Middle East

Money & costs

Costs

Libya, Lebanon and Israel and the Palestinian Territories aside, travel in the Middle East is cheap; the travel staples - accommodation, meals and transport (apart from flying) - are, thankfully, usually the cheapest items of your trip, although opportunities abound for spending a little more and travelling in considerable comfort.

If you're on a tight budget, stay at cheap hotels with shared bathrooms, eat street food and carry a student card with you to reduce entry fees at museums, you could easily get by on around US$10 to US$15 a day. Staying in comfortable midrange hotels, eating at quality restaurants to ensure a varied diet, the occasional private taxi ride and some shopping will push your daily expenses up to between US$30 and US$50. In Lebanon, US$20 a day is the barest minimum, while US$40 is more realistic. In Israel and the Palestinian Territories, budget travellers could keep things down to $US35 per day if they really tried hard, while a more comfortable journey would require up to US$60. Libya, the land of organised tours, can be done on the cheap (ie by staying in youth hostels and travelling in a large group), but can cost up to US$80 per day including good hotels and 4WD hire.

When estimating your own costs, take into account extra items such as visa fees (which can top US$50 depending on where you get them and what your nationality is), long-distance travel, and the cost of organised tours or activities, such as camel trekking, snorkelling or diving. And remember, some of the best travel experiences cost nothing: whiling away the hours taking on the locals in backgammon in Damascus, sleeping under the desert stars in the Sahara or watching the sun set over the Mediterranean.

Travelling with a mixture of travellers cheques (relatively easy to replace and widely accepted), cash (super convenient) and credit cards (even more convenient, but of no use in Iran and little use in Libya) is the wisest way to stay liquid in the Middle East.

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Tipping

Tipping is expected in varying degrees in all Middle Eastern countries. Called 'baksheesh', it's more than just a reward for having rendered a service. Salaries and wages are much lower than in Western countries, so baksheesh is regarded as an often essential means of supplementing income. To a cleaner in a one- or two-star hotel who may earn the equivalent of US$50 per month, the accumulated daily dollar tips given by guests can constitute the mainstay of his or her salary.

For Western travellers who aren't used to continual tipping, demands for baksheesh for doing anything from opening doors to pointing out the obvious in museums can be quite irritating. But it is the accepted way. Don't be intimidated into paying baksheesh when you don't think the service warrants it, but remember that more things warrant baksheesh here than anywhere in the West.

One tip: carry lots of small change with you but keep it separate from bigger bills, so that baksheesh demands don't increase when they see that you can afford more.

In Libya and elsewhere where you're likely to be using the same guide or driver for a longer expedition, tips at the end of a journey are usually more generous, depending on the length of the expedition and the helpfulness of the guide.

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Money

ATMs

Most of the larger banks in the region (with the exception of those in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Libya) now have ATMs linked up to one of the international networks (eg Master- Card/Cirrus, Visa/Plus or GlobalAccess systems). In countries such as Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Lebanon and Turkey it's possible to completely avoid having to bring wads of cash and/or travellers cheques - just bring your plastic. Major credit and credit/debit cards, especially Visa and MasterCard, are readily accepted (Libya is an exception, although times are changing) and many machines will also take bank-issued cash cards (which you use at home to withdraw money directly from your bank account). Make sure you remember your PIN (personal identification number), and it's also a good idea to check out what sort of transaction fees you're likely to incur from both your own bank and the banks whose machines you'll be using while you travel.

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Cash

Check around when looking to exchange your cash as rates do vary. A good general rule is to never change more than you have to in cash at borders or airports. Also be on the lookout for hidden extras such as commission. Official moneychangers rather than banks often offer the best deals. Throughout the Middle East avoid accepting torn or particularly tatty notes as you may have difficulty disposing of them. If you do find yourself with a bill that looks like it has been used to clean the floor, a bank alone will usually exchange it without complaints.

Bank-to-bank transfers are possible but, unless your home bank has links with a banking group in the country you're travelling in, it's a very complicated, time-consuming and expensive business, especially when you get outside the major capitals. Unless you're going to be in that one place for at least a couple of weeks don't attempt it. A cash advance on a credit card is much simpler. Alternatively Western Union Money Transfer has representatives in quite a few Middle East countries including Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian Territories and Turkey.

The safest place to carry your money is right next to your skin. A money belt, pouch or an extra pocket inside your jeans will help to keep things with their rightful owner. Remember that if you lose cash you've lost it forever - insurance companies simply won't believe that you had US$1000 in cash - so don't go overboard on the convenience of cash versus the safety of cheques or the replaceability of credit cards. A good idea is to put aside a separate emergency stash, say US$50, for use if everything else disappears.

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Credit cards

Iran and Libya aside (where your plastic is next to useless), credit cards are fairly widely accepted in the Middle East, although in Syria and Jordan their use is often restricted to top-end hotels. Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Lebanon and Turkey, on the other hand, are fully plastic societies where almost everything can be paid for by credit card, right down to your morning coffee. Visa, MasterCard and Amex are the most popular. It's possible to get cash advances on credit cards in several countries in the region including Egypt.

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Travellers cheques

Most travellers carry a mix of cash and travellers cheques. Cash is quicker to deal with, can be exchanged at almost any place and gets better rates, but it cannot be replaced. Travellers cheques are accepted everywhere in the Middle East except for Iraq, Iran and (sometimes) Libya. If your travellers cheques are lost or stolen you get a refund. When you buy your cheques make sure you are clear about what to do when the worst happens - most companies give you a 24-hour international phone number to contact. Well-known brands of cheque, such as Amex and Thomas Cook, are better to deal with as they're the most widely accepted; both companies have offices in the Middle East.

It's worth carrying a mix of high and low denomination notes and cheques so that if you're about to leave a country, you can change just enough for a few days and not have too much local currency to get rid of.

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