Currency for Egypt and Israel? Black Sea?

[HollandDisneyPrincess]

I know that in some places along the Med, the countries will accept either their own currency or Euros as payment (Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia all have in the past).

 

Can anyone tell me if Egypt and Israel do also? If anyone knows about Georgia, Bulgaria or Romania, as well?

 

We'll be doing the Black Sea and Holy Land so I'm researching to see if we need to purchase foreign currencies. I don't mind having to exchange and we collect coins from the countries we visit, so I have no issues with getting back change in local currency. Just trying to work out how much/what needs to be exchanged.

 

Thanks for any help!

[cruiser1955]

Egypt

No problem using US$ or Euros. I would suggest taking $1 and $5 bills for small purchases. No need for Egyptian pounds anywhere. Cafes will convert to either and prices are so low (coffee and cakes for 3 came in at $6). Taxis took $ in Port Said with no problem. Even "shacks" on the beach would take $ for a coffee or tea - they were so grateful for the trade.

 

Israel

Many places took Euros but some Israeli currency is good for small purchases as some hotels/cafes wouldn't accept $ or Euros for drinks

 

A few years since I've been to the Bulgarian and Romanian areas (Danube cruise) but again Euros were widely accepted. I did change to local and found I didn't need it.

 

Seen in your cruise list that you were on the Oosterdam in February. I was on Celebrity Solstice and passed the Ooseterdam in Doubtful Sound in February

Edited September 23, 2014 by cruiser1955

[HollandDisneyPrincess]

Thanks for the info! Will think about taking small amounts of local currency and paying for the rest with Euros.

 

We were on the Oosterdam, but later in Feb. We didn't make it to Doubtful Sound due to a big storm in the Tasman Sea. Never got to see the fjords :( We looked into the Australian circumnavigation with CelebrIty, but decided it was too many days at sea. What did you think?

Edited September 23, 2014 by HollandDisneyPrincess

[cruiser1955]

Sorry you missed the fjords. I was lucky in that the weather was perfect, but it is always hit and miss for that area of the world. I've attached a photo of the Oosterdam in Doubtful Sound so that you can see what you missed.

 

I did go on to do the circumnavigation of Australia and didn't find the overall number of sea days to be a problem. Of the 35 days from Auckland to Sydney just under half were sea days. The part from Adelaide to Bali was very hot, so not the best time for me to be at sea as there was very little shade - that was also the part of the cruise with the most sea days. I had a sunset balcony and that was in full sun during that part of the cruise.

 

Last year I did the 91 night round-trip to New Zealand on Queen Elizabeth and that had just 29 port days. Fortunately, although less than 200 did the whole trip we did have a very good core group of passengers which did help on the extended sea day parts. Had the group not been good, that would have been too many sea days.