The official currency of the Republic of Turkey is Turkish lira (TL). The symbol for the currency is:


The Turkish Lira is divided into sub-units called kuruş. Paper currency comes in 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 TL money notes and coins comes in 5, 10, 25, and 50 kuruş and 1 Lira coin money.

Apart from Turkish Lira, strong currencies such as U.S. Dollar, Sterling and Euro are widely accepted by large shopping centres, hotels and restaurants. It is advisable, however, that you carry some Turkish Lira with you at all times for your own convenience.

Currencies of foreign countries can be converted into Turkish Lira at exchange offices and banks in accordance with the daily exchange rate determined by the Turkish Central Bank. It is usually the case that exchange rates available in Kalkan are very good (and better than can be found at many Mediterranean resorts). So if you are unable to exchange, say, sterling into Turkish Lira before leaving for your holiday then you needn’t worry unduly. However we would caution you that the exchange rates available at Dalaman airport are usually not as good as in Kalkan itself.

Turkey continues to offer great value for the traveller but in recent weeks the value of the lira has been in free fall, resulting in record lows against major currencies including the pound. It means that there are some incredible exchange rates available for the UK visitor right now.  At the time of writing (Nov 2019) the exchange rate against sterling is approximately £1 = 7TL, making 1 TL equivalent to about 14p. So a meal costing, say, 50 TL would translate to about £7.15, and some jewellery priced at  200 TL would be around £28.60 in UK terms. But of course exchange rates fluctuate daily and whilst these are guidelines for the new traveller you are well advised to check out one of many sites, like this, advising on up-to-the-minute Sterling/Turkish Lira conversion  rates.