I will throw my 2 cents in on the currency discussion.
We have been traveling in Europe for 6 weeks. We have been to been to England, Norway, Spain, Morocco and France. We have been to 23+ cities (large and small) and our US chipped Visa cards have been accepted for 1 Euro bathroom charges and many times for small snack purchases to purchases much larger than 100Euro. Never have we been asked for a pin. Very few places including small vendor stalls, public transporttion and taxis do not accept credit cards.
In fact in someplaces if you paid the bus fare by credit card it was cheaper than using cash.
Handling cash has its own expenses for vendors that people don't think about.
I found that the Marriot Visa Bonvoy card seems to give a better exchange rate than our Capital One card.
I have notifications turned on so that anytime I purchase something I receive an email instantly with the amount charged in $$. So I can see instantly what we are actually charged even before getting up from the resteraunt table.
Linda
We have used some cash for tips and such. I found it interesting in several ports where the locals ran the shuttle bus to the city you did need to use cash.