Not sure if I should carry coins for public transport in Lesotho or if card payments are common. Advice?
Bring rand or withdraw maloti with a Visa card in Maseru. Use Standard Lesotho Bank or FNB for reliability. Kombis and taxis don’t take cards, so always carry coins or small bills. Don’t rely on Mastercard here, it’s patchy at best.
My Revolut Mastercard failed at Nedbank in Maseru, and I had to find an FNB ATM that worked with Visa. Kombis and taxis are all cash. Got stuck once with only large rand notes, and the driver didn’t have change. Card is useless outside of a few hotels and supermarkets.
I stayed at Shoeshoe Backpackers in Maseru and used minibuses daily to get around. Always paid cash, usually 8-12 maloti per ride. My Wise Visa worked at Standard Lesotho Bank in Pioneer Mall without issues. Since the rand is accepted everywhere, it was easy to just withdraw and pay in cash.
In Lesotho, public transport is minibuses and shared taxis (“kombis”), and they only take cash in maloti or South African rand (accepted 1:1). ATMs in Maseru - Standard Lesotho Bank, Nedbank, and FNB - work with Visa cards, though Mastercard is less reliable. No transport takes cards.