With coasts like heaven, fascinating history, cultural heritage and unique landscape, Turkey is one of the best travel routes for many travelers from many countries of the world today. Fortunately, travelling inside this beautiful country is quite easy and affordable. Transportation to any city you want is possible with different alternatives. Moreover, during your travels to these cities, you will see wonderful views and your travel will offer you more colorful memories than you expected. That will help you as you wish in order to visit Turkey, we provide helpful tips in our guide with transportation in Turkey.
Domestic Flights
It’s possible to find a lot of domestic flights between cities in Turkey. There are flights for almost every city in Turkey, it is possible to visit them direct or indirect. The worldwide leading airline companies like Turkish Airlines (THY) offers all the possibilities of domestic flights and you can travel in the most comfortable way for you. However, it should be noted that Anadolu Jet, a Turkish Airlines subsidiary, and Pegasus Airlines, which has a low-cost business model, and Atlas Global and OnurAir provide services in Turkey. Whichever airline you choose, it’s relatively easy to buy a relatively cheap ticket from Istanbul to any major city in the country.
Note : If you want to travel more economically, you can prefer Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Aiport instead of New Istanbul Airport, because the ticket fees will be a bit cheaper.
Intercity Bus Travels
Although decreasing the popularity of bus travels in Turkey because of economical domestic flights, the bus travel option is still safe, comfortable and cheaper. Various bus companies in similar price and quality ranges offer daily routes from one end of the country to the other. You can visit the bus companies’ web addresses for your bus timetables and reservations. In addition, each city and town has a central bus station or stops with minibuses and taxis so you can get to your accommodation.
Note: You can discover local foods offered at recreation facilities during breaks along your journey route and buy from locally made souvenirs or organic products.
Trains
Although not widely used, the northern, eastern, western and southern parts of Trukey are available train connection.
Yaygın olarak kullanılmamasına rağmen, Türkiye’nin kuzey, doğu, batı ve güney kısımlarının bir bölümünü birbirine bağlayan iyi bir trenle ulaşım ağı mevcuttur. High speed train services are only available between Ankara, Konya, Eskişehir and Istanbul. You can reach Ankara from Istanbul by high-speed train in about four hours travel time. The most popular train route is the Eastern Express operating between Ankara and Kars. If you want to have an unforgettable travel experience accompanied by magnificent mountain views, you should put your thickmont on you and take this train in the winter season. You can visit http://www.tcddtasimacilik.gov.tr or tour agencies for flight times and ticket reservations.
Note: In this time, which takes about 24 hours with the highly popular Eastern Express (Doğu Ekspresi), you should make your ticket reservations at least 1 month before your travel date in order to travel comfortably in the sleepers.
Subway and Tramway
The rail systems, subway and tram system, are available in the fastest growing cities of Turkey. More than half a billion passengers a year with the most advanced light rail network in Turkey are located in Istanbul. You can reach the Istanbul rail systems transportation network at https://www.metro.istanbul/. Eskişehir, İzmir, Ankara, Bursa, Kayseri, Samsun, Konya, Gaziantep, Antalya and Adana are other cities that provide transportation by subway and tramway.
Automobile
The main roads in Turkey are connected well and have systematic maintenance transactions. In addition, transportation is provided more comfortably and in a shorter time with new highways and bridges that have been opened recently. If you do not have your personal vehicle available in Turkey, you can rent a car from international car rental firms like Enterprise, Hertz, Europcar and Budget.
Note : During public holidays and feasts, the traffic on the intercity highways is particularly intense and the number of traffic accidents increases during these periods. For this reason, try to avoid going on the first and last days when the traffic is the busiest on public holidays.
Ferries and Sea Buses
In order to shorten the journey time and make it more fun, some cities in the western part of Turkey, you can use the ferry and sea buses. If you want to travel to the Aegean or the Mediterranean with your car, you can take the ferryboat, which offers transportation from Istanbul to Bandırma in two hours. Or you can reach Yalova from Istanbul by taking the Yenikapı, Pendik or Eskihisar – Topçular ferries between 30 minutes and 1 hour and 15 minutes. You can visit https://www.ido.com.tr to purchase tickets, to learn port details and tariffs. Also, to be able to travel to the Greek islands and Turkey’s coastal expeditions are organized all other routes of the city, you can visit the https://www.ferries.co.uk address to access timetables and ticket information.
Istanbul Cityline Ferries
Ferries that connect the European and Anatolian sides of Istanbul on the Marmara Sea continue at any time of the day. You can witness the unique silhouette of Istanbul as you travel with the city lines ferries, feed the seagulls by filling the bagels or sip your hot tea and take the stress out of the day by enjoying the sea. You can also take part in organized Bosphorus tours. You can visit https://www.sehirhatlari.istanbul/tr to reach timetable and routes..
Metrobus
Metrobus, which is the public transportation vehicle that connects the Anatolian side of Istanbul to the European side, provides 24-hour service and provides a fast and secure transportation opportunity on its own divided road without any traffic. You can visit https://metrobus.iett.istanbul to reach metrobus route and voyage information.
Note: If possible, we suggest that you should use metrobus except working starting and ending hours of a day.
Minibus and Taxi Dolmush (Taksi Dolmuş)
Since both cheaper and faster, Turkish people travel by minibuses or taxis called dolmush. While proceeding on a certain route, they continue by picking up and lowering passengers anywhere. To get on the minibus and minibus taxi, all you have to do is shake your hand so that the driver can see it. This type of travel can undoubtedly be seen as annoying, and minibus drivers are also famous for their aggressive driving, but you can get from point A to point B with as little money as possible. To learn the routes of minibuses, you need to ask those around, because there are usually no informative signs. Transportation in towns and villages is mostly provided by local minibuses.
Taxi
Although yellow taxis are a more expensive means of transportation compared to their alternatives, they are widely used by local people looking for comfort. It is quite easy to find a taxi on any big street in Istanbul; however, you may need to look around in smaller cities or use an application (see below for more information).
Note: Unfortunately, taxi drivers are common who want to chat tourists, so you should ensure about the taximeter is working after you get on the taxi. Also, since taxis do not accept credit cards in many cities, remember to always have cash with you.
Mobile Applications for Transportation
Although they are not used by people in many cities of Turkey, the mobile applications are so widespread in bigger cities like İstanbul, İzmir and Ankara which make life easier.
BiTaksi
The application offers you the option to call the taxi nearest you and pay by cash or credit card. Using this app will help you avoid fraud.
Uber
The legality of the Uber app in Turkey is still contraversial (whether legal authorities emphasized that, Uber officials are advocating the exact opposite). It is possible to be stopped by the police and fined for using the application. In such cases, Uber pays the related fee back to the customer. Although its legality is discussed, the practice is widely used in Istanbul.
Yandex
If you are traveling with your car, Yandex is a better option than Google Maps to get directions. It changes your route depending on the density of the traffic and saves you tons of time.
