Currency St Petersburg and last day in Kiel

[peritomoreno]

We will be spending two days in St Petersburg, we have a tour booked but just want to have some spending money for incidentals.  What is the best currency to bring, is it ruebles?  And if so, is it best to buy in UK before cruise.

Our second question is about our last day of our cruise, we disembark in Kiel sometime in the morning and have a flight from Hamburg airport at 17.00.  We will have spent two days in Hamburg pre cruise so no need to spend more time there.  Does anyone have any advice on how to make the best of the last day?  We don't want to walk around Kiel with luggage and understand there are lockers at Kiel railway station.  For various reasons, we do not want to take the bus direct from Kiel to the airport so looking to do this by either train via Hamburg or private transfer.  Has anyone done either of these transfers?

Advice greatfully apprecaited.

[luckymal]

47 minutes ago, peritomoreno said:

We will be spending two days in St Petersburg, we have a tour booked but just want to have some spending money for incidentals.  What is the best currency to bring, is it ruebles?  And if so, is it best to buy in UK before cruise.

Our second question is about our last day of our cruise, we disembark in Kiel sometime in the morning and have a flight from Hamburg airport at 17.00.  We will have spent two days in Hamburg pre cruise so no need to spend more time there.  Does anyone have any advice on how to make the best of the last day?  We don't want to walk around Kiel with luggage and understand there are lockers at Kiel railway station.  For various reasons, we do not want to take the bus direct from Kiel to the airport so looking to do this by either train via Hamburg or private transfer.  Has anyone done either of these transfers?

Advice greatfully apprecaited.

65

 

We called at St.Petersburg  in June this year, you are not allowed to wander around on your own unless you have a visa, but you can go on the ships tours both days, they will call  at a gift shop, they will accept Euros, Dollars and Credit Cards. Lots of good trips from the ship, not my scene but the Ballet was very popular and well attended and enjoyed.

Whatever you do just enjoy.🍷🥃

[ratflinger]

A taxi might be rather expencive. ( around 200+ Euro's). Trains might not be on time and you have to transfer witch can be difficult with large luggage. Some times you have no more than a few minutes to leave the train and run to your connection. You can store your luggage at the train station and the bus runs reliably and drops you of at the terminal. I would look for the schedule in advance , since I think that there is road construction going on and this would be affecting a private transfer as well.

 

[ratflinger]

You maybe like to see the Gorch Fock , it is a training sailing vessel for the German marine forces. stunning. It should be there.

[Stella1250]

I too am disembarking in Kiel July 25th. We are staying in Hamburg three days before the cruise as well. We looked at Cunard's transfers, but found a private car transfer for 40 Euros less than their bus! Our flight doesn't leave until the 26th, and we have an airport hotel for the one night. We are thinking of perhaps taking the airport train into the city to see anything we missed on the first leg. PM me if you want the name of the transfer company.

[TV Dad]

On ‎7‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 3:50 PM, peritomoreno said:

We will be spending two days in St Petersburg, we have a tour booked but just want to have some spending money for incidentals.  What is the best currency to bring, is it ruebles?  And if so, is it best to buy in UK before cruise.

 

I bought $200 worth of rubles from my local money changer (we have one at the mall), just to have spending money for souvenirs & lunches and of course, for tips. The pursers office, on board, should also have currency from every country we visit. And, if you find you really need rubles in St. Pete, I'm sure your guide can point you to a legitimate exchange store. Or, you can use your ATM card to withdraw local currency.