Managing Different Currencies

[croman02]

Our Gems of the Baltic cruise has many ports and there are different currencies used in most. What is the best way to handle tour tips, small shore purchases , etc. Are American $$ welcome everywhere or do you have to have local money?

[Grumpy1]

Our Gems of the Baltic cruise has many ports and there are different currencies used in most. What is the best way to handle tour tips, small shore purchases , etc. Are American $$ welcome everywhere or do you have to have local money?

You can use American dollars or Euros almost everywhere in the Baltics for excursion tips and in many shops. In some places we used our debit card to withdraw local currency from an ATM machine. Estonia will have a bank set up on board the day you are in port and will sell you their currency and buy back what you don't use at the end of the day. They will also sell you rubles if you are visiting Russia after Estonia. HAL will have a currency exchange office open at certain hours if you need to get Euros or some of the local currencies. I got Danish Krone (DKK) from them before arriving in Copenhagen. If you use Euros or dollars in a port that uses a different currency, you will usually get your change in the local currency. Most places that have their own currency will not accept any US coins, or Euro coins... only the paper money.