Paying for Private Tours (non-SS)

[MadMarine]

We are taking a cruise next year and had a question about how you deal with the large (well, to me) amount of cash that is needed to pay for private tours. The tours we are looking at are anywhere between 200 and 500 Euros. They also are cash only transactions, so I was wondering how you deal with accessing that much cash. ATMs, traveler's checks, bring it with you????

 

Thanks, All

[Dallas Aggie]

You can email the tour company and ask if he driver can take you to the ATM when it is time to pay. We did that in Turkey since the dock area was a little crowded with people standing around. Our driver stopped by the bank on the way back to the dock, away from the tourist traffic and any prying eyes.

[wripro]

Many private tour companies will accept credit cards. It pays to find those if you are worried about carrying cash.

[Keith1010]

No matter what you do remember that there is a limit to how much cash you can take out of the ATM each day so be sure to contact your ATM company so there are no surpirses.

 

The way we deal with this is we take money out of the ATM for the tours and just keep the money locked in the safe. We have taken a lot more money than you are talking about and again keep it in the safe.

 

Keith

[Boo's Mom]

We are taking a cruise next year and had a question about how you deal with the large (well, to me) amount of cash that is needed to pay for private tours. The tours we are looking at are anywhere between 200 and 500 Euros. They also are cash only transactions, so I was wondering how you deal with accessing that much cash. ATMs, traveler's checks, bring it with you????

 

Thanks, All

 

We have always brought the cash with us. In envelopes, marked with the port. Stored in the safe on the ship.

 

Russia was the only location where we were unable to get the money ahead of time. So, there.... we stopped at a bank with our Guide.

 

BTW, the Russia tour was the only tour that we had to pay ahead of time, via credit card ! We just needed touring money. :)

[Northerncheapo]

Yesterday I paid my private tour (chateauneuf de pape wine tour) via paypal. I didn't see a problem with it. I used a credit card to put funds in the paypal account. Maybe you can do the same unless I'm missing some huge security breach here, which I am sure will be pointed out to us in no time :)

[TLCOhio]

No matter what you do remember that there is a limit to how much cash you can take out of the ATM each day so be sure to contact your ATM company so there are no surpirses. The way we deal with this is we take money out of the ATM for the tours and just keep the money locked in the safe. We have taken a lot more money than you are talking about and again keep it in the safe. Keith

 

Excellent comments and suggestions by Keith and the others. ATM's generally do work best, but they will have certain one-day limits for how much can be sucked out. Are there others in group chipping in the cash or does it come mostly from you?

 

BIGGEST WORRY: Be careful on giving people a large or complete payment in advance!!! Where's your protection? Doing a credit card deposit is much safer and lessens your risks for getting stiffed. Most people can be trusted, but not all!

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

For more details, great visuals, etc., from our July 1-16 Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle Silver Cloud experiences:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

[MadMarine]

Thanks all for your input. We are planning on covering the costs ourselves unless some others wish to join us and share. Either way we will book our tours.

 

We plan on using RomeInLimo for our Rome and Sorrento touring. They use a credit card to hold the reservation but take cash/travellers checks for final payment after tour.

 

For Corfu we plan to use a cab company that was got great reviews. They take reservations sans deposit and cash at end of tour.

 

For Nafplion we are planning to use hellas-taxi. They require some form of deposit, and then the rest in cash at end of tour.

 

So, it sounds like a combo of travellers checks and ATM transactions will cover the waterfront.

 

Any other suggestions greatfully appreciated.

[CanadianKate]

This year in Prague we had trouble finding an ATM that would work. This was an ongoing problem all week - a machine that would work one day wouldn't work the next. Luckily, there are lots of them and we were never totally stuck but came close (we often eat in places that don't take credit cards.)

 

One year earlier, there were no problems.

 

Japan was rough for our trip there but that was in 1998.

 

And in India, we had a big problem but that may have been partly due to security crackdowns for Republic Day (no new cell phone activations were possible and our hotel staff told us that they were not allowed to accept any reservations or walk-in guests, plus the subway was running on a severely limited basis and the security lineups to get into the stations were longer than usual.)

 

So lately, our strategy of relying on ATMs is less reliable. We use cash in Europe because quite often our credit cards won't be accepted because they don't have PINs.