How much money to bring

[purpleme12]

10 days all inclusive
But will probably do day trips if there is any etc

How much money would you bring?

Just take about £50 exchanged into Lira before you go - it will be enough for your first day - water, coffee etc

Find a card that has no fees - I used chase last time as it was offering cash back, DH uses his Santander 123 and withdraw as you need from a machine or tap and pay. Always pay in the local currency - Lira - Not pounds. Pay in pounds and you will lose out because the bank the vendor is using will charge

Ok so people are now saying there's tourist tax and air con to pay?

I'm going in a week
I'm not sure I've got time to mess around finding another account to open and sort out

I’d have taken more lira. You can get it from Sainsbury’s and post office quite easily. Some of the restaurants we went to did not take cards, nor did the one (expensive) excursion we did. Euros are also widely accepted. Some places offered a 10% discount for cash vs card. We took more cash from machines but there’s clearly a cost to that.

I don’t know about Turkey but I had a week all-inclusive in Rhodes and there was a “resort tax” of €10 per room, per night, that was added to the outstanding balance and had to be paid on arrival at the hotel.

I took €100 in cash and apart from two taxi journeys I spent most it on gifts for the neighbours feeding my cats, and souvenirs (the obligatory fridge magnet, mug, tea towel and local sweets!) on the last day.

All inclusive was very convenient but certainly put me off going to eat elsewhere, and I regret that now.

Thanks

Can people please not mention tourist tax or money they had to pay per night or air con payment if they're not actually sure that's the case for Turkey cos it's not very helpful those bits

Last year in Spain some drinks were half price with AI but not free.
Dont know if it’s only Spanish thing but I would check on your hotel website.

I went to Turkey when £10 entry was still a thing and pretty sure we paid for aircon. Maybe just check the booking and see if anything is payable locally, aircon and tourist tax might be £10/£12 a night if there's 2 of you.

To clear up the tourist tax situation its added to the price of a package holiday so already paid

They done away with the £10 entry visa a few years back

@OP I got my chase online - immediate, most online banks are , just added to my wallet and worked away

However any card which is Mastercard will work in Turkey - you may need to use your pin more then usual and let your bank know you are travelling abroad

Thank you that's helpful

I'm not sure I understand this bit though

OP I got my chase online - immediate, most online banks are , just added to my wallet and worked away

I've not got a MasterCard just a visa

Oh I realise what you meant by Chase now

I'd never heard of it so didn't realise

Revolut is good and instantly available in your online wallet

We just used Visa card.

OP read the Moneysavingexpert article on cheap overseas spending.

It will go through it all clearly and you'll be able to check how much your existing cards charge.

It will also tell you the cards like Chase where you can open an account and add the card to your phone wallet so you can use it straight away. Although if you're going in a week you probably have time for the physical card to come too.

Apologies for the confusion about the £10 entry fee for Turkey, I didn't know that had been scrapped. I have seen on here that food at the airport is ludicrously expensive (eg £20 pp for McDonald's) so you might want to make sure you don't need to buy food on the way back or book a meal on the plane.

I would look at the info on the holiday you have booked for local charges e.g. WiFi and costs for drinks and meals out. Look up the local things to do and get a rough idea of cost. Turkey may be more of a cash society than European countries which can be almost cash free.

Might be worth making sure you have some low value notes with you for tipping (airport/hotel luggage handlers) on arrival and maybe for tipping the maid at the end of the stay (if you do that).

Oh do we have to tip everywhere in Turkey then?

I dont think you need to tip. I didn’t get the impression it was expected (as in the US) although obvs people like tips. We tipped a taxi driver but generally didn’t.

Open a Revolut account on-line, digital card on your phone and you can just top it up from your regular account and you get a better exchange rate, then just use this card on your phone to pay for any day trips and meals out. (Plus if there is anything left over at the end can just spend it when you get back)
when we go AI we budget £50 each a day to cover everything outside the hotel but rarely spend that much.
We take about £200 in local currency when AI

They definitely expect it but you don't have to

As with your OP, it entirely depends.

I flew with TUI recently and although I thought I'd over-packed a bit I was still almost 8kg (40%) under the luggage allowance, so there would have been absolutely no point spending money on a different suitcase.

I spent about €150 over the week (Spain, not Turkey) and that wasn't AI, but I didn't do any organised excursions. I just took a currency card.

With NatWest you can set up a travel account as part of your bank account to reduce fees.