Exchange rates and traveling with money

I'm leaving for England in 2 days, and I want to withdraw my savings from my US bank account and open one over there. The only thing I'm worried about is traveling with such a large amount of cash. I'd like to hear some options of how I could transfer my funds?

My bank says they can do a currency exchange for me before I leave, and I can travel with British pounds. The only thing is that I dont think i'll get a good rate from them. 1.69? Would it be wise to just wait to do currency exchange when I get to the UK or do it before I leave? Any advice would be much appreciated

If you mean 1.69 dollars to the pound, that's as good a rate as you're likely to get anywhere.

No way would I take cash.  JUst get to the UK, open an account and do a wire transfer.

If you can you might want to leave your US account with a little money and leave it open.  

It can come in handy to have a US account for things.  It does all depend on your account though.

1.69 is really good, the current rate is 1.60.

I would double check that exchange rate.  I would highly doubt that anyone would trade over what the current exchange rate is.  (and if they are, I want to know about them!) 1.59 is the current exchange rate for POUNDS TO DOLLARS.  If you are changing DOLLARS TO POUNDS, the current rate is about .62     

I agree with Sara though, dont travel with the cash. Just open an account in the UK and do a transfer.

I would double check that exchange rate.  I would highly doubt that anyone would trade over what the current exchange rate is.  (and if they are, I want to know about them!) 1.59 is the current exchange rate for POUNDS TO DOLLARS.  If you are changing DOLLARS TO POUNDS, the current rate is about .62     

I agree with Sara though, dont travel with the cash. Just open an account in the UK and do a transfer.

Oh yeah!  D'oh. 

My bank does traveller's cheques in stirling, so maybe that is what the OP was going to do?