Spending Dollars Outside the U.S.

Now that Zimbabwe has run out of space to print zeros on its money, it has recognized the South African Rand and the U.S. dollar as legal tender.

About a dollar and a quarter will buy a Euro today, considerably better than last July, when it cost $1.60. But it's possible for travelers to avoid exchange rate fluctuations entirely - depending on their destination.

Some countries peg their currency's value to the value of the dollar, so the rate of exchange never changes, or changes only slightly. Here is a list of countries whose currencies are pegged to the Dollar: Bahamas - 1.00 BSD = 1.00 USD, Barbados - 2.00 BBD = 1.00 USD, Belarus - 2150 BYR = 1.00 USD, Belize - 2.00 BZD = 1.00 USD, Bermuda - 1.00 BMD = 1.00 USD, Hong Kong - 7.8 HKD = 1.00 USD, Lebanon - 1500 LBP = 1.00 USD, Saudi Arabia - 3.75 SAR = 1.00 USD.

Other countries, now including Zimbabwe, simply use the dollar itself as legal tender. The list, according to Wikipedia: British Virgin Islands, East Timor (uses its own coins), Ecuador (uses its own coins), El Salvador, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Panama (uses its own coins), Turks and Caicos Islands.