all those currencies!

We are going on a Baltics sail in May - pretty much the usual ports - if you have done this, what did you do about the different currencies? I'll start by saying I'm thinking we won't really spend much in the different ports - we are not shoppers - but we may want a few snacks or esp. to do HOHO's. Do HOHO's usually take credit cards? E's? (in Istanbul the HOHO wanted E's!) Is it possible to use E's at times for small purchases? (now I know there will be some currency conversion, not in my favor but as ATM's have started adding more fees, often like $5 for even a small amount withdrawal, it might be just as favorable to pay a bit more in E's and not have to withdraw money).

Anyways looking for tips from those that have done this itinerary.

What do you mean by E's???

that would be Euros :)

What do you mean by E's???

Euros (€) presumably.

Hi Sue,

We are also taking a Baltic cruise this May and I've been told it is easier and safer to go to the currency desk on the ship. I've also been told that of course there will be a fee to convert, but not a fee to transfer back to USD if done on the ship. Also, do this is cash, so you don't get another charge on your credit card. I know many won't agree, but this is what we are going to do. Enjoy your cruise.

Joyce

We are going on a Baltics sail in May - pretty much the usual ports - if you have done this, what did you do about the different currencies? I'll start by saying I'm thinking we won't really spend much in the different ports - we are not shoppers - but we may want a few snacks or esp. to do HOHO's. Do HOHO's usually take credit cards? E's? (in Istanbul the HOHO wanted E's!) Is it possible to use E's at times for small purchases? (now I know there will be some currency conversion, not in my favor but as ATM's have started adding more fees, often like $5 for even a small amount withdrawal, it might be just as favorable to pay a bit more in E's and not have to withdraw money).

 

Anyways looking for tips from those that have done this itinerary.

I haven’t done the itinerary, but live in Helsinki and have been to Tallinn, Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Berlin in the past year and St. Petersburg a couple of years ago.

In Finland, Sweden, and Denmark credit/debit card adoption rates are very high and making even small purchases (say a 2e coffee) with a card is normal. Visa and MasterCard are accepted practically everywhere, but other credit cards may not be accepted in smaller establishments. Your average market stall vendor will have a credit card machine, but some small vendors such as ice cream stalls might be cash only. HOHOs do take credit cards. Public buses in Helsinki and Copenhagen take cash only and at least in Helsinki no banknotes larger than 20e. In Stockholm bus drivers do not sell tickets. Tallinn is very similar to Helsinki, Stockholm, and Copenhagen in credit card acceptance. In Denmark it is normal for restaurants to charge the credit card transaction fee from the customer, so it costs a little more to pay with a credit vs. debit or cash.

In Germany cash is used much more and you might stumble upon places that do not take credit cards at all or have minimums on card purchases.

In St. Petersburg unless you have a visa and touring by yourself, your payments will likely be taken care of by your tour guide and your shopping opportunities will be at places that accept credit cards.

I see that you are cruising on the Silhouette so you will only have four different currencies along your route. Euro (EUR) is the currency in Amsterdam, Warnemünde, Helsinki, and Tallinn; the Swedish Crown (SEK) in Stockholm, the Danish Crown (DKK) in Copenhagen, and in St. Peterburg the Russian Ruble (RUB).

Both the SEK and DKK are strong and stable currencies so EUR or USD would not typically be accepted. A very tourist oriented place such as a HOHO or an airport store might accept, but typically at a bad exchange rate. I would be very surprised if you were able to find a place in Stockholm or Copenhagen that accepted EUR or USD, but did not also take credit cards.

I would say that you will do just fine with Euros and a credit card.

Hi Sue,

 

We are also taking a Baltic cruise this May and I've been told it is easier and safer to go to the currency desk on the ship. I've also been told that of course there will be a fee to convert, but not a fee to transfer back to USD if done on the ship. Also, do this is cash, so you don't get another charge on your credit card. I know many won't agree, but this is what we are going to do. Enjoy your cruise.

 

Joyce

Safer? Safer than what?

You're going to pay through the nose to convert this way. Best way is to just use your CC or to withdraw local currency from an ATM. You'll get a waaaaay better rate that way than at the cruise desk.

Safer? Safer than what?

Agreed; whoever is telling them this is either lying to them or completely ignorant of how things work in Europe.

Getting currency on the ship will give you about the worst possible conversion rate. And they will charge you again (with a lousy rate) if and when you try to convert back. But, if you only need small amounts this is pretty convenient. The normal way for folks to obtain cash in Europe is via ATMs...which is the what is used by locals and many visitors.

Hank

Credit card for most purchases. I get a minimal amount at an ATM to get me thru the day with snacks, beverages, light lunch and any place that I've researched in advance to not accept credit cards.

Just go to your local bank, or AMEX office or any of several other places where you can exchange currencies. There is a small fee, but it can save you time, hunting for an ATM when you get off the ship. People say they are everywhere, right, except when you need one. :D:D

When we went we exchanged $50 for several different currencies, so when we got to the appropriate country we were ready. Whatever we came home with, we exchanged back to our own currency.

PLUS, if you have to use the WC when in port, a charge is usually in effect, do it is wise to have some coin available.

OH, and as the others have already said, if money is no object to you, then by all means use the ship's conversion desk, otherwise you will be robbed handsomely by their fees.

Plus, you should try and charge as many things as you can so get a card with NO foreign transaction fees.

Cheers

Len

My OH and self did a Baltic cruise in September 2013. We always have a supply of Euros as we frequently visit the Eurozone. We didn't bother with any other currency as we didn't need it. TBH we don't buy souvenirs, but everywhere we went accepted CC. We have a CC that makes no charge for foreign transactions.

I've traveled through Europe a lot, but never in the more northern countries we are going to in June. I've never had trouble finding an ATM in a plane, train, or ferry terminal. You just have to know to look for them when you get in.

Funny story - for the first time ever we found an ATM in the Hong Kong airport that didn't work for my husband. This is the first time out of dozens so I couldn't believe it. Turns out the keypad was reversed and he was putting his PIN in wrong! We got the money on the 2nd try ;)

Well I'm one of those that just convert a few US$'s onboard the ship the night before getting into a port for the currency that will be needed...a few cents more maybe but not much in the big picture ... not enough to make a huge difference to me for the convenience.

I have no interest in hunting for an ATM when I get off ship or dealing with any possible problems with that machine. I've never had so much foreign currency left over that I felt the need to convert it back...ends up being a souvenier from that country and port stop.

Large amounts of foreign currency for places I will be in for a while (non cruise) I take US Traveler Checks and cash them at a local bank in the city/country where I am staying.

I travel often and the use of foreign ATM's is something I personally prefer to avoid... I use my non fee based credit cards at hotels or large stores. This has worked out well for me so far.

Ashland

These days I think you will have far more difficulty cashing travellers cheques in Europe than finding an ATM. Hardly anywhere will cash them and even if you find somewhere that does, they will make a fairly high charge to do so. Travellers cheques are now a thing of the past, so I would never advise anybody to bring travellers cheques. I'm not sure if you can even get them in Europe anymore. CCs are the way to go.:confused:

Well I'm one of those that just convert a few US$'s onboard the ship the night before getting into a port for the currency that will be needed...a few cents more maybe but not much in the big picture ... not enough to make a huge difference to me for the convenience.

 

I have no interest in hunting for an ATM when I get off ship or dealing with any possible problems with that machine. I've never had so much foreign currency left over that I felt the need to convert it back...ends up being a souvenier from that country and port stop.

 

Large amounts of foreign currency for places I will be in for a while (non cruise) I take US Traveler Checks and cash them at a local bank in the city/country where I am staying.

 

I travel often and the use of foreign ATM's is something I personally prefer to avoid... I use my non fee based credit cards at hotels or large stores. This has worked out well for me so far.

I thought I was the only one who used this approach. The other thing I do is get some foreign cash from my local bank. I order it on line and it shows up at my bank several days later. For places where I am staying longer I also use the ATM.

The only currency advice I'd want to pass along is to consider getting some rubles. When I called to put a travel alert on my credit card last August, Chase told me that they were concerned that the political instability might eventually lead to their having some trouble processing credit card transactions in Russia. WE had no problems with our credit card, and they told me they had not yet had any difficulties processing anything, but if the situation seems unstable next summer it might not be a bad idea for travelers to have some rubles just in case. Also, the first bank I ordered currency from wasn't able to fill the order (and didn't tell me for a few days) so you might want to give your bank some lead time.

If you're worried about electronic transactions in Russia, I'd take some dollars - real, physical notes/bills. They'll always be accepted, and you won't have to convert back any unused roubles.

Having said that, the international banks and CC bodies will do everything they can to maintain usage and Russia is not going to hurt its own economy by stopping CC transactions.

Stuart

Ashland

 

These days I think you will have far more difficulty cashing travellers cheques in Europe than finding an ATM. Hardly anywhere will cash them and even if you find somewhere that does, they will make a fairly high charge to do so. Travellers cheques are now a thing of the past, so I would never advise anybody to bring travellers cheques. I'm not sure if you can even get them in Europe anymore. CCs are the way to go.:confused:

I've had no difficulty cashing my Traveler Checks at major hotels and/or banks...not talking about at retail establishments...that I know.

I take the local currencies I've pre-purchased from my hometown bank and bring TC's as my back up when more cash is needed. I prefer not to use ATM's when traveling internationally. JMHO

Just can't understand this reluctance to use ATMs. It's a very expensive decision!

I use a CC which makes no extra charge for cash, nor for foreign currency transactions, for all cash withdrawals and purchases in the countries I visit. Interest is obviously charged on cash from the moment of withdrawal, but even if I leave clearing the balance till I get back, the effective charge of around 0.6% for 2 weeks' interest is a fraction of the costs of any other conversion process, and the exchange rates are always better than you can ever get by buying currency anywhere.

It's obvious why this should be; no costs involved in transporting little bits of paper all over the globe.

Stuart

Ashland

I don't know when you last used the travellers cheques in Europe, or whereabouts, but believe me they belong to the arc these days. In London now the fares on the buses are being paid by 'contactless' debit cards. Sorry, but the way to go is with CCs and debit cards.

For our Baltic Cruise June 2014 we used two currencies. Since we were in London for four days pre-cruise we took with us apx 400 GBD which we used for misc expenses and taxis. We also had apx 200E with us. We used our credit card for nearly everything everywhere. We also converted apx 10.00 worth on the ship for local pocket change. There are times you just cannot use a credit card and need local currency. A big ex.are pay bathrooms. Not all of them are free and sometimes all that is available is a pay one with an attendant so no sneaking in. You pay or you don't get in!! Just wanting to purchase a soda from a newsstand it's handy to have some cash to get small change for bathrooms! For St Petersburg we used only the credit card as all our fees for admissions to sites were all ready paid for by the tour company. We came home with some coins and no GBD as we used that for lunch at Heathrow. All our tour companies we paid with our credit card.

I too was worried about all the different currencies we needed but it turned out to be quite easy and we did not use any ATM machines at all.

Mauimary:)

Being from the UK, could you take British pound notes (£20 or £10) and whatever Baltic Country you spend in receive the change in their currency ?.

This seemed to work well on a recent trip to Norway

Ashland

 

I don't know when you last used the travellers cheques in Europe, or whereabouts, but believe me they belong to the arc these days. In London now the fares on the buses are being paid by 'contactless' debit cards. Sorry, but the way to go is with CCs and debit cards.

Last year...and I said I cashed them (I didn't try to pay for anything with them) at our major hotel or Bank in London as needed...no problem at all.

Why is it so hard for some to understand some of us prefer this method and the security they provide. :confused:

Ashland

 

These days I think you will have far more difficulty cashing travellers cheques in Europe than finding an ATM. Hardly anywhere will cash them and even if you find somewhere that does, they will make a fairly high charge to do so. Travellers cheques are now a thing of the past, so I would never advise anybody to bring travellers cheques. I'm not sure if you can even get them in Europe anymore. CCs are the way to go.:confused:

Any small fee we may have paid was well worth it in the bigger picture of the security having TC's provided us.

I can easily get them from my hometown bank (I have no idea about purchasing them in Europe and the OP was from the US).

I even purchased some at my local bank in Euros and paid my private tour company (RomeInLimo) at their suggestion so as not to have a credit card fee from them or the need to carry cash.

ATM's may be the way some of you prefer...but there are other options and nothing wrong with offering up those.