Baltic States & St. Petersburg - Is US cash helpful?

Good idea for getting ripped off? It's never a good idea to use any currency in any country that is not "local currency", or carrying large wads of cash in your wallet. There are ATMs everywhere, including Baltics and Russia,so you should have no problem withdrawing local funds when you need them.

About 30 years ago in the old Soviet Union, US dollars and blue jeans were great to have... Not so much anymore. Businesses like to have local currency. ATMs are plentiful. If you have leftover cash in each country, use it to pay off your hotel bill, then put the balance on your credit card.

US Dollars???? Ha - are you kidding? Nobody wants US dollars. Want a valuable currency - get some Swiss Francs and hold on to 'em! As a general rule - when traveling in a foreign country take your ATM card and use their currency. I remember an amusing episode I witnessed in the Munich airport a few years ago: An older American tourist was trying to buy a snack from a vendor cart with US Dollars. The vendor didn't want US Dollars, but the tourist just was distraught and COULD NOT BELIEVE that this poor girl wouldn't accept his US Dollars. I had to just shake my head in disbelief.

They are helpful if your airplane stops in the US on the way to Europe. You can use them to buy a sandwich and a drink at the airport.
Other than that, any piece of plastic with the Visa or MC logo on it is better than US dollars. If you have Euros you can use them in Estonia, though.

We paid our St. Petersburg guide in U.S. dollars, since it was an option that didn't involve changing currency. The guide (Alla tours) was very specific about the bills (and condition of bills) they would accept. Everywhere else we just stopped at an ATM to get local currency. The only place it was a problem was when our ship docked further than walking distance from downtown. Fortunately, that only happened in Helsinki. ATM's don't seem to be as prevalent around dock areas as they are in city centers, train stations and airports. Helsinki might have been worth paying the exorbitant fees to the ships cashier to get some local currency - otherwise we never had a problem. Retailers in Copenhagen were willing to take a few euros we were trying to spend - but at an unfavorable exchange rate.

We did a baltic tour last summer. Most cities (Helsinki, Stockholm, etc.) prefer their local currency. Like has been said, sometimes it is possible to use Euros or dollars, but your exchange rate will be awful. The only exception to this is St. Petersburg. US dollars are the preferred currency in my experience. We've been to many Eastern European resorts with LOTS of Russian tourists and they ALL had wads of US dollars they used for all their purchases.

Kathy's experience is similar to mine. The Baltic cruise was reminiscent of the pre-Euro days, with every country using a different currency. I took small amounts from ATM's in every port since I have a fee-free card with good exchange rates. In St. Petersburg (June 2009), I used a combination of rubles and U.S. dollars. There were a few places that took only rubles. The taxis quoted prices in U.S. dollars. The exchange rate was pretty constant, so that wasn't an issue. Except for Russia, and on the cruise ship, dollars weren't acceptable. Are you with a group tour in Russia? Individual visas are expensive, maybe less so for Canadians than U.S. citizens, but still costly. With a group tour, I'd imagine you'd only need money for souvenirs and maybe refreshments. All the souvenir sellers I met took dollars. For more current information, you could check the St. Petersburg forum on Trip Advisor.