OP, do you have a credit card with 0% fx fees? I know many cards in the US have it, Chase Sapphire, Amex Platinum, etc. If you have them, use them!

Otherwise, if you must have cash, just withdraw from a local bank in Euros.

Be careful though, the French really don't like Amex unless you go to top restaurants and hotels, in Nice you should have more luck, when I drove through France the other time all the petrol stations were Visa and MasterCard only!

I believe it does now

The ATM's that I've used at Heathrow Terminal 2 gave me the options to withdraw in: US Dollars, Euro's, GBP. There could have been more but those three are the only ones I remember.

Very much agree with my learnt colleague! The only slight amendments I would mention is in terms of finding the easiest and first ATM, it is actually inside the luggage hall, directly to the right of the ramp that you take down after passport control to get into the luggage hall. If there is a queue there, the alternatives mentioned above are all great. In particular, the one in the corridor between arrivals and departures (to the right going towards departure) is often a good choice! As mentioned, no ATM fees in France.

The second minor point would be on cards use - I agree with the general point but not that there is often a minimum amount to pay by card (usually €10 ish) so it is a good idea to have a small amount of cash. For instance, if you go to a bakery in the morning and buy a baguette and a couple of croissants for a grand total of €2.80 or so (ie less than a single much worse croissant in London, but I digress! :D ) you would very much be expected to pay that in cash and not by card. Same with the markets which sell wonderful food but will take cash only for regular food stalls.

Also note that Amex is not accepted as much as in the UK, and Diners is very uncommon, as is the case in much of Europe.

To be honest, this is not actually recent and has been the case for a while (at least a couple of years), but indeed, the Uber pick up point is for permit holders only and at departure level. So when you exit luggage hall, customs, turn right, go up the small set of stairs and then take the first opening departure door on your left and cross the street into the first parking lot. The terminal is very compact, so if you know where you are going, this is maximum a 2 minute walk from customs.

Note that some drivers may ask you to meet them somewhere else (e.g. the roundabout before) precisely because they do not have the permit. You can of course do whatever you want but technically, you are not supposed to accept. The issue here is that in season, many drivers for other parts of the country will relocate from their emptying cities to the Cote d'Azur where demand is high. As long as they are registered Uber users, they have the right to do so, but technically, they do not have the right to take rides from the airport if they are not permit holders and that is what they are trying to circumvent.

My personal recommendation would be to refuse and cancel the ride, in part because they are taking rides that they are not supposed to, in part because there may be issues with insurance in the most unlikely case something happens, and in part because there is still occasional tension between taxi drivers and shared app drivers, and if a taxi driver spots and understands what is going on (the taxi rank is literally next to where many unauthorised drivers will ask you to go), they could start coming to have a go at your driver and those would not be pleasant scenes. There are plenty of authorised Uber drivers registered to use the airport so the wait is rarely more than 5 minutes.

I think Revolut is active in the US now but there is a wait list to be signed up (I think!).

This is the D4 pickup point that the Uber app proposes. However it seems that the Kiss&Fly (Dépose-minute) 5 minute free lane has migrated to parking P3 (which is left after customs, and just next to the new Tramway stop), and there is no free access at D4. Before, drivers without the permit would just enter the lane do a quick pick-up and then exit within the 5 minute limit, nowadays they seem to resort to calling and changing the pick-up point to the new Kiss&Fly parking.

The issue with cancelling the ride is that you might be charged a late cancellation fee and then need to follow-up with Uber support in order to get it back. Although it is what I usually do, as being picked up at departures level at T1 means you continue straight on to the Promenade des Anglais, which is usually faster than the alternative if going into central nice, not to mention the nicer views.

Yes, launched 17th Sept with waitlist

There was a waitlist for Australia when they launched there, but it cleared quite quickly (metal waitlist is still very long and slow though), so it might do so quickly. In the case of Australia, you only needed to refer someone to queue jump.

I have a revolut card tried to use it at CDG a couple of weeks ago, and it did not work. I got a message from them stateing that since I live in the US it is not ready yet.

To summarise...... "blah blah blah.......cabbies the world over have an issue with paying taxes and France is no different..... blah blah blah.....

:) :) :)

Did I nail it?

You might think that, I couldn't possibly comment.

The change to the "kiss and fly" also dates back about three years ago! All of that was part of the same traffic changes at the airport when the work on the tramway tracks started, the direct turn from the Prom coming from Nice was introduced in April 2016 (as opposed to going through the Caravelle tunnel, etc), then the T1 roundabout was closed to allow for the tramway path to be built instead and that is when the "kiss and fly" was moved next to T3. Sadly, at the same time, the free 15 minutes in the regular T3 parking was also removed.

And the "kiss and fly" is indeed where the non-airport licensed drivers will ask you to go (both at T1 and T2 which means going upstairs). I agree with you on the issue with cancelling the ride. It is annoying as you need to select the correct option on the app then sometimes follow with Uber support. I fully understand why some people would resent doing that

The simple way is to order cash online from travelex and pick up at T5. There is one in the middle of T5 airside. If you are going tot eh BA lounge then order from the kiosk next to the BA lounges (never a queue).

In NCE like others have said, take the tram or a cab. both take cards. I mostly paid by card in restaurants without a problem. Most of Nice is walkable or tram so you don't really need a lot of (or any) cash.

Just be aware that some of the 'high street' ATMs in tourist areas of cities also charge massive fees: recently in Copenhagen I tried one that had 13% fees (using a US card to withdraw Euros) - needless to say I cancelled the transaction, and walked 100m to a main bank which had zero fees.