Northern Cyprus

[handbagsatdawn33]

Anyone been recently?
I know the currency is the lira, but are euros acceptable in bars etc?

[Funf]

We have just been to Cyprus for the weekend, we crossed the border in Nicosia we had a great day, shopping and sight seeing, it was well worth it, paid everything in Euros, we locked one of the phones to the Greek cell so no additional roaming, not sure how the kids did it, turned data off on the set

[aniawl]

We went over the summer and thoroughly enjoyed it. We stayed at a villa and not in any resort and paid in Turkish lira. Some shops accepted euros but definitely not all.

A few things caught us out. Kind of forgot that not being in the EU meant steeeep! roaming charges.

Hiring cars to go between South and North parts of the island is a minefield. Happy to elaborate if you wish to do that, but if you are only looking to stay in one part, just get a local car. I must say I was somewhat baffled by the car return policy - when I tried to arrange someone to pick the car up on our departure, I was told to park somewhere in public, leave the door unlocked and key under the mat 😳. I was convinced it was a scam, but our villa rep confirmed it was pretty normal.

The infrastructure is definitely not as polished as in the South, but we were always welcome very warmly and felt really well looked after.

[handbagsatdawn33]

Thanks to both of you. Sorry I didn't respond earlier, but I didn't know that I'd received replies.

[mrsnec]

I was there just before Christmas. I stayed in a casino resort. Everywhere in the hotel they accepted lira, euros and sterling except the salon that only took lira.

Most places take lira and euros except small shops, bazaars and markets. You get a better exchange rate if you pay in lira and you get more if you change from sterling. I go to North Cyprus regularly and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

[chipsandpeas]

euros were taken no prob and even uk pounds and i was there about 10 years ago