Exchanging money on the return trip
Another opportunity to save money when traveling internationally happens on the return trip. Since many places outside the U.S. commonly use coins in fairly large denominations, you could wind up with a wallet full of coins toward the end of your trip. Most U.S. banks won’t let you exchange foreign coins for U.S. currency. This means that it pays (literally) to either convert your currency back into dollars before returning, or to change as many foreign coins as possible into foreign paper money before returning to the U.S. That way you won’t end up with money that is pretty much only useful as a souvenir. (Although, foreign money in small amounts IS nice as a souvenir, especially for kids who tend to find it fascinating.)
