Baltic Sea Ports & tours- money

I have read a few threads about tours, tips etc but most seem to be for Caribbean or Southern Europe related.

Some northern European countries on the Baltic Sea do not use the Euro.

When booking tours (private e.g Alla) , do you pay cash, in the local currency? Or can these be paid in advance by credit card? What is better

What about tipping in these countries? Local currency only?

I’m from Canada. And our dollar is terrible right now!

I assume the tipping on board is in USA?

I may be looking at carrying 5 different currencies and that makes me nervous!

Any advice?

Hi all!

Canada2018 ~ I'm also from Canada & did the Baltic cruise on Getaway in May.

I used Alla in Tallinn, SPB & Helsinki & charged the tours to my credit card, not in advance. For Russia we stopped at a store where we made the payment, probably after the 1st day.

Before I went I used my exchange app to see how much $20 Canadian would be of each currency, just makes it easier to figure for me. I got the money from my CIBC bank & if I didn't use the amount I got, a bit more for Russia, I gave that money as tips. It's always nice to have a bit of local currency for snacks, little souvenirs, w/c I think.

You could tip onboard whatever you want as those people will be going to those places for the season. I would think that Euros or USD would be preferable.

This is an amazing cruise & you can see lovely pictures, get ideas etc through Nicole 721's post in this forum. She went the week before me.

If you haven't been to Copenhagen before I'd stay there a couple of nights, or at least one. Tivoli Gardens is lovely, the Copenhagen card worthwhile. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2585140

I flew Icelandair so took advantage of their stopover program to stay there a couple of nights on the way home.

Hope this helps.

~ Jo ~ :)

I have read a few threads about tours, tips etc but most seem to be for Caribbean or Southern Europe related.

 

Some northern European countries on the Baltic Sea do not use the Euro.

 

When booking tours (private e.g Alla) , do you pay cash, in the local currency? Or can these be paid in advance by credit card? What is better

 

What about tipping in these countries? Local currency only?

 

I’m from Canada. And our dollar is terrible right now!

 

I assume the tipping on board is in USA?

 

I may be looking at carrying 5 different currencies and that makes me nervous!

 

Any advice?

We did this cruise 2 years ago. We brought USD, Euros, a credit card, and an ATM card in case we came across a situation where we needed local currency.

Our credit card doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees and used this in every port with no problems. I would recommend getting one of these as they give a fair exchange rate.

For our Russia tour (we used SPB tours) and prepaid before the tour. The tour guides were happy to take USD or Euros in Russia for tips.

For the countries that use Euros - we tipped in Euros, for others we tipped in USD.

On the ship we tipped USD, but I heard staff say they would be happy to get Euros too.

In retrospect we would have been fine with just USD and our credit card (and the ATM just in case).

It was an amazing experience, you will have an awesome time!

Usually paying with credit card is not a problem at all in all scandinavien and also the baltic countries.

If you want to give a tip or pay in cash,it is safer to have some local currency(russian rubles ,swedish krona).

Many will also take USD,but the exchange rate might be a desaster.

We did this cruise a few years ago and also used SPB Tours and they were great. I'm not exactly sure how they work now, but then, if you paid in cash you got a slightly cheaper rate than paying with a credit card. It might be wise to go to the Northern Europe port of call forum and ask over there. You have people who have all done this cruise and will know for sure.

Cheers

Len

You’re on the wrong board, go to the relevant ports of call section and you’ll find all you need/want.

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You’re on the wrong board, go to the relevant ports of call section and you’ll find all you need/want.

 

 

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Thanks. I’m new. Will have a look.