Forex tips

dollar, this week you’ll get around 57p – a 30 per cent improvement. For a backpacker converting $500 into sterling they’ll get £75 more. Everything from hotel rooms, to dinners out, to West End musical tickets should now be cheaper, but you’ll notice it most at the currency converter counters.

The more dollars you swap into pounds, the more you’ll get extra.

Elsewhere, the NZ dollar is showing its strength to a smaller, but still welcome, degree. It’s up about 10 per cent against the US dollar compared with November 2015 – which effectively pays for your tips throughout your trip. North of the border, the NZ dollar has strengthened against the Canadian ‘‘loonie’’ by a similar amount.

Trips to Shanghai and Beijing are looking cheaper, after the dollar rose around 16 per cent against the Chinese yuan over the past year. India – already dirt-cheap – became around 10 per cent cheaper over 2016 as the NZ dollar strengthened against the rupee. In the Pacific, the forex gains were smaller, with the NZ dollar up by around 5 per cent each against the Fijian dollar and Samoan tala.

Thailand is often lamented as ‘‘not as cheap as it used to be’’. Well those naysayers are wrong if they’re comparing this year with last, as the NZ dollar has gained about 7.5 per cent against the Thai baht.

At the end of 2011, a trip across the Ditch was enough to make your wallet scream ‘‘Stone the flammin’ crows!’’ The poor exchange rate then only managed 75 Australian cents to one NZ dollar. This time last year it had risen to 91c and last week it was hovering just under 95c.

That’s a 4.3 per cent hop on 2015 and a very tidy 24 per cent jump on five years ago.

So whether you’re after cheaper tuktuks, Westminster tours, or saag paneer for lunch, now’s the time because the NZ dollar is on your side.

Repeat after me: Don’t wait until the airport to transfer your currency, these kiosks offer the worst rates on the market.

If trading a wad of cash, hedge a little by converting some a month out and the next lot a week before your trip.

Love shopping with plastic? Be aware that you could be pinged with commissions and fees up to three times (your home bank, the foreign bank and the card operator will likely charge commissions, as well as offering a poorer forex rate).

Shop around: Your bank, rival banks, post offices, main street kiosks and travel agents will offer different rates and commissions so compare them. And always ask them to specify fees/ commissions and whether you can get a better rate for trading more. Email if you have a travel issue you’d like Josh Martin, a London-based travel journalist, to write about.