Baltic currency

[pamsbeagles]

We are going on a Baltic cruise next May. Each port is a different country with different currencies. Do we need to take currency for each country we are visiting? Or totally use credit cards? Or just book cruise line excursions (not our first choice) and not worry about needing cash? We obviously have never been on a cruise where e ery port is a different country. Thanks for any advice.

 

Pam

[paul929207]

We found that many places only took the local currency. Some took US$. When you book private tours ask what is accepted for payment.

[surfsidemary]

Yes, many different currencies in the Baltic. Definitely not all Euros. I'm not sure which line or which countries are in your plans, but on a recent Holland America Baltic cruise, appropriate currencies were available for purchase at the front desk. Except I don't recall about Russian rubles. For whatever reason, I didn't have them. Not to worry, though. On the HAL-sponsored shore excursion the guide said that we would definitely need rubles for lunch on our own and therefore our first stop would be a souvenir shop where they would be happy to exchange our dollars for rubles even if we didn't purchase anything.

 

Credit cards will work just about anywhere, but who wants to charge tiny amounts? Our lunch stop the first day in St. Petersburg was McDonalds. Or you might want to buy a soda somewhere. And, FYI - there is sometimes a small fee to use restrooms. I seem to recall 50 cents euro in Germany. I'd suggest you have some pocket change in whatever currency.

[Keith1010]

Yes, you do need to get local currency and if you want to make small purchases you may have to use it in lieu of cards.

 

What we did is if we had any left over money from one country (we tried not to but it happens) then we converted it over in the next country to that countries local currency. Yes, each time we did that we lost a small amount for the conversion but it was better than not using the currency.

 

The major exception is if you are visiting Russia and you can use USA currency.

 

Keith

[Andee]

We used our debit card (fewest fees) or credit card in as many places as we could, hit the ATM for what we call walking around money.

 

In St. Petersburg, our private guide (from Red October) made any purchses for us in rubles, and we settled up with her in USD at the end of the two days.

[stuball]

If you use ATMs in Europe soem give you the option of coverting to US dollars at the time and having it charged against your account in dolars. DO NOT DO THIS. The rate will be much worse than the official bank rate you will get.

 

Also, many tourit locations will take Dollars or Euros even where they are not the currency. Occsionally theyeven offer better than bank rates to get you in. If you have a smart phone there are great apps that update with daily currency rates and calculate exchange for you. Really ahndy.

[bbwex]

It's pretty much easier to get the money in each country at an ATM. For convenience we got some funds before we left the U.S., but it really wasn't necessary.

 

Euros are accepted in countries that are part of the Euro group, but depending on where you are going, some places in the Baltic are not in the Euro group. Like a previous poster, our guide on our private tours used her rubles, and had us reimburse her. That was far easier in restaurants where she was placing the orders for us. We did use our credit card for some souvenir purchases without a problem.

 

It is easy to check which countries use their own currency or Euros, and what is easily accepted -- some places will accept Euros even though they are not in the Euro group.

 

You will have time before your flight departs to return home to convert what you have left back to U.S. currency. There are money exchange booths in the airports. You can use these services on the way over, or simply stop at an ATM at the airport.

 

You will find that this is really a non-issue. We Americans simply aren't used to it!