Argentine peso

My wife and I were in Argentina a few months ago, when there was a bigger gap between the "Blue Peso" rate and the official rate. (At the time the blue rate was around 950 pesos, the official rate was around 350 pesos per dollar.) (1) Most places take credit cards. If your credit card is with a bank outside Argentina, you will get the 'Tourist Rate', which closely tracks the blue rate. So use credit cards where you can and you should be fine. (2) Throughout Argentina there are places you can informally exchange either US dollars or Euros for Argentinan Pesos. In tourist locations the exchange rate is often worse than the 'blue rate' published on various web sites, simply because the demand for pesos are higher in those areas. I highly recommend just going with the flow and not worrying if you only get 1,000 pesos when the published blue rate is 1,100 pesos. (Things are so remarkably cheap in Argentina that +/- 10% doesn't matter much.) (3) A problem I ran into is that the most commonly circulated bill is the 1,000 pesos bill, and most informal exchanges only want to exchange for $100 bills or for single 100 Euro bills. This means you wind up with a thick stack of pesos; your best bet is to have a separate small bag to hold those bills. (I have zippered cargo pants, and I kept the bag full of bills in one of those zippered pockets.) And note that people are picky about the quality of the bills that get exchanged. Even the most microscopic tears along the edge of the bill may be rejected. (So go to the bank and get 'clean' bills.) By the way, there are no ATMs that I found, so you will wind up bringing a bunch of cash with you. (When we traveled to Argentina I brought 10 USD $100 bills with me, and exchanged them for spending cash. I honestly wish I brought more with me.) (4) I found on average, because my wife and I would use cash to buy bottled water or small things at informal stands, that we were going through about 30,000 pesos a day, give or take. YMMV. (We were with a tour group and used some of the cash I brought for tips for the various tour guides.) (5) We had a funny experience where we went to an official exchange center in a town--I needed cash to pay for a taxi and had no pesos--and the kind lady refused to exchange cash. Instead, she referred me to various stores who exchanged cash "under the counter." (Yes, she worked for the government.) Also, we found that some of the hotels we stayed at would also exchange for Pesos. (The rates we got were far worse, but still acceptable to me: one hotel we stayed at when the published "blue rate" was 950 only gave 850 pesos per dollar.) Because most of our transactions used credit cards, I didn't worry too much about the exchange rate we got at our hotel. (6) Taxis often advertise that they take credit cards. Don't believe them. I never took a single taxi that advertised they took credit cards that actually had a working credit card reader. (7) Watch out for pick-pockets. If you have zippered pants, keep your money in the zippered pocket. If you have a purse, make sure it zips up, wear the strap cross-body, and keep track of it at all times. (It's highly unlikely anyone will forcibly take your stuff--but if your purse open and the wallet is on top, the wallet is likely to go for a walk without you.) Edit to add: the only currency accepted in Argentina is the Argentinian peso For the most part this is true. There are some stores, however, who accept US dollars and Euros--however, they're rare, and every one I've been in which accepted US dollars or Euros also accepted credit cards. Will they ONLY accept dollars or euros as well? I am Italian so I would have to exchange euros into dollars and then again dollars into Argentinian pesos. We traveled from the United States so I had US Dollars. However, in a most tourist spots it appeared they also accepted Euros. As I noted above, they want USD$100 bills or 100 Euro bills; most places will not accept smaller bills. Remember: the blue exchange rate is an informal rate; basically private citizens (small companies, hotels) are exchanging pesos for dollars or euros--and may not want euros. I'm sure there are 'scams' out there, but I never encountered any--even if the whole process feels a bit 'shady.' More on reddit.com

PESINHO

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Western Union is the way to go. More on reddit.com

I'm in El Chalten and have been using a mix of USD, Card, and Pesos. A lot of places say they exchange USD and Euros, but will also let you pay in USD. We booked a rafting trip and they asked for USD and said they aren't really sure what to do with the Pesos at the moment. More on reddit.com