Dubai to Athens. Currency advice please.

[cinnamon]

I know many regular Azamara cruisers have sailed on the repositioning trips through the Red Sea and Suez Canal. 

I wonder if anyone could advise what you did about foreign currencies. We usually always like to get at least a small amount for countries we visit but there are so many this time. 

 

United Arab Emirates

Oman

Egypt

Israel

Jordan

Greece. 

 

Athens should be fine for us as we’re heading straight for the airport and usually keep some Euros at home anyway. 

Many thanks. 

[Grandma Cruising]

We’ve done Athens to Dubai 3 times, & are doing it again in October! Dollars are quite widely accepted - but not by taxi drivers in UAE, so you may want to get some Dirham if you intend to use a taxi.

We always have some dollars in ‘stock’.

Don’t know about Israel as we’ve not stopped there before.

We will probably buy a small amount of each currency just so we have some to hand as well as taking dollars and euros.

[Covepointcruiser]

I thought the taxi drivers in UAE took credit cards!   They did the last time we traveled.  I always use my (no foreign transaction feed) credit card everywhere.   We do carry EUROs and also some U.S. dollars but we rarely use either.

[Grandma Cruising]

8 hours ago, Covepointcruiser said:

I thought the taxi drivers in UAE took credit cards!   They did the last time we traveled.  I always use my (no foreign transaction feed) credit card everywhere.   We do carry EUROs and also some U.S. dollars but we rarely use either.

They may well do so, we had dirhams.

[uktog]

9 hours ago, Covepointcruiser said:

I thought the taxi drivers in UAE took credit cards!   They did the last time we traveled.  I always use my (no foreign transaction feed) credit card everywhere.   We do carry EUROs and also some U.S. dollars but we rarely use either.

They do have done for many years. They were the first place I saw it. All official taxis run by the Dubai Taxi Association take credit cards. 
We used dollars plus cards on an equivalent cruise two years ago. 

Edited February 2, 2020 by uktog

[Azamarajunkie]

We had to use shekels for entrance fees at Masada and Ein Gedi on our visit to Israel although our private tour guide accepted USD.the rest of the cruise we used Euro, USD and credit cards. 

[Phxazzcruisers]

we used US$ and credit cards everywhere on that cruise.

 

[manc]

We were told that The ship were able to exchange dollars to Dirhams for trip to airport 

 

We stayed in a hotel overnight in Jerusalem and took a taxi from the ship to hotel and arranged with driver to take us back the following lunchtime. We had local currency for taxi, tram, coffees, snacks, etc. 

 

We had Euros for Athens and Cyprus. 

 

Small amounts of local currency in other countries eg Oman and Jordan. In Egypt on a ship excursion there was no opportunity to spend anything! 

[manc]

We are told on the ship that dirhams for taxi were necessary and we were able to change from dollars to the(just enough to cover the taxifare) on the ship 

[sunlover33]

We took a small supply of each currency and had a uk debit card to get more currency from ATMs if needed. Dollars are widely accepted for most of the stops but for tipping and taxis  and souvenirs stalls it’s useful to have some local currency. 

[cinnamon]

Thank you for the replies.