Review of the Australian Expedia.com.au Currency Converter

Fast and Free Currency Converter from Expedia.com.au

It can pretty much provide you with all the tools you need to plan and book the vacation you really want - including a currency converter.  After all, you’ll want to know how far your Australian dollars will stretch in another country, won’t you?

So let’s take a look at the website in a bit more detail.

Where can I find the Expedia website?

The Australian site can be found at Expedia.com.au.  As you can see, the site is set up automatically to appeal to you, as all the prices are in Aussie dollars.  The weekends section also gives you a great selection of places to go when you need just a couple of days away somewhere in Australia!

How do I find the currency converter?

They’ve made it nice and easy to find, since there is a link taking you straight to it from the home page.

You’ll notice that there are a number of boxes on the home page with a pale blue outline to them.  Take a look at the left hand side of the page and you will see one that says Traveller Tools.  This is where you will find the link to the currency converter page itself.

Simply locate this box on the Expedia.com.au homepage to access the currency converter.

And if you need it, you can save the direct link in your favourites.  It’s Expedia.com.au.

Is it complicated?

As far as currency converters go, this one couldn’t be easier.  And the great thing is that it is set up with Australian dollars appearing in both the ‘from’ and ‘to’ boxes.

This means you only really have to change one amount if you are going to see how much of another currency your Australian dollars will buy you.  And if you are coming home and you want to convert your change back into Aussie dollars, you can figure that out nice and easily too.

How do I use it?

The first thing you’ll see is a box with ‘number of units’ written above it.  This is where you need to type in the monetary amount you have in mind.

Next up comes a drop down box that allows you to select the currency you are converting that amount from.  So if you want to convert Australian dollars into US dollars, for example, you would leave Australian dollars showing in the window.

On the other hand if you have just got back from your American travels and you want to change your US dollars back into Australian ones, you would need to change the amount in that first box to US dollars.

If you click on the down arrow a huge list of currencies will appear for you to choose from.  You don’t have to scroll through them though – all you have to do is hit the first letter of the currency you want.  So for US dollars in this example, you’d hit the U key.  You can then scroll down from the beginning of the U’s and find what you need from there.  It’s a slightly quicker way of getting to where you need to be!

Next you choose the currency you want to convert that one into.  This works by exactly the same process as before – choose your currency by typing in the first letter to find it, and then select the one you want.

You then need to click on the link underneath that says ‘display the results’.  The website then works out the conversion and the screen appears with the answer on it.

The exact conversion is displayed in a line of bold text.  This tells you what amount of your initial currency you wanted to convert, before giving you the amount that it converts into.

It will also tell you the actual conversion rate they used, and the date on which that rate was relevant.  So you may not get an exact conversion which is right up to the minute, but it will give you a good idea of what exchange rate to expect.  There is a disclaimer to this effect on the website itself, just underneath the results when they appear.

Is there anything that I should be aware of in particular?

Firstly you should know that this currency converter is probably one of the easiest ones you could use.  It is also easily accessible and very fast at delivering the results.

Don’t go looking for instructions on how to use it, because there aren’t any.  But that is no bad thing, because as you can see from the above walkthrough, it really is very simple to do.

The other main benefit that is evident here is the fact that the results page isn’t a totally different page from the one the converter is on.  When you do your currency conversion the page will reload and present you with the results, but you can then do another conversion straightaway using the drop down boxes underneath if you want.

This make it a very practical and speedy converter to use if you have more than one conversion that you want to do.

In conclusion

As you can see, the Australian Expedia site certainly knows what its customers want.  They have given you easy access to an easy to use currency converter – what could be better? 

And they know you are very likely to need this currency converter because you are working out how far your holiday cash will go in another country.  That is evident by the simplicity of the tool.  Why make it more complicated than it needs to be?

Of course, this is a strategy that permeates through the whole site.  It is pleasant to use and find your way around the various sections and pages, and you can find all kinds of vacations here if you are wondering where to head next.

And you’ll know just how far your money will go when you get there too!