Where to exchange money in Athens?

In Athens, the day before we went to Egypt, we were worried about tipping. Having taken a first trip to Egypt a few years ago, we had the opportunity to realize how prevalent the culture of baksheesh is. Anyone who provides you with a service, no matter how small, will expect a tip. It’s part of Egyptian culture, and it’s surely amplified by the fact that you’re a foreign tourist, and therefore obviously very rich 😀

Anyway, not only does it need to be factored into your budget, but on top of that, we remembered the difficulty of getting small bills for tips, which caused a certain amount of stress.

So we came up with the idea of going to a currency exchange to trade euros for US dollars (which are highly valued in Egypt), with the special request of getting only $1 bills.

I went to a currency exchange Argo Exchange, next to the Syntagmametro station. I asked to exchange 50 euros and completely cleaned out their small bills. They gave me all the $1 and $2 bills they had in stock, which came to $37 in $1 and $2 bills, plus three $5 bills, totaling $52.

The official exchange rate that day was 50 euros = $52.44 USD. So the exchange commission was absolutely negligible.

Since I wanted even more $1 bills, I went to another exchange nearby, from a different company. They told me they didn’t have any one-dollar bills.

I then went to another branch of that same company Argo Exchange, where they exchanged 20 euros for 21 one-dollar bills. So practically no commission at all! I don’t understand how they make money…

So I recommend Argo Exchange if you need to exchange money—not only is the service good, but the exchange rates offered are also very competitive.