Practical Guide · Updated 2026
Money in Lebanon
A country that runs on cash dollars — what to carry, what your cards will and won’t do, and what you actually spend with us.
Lebanon runs on cash — and mostly on dollars
Almost every question we get about Lebanon before departure is some version of this one. It is a fair question, because the answer is genuinely different from anywhere else you have probably travelled: since the banking collapse of 2019, Lebanon has become a country where physical US dollars do most of the work, the national currency serves as small change, and the machine on the wall is not a plan you can rely on.
None of that makes the country difficult to travel in. It makes it a country you prepare for slightly differently — and, on an expedition with us, one where nearly everything is settled before you arrive. What follows is what we tell every guest, written out so you can read it before you pack.
If you read nothing else: bring your spending money into Lebanon as US dollars in cash, in clean notes and small denominations. Cards work in a handful of places and ATMs work some of the time; neither is something to build a trip around.
The Dollar and the Lira
Lebanon has a national currency and a working currency, and for a visitor they are not the same thing. Understanding the split takes about a minute and removes most of the confusion.
Hotels, restaurants, drivers, guides and most shops quote in dollars and take dollars. Nobody will be surprised by them and nobody will treat them as a foreign currency — they are simply what things cost.
- Menus and price lists often in dollars outright
- No need to convert your whole budget into lira
- Notes must be clean — torn or scribbled bills get refused
You will meet the lira as the change you get back from a dollar note, and in small everyday purchases. The largest bill printed, 100,000 lira, is worth a little over a dollar, so a fat handful of notes is a modest sum.
- 100,000 lira ≈ US$1.10
- Fine for coffee, a service taxi, a bag of fruit
- Spend it before you leave — it is hard to exchange abroad
From 1997 the lira was pinned at 1,507.5 to the dollar. That peg finally went at the start of 2024, when the central bank adopted a rate near the one the street had already been using.
- Official rate now about 89,500 lira
- Broadly steady since early 2024
- Old guidebooks quoting 1,500 are simply out of date
What to bring, and in what form
Bring the whole of your personal spending money with you, in cash, and assume you cannot top it up once you land. That single decision removes every other money problem in Lebanon.
US dollars, for the full trip
Work out what you expect to spend, then add a comfortable margin. Running short in a cash economy is a genuinely awkward position, and it is entirely avoidable.
Clean, unmarked notes
This matters more here than most travellers expect. Bills that are torn, taped, heavily creased or written on are routinely turned down. Ask your bank for new notes and keep them flat.
Small denominations, mostly
Fives, tens and twenties are what you will use for dinners, taxis and tips. A few fifties or hundreds are useful for the hotel or a larger purchase, but nobody wants to break one for a coffee.
Euros and sterling are a fallback, not a plan
Both can be exchanged in Beirut, usually at a worse rate than dollars and with more effort. If dollars are difficult to obtain at home, tell us and we will plan around it.
Don’t buy lira before you travel
There is no advantage to it, and no shortage of lira in Lebanon. You will accumulate it as change without trying.
Declare large sums honestly
Foreign currency is not restricted on entry, but substantial amounts should be declared at customs. Nothing about this is a problem — it is simply the rule, and we cover it in your briefing.
Where Cards Work — and Where They Don’t
There is a version of this advice that says cards are useless in Lebanon, and a version that says the country is modernising and you will be fine. Both are wrong. Here is the useful middle.
Cards: sometimes, never reliably
Upmarket hotels, a number of established Beirut restaurants, shopping centres, supermarkets and larger agencies take cards and bill in dollars. Beyond that circle — neighbourhood restaurants, drivers, markets, small museums, roadside stops on the way to Baalbek or the Cedars — assume cash. Some ride-hailing apps will still charge the card you have on file even where the pavement economy will not.
ATMs: a bonus, not a source
Machines run by the larger banks — Fransabank, Bank Audi, BLOM, Byblos, Credit Libanais and Bank of Beirut among them — do accept foreign cards, and some dispense dollars. But coverage is patchy, withdrawal fees are steep, per-transaction limits are low, and machines empty out. Every guest who has arrived planning to withdraw as they go has regretted it. Treat any successful withdrawal as a happy surprise.
What you will actually need cash for
Most of the money side of Lebanon is settled long before you land. Your five days include four nights in the Beirut hotel, your guide, the private vehicle and driver, both airport transfers, every entrance fee across the whole circuit, the Beqaa vineyard tasting, breakfast daily and several hosted meals. None of that is paid for on the ground.
What you carry cash for is the rest of the day: dinners, drinks beyond the tasting, any lunch that isn’t hosted, coffee and snacks, tips, and whatever you buy in the souks of Sidon or Byblos. Dinner in Beirut runs from around a dozen dollars in a neighbourhood place to fifty or more at the restaurants people fly in for — the range is yours to choose.
As a planning figure, allow roughly $50–$80 a day for a comfortable trip, carry a margin above whatever you land on, and remember that unspent dollars come home with you. Your pre-departure briefing includes a specific figure for the dates you are travelling.
Tipping, briefly: around ten per cent in restaurants where service isn’t already added, a dollar or two for porters and small services, and something at the end of the trip for your guide and driver if they have looked after you well. Small notes make all of this easier, which is another reason to arrive with them.
Changing Money, and the Backstop
Licensed exchange offices
Beirut has plenty of them, and they beat the airport counter and the hotel desk on rate almost every time. In practice you will change very little — enough lira for small purchases, not your whole budget.
OMT and Western Union
The one genuinely dependable way to get money into Lebanon at short notice. The transfer network is dense, widely used by Lebanese families abroad, and pays out in cash. If something goes wrong, this is the route.
Ask before you change
Rates and which offices are worth using shift. Your guide lives in this economy and will point you at the right counter on the day rather than the one nearest the hotel door.
Don’t change at the airport
The counters at Beirut give a poor rate and you do not need them: your transfer into the city is already arranged and paid, so nothing about your arrival depends on having lira in hand.
You Carry Dinner Money. We Handle the Rest.
Everything on this page is briefed properly before you fly, and everything structural is already paid.
A figure, not a guess
Your pre-departure pack tells you what to carry for your specific dates, so you are not estimating from a blog post.
Everything structural prepaid
Hotel, guide, vehicle, transfers and every entrance are settled before arrival — no envelopes of cash at site gates.
Local knowledge on the day
Your guide knows which exchange offices are giving a fair rate and which machines are actually working that week.
A team if it goes wrong
Lost card, lost wallet, a transfer that needs collecting — you have people on the ground and a number that answers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Money in Lebanon — Your Questions
Ready to See Lebanon?
Five days, one Beirut base, and five UNESCO sites — with the logistics, the entrances and the awkward questions handled before you land.