In St. P, our guide paid for anything that required rubles, and we settled up at the end of our two days together.

In the other ports, we easily found ATMs.

I believe I may need the rubles for lunch depending on where we choose to eat. What about tipping the guides? I think the ship may exchange $$ but I don't think it's the best rate.

Some ship actually have ATM on board with different currencies. However, the service fee and the "gap" of the exchange rate is huge.

Just came back from a Baltic Cruise in June and discovered that we can actually get away with not having too muchnforeign currencies if we want to take a chance and limit ourselves to the shops that will accept Euros and USD.

We used DDK when in Denmark as we stayed there for a few days pre-cruise but everyone takes credit cards and the few restaurants that we went to (in tourist area by Tivoli Graden etc) all accepted USD and Euros for payment. (Not ataxi drivers)

The souvenir shops at Oslo readily accepts USD but not for entrance fee for museum. I wonder if the shop will sell you some local currencies. The shops at the new harbour facilities in St. Petersburg accepted USD as did the gift shop in the Hermiatge Museum. We paid our private guide USD in tips.

One word of caution: they will give you back change in local currencies.

Tallinn accepts Euros so we didn't try using USD. Helsinki accepts Euros as well. They took USD and Euros in some souvenir shops in Stockholm.

Thanks for the tips. I guess it shouldn't be an issue.

As long as you have Euros and USD, you will fine.

One oddity: They were reluctant (some even refused) to accept old USD bills that look beat up, worn, torn or have scribbles on them. We have been told that and it was confirmed through our travel. SO we make sure we carry newer bills.

We were plesantly surprised at the amount and proficiency of English langauge around the Baltic area. The only place taht we ran into "minor" problem was Tallinn and ST. Petersburg.

In Copenhagen, almsot everyone we encounter can speak some English. Restauarnts have English menus. Ask teh server if they will accept USD and Euros, if not, Visa and American Express are readily accepted. Make sure you tell your credit card company that you are travelling through the Baltic.

Euros is the currency for Finland, Estonia and Germany. Probably no USD accepted in those places and we didn't try.