7 day cruise with 2 days in Athens-How many Euros to bring?$?

[vanchelle]

Hey there. This is our first trip from US to anywhere that isn’t a Mexico or Caribbean islands. I’d like to bring some Euros from home so I’m not relying on ATM’sin Athens, if possible. I know many places will take credit cards or I’ll be on the ship. But I’ve also read there may be smaller shops, markets etc. where I will need Euros. 
any suggestions on how much to bring? 
also-Tipping porters at the ship or my hotel…what’s appropriate amount for Greece? In US, we’d offer 5$/bag and it varies in hotel based on type of stay, if we use maid service etc. 

I’m trying to plan accordingly for this trip and appreciate your knowledge! 
thanks. 

[CruiserBruce]

First of all, we have no idea what kind of shopper (or other activities) you are, so very hard to recommend how much money you need. Purchases over 20 euros should be on your credit card, since Covid, even smaller purchases use credit cards. Now if you were going to small, non-touristy towns...that is when cash is more important.

 

Tipping is far, far less prevalent than in the US...far less. Usually just the "rounding up" style.

 

Relying on ATMs in country is a smart thing to do, not a bad thing.

[jas283a]

3 hours ago, vanchelle said:

Hey there. This is our first trip from US to anywhere that isn’t a Mexico or Caribbean islands. I’d like to bring some Euros from home so I’m not relying on ATM’sin Athens, if possible. I know many places will take credit cards or I’ll be on the ship. But I’ve also read there may be smaller shops, markets etc. where I will need Euros. 
any suggestions on how much to bring? 
also-Tipping porters at the ship or my hotel…what’s appropriate amount for Greece? In US, we’d offer 5$/bag and it varies in hotel based on type of stay, if we use maid service etc. 

I’m trying to plan accordingly for this trip and appreciate your knowledge! 
thanks. 

I took a few hundred euros when we went last year on a very similar itinerary, maybe 400.  I got it at our bank beforehand (which does plenty of international business) and I feel like we got a better exchange rate.  @CruiserBruce right in that you don't need to tip the same as US/Carribean, but we did anyway, especially since they were (and still are) recovering from Covid related economic distress.  Similar to lots of places, there are plenty of places that take cards, but cash always works. And it helped for different modes of transportation (buses, taxis, etc.). We did end up tipping the ship crew in euros (as well as entrance fees to museums we could've done with a card), but I think dollars would have worked just fine.  And you can exchange your money over there as well, but like I said, I think the rates were better if we did it before we went.  And you can always deposit it back in your bank where you got the euros when you get back (we had very little of our cash left, typical for us though).  

[marazul]

7 hours ago, jas283a said:

but I think dollars would have worked just fine.

Not really.  That would require a trip to the bank instead of just putting the euros in their pocket.

Think about tipping someone in the US in euros.  If you are tipping in cash, always tip in the local currency.

[vanchelle]

Thanks all! Good info to think about. We don’t plan to do very much shopping in our trips. Just souvenirs or coffee, dining and whatnot. I appreciate your responses and feel better about our plan. 

[zqvol]

You are likely to get a better exchange rate using ATMs in Athens than getting cash at home.

[CruiserBruce]

I was thinking about this discussion. Our last land trip to Europe in 2018 (Austria and Germany) was 3 weeks of driving around, staying is all sizes of towns from tiny to major, eating out almost every day. In 3 weeks we didn't spend 300 euros in cash. Brought about 150 euros, and got 200 more from an ATM during the trip. Came home with about 80 euros...which we still have, for our next planned trip to the EU in 2023.

[mort&fran]

On 5/14/2022 at 10:25 AM, zqvol said:

You are likely to get a better exchange rate using ATMs in Athens than getting cash at home.

That's also been my expeience. The one caveat is, like in the US, to check if the ATM has a service fee. Bank ATMs generally do not.

[MSUjohn]

On 5/9/2022 at 7:46 PM, vanchelle said:

Hey there. This is our first trip from US to anywhere that isn’t a Mexico or Caribbean islands. I’d like to bring some Euros from home so I’m not relying on ATM’sin Athens, if possible. I know many places will take credit cards or I’ll be on the ship. But I’ve also read there may be smaller shops, markets etc. where I will need Euros. 
any suggestions on how much to bring? 
also-Tipping porters at the ship or my hotel…what’s appropriate amount for Greece? In US, we’d offer 5$/bag and it varies in hotel based on type of stay, if we use maid service etc. 

I’m trying to plan accordingly for this trip and appreciate your knowledge! 
thanks. 

since my first time going over seas in 2000 to the present day, i have never once used traveler's checks or a currency exchange. i have always used an atm; from costa rica to the czech republic.

 

tell your bank what countries you will be visiting and the dates.

 

this is very important. 

[latebloomer56]

On 5/14/2022 at 4:39 PM, CruiserBruce said:

I was thinking about this discussion. Our last land trip to Europe in 2018 (Austria and Germany) was 3 weeks of driving around, staying is all sizes of towns from tiny to major, eating out almost every day. In 3 weeks we didn't spend 300 euros in cash. Brought about 150 euros, and got 200 more from an ATM during the trip. Came home with about 80 euros...which we still have, for our next planned trip to the EU in 2023.

This is very helpful. Would you know about tipping rates? We are getting Euros for Italy and Greece and Lira For Turkey from AAA. We have a week in Italy before our cruise to Greece. Want to use local currency for tipping and small items like a coffee or glass of wine.

[CruiserBruce]

40 minutes ago, latebloomer56 said:

This is very helpful. Would you know about tipping rates? We are getting Euros for Italy and Greece and Lira For Turkey from AAA. We have a week in Italy before our cruise to Greece. Want to use local currency for tipping and small items like a coffee or glass of wine.

There are many threads here about tipping. Tipping in Europe is fare less than in the US. Usually you might round up a restaurant bill...a couple euros. Not a 15, 20 or 25% tip like in the US. Similar with a taxi...round up. 

[latebloomer56]

11 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

There are many threads here about tipping. Tipping in Europe is fare less than in the US. Usually you might round up a restaurant bill...a couple euros. Not a 15, 20 or 25% tip like in the US. Similar with a taxi...round up. 

Thanks, so with the Euro almost equal to US dollar if I would tip a tour guide 5.00 in dollars it would be 5 in Euros. That would be easy to figure out. Will use credit card for shopping in all countries but like to use cash for small items & tipping. Still have 100 Euros from last trip. Think another 200 should work. Always Take home balance if over 20.

Now just need to figure out Turkish Lira, won't take home left over from here.  I'm sure there will be a place in Istanbul collecting for the horrific resent tragedy, if I bring to much.

[pdmlynek]

On 5/10/2022 at 6:44 AM, marazul said:

Not really.  That would require a trip to the bank instead of just putting the euros in their pocket.

Think about tipping someone in the US in euros.  If you are tipping in cash, always tip in the local currency.

 I agree about tipping or paying in local currency, but @jas283a wrote about tipping ship personnel. On US based ships the currency is USD even when traveling in Europe. 

[pdmlynek]

On 8/11/2022 at 11:17 AM, MSUjohn said:

since my first time going over seas in 2000 to the present day, i have never once used traveler's checks or a currency exchange. i have always used an atm; from costa rica to the czech republic.

Well, i don't think that traveler's checks (TCs) are on anyone's mind anymore. They have been obsolete for the past quarter of century, as you wrote.

 

Now, you can use credit cards when traveling; very few people outside the US knew what a credit card was, let alone accepted it. And the only card that they typically accepted was Amex. 

 

Likewise, there were no ATMs in most countries until recently, and for a long time they did not accept any card except for the own bank's cards, let alone debit cards from abroad. 

 

So, you had to travel without credit cards, and without access to ATMs. That meant using cash. You'd be traveling with thousands of USDs (by now equivalent to tens of thousands in today's money), and you'd exchange it into local currency whatever country you were in. Now we have Euros, so you dont need to exchange it as much.

 

Because many people were not comfortable traveling with that much cash, so they used TCs. It cost you money to buy them, it cost you money to redeem them. I never used them, and just traveled with cash.