Jess :
Hello all, in three days my family and I will be leaving for Venice, Italy. Then we will be heading out for a 7 night Royal Caribbean cruise on the Eastern Mediterranean. Our stops include Dubrovnik, Croatia; Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey; Corfu, Greece; and Santorini, Greece.
We’ve been told that American money is of no value in Europe, so what can we use as spending money over there, and is it possible to do currency exchange in any of these places?
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{ 4 comments }
Ask your travel agent or check with the cruiseship.
They may do currency exchanges on the ship.
You can do currency exchanges pretty much everywhere in Europe, just go to a local bank
All the big airports should also have currency exchange booths 
The Euro is the currency you’ll use for spending money 
I hope this helps a little!
Cash in some dollars for euros at the airport since you will be departing from Venice and you might want to purchase a drink or something to eat.
The best way to get around the money exchange is to use ATM’s and your credit card. You can also exchange money at banks, travel agencies and post offices. You might be able to exchange on your ship.
You will use euros in Venice and Greece. The currency exchange right now is US dollar=63 cents in euros.
In Croatia US dollar =4.58 kuna
In Turkey US dollar= 1.318 turkish lira
If you get cash out of the ATM’s don’t take out much. Try to use your credit card as much as possible. But always ask if they except credit cards.
Good Luck and have a wonderful cruise)
Please tell me that you understand the concept of how every country has their own money, and that you need to have THEIR currency (as has always been the case) to use as spending money, wherever you go. Even if you go to Canada and Mexico, you need to change your money into their currency to spend it. Some countries like our money and exchange it readily (though usually at a poorer rate at shops than at banks, but you can do it pretty easily), but in general, wherever you go outside the US, the dollar is no good. You always have to go to a bank, any bank, or an exchange shop, or, nowadays, you can just use an ATM. You can buy Euros (or whatever, it looks like you have a few stops that don’t use the Euro), at an American bank. I had to order them in advance. It doesn’t sound as if you have done that, so just change your money at a bank there. Any bank. They will have the rates posted outside at many of them.
You can also use credit cards, and they do the currency exchange at the banks, and you don’t have to even know about it.
Check the exchange rate AND THE FEES on the ship. They may give you a reasonable rate, or they may charge you hefty fees for the convenience.
All the places you mention are big tourist attractions. They make a lot of money off of international travellers, and finding exchange places should not be a problem.
You can buy money at the airport or train station (though it won’t be as good a rate as at a bank), or take euros or drachmas, or whatever the local currency is out of ATMS, or go into the bank with your checks or cash or credit cards (N.B. credit cards charge a hefty fee for cash advances, and travellers’ checks – which you must already have by now, anyway – are rarely accepted any longer. Bringing US cash to exchange is not advisable, either – credit cards and ATM debit cards are the best).
One other thing: when you hear people talking about the dollar having no value in Europe, what they really mean is that the Euro began as being the same as a dollar. Originally, if, say, a bottle of soda cost 2€ in France or Italy, it cost you $2.00. After the Euro was introduced, it went down against the dollar. so that 2€ soda, actually cost you about $1.75. Now, a Euro costs over $1.60, so that 2€ soda costs you almost $3.00. THAT is what you hear people talking about. You never could have used American money to buy that soda.