3 adults, 3 Scandinavian ports; ??? local currency

[northernphoenix]

On a Baltic cruise with HAL. We are ready for the Euro hits in Tallin, and the US$$ in St. Pete's, but what should we have in hand for Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen? We are purchasing Icards before we leave Canada, but would need currencies for lunches and sundry expenses. Any ideas would be appreciated,

Marilyn

[Giantfan13]

On a Baltic cruise with HAL. We are ready for the Euro hits in Tallin, and the US$$ in St. Pete's, but what should we have in hand for Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen? We are purchasing Icards before we leave Canada, but would need currencies for lunches and sundry expenses. Any ideas would be appreciated,

Marilyn

 

Helsinki uses the euro if I am not mistaken. Denmark and Sweden use their own different Krona's, ie:Danish Krona and Swedish Krona. You can always hit any ATM once in port and get whatever currency you need.

When we traveled, we exchanged currency before we left, just to have some 'spending' money in case we were not near an ATM. Our bank, as a loyal customer, did this exchange for free, but not every bank does this. You can also exchange money on board your ship, but that may prove to be costly.

The best bet is to have 'some' money in local currency and try and charge whatever you can. Using certain charge cards, like the CapitalOne card, there is NO foreign transaction fee for any charge. With that, we charged EVERYTHING, and only paid cash when charging wasn't an option.

 

Hope this helps

 

Cheers

 

Len

[northernphoenix]

I will check the Credit Card companies that we deal with in Canada to confirm the fees,

 

Marilyn

[bxny]

This is an article in Budget Travel that explains different ways to convert money. Hope it helps.

 

http://www.budgettravel.com/bt-dyn/content/article/2010/11/05/AR2010110502841.html?wpisrc=newsletter

[northernphoenix]

We are Canadians and do have the option of purchasing $US travellers cheques thro our bank for no charge ( Seniors ). We have an American acct. that we are adding to, as the exchange rate now is very attractive. HAL allows the cashing of these onboard for no fee ( no limit ); and we will use our bank cc for any larger purchases of souvenirs, but what I am most interested in is the amount of pocket money we might need for purchases such as meals, cold drinks,tips, etc. We have considered having a small amount of Euros, Kronors,etc.but are not certain how much of each,

thanks,

 

Marilyn

[rich_cathybrock]

We are Canadians and do have the option of purchasing $US travellers cheques thro our bank for no charge ( Seniors ). We have an American acct. that we are adding to, as the exchange rate now is very attractive. HAL allows the cashing of these onboard for no fee ( no limit ); and we will use our bank cc for any larger purchases of souvenirs, but what I am most interested in is the amount of pocket money we might need for purchases such as meals, cold drinks,tips, etc. We have considered having a small amount of Euros, Kronors,etc.but are not certain how much of each,

thanks,

 

Marilyn

 

Hi Marilyn! - I was wondering the same thing! I always buy some Euro in the local bank (get a favorable rate and no fee for conversion) before i sail, but I didn't realize that this was a 6-currency cruise - Krona, Krune, Ruple, Euo, who-knows-what else. Yeesh!

 

I am thinking I will just go to an ATM in port, then exchange whatever is left for the next currency in port and so on, with the exception of Euro which we will need before(Amsterdam) and after (Brussels/Paris). Don't know whether you get a more favorable rate paying for St. Petersburg in US Dollars or not. I wonder if they accept US Dollars and/or Euro in Russia or elsewhere in Baltics.

 

Maybe I will ask the guide? Anyone else know?

[Giantfan13]

Rich and Cathy

Depending on which tour company you use,and what you plan on doing in St Petersburg, that will depend on what type of money you can use.

We did our 2 day tour with SBP, their Baltic Pearl package, and we never had to pay for anything with our money. With other tour companies, people have written that they had to exchange for Rubles to purchase some things. All the meals were already taken care of, all passes were also included. We never had to exchange for Rubles. We did buy some souvenirs at some of the street vendors. At one, we bought a couple of magnets and paid for them with Euros. At another, my wife wanted this beautiful music box,and we saw it for much less than it was on the ship, again, at a street vendor. They wanted $40 for it, but we sort of bartered them down to $25. We paid with US dollars and they gave us US dollars as change. US dollars will be accepted most anywhere, but you must remember that you will get the worst rate of exchange using them.

Try and charge as much as you can.

 

Here is a pix of what one of the street vendors looks like. They are all over every major tourist site.

 

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz267/Giantfan13/baltics/europe662.jpg

 

Cheers

 

Len

[rich_cathybrock]

We are using SPB as well, and I am planning on paying them in advance with a Credit Card, and wsas quoted in USD, which is great.

 

Good to know the greenback is still good somewhere! If I can get away with that and Euro and avoid all those other currencies, this will be a lot easier, and probably a little cheaper, too!

 

I really appreciate your help! I can not wait to go - this is clearly going to be incredible!

[CintiPam]

Helsinki uses the euro if I am not mistaken. Denmark and Sweden use their own different Krona's, ie:Danish Krona and Swedish Krona. You can always hit any ATM once in port and get whatever currency you need.

Len

 

Yes, Helsinki (Finland) indeed is on the Euro. ATM's are everywhere in Scandinavia (except apparently at the Copenhagen cruise port!), and that is what I used on my land trip there three years ago (where we had five currencies in the five countries we visited: Russia, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden).

 

We flew into Helsinki, St. Petersburg and Copenhagen and immediately used airport ATM's, like we do in Paris and elsewhere in Europe. My local bank does not charge me any transaction fees, so I am happy to use ATM's frequently.

 

For larger purchases and meals, I always use my fee-free Capitol One MasterCard. I never exchange currency ahead of time here in the US; too expensive!

[kruzseeka]

We have cruised to the Baltic States three times and with the exception of Russia which as you know has strict currency regulations, we used Euros exclusively for all small purchases e.g. coffees, postcards, stamps etc. and it was widely accepted. We never ran into problems or had to draw any different currencies from an ATM. Of course, you may pay a slight premium with the exchange rate, but my recollection is that most places advertised prices in Euros as well as local currency, including cafes.

 

We did use our credit card for some 'official' sites eg the Vasa Museum - although on a differnt visit, I definitely paid in Euros to get into City Hall in Stockholm (I left my money on the ship and had to borrow it from another very helpful passenger - hence the clear memory of that one!).

 

I would stick with your Euros (and Roubles for Russia) and just see how you get on - as others have said, you can always use an ATM if you run up against problems.

[Sominex]

As a Canadian, I was told that to charge anything in Russia it is first converted to U.S. dollars then to Canadian Dollars...so I'm bringing U.S. Cash for our St. Petersburg Tour.

Som