Currency in Turkey

fishhawks

I am going on holiday to Turkey shortly, can anyone give me advice about the currency I should take with me. I have heard they accept Turkish lira, Euros and Sterling, but dont know if I should take all money in one currency or some of each.

suki1964

Only take a small amount of lira with you and try to get hold of 1million notes (tipping is expected and they wont take english coins)

We usualy take around £20 worth of lira to get us through the first day or two (2 adults) then we take cash (£10 and £20's) and our cards.

The exchange rate is much better there then here and banks are plentiful. The post office usually gives the best rate and is open till around 9 or 10 pm 7 days a week. Jewellers and restuarants will also exchange if you get stuck. To be honest its rarely worth hunting around to get the "best" rate - you are talking just fractions of a penny in most cases.

If you dont know, the notes are 1,5,10,20, and 50 million notes. They all look the same so get used to the colours. Smaller notes (250 and 500) are known as toilet paper(the price of spending a penny) and coins are usually not bothered with at all with sweets being given as change

melipona

As above, a small amout of Lira to tide you over the arrivial, most transactions are easily done in euros so I prefer to use these and then dont bother to change them back on my return as they will proberbly be used on the next holiday.

Remember to have a tenner each in sterling to pay for your tourist visa on arrivial.

Happy Hols!

alanrowell

the notes are 1,5,10,20, and 50 million notes

Your information is a tadge out of date - New Turkish Lira

Of course if you want to give a taxi driver a million, then that's up to you.

Baz_Bee_2

I thought that Turkey had recently revalued their currency and that the exchange rate was now in the order of 2.45 Lira to the £ as opposed to the millions previously? I understand that they have issued new notes effectively with the zeros knocked off and that the old notes can be used side by side with the new notes for this year (2005) only. Also believe that there are also new coins issue in 1,5 25 anf 50 Korus denominations that you now have to use like you use to use the smaller notes previously and new 50 and 100 YTL notes.

So I suppose the warning is be careful that you do not get ripped off due to any confusion over old six zero notes and the new notes and coinage.

Have a look here for some more useful info:


http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=23585

suki1964

Baz_Bee wrote:

I thought that Turkey had recently revalued their currency and that the exchange rate was now in the order of 2.45 Lira to the £ as opposed to the millions previously? I understand that they have issued new notes effectively with the zeros knocked off and that the old notes can be used side by side with the new notes for this year (2005) only. Also believe that there are also new coins issue in 1,5 25 anf 50 Korus denominations that you now have to use like you use to use the smaller notes previously and new 50 and 100 YTL notes.

So I suppose the warning is be careful that you do not get ripped off due to any confusion over old six zero notes and the new notes and coinage.

Have a look here for some more useful info:


http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=23585

Thanks for pointing that out, I forgot they were knocking off the 00's.
So now keep hold of your coins they are worth something
Must go book my holiday:D

fishhawks

Thanks for your replys it was all really useful. I have also been told that when buying goods in Sterling the Turkish will not accept Scottish notes, only English, had to get some changed at the bank today!

gigif30

youre right they dont like scottish money but you will get a lot more for your money at the markets etc if you use english notes instead of lira