I made a simple currency mistake overseas - here's how you can avoid it

Cruising makes it easy to experience several countries in one holiday, but the challenge is remembering which currency you're supposed to be spending. And if you travel too much, you sometimes don't remember which country you're actually in.

I'm writing this column from Skagen, after boarding a Norway cruise in Oslo yesterday. When I went ashore, I converted the prices from Norwegian krone to Australian dollars and was quite pleased about my sensible spending. I realised too late that we had crossed the sea to Denmark, which uses the Danish krone. Unfortunately, the exchange rate is not as favourable, so I had spent more than I thought.

On a longer cruise in Northern Europe, you could also use (and confuse) the Swedish krona, the Icelandic krona and the euro everywhere else.

A full Danube river cruise taking you through Germany, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania means you need to keep up with five different currencies.

In Asia, you could be paying in Thai baht, Malaysian ringgit, Vietnamese dong or Indonesian rupiah, depending on the day of the voyage. In South America, it might be the Brazilian real, Uruguayan peso, Chilean peso or Argentine peso, although crisp US dollar bills are often welcomed.

Swiping a credit card is more convenient than foraging for foreign notes and coins, but it means nobody corrects you if you accidentally hand over the wrong money. When you pay in cash, they will certainly let you know. I carry a little local currency for markets, taxis or public toilets in some cities. However, you may encounter the opposite situation, where cash is not accepted.