More than once I have been grateful to have dollars on hand. There wasn't an ATM in sight at CDG, when we had a 7 hour layover. There was an AmEx currency exchange. My husband tried to use his AmEx card to get cash, which was refused (and a hold put on it) because it wasn't set up for cash withdrawals. He was successful with his Visa--at 24% interest! He didn't realize I had a stash of dollars.

When we landed in Amman, Jordan, I had planned to use an ATM to get the Jordanian currency required for the visa. Unfortunately, the only ATM was in the departure hall. (What kind of sense does that make?) Although I wanted to conserve the dollars to tip our American tour guide, it was clear that the only way to pay for the visa was to change some dollars for dinars at one of the currency exchanges.

In Jordan, ATM's were few and far between, and many places did not take credit cards. We were always short of cash. It is not possible to buy JD's outside of Jordan. Again, I was grateful for the dollars in hand, for there were many currency exchanges.

For euro's, the AAA in Denver (where I live) sells a handy 100 euro assortment at a reasonable rate. Perhaps they do where you live, also.

Best of luck to you.