country travellers seem to have similar issues to deal with, further to fly and less recognition for their passport, accent and home currency. There isn’t much to be done to move us closer to destinations of interest but easing the pre-trip logistics is within our control. It is nice to get into a culture when we visit but that doesn’t mean that paying a premium is necessary. Haggling at the local market over souvenirs is part of the fun of travelling, haggling with professional money exchanger after flying for 15 plus hours seems like cruel and unusual punishment. Not to mention, likely to end up with getting a rather raw deal. Math is hard enough for most people, trying to keep up on exchange math without sleep is practically impossible for anyone. It is travel, I was told there would be no math.

Photo Credit: bitznbitez ( was lucias_clay )