Best Medium to use for Monetary Exchange

Never assume you can wthdraw money from the ATM machine in foreign countries even if it Cirrus, VISA or PLUS supported ATM banking. It happened to my friend when he travel to Indonesia and several countries where the system just not coorporating enough to let you to withdraw money. I believe this is due to some currency restriction in certain countries.

The easiest method is to pay for everything on your credit card, but if you're traveling to another country there will be certain things that you cannot use the card for like bus and taxi fares and dining outside resorts etc.

Take some travelers cheques. They are safe and easy to cash, and you can always cash them in when you get home if you don't use them. You will probably need some foreign cash before you arrive at your destination. You can change money at the airport, but generally the exchange rate is not good, so shop around before you leave. While you're overseas, change your travelers cheques at banks rather than resorts for a better rate. You will find that many hotels will restrict the amount (usually $100) of travellers cheques you can cash in a day. If you can't get to a bank this restriction may not allow you to use cash for everything so its always a good idea to use both credit cards and cash for purchases.

Check if you need to pay a departure tax when leaving your destination. You usually can only pay in local currency, so put some cash away.

Try to prepay as much as possible (meals, transfers etc) so you know what you're likely to spend.