Euros or Lira for Turkey?

[stoplickingthetelly]

Hi everyone,
We’re off to Turkey on Monday (Side in Antalya) and don’t know whether we should take Euros or Lira. I know the official currency is Lira, but have heard that Euros are preferred. Has anyone been recently - what did you take with you? Thanks everyone.

Lira!!

Also..change in resort, you'll always get a better rate than the British counters

My friend's just got back from Turkey (Fetiye?) and used Lira all the way.

Their currency is the Turlish lira, why would you take euros?

Lira and change over there! Much better rate

They take both but exchange rate is better for lira.

Probably because they use both Hilary, same as when we went to Poland, they use zloty and euro

Hilary I’d heard from a few people that although Lira is the official currency they actually prefer Euro’s because it’s worth more. However, I thought this seemed a bit strange hence my question.

Hadn’t thought about exchanging over there so will definitely keep that in mind. Our hotel isn’t in a resort centre though so don’t know how easy this would be?

Thanks everyone.

I go regularly and I always use Euro, only because I always have plenty of Euro and it saves me changing currency.
Beware though OP if you use Euro and are given change, they will try to fiddle you by giving you a 2 lira coin instead of a 2Euro coin.

We go every year & always change to Lira, also change over there.

Thanks everyone, Lira it is.

Lira. Everything was more expensive in euros in my experience. But that was Istanbul right enough.

We went to Antalya in May, we took Lira and everywhere was offering better rates if using Euros. But it was really pennies difference. We bought Dd a water pistol and a lilo (don't ask 🙄) and we would have 'saved' about 70p when worked out to the penny. Never thought of changing it out there though we took ours with us.

If you are going from the UK then Pounds are also acceptable currency.
Trips, taxis, paragliding, boat trips, will all take pounds, euros, dollars or euros.

Hotels are also happy with any of the hard currencies.

Locally Lira but exchange over there.

Can be handy to have a small amount of local currency, if you want to buy Effes (beer) or other drinks when you arrive.

ps I've been 10 times over the past 7 years.

If you need a hair cut, manicure or anything similar - wait until you get there. Great prices and very skilled.

I buy my glasses there. Free eye test, photochromic, varifocals for around £150 (equivalent £550 in UK)

Dentistry also cheap and excellent

Lira - its the worlds second worst performing currency this year next to the Argentine peso and is expected to hit ten the dollar by the end of the year after Turkey took delivery of the Russian S400 missile system. If you want some context - it was about 3-3.5 to the dollar five years ago.

Spend as much money as you like in Turkey - but be aware that tourist spending is a major source of revenue for Turkeys ruling islamist AKP, even more so now as the rest of the economy collapses, and is being used to fund a (mostly unreported) internal civil war against the Kurds which has cost 40,000 civilian lives since 1984 - that includes women and children. Enjoy.

Ignore everyone. Ive just been and took lira we could wait to get rid of it, very easy to pay over the odds. They all prefer euros and pounds. Next time we go we will be taking euros or sterling.

Lira, you get a much better rate.

When people say 'euros are preferred', what's the comparable exchange rate?

If something costs the equivalent of £10 in Turkish lire, but it works out that if you pay in euro you are going to be giving them £12 worth of euros or whatever, of course they'll prefer you to pay in euro as you are giving them more money.

I'd be checking the exchange rate using official sources and doing my own sums before deciding which is best.

I go about 5 times a year and take lira and sterling which are accepted everywhere

im just back from side 2 weeks ago everything is in euros, i have been there a few times and take lira, they also accept english money aswell, 65 lira is around £9 or 10 euros. i bought pringles for my child it was 13 lira and worked out about £1.70 if you plan on going some trips there is a few places in the bazaar that organize them and i highly recommend the buggy and quads, take old clothing though as you get covered in dust and will ruin your clothes but it was brilliant, the pirate boat trip is good also but take plenty of money for that as they take your pics on the boat. you can get the bus in to manavgat there is a mcdonalds and proper shops. i took 1400 lira and still had to transfer £150 over. on the way back to the airport if you are taking any phones and tablets make sure they are left on, antalya airport has 3 different security checks, the minute you walk through the airport doors you get bags and youself scanned, enjoy your holiday

Imamum21 makes a very good point there Antalya airport is a pain,make sure you leave plenty of time to get through as she said there are three separate security checks to go through and obviously passport control.
When you include your queue to check in/bag drop that's 5 separate queues.
We were there in May with our four dc and it wasn't pleasant at the airport!!

Cath I was purely asking about currency. I didn’t ask for an ethical break down of my holiday choice. I find it very rude and condescending of you. We are not all uneducated morons. Maybe you would prefer that everyone stopped going and thousands of people become unemployed and homeless - I’m sure that would make the situation better 🤷🏻‍♀️

Thanks to everyone else who helpfully tried to answer my question. Think I’ll take some Euro’s and sterling, then change some to Lira if necessary.

Not going to post again because this thread wasn’t supposed to be about whether or not tourists should visit Turkey. I was only looking for recent experiences about currency because I had heard conflicting views.

Quite honestly it doesn't matter if you take either if you take lira they will still charge in euro and convert it themselves. We found it made everything much more expensive as they not charging true Turkish prices

I've been there and used Turkish Lira.

It's gorgeous by the way 😀 enjoy!!

We've not long come back and Euros seem to be preferred. Everything is marked in Euros. We took Lira last year and had a few issues in a few shops so didn't make that mistake again this year.