Has anyone been to Sri Lanka recently on holiday.
The wife and I don't know what's best to take in the form of spending money. Dollars or Rupee's.
Actual experience cant be beaten.

TIA

Brad

We went in 2019 (the Easter bombings happened when we were there ) Rupee's is definitely best bet...didn't see much call for Dollars.
Also best to get a card like Wise (link: wise.com) so you're not carrying a lot of cash around...you can pay for a lot of stuff by card (cash still for street vendors etc)

Thanks for the info Chris.

I won't pretend to know Sri Lanka myself, but I never carry local cash anymore - been to a fair few countries and all I do is take my Wise card and pay with that, get cash out there if I need to for some whacky reason. There's just no need for local cash anymore in almost anywhere unless you're scrimping and saving on conversion costs and want to carry all your spends as a single conversion transaction (at risk of being mugged).

As an expat living in Europe, travelling with work all over the world, a Wise card is the best thing I ever got. No Euros left? Fine, it'll convert from whichever currency you do have some left in.

[Edited on 29/6/2023 by coyoteboy]

I've ordered a Wise card.
Do you just load it up with British Pounds or is it best to have what currency we will be using, in this case Sri Lankan Rupee's.

You just transfer GBP into your GBP account on Wise and spend with the wise card and assuming you're not transferring huge amounts, it just converts at the going exchange rate for the first so much per month, and then they add a small fee - for example usually when I transfer 1000 euros to GBP it costs me about 0.7% and the rate is the current market rate, not some random bank rate.

Thanks

+1 for the WISE card, I travel alot and it's by far the best way to be able to spend in the local currency in virtually any country, with minimal fees and a very good exchange rate. No monthly fee, simple website and app.

I've had mine for a few years & both kids (19 & 22) have them too now for trips to europe etc.