Alla tours in St Petersburg-how to pay for UK cruiser?

We have booked a 2 day tour of St Petersburg with Alla tours. We have been quoted a price in US dollars and as we are from the UK we asked what the cost was in roubles and we were told that, because of fluctuating exchange rates, they could only tell us on the day. We understand that if we pay by credit card that we will be billed in roubles. Can anyone confirm this? Can someone from the UK who has used Alla tell us what is the best way to pay to get the best deal-credit card or US dollars cash?

We did the 2 day Comfort Tour with Alla and it was excellent. We paid by a CC that makes no foreign transaction charges. As always we paid in the local currency, which is Roubles.

I think they quote in USD so you have an idea of cost, but will be billed in local currency.

London Towner is correct - the local operators, including Alla Tours, quote the tour price in US dollars but you will be charged in Russian rubles. I have toured with Alla during several of my trips to Saint Petersburg (wonderful tours, BTW) and I always use my Visa Traveler's Rewards credit card - although the cost is quoted in US dollars, my credit card is always charged in rubles.

Make sure that you have a credit card that carries no foreign transaction fee. I believe that both visa and mastercard Europe charge a small currency conversion fee but this fee is nominal.

To get an idea of charges, I use the following currency converter:

http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/

Note that above site quotes the bankers rate - us mere mortals never receive such a favorable rate. However, in changing from US dollars to GB pounds, you will have a good idea of the charges (these rates change daily).

emac

If you don't have one already, get yourself a CC like a Halifax Clarity card. The conversion will then be at the bankers rate.

We always have a supply of Euros, but apart from our Euros we never changed any currency for our Baltic cruise. Everywhere accepts CC.

Hi emac - we have exactly the same question regarding our upcoming tour with Alla. It all depends on the exchange rate that Alla wish to apply in the conversion from $ to roubles.

If they use the bank rate at today's rates, our tour (quoted in $) converted to roubles and then converted to £ ( by our no fee Halifax clarity card) will be £406.

If I go and get the $ at the best rate I can get on the high street, it will cost £415.

As I said, the only factor I can't determine is the rate that Alla choose to apply in converting $ to roubles. In the grand scheme of things, I'm not stressing about the possible £9 extra to pay in $.

The post Brexit drop in the £ is the most worrying element.

Hope this makes sense!!

We just took $ in cash so we knew exactly how much it would be. It was simple and meant we could decide when to exchange our money.

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We just took $ in cash so we knew exactly how much it would be. It was simple and meant we could decide when to exchange our money.

 

 

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That's what we did too. Price in USD, paid in USD cash.

Kept it simple, and avoided any conflict over exchange rates.

But that was a couple of years ago, before the recent drop.

We've been watching GBP vs Dollar and Euro, but presume that there's been a drop similar to vs the dollar with other currencies - even the rouble

JB :)

Thanks everyone for your helpful advice. We have dollars in cash and a Halifax Clarity card so if Alla will tell us what the cost is in Roubles on the day we will make our decision. Before the referendum we would have had no hesitation in using cash but we now want to keep our precious dollars, bought at a pre referendum rate, as we have a US holiday booked and the exchange rate at the moment is terrible. However the pound/Rouble rate has also plunged.

Its been awhile but they took $s or credit card when we went on a 2 day tour back in 2011.

I recall prior to the second day of touring we went to a souvenir shop. A man came out with a book and everyone in our van payed. I payed in $s but I saw some used a credit card. Also, I did purchase some souvenirs at the shop and used $s.

We are choosing to pay by CC (no exchange fee) . Makes it simple. I just get amazed at the number of roubles that it will cost (the figure size that is).

Those of you that only use a CC : How do you manage for local buses in places like Helsinki; Stockholm; Copenhagen?

Jack Staff

Have never been to Helsinki, but they use Euros and we always have Euros because we go to the Euro zone on a regular basis. In Copenhagen we took the HOHO bus and paid by CC as we got on. In Stockholm you could buy the bus ticket at the bus stop with CC. Everywhere else we went accepted CC and we have 3 with no foreign transaction charges.