Viking Homelands Tip Currency

[sabrefan]

Going on a Vikings Homeland cruise in June and was wondering what currency others used for tips? A friend of mine did this cruise last year and used U.S. funds for excursion tips but I don’t know how easy it is for tour guides to exchange U.S. $ into their local currency. Appreciate getting the opinions of others on this board.

[lkear]

I always tip in local currency.  All I have to do is think would I want to be tipped in a foreign currency?

[Azulann]

I am only going to tip my guide and driver on Viking excursions per suggestion of Viking. I will tip in Euros..

Otherwise I will not leave a tip in Sweden, Denmark , Poland or Germany.

 Just pay the price of goods and services which includes a very nice VAT tax. 

 

 

[lkear]

Next time you out to eat at your favorite restaurant, try tipping in Euros to see how you are treated.  I bet they are less nice than they are in Europe .. lol 

 

Also, I bet you have sales tax instead of VAT.

 

The best advice is to treat people how you would like to be treated, but I know that is a strange concept for most people.

[CILCIANRQTS]

1 hour ago, Azulann said:

I am only going to tip my guide and driver on Viking excursions per suggestion of Viking. I will tip in Euros..

Otherwise I will not leave a tip in Sweden, Denmark , Poland or Germany.

 Just pay the price of goods and services which includes a very nice VAT tax. 

 

 

I’m no financial analyst, but I’m pretty sure you’re server does not get a piece of the VAT tax…

[Azulann]

On reading about Sweden, Denmark , people do not tip . They have good wages. So I will follow the custom of the country. It was taxis I saw where the VAT tax is 25% based on the fare. Do not mind I am going to expensive countries.  It is the land of my ancestors!!!!💕

[SantaFe1]

19 minutes ago, Azulann said:

It is the land of my ancestors!

Me too. 

[lkear]

8 minutes ago, Azulann said:

On reading about Sweden, Denmark , people do not tip . They have good wages. So I will follow the custom of the country. It was taxis I saw where the VAT tax is 25% based on the fare. Do not mind I am going to expensive countries.  It is the land of my ancestors!!!!💕

I totally agree they do not expect tips we did Homelands last year and a few older guides didn't want tips.  But either don't tip or tip in their currency (It isn't that hard to get them). My wife and I chose to tip but that was because we wanted to, not because it was required.  Our experience was a lot of tour guides were young college students and I thought how much $5 dollars would have been nice for my children in college and we could afford it. But that was a personal decision.  The only thing I personally believe is if you want to tip take the effort to get local currency (think about your children getting Paso or Canadian dollars and what they would do with them).  FYI all the local currency we had left over we gave to our favorite crew personnel (as they go back to these ports and can spend) at the end of the cruise. We did spent around $400 USD equivalents on tips for Homelands and still had a few strange currencies left over for the Viking crew.  It was very easy to go to a local bank and order the smallest denominations of each currency, the only requirement that Wells Fargo had was that the total order be more than $250.

[sugarside]

Our guide in Copenhagen was asked about what currency to tip in.

He said he happily accepted any currency and saved them all up until he had enough of any particular one to make it worthwhile getting it exchanged for local currency.

[uktog]

1 hour ago, sugarside said:

Our guide in Copenhagen was asked about what currency to tip in.

He said he happily accepted any currency and saved them all up until he had enough of any particular one to make it worthwhile getting it exchanged for local currency.

The Danish are very polite. What they did not tell you was how much they had to save for it to be worth it, the buy back rate is always worse and there are handling fees. 
Put it this way I’ve some nice Scottish notes sitting here. How well do you think they will go down on my upcoming trip to Toronto or Chicago if I give them as a tip to hard working waitstaff. 
Always tip in the currency of the country. Second best option if in Europe in a smaller non EU country Euros will be an acceptable alternative except of course in the UK! 

[duquephart]

3 hours ago, uktog said:

The Danish are very polite. What they did not tell you was how much they had to save for it to be worth it, the buy back rate is always worse and there are handling fees. 
Put it this way I’ve some nice Scottish notes sitting here. How well do you think they will go down on my upcoming trip to Toronto or Chicago if I give them as a tip to hard working waitstaff. 
Always tip in the currency of the country. Second best option if in Europe in a smaller non EU country Euros will be an acceptable alternative except of course in the UK! 

 

Euros and dollars are a tad more universal than Scottish notes.

[uktog]

12 minutes ago, duquephart said:

 

Euros and dollars are a tad more universal than Scottish notes.

Indeed but even if I get the English "versions"  I will not be tipping that way in USA or Canada and so wherever you are, tip in the currency of the country unless your home currency is one that has widespread use in the host country.  The dollar does not have widespread use in Europe - it does in places like Vietnam, Euro is generally useful everywhere in mainland Europe even if it is not the currency of the country - for example in Scandinavia where only Finland has adopted the Euro etc etc.  The UK is not mainland Europe so tip in sterling (or not at all as you choose, we do not have an ingrained tipping culture and in restaurants a service charge may already be added which has to be shared to staff)

[KBs mum]

When changing currency we worked out that 20 US dollars was break even by the time commission, parking, petrol and time was taken into account. 30 is the point at which we bother. 

We have a lot of different currencies in out 'travel drawer' usually we only change them if the notes are being withdrawn from circulation, then we take whatever is left of the rest to exchange at the same time. We keep euros as we need them quite frequently 

Edited April 27, 2023 by KBs mum

[Cienfuegos]

On our Viking trip to Cuba, my wife and I usually tipped in US dollars, which were very appreciated. The official rate of exchange at the government cambio was considerably less than the street rate, and dollars allowed purchases from the dollar stores.  Unlike the markets available to working people, the dollar stores had cooking oil, flour, meat, etc in stock.

[JeffElizabeth]

A lot depends on the nation. In Morocco,  they much prefer Euros to US dollars. Same in the Scandinavian nations, Euros were fine. Many of the guides travel to Euro nations at the end of tourist season.  

[duquephart]

Nowhere on Homelands did Euros not work well. And I saw a lot of dollars in palms.

[Camden lady]

2 hours ago, JeffElizabeth said:

A lot depends on the nation. In Morocco,  they much prefer Euros to US dollars. Same in the Scandinavian nations, Euros were fine. Many of the guides travel to Euro nations at the end of tourist season.  

So are Euros accepted in Norway?   Or would it be better to use American dollars or get Norway currency?   

[KBs mum]

46 minutes ago, Camden lady said:

So are Euros accepted in Norway?   Or would it be better to use American dollars or get Norway currency?   

Norwegian Krone. The others are not accepted. Euros are probably of more use to a Norwegian than dollars, as travel between Norway and the eurozone is fairly frequent and easy, but are of no use in Norway itself. 

As in the UK, any low value euros would probably be given to a friend if whoever has them doesn't have a trip planned

Edited April 27, 2023 by KBs mum

[loriva]

On 4/26/2023 at 5:14 PM, sabrefan said:

Going on a Vikings Homeland cruise in June and was wondering what currency others used for tips? A friend of mine did this cruise last year and used U.S. funds for excursion tips but I don’t know how easy it is for tour guides to exchange U.S. $ into their local currency. Appreciate getting the opinions of others on this board.

 

We leave on the Viking Homelands cruise on Monday.  My financial institution reimburses our ATM fees, so I always get a small amount of local currency wherever we land.  (Pre-COVID, many small vendors and cafes did not accept credit cards, which also made having a small amount of "walking around" money useful.)  Your bank or credit union may do the same and local currency (in a free-market economy) is always preferable.

[Camden lady]

3 hours ago, KBs mum said:

Norwegian Krone. The others are not accepted. Euros are probably of more use to a Norwegian than dollars, as travel between Norway and the eurozone is fairly frequent and easy, but are of no use in Norway itself. 

As in the UK, any low value euros would probably be given to a friend if whoever has them doesn't have a trip planned

Thank you for the information.  Will leave my euros at home and get some Norwegian Krone through my bank.  

[uktog]

10 hours ago, KBs mum said:

As in the UK, any low value euros would probably be given to a friend if whoever has them doesn't have a trip planned

Or given as a charity donation in the give us your unused currency drums many charities have. 
Same goes for dollars 

[JeffElizabeth]

On 4/27/2023 at 6:54 PM, Camden lady said:

Thank you for the information.  Will leave my euros at home and get some Norwegian Krone through my bank.  

Some cruise lines front desks will sell you local currency.  

[LindaS272]

28 minutes ago, JeffElizabeth said:

Some cruise lines front desks will sell you local currency.  

Not Viking. They can sometimes change large bills for smaller ones or coins but probably depends on where the ship is sailing.

[janetcbl]

We used Norwegian kronor in Norway and US dollars every where else. It made no sense to us to change USD for zlotys for one day in Poland, etc. ….our Guide was happy to accept $. Yes, it would be lovely to tip in the currency of the country you are visiting, but from my many year’s experience, dollars are a good second choice.

[duquephart]

4 hours ago, janetcbl said:

We used Norwegian kronor in Norway and US dollars every where else. It made no sense to us to change USD for zlotys for one day in Poland, etc. ….our Guide was happy to accept $. Yes, it would be lovely to tip in the currency of the country you are visiting, but from my many year’s experience, dollars are a good second choice.

 

Best second choice = Euros.