Cash Confusion

Hello, I have been reading and reading the boards about what cash to take on the Baltic cruise and would just like some clarification. We are going to Finland, Sweden, Russia, Estonia & Denmark. I know some use Euros and others, their own currency.

On the ship, can we exchange a small amount of US cash, ex. $20, for local currency? I realize there would be a fee, but isn't it worth the convenience? Do you use a ATM on ship or go to customer service e desk?

Are ATM's available at the ports to get small amounts? If you are on a ship tour, do you have time to go to the ATM? Would it be better to just get all Euros, and use that instead of dollars if we don't have local currency?

And their has been a lot of talk about needing money for bathrooms. While on a ship tour, does the tour guide stop for potty breaks and do you have to pay?

I realize all countries CC is the best way to pay, we have chip/pin and chip/signature cards, but are their any countries you absolutely recommend having local currency for a small purchase if they don't take a CC or won't accept US dollars?

Thank you kindly for answering my questions.

you could just use a Credit card ..if you have one with No foreign transaction fee that is even better

We take a small amount of local cash we usually do not do ships tours

Euro is the currency for most of your ports

Sweden = SEK

Denmark = DKK

Russia =Rubles (if you are doing a private tour the guide may accept other currencies or find an ATM for you)

some shops will take Euro

I would use an ATM ashore not on the ship

Depends on the ship ..some will exchange USD to the local currency

Take a free to use card and withdraw cash only if you need it. We did Baltics last year and used credit card everywhere.

you could just use a Credit card ..if you have one with No foreign transaction fee that is even better

We take a small amount of local cash we usually do not do ships tours

 

Euro is the currency for most of your ports

Sweden = SEK

Denmark = DKK

Russia =Rubles (if you are doing a private tour the guide may accept other currencies or find an ATM for you)

 

some shops will take Euro

 

I would use an ATM ashore not on the ship

Depends on the ship ..some will exchange USD to the local currency

Why would you not use an ATM ashore? I believe the ATM on the ship dispenses US dollars, however, I could be wrong about that. If you have an ATM card that doesn't charge fees for using an ATM not connected to your bank ( like Fidelity and Schwab and I'm sure others) I would use the ATM. Most likely that will be your best exchange rate.

I didn't bother with Swedish Kroner as I could pay for everything with a credit card, even for a coffee or a small souvenir. I did order Danish Kroner as I was spending some more time in Copenhagen, but again, using credit/debit cards and contactless payments appeared to be very common.

For ship's tours in St Petersburg, very often these include a lunch stop in a restaurant, and there is no charge to use the toilets (in my experience). Also, there will be a mandatory stop for souvenir shopping and these places are set up for tour groups, usually with free toilets and the possibility to pay in Sterling, Euros or Dollars as well as credit cards.

Why would you not use an ATM ashore?

Did you actually read my post you quoted ??

Credit card and euros are all you need. Your tour guides will happily accept tips in any currency but euros are the most fungible.

You can get very far with a credit card, however I do recommend to bring a card with chip-and-PIN technology rather than signature. Might be shops only accepting card with chip-and-PIN.

I would also recommend using your debit card at an ATM ashore. We did get some Euros at an ATM at the airport. Otherwise, we mainly used our credit card for all other transactions.

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We used atm machines on shore. I wish I’d had a few rubles at lunch but it was no big deal. Walking around Stockholm there were carts selling things and I didn’t check to see if they took the card. Every where else we had no problem. I thought no the ship gave whatever country you were in but can’t remember for sure

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If you just want the convivence of exchanging money on the ship and don't mind all the extra fees and horrible exchange rate, then do that. It is, by far, the easiest way to go.

As you can see, most here either just used Credit cards, or hit an ATM as soon as they got ashore. If you are doing any ships tours then you probably won't need any foreign money at all. Just use a CC for all purchases, that way you get a good exchange rate and have some protection on whatever you buy. As was said, just have a card with NO foreign transaction fees and they are pretty common right now.

Ourselves, we like to have everything done before hand so we exchanged money before we left for whatever currencies we needed. Not a lot, but just enough to get by. This is just us, but we LIKE using the native currency when possible as it just makes us feel a bit closer to that country, but that's just us.

Cheers

Len

Did you actually read my post you quoted ??

Apparently I misread your post. My appologies!

When we sailed RCI for our Northern Europe Baltic itinerary we easily changed a small bit of US$'s at guest services each night before arriving into the various ports where local currency was needed....the small fee (exchange rate) was no worry for us for the convenience. We didn't need any Rubles in St Petersburg (and the ship didn't carry these) our private guide from TJ Travel took care of this and we easily gave her US$'s at the end of our 2 day tour. We certainly don't want to spend our time looking for an ATM or having the possibility of problems with them. We just recently saw what can happen when in Lerwick Scotland and a couple on our tour needed local currency and had problems at two ATM's before they resolved the situation...so you never know.

Much of the Baltic countries are practically cashless. Even Swedes use very little cash in their own country (that seems the country with the biggest push to a cashless society.) So using cash does not necessarily make you part of the local culture. We saw restaurants in Amsterdam with "credit card only" signs.

On our cruise 3 years ago, we needed cash for one toilet, and a hotdog stand in Copenhagen. Practically everyone, including street vendors, took CC's, some utilizing a Square thru their phone. I know someone that very recently used their Apple watch to pay for a toilet.

So, if you want to use cash, you can, but it is not necessary in the way it was in the past.

I find it really funny. When I was in Amsterdam in 2010 we were told that many places would not accept credit cards. How much has changed in 8 years.

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Thank you for all the great replies. I have one more question which was addressed but want to confirm. While on tours, is it okay to tip the tour guides in dollars and what is an acceptable amount? I didn't think about having cash for tipping until I started reading the replies.

Euros would probably be better, but dollars are usually acceptable. We usually tip $5 for drivers & $10 for guides for a half day tour. We only tip if we are really happy with the tour/ guide/driver.

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I have one more question which was addressed but want to confirm. While on tours, is it okay to tip the tour guides in dollars and what is an acceptable amount? I didn't think about having cash for tipping until I started reading the replies.

Why would you tip in USD?

get some local currency or do not tip

JMO

Thank you for all the great replies. I have one more question which was addressed but want to confirm. While on tours, is it okay to tip the tour guides in dollars and what is an acceptable amount? I didn't think about having cash for tipping until I started reading the replies.

There was no tipping culture in any of these cities, but it is interesting to note that the masses of tourists tipping here anyway have created probably at least some expectations that a few % tip on top is expected for good service. We locals sometimes just round up a few euros to nearest ten if exceptionally good, but otherwise don't tip at all.

So, interestingly, I think the tipping tourists have created a small tipping culture to cities that usually don't have any tipping. This is now visible also in some of the restaurants, where the software running on the device is first asking if you would like to tip, and then adds the desired tip to the total bill.

Zero is completely acceptable amount, but if you decide to still tip on top, I don't think the tour guide cares what currency is given.

And going back to the need of cash - please always keep in mind that Germany is a cash society. That is one of the few European countries where they actually live in the stone age still. You can go to the largest supermarket and they still don't accept any international cards, only local debit cards.