Currency in Haiti: what to use and how to exchange

The gourde is the official currency and the one prices are legally set in, but day-to-day Haiti runs on two currencies at once. Street vendors, tap-taps, markets and small shops quote in gourdes. Hotels, tour operators, guesthouses and upmarket restaurants in Port-au-Prince and Pétion-Ville often quote in US dollars and accept them directly. If you pay in dollars, expect change in gourdes, and expect the rate used to be rounded in the seller's favour.

The practical setup is a small float of gourdes for transport, snacks, water and market purchases, plus US dollars for anything larger. Do not try to run the whole trip on dollars: small vendors may not have change, and the rate you get on the street is whatever the seller decides. Do not run the whole trip on gourdes either, because large purchases are easier to settle in dollars and you avoid carrying thick stacks of low-value notes.

Bringing money in is the part you control. US dollar bills should be clean, unmarked and untorn; older or damaged notes are commonly refused, and this applies to banks and exchange offices as much as to shops. Take a mix of denominations, with plenty of 5s, 10s and 20s, and keep a reserve separate from your daily cash. Euros and Canadian dollars can be changed in the cities but at worse rates and with fewer places willing to take them.

Changing money is easiest in Port-au-Prince and Pétion-Ville, at banks and at informal exchange counters known as kambyo. Rates differ between them and move with the market, so ask before you hand anything over, count the notes in front of the counter, and do not accept a rate that is far off what you were quoted elsewhere. Outside the cities, exchange options thin out quickly and you may be limited to whatever the local shop or guesthouse offers.

Cards and ATMs exist but should not carry your trip. In Port-au-Prince and Pétion-Ville, international cards work at some hotels, supermarkets and ATMs; elsewhere, assume they do not. Withdraw in daylight, inside a bank or a guarded commercial building where possible, and take the cash you need rather than relying on a second attempt later. Carry a backup card kept separately from your main one.

Budget in dollars and spend in gourdes. Knowing roughly what a meal, a tap-tap ride or a bottle of water should cost in local money is the single best defence against being overcharged, and it makes the dollar-or-gourde decision automatic.

Do not change money on the street with someone who approaches you, and do not let a taxi driver or a fixer take your dollars away to change them. Use a bank counter or a fixed exchange office you walked into yourself. If a rate sounds far better than the one you saw earlier the same day, it is not a favour.

Carry a modest amount of visible cash and keep the rest out of sight. Haiti has real security problems and cash is the obvious target; the parent country page carries the current advice and this desk does not plan around it. Read your own government's travel advice before you go, and let it decide how much cash you carry at all.

Prices for travellers are often quoted in dollars precisely because the gourde moves. If you are staying a while, check the rate again before each exchange rather than assuming last week's number still holds.