The currency of Brazil is the Brazilian Real (plural: Reais, spoken: “Reaisch”). It is maybe one of the most beautiful currencies in the world because it has animals on every bill, showing the deep connection to nature. It has been introduced in 1994 (following the Cruzeiro) and the subunit of a real is the centavo.
Having real in my pocket was a pure necessity. There were lots of places, for example gas stations, where I could pay by credit card; but it was not that reliable. Even some ATMs – especially in Paraty – could not be used with my VISA or MasterCard; on Ilha Grande there isn’t even an ATM. At locations like São Paulo, Angra dos Reis, or Rio de Janeiro in contrast, everything worked fine.
So be prepared to get some money in advance and always keep enough with you.
What confuses foreign travelers often is the fact that not all countries in the European Union use the Euro as their currency (and that not all countries using the Euro are part of the European Union). Romania is part of the EU, but still has its own currency, the Leu.…
When Yugoslavia broke apart and Macedonia became independent in 1992, it also gave up the Yugoslav dinar and introduced a new currency: the Macedonian denar (MKD). A denar is split into 100 deni (from the Roman Denarius coin), but you don't need to memorize this: the deni are not circulating…
A trip to Nicaragua means that you'll have different currencies in your pocket. Official one is the Córdoba Oro (NIO), divided into 100 Centavos. It was introduced in 1912 and replaced the formerly used Peso. It is named after Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, the founder of the country. Due to…
