Money in Lebanon does not work the way it works anywhere else, and getting this wrong will ruin a trip. It takes five minutes to understand.
What happened
Lebanon’s currency and banking system collapsed from 2019.
The Lebanese lira, pegged at 1,507.5 to the US dollar since 1997, lost around 98 per cent of its value. The World Bank described the crisis as likely to rank among the three most severe episodes of economic collapse globally since the mid-nineteenth century.
The banks froze depositors’ accounts. People who had savings in dollars found they could not withdraw them, or could withdraw them only in lira at an arbitrary rate — a phenomenon Lebanese people call “lollars”, meaning dollars that exist on a statement and cannot be obtained. There has been no formal restructuring, no deposit protection, and no resolution. Bank branches have been held up at gunpoint by their own depositors trying to get their money.
The economy has since dollarised. Prices are quoted in US dollars, salaries are increasingly paid in them, and cash dollars are the functioning currency of the country.
What this means for you
Bring US dollars in cash. This is the single most important piece of practical advice about visiting Lebanon.
Bring more than you think you need, in a mix of denominations, and bring clean, unmarked, untorn notes — worn or damaged dollars are refused or discounted.
Do not rely on cards. Many places do not take them. Some do. It is not predictable, and a card that works one day may not the next.
Do not rely on ATMs. They exist, they frequently do not work, they may dispense only lira, and international withdrawal has been unreliable for years.
Keep small denominations. Change for a $100 note is often genuinely unavailable. Fives, tens and twenties are what you want.
Lira are still used for small purchases and change, at whatever the current market rate is. You will end up with bricks of them. Do not change large sums.
Exchange is done at licensed money changers rather than banks. Rates are posted and are broadly consistent.
Prices
Because the economy dollarised, Beirut is no longer as cheap as the currency collapse might suggest.
Restaurants and hotels in the districts visitors use are priced in dollars at close to international levels. A good dinner in Mar Mikhael costs what a good dinner costs in a European city. Hotels cost real money. Imported goods are expensive because everything is imported.
Street food, service taxis, markets and local shops remain very cheap. A manousheh costs almost nothing.
The gap between those two economies is enormous, and it is the gap that Lebanese people live inside. A public-sector salary that was worth a comfortable living in 2018 is now worth a fraction of a restaurant bill. Bear that in mind constantly.
Three daily budgets
Excluding accommodation, per person, per day, in US dollars.
Careful — $20 to $35
Manousheh and coffee for breakfast. Street food or a local restaurant for lunch. Free sights — the Corniche, downtown, the churches and mosques, Sursock which is free. Service taxis. A cheap dinner.
Comfortable — $60 to $100
Café breakfast, a proper lunch, museums, taxis rather than services, and a mezze dinner with arak.
Generous — $200 and up
The good restaurants, a driver for the day to Byblos or Baalbek, and the beach clubs, which charge substantial day rates.
The generator bill
Worth understanding because it explains a great deal.
The state grid supplies a limited number of hours a day. Everything else comes from private neighbourhood generators, sold by subscription and priced by the ampere.
For a Lebanese household this is often the single largest monthly bill, and it can exceed what a public-sector employee earns. The operators are locally powerful and the arrangement is widely resented.
For you, it means: ask whether your accommodation has 24-hour generator backup, and expect it to be reflected in the price. It is the most important question to ask a hotel here.
Tipping and etiquette
Tipping is expected — around 10 per cent in restaurants, and it matters more than usual because wages have collapsed. Many bills add a service charge that does not reach the staff; ask, and tip in cash on top if it does not.
Round up for taxi drivers and tip porters and attendants.
Hospitality will be pressed on you and refusing it is difficult. If you are invited to eat, the offer is genuine and you should accept.
Being decent about it
You will be spending, in a day, what a great many people here now earn in a month. That is not a reason to feel guilty about visiting — tourism is one of the few sectors putting hard currency into the hands of ordinary people — but it is a reason to tip properly, buy from small businesses, pay the asking price at a market stall without grinding someone down over a dollar, and not complain loudly about prices.