While many guidebooks, travel blogs, and traveler forums will claim you can easily exchange your money at local banks, that hasn’t been true for a while: from the ubiquitous Royal Bank of Canada to neighborhood credit union chain Vancity, nobody will exchange your foreign currency unless you’re a customer of their bank.
Here are the options that are actually available today:
1. Big Stores
We’re talking large retail stores here. Think Safeway, not Choices or the neighborhood co-op. Thanks to Vancouver’s proximity to the border, many large retailers will accept reasonable amounts of U.S. currency as payment and issue your change in Canadian dollars.
Be a good guest and don’t abuse this privilege; it’s one thing to get a few bucks back while buying some essentials, and another entirely to hand over a $50 for a pack of gum.
2. Currency Exchanges
Perhaps the most obvious option, currency changers generally suffer the same problem as they do much of the world over: they’ve got crazy fees and bad exchange rates. But if you need to exchange larger amounts of currency, they’re your only option. Larger bills will have a better exchange rate. A currency exchanger will also likely be your only option if you’re arriving with non-U.S. currency; despite the city’s substantial Chinese and Japanese populations and popularity with Asian tourists, you’ll be hard-pressed to spend yen or yuan even in Chinatown.
Currency exchanges are plentiful at Vancouver International Airport, but you’ll get much better rates outside of YVR. There are many currency changers in the city, particularly near heavily-touristed areas. Many, though, doesn’t mean you’ll find one open: the city’s exchanges often have extremely limited hours, especially on weekends. If you’re arriving on a red-eye or on a weekend, the airport exchanges may actually be your best option.
Some of the best rates (and longest hours!) in the city can be found at Happy Currency Exchange.
3. Hotels
Nearly any hotel will change at the concierge or reception for ridiculous fees. Many have strict daily limits, and many have stricter limits still for non-guests. If you need local money in short order and don’t mind paying a premium, a hotel can be a lifesaver. (When we were visiting Granville Island, for example, the Granville Island Hotel was the only option to get some cash. The rate wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t horrible, and it let us eat while ATMs and card terminals were down on the island).
The best solution
Don’t travel with much cash! I’m not saying don’t travel with a little emergency money — whether it’s USD or CAD, it never hurts to have a little physical currency to get you out of a jam. But for your day-to-day spending, bring your ATM card and credit cards.
ATMs are ubiquitous in Vancouver, Visa and MasterCard are widely accepted, and in today’s increasingly-global world your bank probably charges an incredibly reasonable interchange fee (if they charge one at all).