Where do we exchange our US dollars for Guilders?

If you feel a need to do this, go to the bank. I recommend you pay with your USD cash and get guilders back in change. This is done all the time quite well.

US $ is widely accepted on Bonaire. The exchange rate does not vary and all the businesses are well acquainted with dealing with US currency.

i agree with ann and smack. because we are there for an extended time we get money from the bank in guilders but when we did a one or two week vacation we usually paid in dollars and got our change in guilders. but mcb or banco di caribe will exchange it for you if you really want. try to avoid the bank on monday morning...it seems to be more crowded then.

I am such a hick..it took me ages to learn to just use the ATM, which will give you a choice of guilders or dollars for withdrawals. Very reliable and convenient.

I never carry much cash anywhere - US or overseas. I use the ATM to get either dollars or local currency. So in BON I will get cash from ATM in either guilders or dollars, depending on my mood more than anything else. Usually when I buy in dollars I get change in guilders which works to build my guilder stash for those rare times I will use guilders.

The bottom line is I really would not worry about exchanging to the local currency, just mentally use 1.75 or so guilders per dollar as the rate of exchange 17 guilders = 10 USD.

what we do to roughly figure the cost in dollars is to take the cost in guilders, divide in half and add 10%. so Nafl 30. would be 30/2=15+1.50= $16.50

thats just how we do it and it gets us close. we try to pay cash whenever we can for two reasons...one, it keeps us from running up huge cc bills and two, it saves the merchants some money.

Another reason to use cash is the surcharge almost every CC company is adding for charges outside the US.

Pat, I do that too! Drives Eric the Engineer crazy....he has to have an equation.

I used the ATM at Maduro and Curiels Bank near Sand$ last week. It's a driveup and gives Dollars or Guilders. There is a 2% fee for using it, fair in my view.......

Eugene.. As an aside, from what I've read pretty soon (Bonaire time) the US dollar will be the official currency on the island. However in the past, I've always used the same math equation that Pat has outlined above. Accurate & simple.