Carrying coins and small change

[Nicolam]

Can anyone tell me how much small change and small notes to carry from SJPP? Just thinking about weight but aware some places will only take cash. Thanks

 

[Peter Fransiscus]

Most places only take cash.
Smal bils till €20 and some coins wil do just fine.
When you withdraw money out of a atm don't withdraw more than €300 in small bils.
Wish you well,Peter.

 

[JohnMcM]

Hello Nicolam,

I found it helpful to try and have about 5 single euro coins, with the remainder of my planned day's spend made up of 5 and 10 euro notes.

That break-down allowed me not to take too much change from shops, cafes etc. Then at my albergue I could pay without taking their change or, if a donation, enough small notes to give what I would have paid elsewhere.

I usually had a couple of twenty euro notes stashed for emergencies.

Of course, how much money you carry depends upon where you will be staying and your food and drink needs. Although it's prudent not to carry too much cash at any one time.

I planned on having 3 days' money with me all the time. So, to help you further with your answer, it may help to say that I usually had €100 for those three days. Forty of which were two twenty euro notes, the remainder smaller notes and coins.

The three days were based on distances between ATM's. On the Meseta I decided to carry 5 days budget, just in case.

Hope that helps.
Buen (light-weight pockets) Camino.

 

[Panama Francis]

We're doing the French Camino right now - just finished Day 4 - have had difficulty paying with 20€ bills as few places have change. We've started hording 1 and 2€ coins and 5€ bills. The coins are also handy in vending machines along the Way. Buen Camino!

 

[Peter Fransiscus]

We're doing the French Camino right now - just finished Day 4 - have had difficulty paying with 20€ bills as few places have change. We've started hording 1 and 2€ coins and 5€ bills. The coins are also handy in vending machines along the Way. Buen Camino!

When I had only €20 bills I paid the Albergue with it , worked always .

Wish you a wonderful time and a Buen Camino,Peter.

 

[november_moon]

When I started running low on small change, I'd use a bigger bill at a supermercado or someplace like that there you know they have change - or at busy cafe-bar where a bunch of people have just bought their morning cafe con leche and tortilla and I know they can make change.

 

[KinkyOne]

...I found it helpful to try and have about 5 single euro coins,...

There are no 5€ coins but I'm sure you meant bills

...
When you withdraw money out of a atm don't withdraw more than €300 in small bils...

When you witdraw the money you can't choose the 10/20/50€ bills. You'll get what the ATM will give you so the only thing you're left with is to exchange the bigger bills in bigger towns.


Otherwise I would suggest you always carry at least 10€ in coins and other money in the smallest possible amounts of bills (5/10€). Usually even supermercados doesn't accept credit cards for amounts lower than 10€. Happened to me in Leon for example.

Anyway, Buen Camino!

 

[C clearly]

When you witdraw the money you can't choose the 10/20/50€ bills.

Good reason to choose an amount such as Euros 240 instead of 250, so you know you'll get at least two 20s!

 

[Latecomer]

One of the benefits of traveling with a group of friends is that you can take turns paying for each other and small change matters less.

When I walked the VdlP in 2015, we had 4, then 3, then 2. We used the Settle Up App (Free / in app purchase on Android, $1.99 on iOS), its features were great. Somebody might pay for beers, somebody for groceries, somebody for dinner, somebody for the albergue. We didn't really worry about making the updates real-time, typically during the first break of the following day we would ask if anybody had any updates. I have meant (for two years) to do a detailed write-up on this, but never got around to it.

The app is very flexible, with our group of 4, some expenses might be shared between all 4 pilgrims, some with 2, some with 3, some with a different 2, and it easily and accurately accommodated it.

As with any software or tool, it is better to understand it before you use it in the wild.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.destil.settleup&hl=en
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/settle-up-group-expenses/id737534985?mt=8

If somebody was low on cash, it really did not matter because the app kept track of who owed how much. And we all had knew where each other lived. Sometimes somebody might be 80 Euros in the hole, but then when they got cash they would pay for dinner or the albergue.

I really haven't used it since, but there have been updates so I only expect that it has gotten even better.

¡Buen Camino!

 

[Jeff Crawley]

Whatever you take you will end up with a disproportionate amount of 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 cent coins.

The solution to this, when staying in a donotivo refugio, is to leave it all in the box along with your actual donotivo offering.

Lightens your load, helps the refugio!

 

[Juspassinthru]

5€ bills are always useful and very hard to come by. 1&2€ coins also because everything seemed to be rounded to some whole Euro.

 

[SYates]

Just don't take all in cash from the beginning - there are ATMs in a lot of places where you can stock up on cash ;-) Buen Camino, SY

 

[GerN]

We will start putting away any €5.00, €10.00 and coins over the next week before we go and bring them with us. It is handy having the same currency.

 

[Juspassinthru]

We will start putting away any €5.00, €10.00 and coins over the next week before we go and bring them with us. It is handy having the same currency.

The small bar and shop owners will love you. The look on their face when someone would buy a cafe con leche with a €50 was universal and not pleasant. The comment about requesting €280 instead of €300 was good, it forces the ATM to at least give you a few smaller bills. Buen Camino!

 

[SYates]

Additional tip: If you choose "other amount" instead of the ones pre-programmed on the screen, it will often give you a screen where you can choose the bills you want to get, f.e. instead of 1x100 Euro, 10x 10 Euro ;-) BC SY

 

[HedaP]

I always kept a 1€ coin stashed in my toiletry bag. It was for the albergues that had lockers that took a refundable 1€ coin. 1€ coin in to lock and whenever the locker was opened the coin was returned. I also had safety pin on the toiletry bag for the locker key.
PS Thumbs up for the lockers that had power points inside them. I think I only came across one but it was appreciated.

 

[Margaret Butterworth]

Keep €5 notes if you plan to use Jacotrans.