Ahhhhhh.................................. we have a culprit !!!

Indeed....which is only fair when comparing like for like.

It would be interesting to know what % of visitors (not only those from the US) actually exchange at the Blue rate.

Me! Ok, I was there last year, but I got a few hundred pounds converted before I came and the rest went on credit card. Hotels prepaid. I thought they were very good value compared to the price paid and what I got in Rio for example. Don't normally stay in hotels in London as I live here, so can't compare.

Food, and in particular steak, Buenos Aires wins for me. Way cheaper. However I don't do "Fine Dinning" as a norm. I go to the D&D London (ex Conran) chain for a fail safe good meal. I've dropped Wagamama in favour of Noodle St as our pre-movie meal and save a �10 in the process. I've been to the Ivy once and was disappointed (twice if you include the upstairs club, but meals were limited to a decent curry from memory). Over the 5 days I had in BA I only had one poor meal and that was served by one of the most surly waiters I'd seen in a long time.

The only expensive thing we did was the Tango show at the Port. The food was slightly above average and the show was pleasant enough, but I thought it was overprices, even with the "free" transfer to and from the hotel (and the additional sightseeing we had going to all the other hotels in the process!).

We did have a brief look at the shops and didn't think things looked particularly expensive, but we weren't looking a brands or specific products.

And of course this was a year ago and prices and exchange rates can change!

Did you change your ��� at the official rate then dddc?

Yes it all depends on how you spend your time when comparing cities. We're not really into fine dining out when we're on holiday and usually eat in chain type places or take away.
The wife bought clothes in the UK because she said the quality was better for the price paid plus there was more variety. Supermarket food is definitely more expensive here than it is in the UK.

Funny that someone mentioned taxi fares. The wife and I were talking about that the other day. The cost of a private taxi to get us to EZE has risen 25% every year....we now pay �110 for the 100 mile journey. The �35 I paid from central London to LHR was exceptional value I thought.

That is approximately 13 miles.

Yes but it was a new comfortable car with lots of luggage room and a driver dressed in a smart suit. Compared to the clapped out renault Ricardo uses where we have to have two suitcases in beside us because the large gas bottle takes up half the boot space.

Yes, I exchanged pounds at the official rate in London before I left. I didn't think it was that bad. Honestly for 5 days, I don't think I really wanted to spend time trying to find a "money changer" and then worry if the bills were fake or not! And to be truthful, I don't recall reading anything about them last year.