Pulire Eurasia

Getting to İstanbul is easy. There are two inter national airports, two otogars (cenral bus stations) from which international services arrive and depart, and two international rail stations.

DHMİ Atatürk Airport

Sabiha GÖKÇEN International Airport

İstanbul İntercity Central Bus Station (Büyük İstanbul Otogarı)

Turkish State Railways

From Aksaray and Atatürk airport Line M1 Station is “İstanbul Expo Center”.

İstanbul is full of taxis. All taxis have digital meters and must run them. A base rate (drop rate, flag fall) is levied during the daytime (gündüz); the night-time (gece) rate, from midnight to 6am, is 50% higher. Meters, with LCD displays, flash ‘gündüz’ or ‘gece’ when they are started. Base rate 2TL, 1,30TL per km, 0,26 per min for waiting, under 50kg luggage is free of charge. If you catch a taxi over either of the Bosphorus Bridges, it is your responsibility to cover the toll. The driver will add 3,25TL to your fare.

Intercity & international buses

Many bus offices are on İnönü Caddesi, near Taksim Square and many bus companies offer a free servis (shuttle bus) between the otogar and Taksim Square otogar.

The International İstanbul Bus Station (Uluslararası İstanbul Otogarı; 212-658 0505) is the city’s main bus station for both intercity and inter national routes. Called simply the otogar (bus station), it’s in the western district of Esenler, just south of the expressway and about 10km west of Sultanahmet. The LRT service from Aksaray stops here (Otogar stop) on its way from the airport; you can catch this to Aksaray and then connect with a tram to Sultanahmet. If you’re going to Beyoğlu, bus 83O leaves from the centre of the otogar between 5.45am and 1.40am every three to 25 minutes (depending on the time of day) and takes about an hour to reach Taksim Square.

Many bus companies offer a free servis (shuttle bus) between the otogar and Taksim Square or Sultanahmet. If you’re booking a ticket out of İstanbul from a bus office in Taksim (or elsewhere), ask about this service. You’ll be asked to front up at the bus office around an hour before your bus is due to leave and a minibus will pick you up and take you from the office to your bus at the otogar. If you’ve just arrived by bus in İstanbul, ask your bus driver about the servis. One should be waiting close by to drop you at Sultanahmet or Taksim Square.

There’s a smaller bus station on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus at Harem, south of Üsküdar and north of Haydarpaşa train station. If you’re arriving in İstanbul by bus from anywhere on the Asian side of Turkey, it’s always quicker to get out at Harem and take the car ferry to Sirkeci/Eminönü (every 30 minutes from 7.30am to 9.30pm); if you stay on the bus until the otogar, you’ll add at least an hour to your journey. If you’re going the other way, you may want to catch your bus here, instead of at the otogar; check if this is possible at the bus office.

Airports

The city’s main airport, Atatürk International Airport (Atatürk Hava Limanı; flight information 212-465 3000, 212-465 5555), is in Yeşilköy, 23km west of Sultanahmet (the heart of Old İstanbul). The international terminal (Dış Hatlar) is polished and organised. Close by, the domestic terminal (İç Hatlar) is smaller but no less efficient. The city’s second international airport, Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (216-585 5000) at Kurtköy on the Asian side of the city.

On the European side, the major ferry docks are at the mouth of the Golden Horn (Eminönü, Sirkeci and Karaköy), and at Kabataş, 2km past the Galata Bridge, at the end of the tram line from the airport and Sultanahmet.

The ferries run to two annual timetables: winter (mid-September to mid-June) and summer (mid-June to mid-September). Printed timetables are available from all ferry terminals and an online timetable (in Turkish) is available.

Tickets (jetons) are cheap (usually TL1.30) and it’s possible to use Akbil.
There are also deniz otobüsü (fast catamaran or seabus) services, but these ply routes that are of less interest to the traveller; they are also more expensive than the ferries. The most useful seabus routes are Bostancı–Karaköy–Eminönü and Bostancı–Princes’ Islands.

Info link

All trains from Europe terminate at Sirkeci Railway Station right next to Eminönü. Outside the station’s main door there’s a convenient tram up the hill to Sultanahmet, Beyazıt and Zeytinburnu and across the Galata Bridge to Kabataş, from where you can catch a funicular to Taksim Square.
For more information about international services from Sirkeci

Trains from the Asian side of Turkey, and from points east and south, terminate at Haydarpaşa Railway Station, on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus close to Kadıköy. The ferry from the station is cheap, convenient, pleasant and speedy.
Services from Haydarpaşa include eight daily departures to Ankara. International services from Haydarpaşa include the Transasya Espress to Tehran and the Toros Espress to Aleppo. Haydarpaşa has a left-luggage room (emanet), a restaurant serving alcoholic beverages, numerous snack shops, left-luggage lockers, bank ATMs and a small post office (PTT).
For more information and online reservation for international or national services from Sirkeci and Haydarpaşa.