Tunisia Currency and Money Guide
- Country Tunisia
- Guide Budget
- Reviewed 20 August 2026
- Length 2 min read
Credit Citizen59, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Last reviewed 20 August 2026
Tunisia has strict currency controls and they are stricter than Morocco's. The dinar is closed, so you cannot buy it before you arrive, and unlike the dirham you are not permitted to take any of it out with you when you go.
What the controls actually require
Bringing foreign currency in may require a declaration on arrival, depending on the amount and your circumstances, and the FCDO is blunt about the consequence of getting it wrong: failure to declare foreign currency may result in confiscation. If you make a declaration, keep the document. If you exchange money, keep the receipt.
Those receipts are not bureaucratic theater. They are the evidence of where your dinars came from, and they are what allows you to change what is left back into a foreign currency before you fly. Plan the last day around that, because the alternative is leaving the balance behind.
Rules with a penalty attached
No exchange rate is published here. A closed currency has no rate you can act on before arrival, and one printed weeks ahead would be misleading rather than helpful.
- You are not allowed to take Tunisian dinars out of Tunisia.
- Check whether the foreign currency you are carrying in has to be declared, and declare it if so.
- Keep declaration documents and official exchange receipts for the whole trip.
- Change leftover dinars back before you reach the departure gate.
- Use banks and licensed exchange offices. Street exchange is not a saving.
- Budget for the nightly tourist tax, which is charged in dinars at the hotel.
Cards and cash
Cards work in hotels, resorts, larger restaurants and supermarkets. Outside those, Tunisia runs on cash: the souq, the louage, a cafe in a small town and the entry fee at an archaeological site are all easier with notes, and small ones are more useful than large. ATMs are common in cities and coastal resorts and thin on the ground inland and in the south, so draw before you head for Tozeur or the Kerkennah Islands rather than after.