ATM Mania

This is purely a personal preference, but Jason and I do not care for Bureau de Changes or the Travelex shops.  We think the commission rates and the fees are unreasonable.  Therefore, we just usually just take local currency out of the local ATMs.  You may also want to check with your bank and see if there is a partner bank where there are no fees or less fees.  For instance, Bank of America partners with Barclays Bank and thus the fees are much lower and some are waived entirely.  

I also wanted to mention that there are ATMs in the arrivals hall at the airport, so if you chose to take your money out of ATMs, there is one right there, right where you will arrive.  Thus, you can avoid changing your money either in America or at the airport.  There are also currency exchange offices right next to the ATMs, so you can change money there if necessary.