GBP to Lira

zagfles

meer53 wrote: »

Change just enough for the first day then change when you are there. In Turkey lots of shops/restaurants will change money for you, their rate is often better than money exchange places. Shop around. I use my Starling or Clarity card.

£150 isn't going to last long, we're off to Dalaman again in 3 weeks, for 2 of us we budget £100 per day. How long are you going for ?

Assuming accomodation is paid for, you have to work hard to spend £100 a day in Turkey between 2 of you!

We managed it, just been and it was a "special" birthday so we didn't hold back, we went on loads of trips, we did paragliding, we bought all the photo packages on the trips, drinking cocktails most evenings, did pampering session eg pedicures, manicures, facials, shaves, Turkish baths etc, we had really good Turkish meals most days, and ended up spending just over £700 in a week for the 2 of us. (B&B was paid for as part of the package, but nothing else included).

So that's what £50 a day each gets you, but you can do it a lot cheaper if you cut out some of the above! £20 a day would probably do if you're happy to lie round the pool all day and just need to pay for food & drink. Unless you're really big drinkers, but wouldn't recommend that in Turkey as your travel insurance is unlikely to cover you if drunk and the EHIC doesn't apply.

zagfles

PompeyPete wrote: »

It's not so much the exchange rate you get, but keeping your wits about you when spending.

If you pay in £GB or €uro, then the rate you pay will be beneficial to the vendor, not you.

If you pay in £GB or €uro, then any change you get will be in Turkish Lira, so like it or not you're going to end up with Turkish Lira in your pocket.

And surely half the fun of being in a Foreign country, particularly one like Turkey is being able to spend in the currency of the country you're in.

We noticed most of the shops selling tours priced everything in GBP, and you got best value paying in GBP, if they converted to Lira it was a reasonable rate but higher than interbank. So worth taking a bit of GBP with you.

Restaurants, bars etc priced stuff in Lira and some did rip you off if you wanted to pay in GBP.

PompeyPete

zagfles wrote: »

We noticed most of the shops selling tours priced everything in GBP, and you got best value paying in GBP, if they converted to Lira it was a reasonable rate but higher than interbank. So worth taking a bit of GBP with you.

If the shops are in a tourist area full of British Tourists, then yep, the prices may be in GBP. The main reason is because the average British Tourist hasn't got a clue about the Rate of Exchange, and doesn't have to use any brain cells to work out the cost of anything.

Ditto if the shops are in a tourist area full of tourists from continental EU. The prices will be in €uros.

zagfles wrote: »

Restaurants, bars etc priced stuff in Lira and some did rip you off if you wanted to pay in GBP.

They aren't really ripping you off......they're just taking advantage of the bone idle tourist. And like I said earlier, if you pay in a foreign currency, eg. GBP or €uro, any change [if you're lucky] will in Turkish Lira.

zagfles

PompeyPete wrote: »

If the shops are in a tourist area full of British Tourists, then yep, the prices may be in GBP. The main reason is because the average British Tourist hasn't got a clue about the Rate of Exchange, and doesn't have to use any brain cells to work out the cost of anything.

Ditto if the shops are in a tourist area full of tourists from continental EU. The prices will be in €uros.

Well, quite, but the point is that IME in these places it's better to pay in GBP because that's how they're priced and the conversion will be in their favour.

They aren't really ripping you off......they're just taking advantage of the bone idle tourist. And like I said earlier, if you pay in a foreign currency, eg. GBP or €uro, any change [if you're lucky] will in Turkish Lira.

We got change in GBP when paying in GBP. You're probably right if you pay for small stuff as they probably won't have coins, but for one of our trips we paid for a £30 trip with two twenties and got a tenner change.

It's less confusing than in Croatia where in the tourist areas loads of stuff was priced in EUR but they didn't actually accept EUR!

PompeyPete

zagfles wrote: »

Well, quite, but the point is that IME in these places it's better to pay in GBP because that's how they're priced and the conversion will be in their favour. We got change in GBP when paying in GBP. You're probably right if you pay for small stuff as they probably won't have coins, but for one of our trips we paid for a £30 trip with two twenties and got a tenner change.

It's less confusing than in Croatia where in the tourist areas loads of stuff was priced in EUR but they didn't actually accept EUR!

It could be the case that the prices in GBP had already been rounded-up. Also with GBP [as with €uro], an advertised price in a familiar currency [GBP] will attract a much higher take-up, and as with most tourist areas prices are negotiable. Whichever way, the vendor wins, even if the punter might think otherwise. [I'm waffling btw, but I suspect I'm not far of the mark].

Yeah, I think there's a law in Croatia about all payments must be in Kuna. But I'm sure that in the Cruise Ship Ports where punters are only there for a few hours, destinations like Dubrovnik and Split, the law is overlooked by a lot of Traders, and they happily accept €uros.

zagfles

PompeyPete wrote: »

It could be the case that the prices in GBP had already been rounded-up. Also with GBP [as with €uro], an advertised price in a familiar currency [GBP] will attract a much higher take-up, and as with most tourist areas prices are negotiable. Whichever way, the vendor wins, even if the punter might think otherwise. [I'm waffling btw, but I suspect I'm not far of the mark].

The other reason for prices in GBP/EUR is that Turkey has high inflation, about 20% now but been much higher in the past, so if they priced everything in Lira they'd have to keep putting prices up.

They're not shy about this either, menus often had old prices crossed out replaced by higher prices, something you never see in the UK, if there's a crossed out price here then new price is invariably lower to convince the gullible they're getting a good deal/discount :rotfl:
Yeah always worth haggling, although stuff was generally such good value that half the time I simply CBA. For trips we went to the same guy who always offered us a discount on the advertised prices - we could probably have haggled him down more but it wasn't worth the effort and all the trips were worth way over what we paid for them IMO.

meer53

zagfles wrote: »

Assuming accomodation is paid for, you have to work hard to spend £100 a day in Turkey between 2 of you!

We managed it, just been and it was a "special" birthday so we didn't hold back, we went on loads of trips, we did paragliding, we bought all the photo packages on the trips, drinking cocktails most evenings, did pampering session eg pedicures, manicures, facials, shaves, Turkish baths etc, we had really good Turkish meals most days, and ended up spending just over £700 in a week for the 2 of us. (B&B was paid for as part of the package, but nothing else included).

So that's what £50 a day each gets you, but you can do it a lot cheaper if you cut out some of the above! £20 a day would probably do if you're happy to lie round the pool all day and just need to pay for food & drink. Unless you're really big drinkers, but wouldn't recommend that in Turkey as your travel insurance is unlikely to cover you if drunk and the EHIC doesn't apply.

We're not big drinkers, just myself and my daughter who is 19, your £700 per week is exactly what my budget is. I know you can do it cheaper but i'm on holiday and don't want to eat kebabs every day (delicious as they are !) we too shop, eat at beautiful restaurants, take the trips, Turkish Baths etc. Somehow i don't think the OP will do much more than eat and drink, which is fine if thats what you want !

ShamA29

meer53 wrote: »

Change just enough for the first day then change when you are there. In Turkey lots of shops/restaurants will change money for you, their rate is often better than money exchange places. Shop around. I use my Starling or Clarity card.

£150 isn't going to last long, we're off to Dalaman again in 3 weeks, for 2 of us we budget £100 per day. How long are you going for ?

Well, the plan isn’t to take £150 in GBP and £150 worth of Lira. We don’t drink at all, so our main expenditure will be on excursions and food. Our hotels, flights and coach transfers have all been pre-paid, so the £300 total should be more than enough based on previous experience.

ShamA29

meer53 wrote: »

We're not big drinkers, just myself and my daughter who is 19, your £700 per week is exactly what my budget is. I know you can do it cheaper but i'm on holiday and don't want to eat kebabs every day (delicious as they are !) we too shop, eat at beautiful restaurants, take the trips, Turkish Baths etc. Somehow i don't think the OP will do much more than eat and drink, which is fine if thats what you want !

As it’s 4 lads going, Turkish baths aren’t really on the list ����. All we plan to do is a new excursion everyday. Food wise, I’m not sure what prices to expect, but I would’ve thought £300 in total is ample? If this isn’t the case in your experience then please do advise me on how much more I should take. Breakfast is already pre-paid, it’s just lunch, snacks and dinner that we are paying for when we’re there. I assume you drink, so perhaps that explains your higher expenditure? We don’t, due to religious reasons, so that’s a cost alleviated from our budget.

ShamA29

bradders1983 wrote: »

A few points here:

- A lot of places abroad, especially in tourist areas, are going to be "one man band" exchange places, you arent going to find their rates online, just find a couple once there and use the one with the best rate
- All this faff for the sake of changing £150?

To be honest mate, we were just going to go to our local Debenhams and convert it before we left. Then I saw Then I saw the articles that suggested you can get a MUCH better deal out there, so thought I’d ask for some experiences with this. It does seem trivial, I agree, but if the conversion rate is substantially better out there, then there’s no harm in converting there?