Cash for RS Best of Turkey tour and hot air balloon ride

Check out the Money topic under Travel Tips. It’ll answer most of your questions. Preferred way to get local currency is by using a bank affiliated ATM once you arrive. Use a bank debit card that has no foreign exchange fees for the best exchange rate. If your bank charges these fees it might be advisable to open an account at a bank that doesn’t. Capital One and Charles Schwab offer no fx fees on ATM withdrawals and both also offer credit cards with no fees.

Thanks for that, however my primary question is quite specific to the RS Best of Turkey tour - namely, how much cash should I plan to keep on hand for the trip if we plan to do the hot air balloon ride?

I found that I needed very little cash on that tour, or in Istanbul when I was there on my own. ATMs are widely available but do charge large fees.

For the specifics about the optional balloon ride, I'd write or call the Rick Steves office. A high rate of inflation and various banking practices in Turkey make the price of the balloon ride a rapidly changing topic. That balloon ride is extraordinary, and in my opinion worth whatever it cost.

I just did the hot air balloon ride and am in Turkey now. You don’t need cash for it. We all paid with credit card.

My son and I were just on the May'25 Best of Turkey tour. As others have said, the balloon ride can be paid for with credit card. I believe that the company came over the night before to the hotel to take care of payment. (That is also the time to ask about the weather forecast as the balloons don't go up on windy/iffy weather.) We did bring $300 US to pay for a foodie tour that started the day before the RS tour and had additional $250 US just to have in reserve (but never used). In addition, we had a shuttle from the airport to hotel and knew we needed currency(whether US, Euro, or Lira) to pay for this. Finally, I made two ATM withdrawals for Turkish currency: one at the airport of the equivalent of $100 US and then another 9 days later for about equivalent of $225 US. I followed the advice from other forum postings on how to do ATM withdrawals as well as Rick's book. One reason why I wanted lira at the airport was to tip the driver afterwards. As it was, I had to rush and grab him to provide a tip as he was just about ready to leave (and wasn't expecting a tip it seems). We also needed lira to pay for the Turkish bath and I believe the separate 2 hour boat ride. Lira was used in market in one town for clothes. At some point, we were just using up lira at the rest areas / truck stops as credit card was used primarily for most everything. Hope this helps

I am going in October and the RS info says that it's more expensive to book by credit card than by cash. I think that's interesting and wondered if anyone else had that experience.

peetupuppydog re: your question about whether credit card is more costly, I honestly don't remember. What I do remember is that at the time I went the exchange rate was such that getting the equivalent of approx. US$300 in Turkish lira was going to be a massive wad of cash (as the biggest bill in lira is a 50 lira note and I was going to need quite a lot of those). I was thankful not to deal with that. But I do have a no foreign transaction fee credit card so I didn't have that to worry about either, which is probably why I don't recall the card/cash thing.

I suggest you ask your guide at your first day orientation meeting what the expected price for the balloon will be and about the cash/credit card payment situation. That should help you decide.

Hi all! Thanks so much for your replies and information. Based on your advice, I called up the Rick Steves Travel Office and spoke to Jen, who was very helpful. She says we will get the best rate on the hot air balloon tour by paying in Turkish Lira, and that our guide will let us know early on where are the best ATMs to make withdrawals without being charged ridiculous fees. In addition, the operations team recommends having the equivalent to $200-$250 in Turkish Lira on hand to spend on street food and other incidentals for which credit cards aren't accepted. US currency is accepted, but you'll generally pay more than if you pay in Lira (I find that interesting, given the rapidly changing value of the Lira - I would think they'd value the relative stability of the $ enough to give you a better deal). Hopes this helps you as much as it helped me.

When I went on the tour in 2022, I paid for the balloon ride with credit card, and the amount was charged in Lira. Our guide was curious so I checked what I was charged... the amount charged to my Visa was within pennies of the cash price that others paid.

(I find that interesting, given the rapidly changing value of the Lira
- I would think they'd value the relative stability of the $ enough to give you a better deal)

They can't use US dollars to pay employees, buy groceries, or pay the bills. And they have to exchange US dollars to get lira, and very likely incur a fee to do so.