Good to know those money kiosks at the airports appal you. I will go one further and say the banks appal me, their fees are ludicrous. Firstly they always quote above the going market rate, then they lump you with their fee (2.5% or >?).

Do yourself a favour and check out CurrencyFair.com. You can place market orders and you don't pay a bank any fee. It's p2p currency exchange. You pay the site a set fee which is very minimal. I think the last time I transferred $1,000 I pay $2. It doesn't matter if it is $1k or $100k the fee is flat! Plus loads of liquidity. Really a game changer.