Originally Posted by
FlyingHoustonian
When you break it I'd suggest 50s and 20s and maybe one 100 for the hotel.
Even 100s (and the rarely used 200 IME, YMMV) are sometimes hard to use in daily transactions.
Try a few banks, and play the "goofy tourist" card...not saying you are a goofy tourist but if you pretend to be one often times I've seen people be more helpful in business situations. Good luck.
50s are very common, I never had a problem getting a 50 accepted, not even when paying only a couple euros for a small item. I usually apologize, but never encountered any push back.
Everything higher is fairly rare.