Where Can I Get Money?

Most likely you have a check list of things to do when you’re heading to a new country, new city.   On my basic list are items that may be on yours too:     

Learn enough of the language to be polite (hello,  good bye, please, thank you, I’m lost, can you help me).
Acquire adapters so you can keep everything charged.
Set a Google alert so the local news shows up in your in box
Exchange some money so you arrive you can buy a coke or coffee without drama.
Download books, magazines or movies so you have choices on the flight (or waiting for the flight in the airport.)

I just found one more item to add to the list:   Find an ATM that’s nearest to where you’ll be staying or working.  Of course you can ask someone but I am excited that I can look up the location before I leave.  No need to announce to everyone in the hotel lobby that I’m on my way to collect some cash.

Simply use Visa’s ATM locator at:  http://www.visa.com/atmlocator/index.jsp#
With just a couple of clicks I discovered that there are a dozen ATM’s within less than a mile of my hotel in Madrid (and I could print out the map showing the exact locations or the walking directions to get to one). One practical note, for the search to work accurately use the street address, not the name of the hotel.

Now my friends about to embark on journeys will know that there are ATMs near the Krelim in Moscow and Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Whether your travels are local or global it seems that it's easy to  answer the question:  Where can I get money?