Baltic Itineraries: How many different currencies do I need?

[Bollinge]

I thought I would post a note with the Baltic cruise destinations and their various currencies:

 

England: Pound Sterling GBP

Netherlands: Euro EUR

Norway: Norwegian Krone NOK

Sweden: Swedish Krone SEK

Finland: Euro EUR

Russia: Rouble RUB

Latvia: Lat LVL

Estonia: Krooni EEK

Lithuania: Litas LTL

Germany: Euro EUR

Denmark: Danish Krone DKK

Poland: Zloty PLN

 

US Dollars USD are not widely accepted in Europe other than at banks, so try and pay for everything by credit or debit card, and draw out whatever local cash you need from a hole in the wall ATM when you arrive in that country. Any small change you have left over when departing a country can go towards the crew, where tips in any currency are most gratefully received.

Don't be concerned about not tipping in dollars as the crew have an on-board bank offering excellent exchange rates for employees, unlike those offered to us at the Purser's office.

 

Check exchange rates here: www.xe.net

[Princess Di]

Here is another currency conversion website:

 

http://www.oanda.com/convert/classic

 

http://www.oanda.com/convert/cheatsheet?exch=USD&expr=EUR&result=1

 

If you click on: "Print Travelers' Currency CheatSheet", you will get a little table that fits perfectly on a recipe card, and then a Reverse CheatSheet to convert the opposite way. :D

I paste one each on each side of the card. :cool:

I always print these out and put with the currency of that country before leaving home. ;)

In SPb, Roubles are only available in Russia and you cannot buy them from Thomas Cook or your bank before leaving home. :eek:

[stanj]

It is too confusing to use different currencies in cash in most ports, using Credit cards or Debit cards because the conversion rate is better than exchange banks.

Russia is no different with the exception that the Ruble is not a hard currency that can be traded outsde the country. In a few years, according to Putin, the Ruble will be a convertable currency tradable on the ForEx markets.

In the meantime note that it is illegal to use currencies other than Rubles for businesses. Private transactions are often done in Dollars or Euros with Euros gaining in popularity all the time.

For the current currency conversion rates, I have a little converter for to and from all popular currencies on my personal independent web site which takes current rates in a real time basis. For example at this minute of writing the the rate is 28.076 Rubles to the dollar and or 5.7026 Danish DKK to the dollar.

As an interesting experience, those on private tours who want to try the small exchange banks all over the center of St Petersburg, I've written about that in the past in detail.

[aqua]

I made a smalll (credit card size) conversion sheet for our trip. It had

a few quick conversions in even increments for each currency. (i.e. 1 British Pound = $2, 5 Pounds = $10) I pasted it on both sides of a card and laminated it at Kinkos. I made one for everyone in our family group. Several people laughed at me, but changed their tune quickly. It was a great help!

[dbh62ark]

After many European cruises, we've found that the following works best for us because we are very active in port (first off the ship and last back on although we do wind up the day near the ship so that we don't take a chance on missing all-aboard) and want to maximize our time.

 

Yes, it is a pain to keep up with all the currencies, and the Baltic cruises are the worst (we did itinerary this in 2003 and also have done the Norwegian fjords cruise in that area) because there are so many different currencies. However, we find that we usually need a small amount of local currency to pay for local transportation such as trams, buses, etc. and for public toilets, sandwiches and drinks, street vendors, etc. Also, some merchants have a minimum charge of the equivalent of about 10 Euros to run a credit card charge. Thankfully, it seems that practice is being eliminated in most stores.

 

We always get about $50 in U.S. value of the local currency for each port so that we don't have to worry about money matters when we hit the ground and can concentrate on seeing the sights. Our local bank does not charge a fee, so it is very convenient for us. We frequently use some of that money in the first 5 minutes off the ship. :) We use credit cards during the day as much as possible. Although not as widely accepted in some European countries, we like AmEx because they give us different account numbers so that we can still use the account if something happens to my card or his card. Check the conversion fees though because our MasterCard charges 1% less in conversion fees than AmEx. No big deal to us because we get miles (we cashed in frequent flyer miles for our airfare for this trip), but that might matter to others.

 

Toward the end of the day, we review our cash situation and then start paying cash for entrance fees or whatever if it looks like we have extra. Giving the leftovers to the crew is a great idea, and you can always buy postcards or small items. Many of the ports such as Oslo and Copenhagen have a shopping terminal right by the cruise berths. Exchanging small amount of money usually doesn't work because it gets eaten up in transaction fees.

 

We also use the currency exchange cards (they especially came in handy prior to the Euro conversion for multiplying 1,800 lira in Italy, etc.), but we finally just started dividing everything by 6 because that was the average for most of the Baltic currencies and was quick and easy.

 

Be careful at the ATMs because my husband was talking to about 8 people and took out $700 in Bergen instead of $70--LOL! Find a bank to exchange that much. The WORST rates and highest transaction fees are on the ship.

 

As noted by Stan, rubles must be obtained in Russia. We were unable to obtain Estonian currency in advance of our last Baltics cruise too.

 

Happy travels to all,

Donna