Stupid question time re: Ccy ($/€/DKK/etc) how much to take?

[irocfan]

We'll be off on a cruise later this year where we'll be stopping off at:

Norway
Sweden
Denmark
Finland (€)
Estonia (€)
Russia
Germany (€)

Now for most of the cruise dollars should be fine (it is after-all a US operator) and I rather suspect that as it's a cruise-ship they'll happily rip-off accept any currency on board.

The question comes when you're on-land - not having been to multiple countries for 3/4 day at a time (with the exception of Russia 1.5 days) how much to budget? WRT to gratuities for the tour-guides etc I'd imagine that they're used to receiving $/€ so there'd be no issues there and I'm thinking that since we've already booked the tours we want that realistically we're not going to be wanting more than £50 (equiv) for each country and/or the credit-card if needed for a larger bill?

[Puggit]

For Scandinavian countries, paying for everything by card is the norm.

Certianly, if you visit St Petersburg and head to small shops, you may well need roubles.

[gazapc]

Surely this multi stop trip is the sort of thing the Halifax Clarity credit card is good for, no fees and nearly perfect exchange rate.

[Mr Pointy]

If you really want to be able to pull local curency out of an ATM in multiple countries look at a currency card from Caxton or FairFX. You load it up wth sterling using a debit card & then when you use it in an ATM you get money out in Euros, Roubles, Dinars, Dollars or whatever the local currency is. The charges & costs aren't too bad but & I found them convenient.

https://www.caxtonfx.com/currency-cards/why-use-a-...
https://www.fairfx.com/

[madcowman]

Did a Nordic Cruise last year - Baltic next. Didn't need any local currency at all for the Nordics ( and the tour guides are generally pretty well paid so not quite as tip hungry as the states. )

Having a few roubles for St. Petes might be handy ( its better on non cash transactions than it used to be!) - though I plan on just using my Monzo Card in ATM's if I have to get cash out.

[irocfan]

Cheers all - has been very helpful. We've got a clarity card so I was hoping that that could get most of the use.