One postscript:

It has become increasingly common in the last 2 or 3 years for credit card terminals at hotels, restaurants, shops, etc. to offer to do the currency conversion to your home currency 'right at the terminal', so that the charge appears on your statement as a home currency charge, rather than appearing in the currency of the country you are visiting and then being converted by your credit card company.

Never, ever, accept the offer of these credit card terminals to do the conversion for you. The mark-up is obscene, in the range of about a 6% conversion fee, which the local credit card terminal operator then splits with the merchant. Always insist that the transaction is processed in local currency units. Your credit card issuer back home needs to keep you happy, which means that they will usually only ding you about 2% over the interbank rate on the currency exchange when they convert it for you. The credit card terminal operators, on the other hand, don't give a s**t about you, you are not their customer, the merchant is.

Be especially careful that the employee processing your credit card payment for you does not elect the 'convert to my home currency' option for you before they hand you the terminal so that you can enter your PIN. I have, on numerous occasions, encountered employees who have been told to do this (to elect to have the terminal do the conversion) without even asking the customer. Again, this is because the merchant gets to split the commission with the terminal operator.

Michael