I'm an American planning to travel to Botswana in September. I'm wondering about the best way to access money while there. I don't want to carry very much cash, but my experience traveling in some countries is that foreign cards aren't usable in many situations. So, here are my questions:
- Can I expect a more favorable exchange rate when converting cash (USD -> BWP), using an ATM with a US card, or using an American credit card?
- How likely am I to be able to find ATMs that accept an American debit card (MasterCard- or Visa-branded)? In previous travels, I've sometimes found that only certain ATMs will accept foreign cards.
- How easy can I expect it to be to use an American Visa credit card to make in-person purchases?
- Alternatively, am I thinking about this all wrong?