Bits and Pieces about the Baltics [Archive] - Cruise Critic Message Board Forums

View Full Version : Bits and Pieces about the Baltics

juliejoe

March 1st, 2005, 03:55 PM

Here's some information I collected last year when researching for our Baltics cruise. Some of it may be helpful to you. Hope you all enjoy your Baltics cruise as much as we enjoyed ours. :)
Julie

Excellent Travelogue of Baltic Ports: http://www.shipcafe.net/shipcafe/eu03/eu2003a.htm

Go to this site for video of Baltics & St. Petersburg (must have high speed internet access:
http://www.adventurepics.com/IBE/video/video1.asp?VF=TsarTrek.wmv

Index with all free videos available:
http://www.adventurepics.com/IBE/video/video1.asp

For hop on/hop off tour bus information: http://www.guidefriday.com
Includes Belfast, Dover, Edinburgh & Glasgow & London under United Kingdom tab. See Copenhagen, Dublin & Oslo under Europe tab.

Pictures of some of the ports can be seen here: http://www.geocities.com/djmabry/northern/denmark.html

Check out the tourist information websites for the cities you will be visiting. Oslo (www.visitoslo.com), Copenhagen (www.visitcopenhagen.com), Stockholm (www.stockholmtown.com), Helsinki (www.hel.fi/english) and Tallinn (www.tallinn.ee) all have cards which you can purchase that allow you unlimited travel on buses, ferries, etc. within certain city areas as well as free entry into many of the tourist sites such as museums.

Travel information web sites:
www.timezonesforpcs.com You can list which countries you're visiting and this site will keep you accurately informed of the time in their zone.

Tourism site for countries around the world http://123world.com/tourism/

Cruise Port information: http://www.cybercruises.com/cruiseports.htm

www.freetranslation.com Here's a website that will translate any language back and forth

Here's the link for PLUS ATM airport locations all over the world: http://visaatm.infonow.net/bin/findNow?LIST_LIST_KEY=1-10294465680001975457&CLIENT_ID=VISA&PAGE=Airport.html

http://www.xe.com/ucc for easy conversion foreign currency to USD

http://www.seatguru.com to look at seat configuration for different airlines/planes

http://www.oanda.com to print a currency cheat sheet to take along

http://www.weatherbase.com for weather by the month around the world

http://intellicast.com for 10 day weather forecast

http://www.towd.com/ to request information from the tourism site for each country you’ll visit

Travel Tips for the Baltics:
Watch your pockets! In every port. In our small group of six that went around we caught hands actually in our pockets in no less than three places. Gypsy kids, scruffy guys, you name it. I kept my money/ID in a neck pouch and my camera zipped inside my inside coat pocket with coat zipped and hand holding it through the outside pocket.

I had to buy medicine (stomach and flu) in Helsinki, Gdansk, and Stockholm…reasonable and easy…ask/look for Apotek or Apteka signs in various countries.

I'm a wine drinker, but found nearly none other than the ship...instead I tried the local beer in each country, which was very good and reasonable. Also, try the hard cider...refreshing!

Wear comfortable shoes (pack several pairs) and plan on walking. A lot. Those charming cobblestone streets (ubiquitous throughout Europe) are hard on feet.

You will need a warm hat and an umbrella. I recently got "plastic galoshes" from Magellan - they are pretty light and fit comfortably over shoes - wish I had had them then.

Dress was casual, and we also noticed that locals dressed quite casually in the ports. Scandinavians really like to take advantage of their short summer!

Transatlantic and Europe cruises tend to be quite a bit dressier than Caribbean or Alaska cruises.

I would suggest layering. Take a t-shirt, flat-knit sweater, sweatshirt, and windbreaker.

Internet cafes/centers are easy to find, and are either cheap or free in most every port. They can be located by asking the locals. Some are freestanding and others are located inside coffee houses or bookstores.

Taxis....negotiate. Don't take the first one in line. Walk to the end. If there's a lot waiting, the last guy knows his chances of getting a fare are slim and none. You'll get a bargain-less than half or more what is offered in the front of the line. Negotiate for an all day price, too, not an hourly amount. Price includes everyone in the taxi, not pp.

VAT
Most countries in Europe have a Value Added Tax (VAT) of about 20% on purchases, money which can be reimbursed to tourists under some circumstances when leaving the country. A minimum purchase at a particular store is necessary before the VAT refund kicks in. You can get a refund on purchases made in a EU country by having paperwork stamped in another EU country when you are heading home. You mail the paperwork back to the store where you bought the goods. Some have said that prior to sailaway there was a person located at the ship who took care of the paperwork and gave a cash rebate on the spot. This was a private company that took a few percentage points off the top of the refund to pay for their service.

MONEY MATTERS
Call all of your credit card companies to determine which one charges the least for foreign purchases. It turned out that mine from MBNA charged only 1%-the rest were 3%.

Credit cards and USD are widely accepted. Many places take both euros and dollars. Use small denomination bills as some vendors and stores will not give change in dollars -you get their local currency as change. Russians are not allowed, by law, to accept American dollars, but they were happy to do so anyway.

Bring small bills from home for tipping money for guides, drivers or to make small purchases. They may not have many on the ship. Cash from the casino cost additional 3 %.

Using a credit card to buy souvenirs and an ATM card to withdraw walking-around cash is the most economical and convenient way to travel in any foreign country. The ATM exchange rate should be very close to, if not exactly the same as, the official exchange rate. If you use ATMs be aware that you may have to work through screens that are in different languages. In every country ATMs were easy to find. Some countries referred to them as "Bank-o-Mats" so use that term if they don't understand ATM. The ship had currency for every country except Russian and Estonia but their exchange rate was not good so we used the ATM's or credit cards.

You often need a 4 digit pin for ATMs in Europe. Contact your bank to notify them you'll be using it in Europe
Here's a couple of links you may find useful...
http://goeurope.about.com/cs/curren..._use_europe.htm
http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/tips/moneytip.htm

NH Cruiser

March 1st, 2005, 04:19 PM

What a wonderful list of websites and information you provided. We can learn so much from this board.

poss

March 1st, 2005, 04:45 PM

Incredible amount of excellent information. Thank you so very much!

mikenmar

March 1st, 2005, 05:07 PM

This is incredible! Thank you so much for all your information.

Dr.Oz

March 1st, 2005, 06:10 PM

Juliejoe, thank you so much for the most wonderful and useful information. One question, what time of year did you travel?

pungo3

March 3rd, 2005, 07:02 PM

Thank you so much for sharing this information with us. It will save me tons of time in my research for a July Baltic cruise.

M&T

March 4th, 2005, 04:42 PM

Glad to see your post. Last fall, I read everything you posted. Your information was fantastic. You and several of the other posters last summer and fall gave me a tremendous head start. I love researching and dreaming about it all before I go.
Thanks.
Marlyne

juliejoe

March 4th, 2005, 09:57 PM

I love researching and dreaming about it all before I go.
Me too Marlyne! I spend at least an equal number of hours researching and dreaming as we spend on the cruise - that way I get twice as much for the money. :D

You are all so welcome! I have learned such a lot here at CC, I'm glad to help whenever I can. Most of what is included in my information collection is from others who were kind enough to share. I do a tremendous amount of copy and paste to word documents.

Julie

Logie

March 4th, 2005, 11:32 PM

stanj

March 5th, 2005, 12:16 PM

Julie

Incredible amount of info that I could not of remembered. The one thing that does stick out was trying to buy a local beer at a small place close to the ship in Tallin I could not use my credit card or US cash. I had my debit card which thankfully worked.

I agree you will not find much wine in port and either bring along with you or buy on the ship. I think it was Tallinn where I did find 2 bottles of wine to bring back on but no where else.

The beer in Gdansk was great and very inexpensive, worth bringing some back on if you can.

It is almost useless to take small bills of US currency in most countries and particularly in Russia. There is a 30 Ruble "Kommission" charge on converting so Russians do not exchange smaller than $20 but the real currency of exhchange is $100 bills. It is illegal to use other national currencies in Russia but paying a private person for a non-commercial transaction, large demonination bills in perfect condition are often used. Any sign of wear on the bill, a tear of any size, indications of having been wet, or ink or other stains will make a bill almost unusable in Russia except by taking it to the Central Bank and changing it there for a "defective" bill sur charge of from 5-50% of the face value. You often read recommendations in guide books and on web sites to use small bills for normal transactions but that is clearly wrong as is much of the information in guide books. When I used to visit as a tourist, before my trip I would notify my bank to save uncirculated $100 bills and I would come in and buy them after finding that most of my cash was useless in Russia because of almost invisible defects like a tiny ink mark or money that had been used in humid areas at some time in the past.

A.E. Traveler's Checks are also almost useless, only major international hotels accept them, a few tourist restaurants and a few central banks will take them begudgingly. An ATM card solves all those problems however and have lower exchange rate charges than gotten from exchange banks.
With so many better options available Europe in general does not welcome them. Sales have dropped so much that A.E. is phasing them out in favor of a prepaid Traveler's Card, sort of a prepaid ATM card.
Scandinavian countries thrive on credit cards and more and more people do not carry cash at all. Russia is still a cash society although ATM machines are every 100 feet or so in the city center and a few hundred feet in the suburbs.

The old stories of using small bills in stores come for a period 7-10 years ago when there was fear of devaluations but since 1998, the Ruble has been the most stable currency in Europe, certainly more stable than dollars. Some private transactions are still done in dollars, always $100 bills which are easier to exhange, such as buying a used car from a private person or even some apartments but even that is becoming rarer because there is more desire now to show assets since the tax rate has dropped to 13% flat rate and the advent of consumer credit in Russia. A Russian citizen might accept a gift of small bills but they might not ever use them and will probably be too polite to suggest giving them money in a form that they can use. Remember the costs for tourists and local are similar for everything except some museum and theater fees. The standard of living in Scandinavian cities is higher than in the US which is also reflected in costs. Moscow and Hong Kong are the only two cities rated as more expensive to live in for a foreigner than St Petersburg and the Scandinavian major cities are not far behind.

Wine is very popular in Scandinavia and St Petersburg, every restaurant has a wine list of familar and not so familar labels. Wine and beer have overtaken Vodka as the drinks of choice in Russia although hard spirits are still consumed in unbelievable quanities in countries like Finland. Beer has progressed the most in Russia where it represented a small fraction of consumption 15 years ago to now being very popular, the most popular drink. A bottle of local beer is about 14 Rubles, or $0.50 but the very popular microbrews and imports are more expensive than in the US. It is not considered alchohol in Russia so teens can buy it without question but as with most things, when there is no big deal made of it, it is not abused. Very few young people or particularly college students drink much in Russia compared to serious overdrinking problem on US college campuses. Try the local brews such as Tinkov unfiltered.
Wine is everywhere but most Russians prefer red wines from Georgia and Moldova which is cheap and fits their desire for slightly sweeter tastes than my California wine country bred taste prefers. I did get used those however. Also try the many and very cheap sparkling wines from Moldova that are called "Soviet Champagne" that sells for about $2 a bottle. It grows on you;>)

I checked a number of the port web URLs posted in this thread and found some glaring errors in information presented, there is a lot of hearsay and otherwise inaccurate information floating around the internet about foreign countries, about all topics anywhere on the internet I suppose. Russian society is changing so fast that western visitors do not realize that their observations from 3 months ago let alone a year ago is wrong currently. No where is change so rapid than Russia except in China. It is not at any level or rate that American's used to sedate social change, could be prepared for. Guide books are not undated very often so the photos of museums are about the only accurate information in them. My favorite guides are such because of their design and beautiful photos but reading the 1998 edition(the most up to date) is like reading a newspaper from your home town dated 1956.

Call me Ishmael

March 5th, 2005, 01:36 PM

DON M.

March 5th, 2005, 02:08 PM

Stan, Same basic question as CMI. Denrus has asked wheather payment will be in credit card or cash?. Do you think they mean crisp, new $100 bills for cash? And yes , what about tips in cash?

stanj

March 5th, 2005, 03:42 PM

Stan,

Since US bills are not legal, what about the tour companies asking for payment in US currency?

Also, if small bills are of no value to Russians, what should one do in order to tip a guide and driver?

CMI

US money and any other currency is perfectly legal to own and hold in Russia. It is illegal to conduct business with foreign currency however.

Good questions about tour companies, you should ask them. As a service, some might be taking the US cash to the an exchange bank to exchange it for you but if in fact they want payment in US currency instead of Rubles or credit cards while in Russia, they and you are subject to fines or prosecution. For a business to legally take foreign currency they must be licensed exchange banks. A few large hotels are.

Every foreign currency transaction is assumed to be an attempt to evade taxes....which it is. The only tour company I know well, Den Rus takes pride in remaining legal and I would be surprised if others did anything prohibited either.

The best way to tip is in local currency unless it is large enough to make exchanging worthwhile. Twenties are about as small a bill used in private exchange. I doubt if most Russians have ever seen a $1 or $5 bill and would be suspicous of it if they did see one. They all know every detail of $50s and the preferred $100 bills and how to spot a counterfeit. If the tip was larger and you happen to have small currencies, exchanging a larger number of small bills would be acceptable. I have ended up with a few ones and fives after trips to the west and had exchange banks refuse to take them in that it was not worth the documentation to exchange them. I saved them until I was exchanging $50s or $100 to get them exchanged. It is SO easy to get Rubles and even easier to use credit cards and Debit cards that I have no idea why anyone would want to use dollars. Stand on any spot in the city center and scan around you and if you are more than 15 seconds walk to an ATM or exchange bank I would be surprised.

Something I have noticed in my travels all over the world, everyone in the US wants foreigners to abide by rules of immigration the US has yet it is considered an unnecessary inconveinence by by those tourists visiting other countries. please be respectful of local customs and laws when visiting other countries. They have valid reasons for their laws that we might not understand.

stanj

March 5th, 2005, 03:48 PM

Stan, Same basic question as CMI. Denrus has asked wheather payment will be in credit card or cash?. Do you think they mean crisp, new $100 bills for cash? And yes , what about tips in cash?

I am sure Den Rus is referring to Rubles when they say "cash", they take either "cash" or credit cards.

If a large payment IS done in Russia with US currency it is assumed to be new or almost new, unmarked or worn $100 bills. Unacceptable bills would be returned to you. More and more the currency of choice in Russia is the 1000 Ruble note, about $33 US, for payments.

Call me Ishmael

March 6th, 2005, 01:18 PM

The reason for asking is to avoid violating Russian law. Those of going there for two days don't want to be hassled (or worse) because we're uninformed.

Actually, the email from DenRus says:

"Payment can be made either cash on the spot (US Dollars are OK, you do not
need rubles) or by credit cards."

In addition, the amounts quoted by DenRus are not round numbers ($239 not $200) which would presuppose that one, five and, ten dollar bills would be used.

As far as tips are concerned, since it is a gift maybe it doesn't consitute a "business transaction." But how would one find out?

Are Euros any more readily accepted in general? Would this be a better currency to give as a gift in a non-business transaction as a memento to someone you've formed a friendship with during two days? :rolleyes:

stanj

March 6th, 2005, 02:20 PM

Actually, the email from DenRus says:

"Payment can be made either cash on the spot (US Dollars are OK, you do not
need rubles) or by credit cards."

As far as tips are concerned, since it is a gift maybe it doesn't consitute a "business transaction." But how would one find out?

Are Euros any more readily accepted in general? Would this be a better currency to give as a gift in a non-business transaction as a memento to someone you've formed a friendship with during two days? :rolleyes:

Ismael
I forgot that the situation with Den Rus is different, they are a foriegn company, not a Russian company and have a Hard Currency account. It is fine for a foriegn company with a Hard Currency account to work with their own currency.

Stores are pricing in Euros now, primarily because the signs and price tags can stay the same in numbers but earn a 20-25% price increase just by calling them Euros instead of Dollars. Inflation is a lot lower now but that increase was not entirely greed, the costs of running the business kept increasingby about that much. They still will only accept Rubles however so the amount is calculated at the posted exchange rate. Most stores that price in y.e. or Euros post a sign telling shoppers what they have selected as the daily official exchange rate. All the car dealers changed at one time so in one day they all increased their income 18% at that time. Mostly big ticket items or luxuries are priced that way. Individuals still think in terms of dollars for the most part however but in the next few years, the Euro will replace the dollar as the standard currency. This is happening all over the world for various reasons.

A guide would probably prefer cash but normally a gift of friendship is not money. Flowers are a great way to express friendship, they are well received by both men and women. Even better is a memento that is unique from your home area. Photos or a small pocket album of your times together is always well received. Women love small glass, porcelain or crystal figurines or vases. If you visit their home you will notice most have a large fine wood cabinet dominating one whole wall in their living room. Books, mementos, photos, awards, flowers and gifts from friends are displayed. If the relationship is truly one of friendship and not paid service provider, one of these gifts is better than money which could be considered a bit rude. Friendships and social interactions with new interesting people are very important elements to Russian society. Make a friend in Russia and it is a friendship for life.

Gifts, of which a gratuity is considered, are not business transactions. The person you give the gift to is not a business. Personal transfers of money in any form is legal between individuals. A business transaction is exchange of goods or services by a client and a business or individual who operates the service or supplies the goods on regular ongoing basis. A travel agent and grocery store, restaurant and car dealer obviously are business offering services on an ongoing basis. The waitress does not change for her services and the service received is not dependent on your leaving a tip. You may leave a gift if you wish. In fact, service is normally included in a cafe or restaurant bill so anything you leave really is a gift.

So what does all this boil down to? Rubles are always accepted and easy to get. If you exchange to many Rubles, you can always exchange them back to dollars or use the excess as gifts to service providers that you would like to reward.
Or bring home a few 100 Ruble notes as interesting gifts back home. Kids always like to receive coins from foreign countries.
The BEST way to deal with larger purchases is credit cards for safety, refundability, and a very good exchange rate. Get Rubles for general spending during the day, ATMs are everywhere. The only reason to use exchange banks is for the interesting experience, not because it is needed or even the best deal.
I think this thread got too complicated and possibly reinforced an image that Russia is complicated and filled with pit-falls. It really is a lot simpler than the maze of laws and regulations a foreigner has to deal with when visiting the US. You, will have NO problems, and if you do, they are easily solved. No one is going to hassle you, no one is going to tell you that you can't do something...except the elderly Museum ladies might tell you in Russian to get a camera ticket before snapping a shot in a museum. There is a GREAT deal of personal freedom in the modern Russia, after all they have had only 13 years to pass laws. More laws are passed each day in the US than a whole session of the Duma. Give them 20 years however:>)

Have fun in SPb

DON M.

March 6th, 2005, 04:02 PM

M&T

March 8th, 2005, 04:27 PM

Another helpful site for the Baltics is www.inyourpocket.com (http://www.inyourpocket.com).

Marlyne

dog

July 20th, 2007, 02:46 PM

Thanks for this information. I realize it is an old thread but still very useful.

Thanks again!

JHUNTGOLF

July 20th, 2007, 03:19 PM

Julie, thank you so much for the info and web links you provided. I've passed it on to my group of five couples that will be doing the Northern Europe/Baltic cruise next July on Carnival's new ship--Splendor.

John

Peregrina651

July 20th, 2007, 09:42 PM

MONEY MATTERS
Call all of your credit card companies to determine which one charges the least for foreign purchases. It turned out that mine from MBNA charged only 1%-the rest were 3%.

Bring small bills from home for tipping money for guides, drivers or to make small purchases. They may not have many on the ship. Cash from the casino cost additional 3 %.

CapitalOne does not add a percentage fee for foreign transactions.

Not all cruise lines charge for getting cash in the casino. Check with your cruise line about its current policy.