Travelling to Turkey |
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Getting Lira
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| 20. |
21 Oct 2007 Sun 11:57 am |
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Just to clear something up...
When you enter Turkey via Ataturk, they do NOT stamp your passport at the visa line.
Follow the signs, in English, as well as the crowd from your flight, to Passport. The first line you will come to is Visa. It is well marked. Pay for your visa with U.S. dollars or Euros, either is accepted. They will stick a visa onto one of the pages in your passport.
Then you go to the Passport line to get your passport stamped.
I'm sorry, but you do need to stand in two lines. The Visa line is relatively short, no longer than 10 minutes. The Passport line can be much longer, with waits ranging from 10 minutes to an hour and a half, depending on how many flights are arriving.
I recommend that you bring an ATM card and get your money (as YTL) from ATMs, which are widely available. Check with your bank before you leave on your trip to make sure that your password is valid internationally and to notify them that you will be getting money in Turkey.
If you use an ATM card, you never need to change money.
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| 21. |
21 Oct 2007 Sun 12:29 pm |
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Quoting DaveT: Just to clear something up...
When you enter Turkey via Ataturk, they do NOT stamp your passport at the visa line.
Follow the signs, in English, as well as the crowd from your flight, to Passport. The first line you will come to is Visa. It is well marked. Pay for your visa with U.S. dollars or Euros, either is accepted. They will stick a visa onto one of the pages in your passport.
Then you go to the Passport line to get your passport stamped.
I'm sorry, but you do need to stand in two lines. The Visa line is relatively short, no longer than 10 minutes. The Passport line can be much longer, with waits ranging from 10 minutes to an hour and a half, depending on how many flights are arriving.
I recommend that you bring an ATM card and get your money (as YTL) from ATMs, which are widely available. Check with your bank before you leave on your trip to make sure that your password is valid internationally and to notify them that you will be getting money in Turkey.
If you use an ATM card, you never need to change money.
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Hi Dave
Great post. As I was reading the thread I started composing a reply in my head, and then I found you had written everything.
The ABSOLUTE WORST place to change money is in your hotel or off a person on the street. The NEXT WORST place to change money is in the banks. Whether at airport or anywhere else. They charge commission. The BEST is at a döviz: a licenced money change office. They have a rate for buying and a rate for selling, and what you see is what you get, no extra or hidden charges.
IN BETWEEN is your ATM card, the rate and deal you get depends on your bank abroad.
Hope you have a great trip.
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| 22. |
21 Oct 2007 Sun 12:39 pm |
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Quoting DaveT: Just to clear something up...
When you enter Turkey via Ataturk, they do NOT stamp your passport at the visa line.
Follow the signs, in English, as well as the crowd from your flight, to Passport. The first line you will come to is Visa. It is well marked. Pay for your visa with U.S. dollars or Euros, either is accepted. They will stick a visa onto one of the pages in your passport.
Then you go to the Passport line to get your passport stamped.
I'm sorry, but you do need to stand in two lines. The Visa line is relatively short, no longer than 10 minutes. The Passport line can be much longer, with waits ranging from 10 minutes to an hour and a half, depending on how many flights are arriving.
I recommend that you bring an ATM card and get your money (as YTL) from ATMs, which are widely available. Check with your bank before you leave on your trip to make sure that your password is valid internationally and to notify them that you will be getting money in Turkey.
If you use an ATM card, you never need to change money.
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I have been lucky enough to not queue at the visa office, first one in the line every time. They grab your money, in my case a nice crisp £10 note and off you go, don't so much as look at you.
It is suprising the number of people who do not know about this visa malarky and they go rushing to the passport control, and I watch with a smug grin on my face(cruel?) 
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| 23. |
21 Oct 2007 Sun 07:19 pm |
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Meyo722,
I don't know if you are leaving from the U.S., but since you said you would be short on time, you could change money at the U.S. airport too. It will not be a good deal of course, but at least you would already have the lira in hand and wouldn't have to wait in another line. This is what I did. I only changed $100 U.S. dollars, just to have something.
Have a great trip!!!
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