Thanks to its orientation on a cusp between continents, the Turkish capital of Istanbul is quite literally in the middle of everything — particularly if you’re already traveling in Europe or the Middle East. As a result, direct flights exist from nearly every adjacent country to one or both of Istanbul’s airports. Train services are the most convenient option for domestic travel within Turkey.
If you are new to traveling in the region, however, several convenient travel options — such as the low-cost Havas buses that travel from both of Istanbul’s airports to its city center — may elude you. Maximize the flexibility of your travel to Turkey and its surrounding region by familiarizing yourself with all the ways you can get in and out of Istanbul.
Flying In and Out of Istanbul
Flying is the best way to get in or out of Istanbul.
Istanbul is served by two major airports: Atatürk (IST) and Sabiha Gökçen (SAW), located on the European and Asian sides of the city respectively. Both airports are extremely busy — Atatürk handled 32 million passengers in 2010, while Sabiha Gökçen saw just under 12 million passengers pass through its facilities the same year. As a general rule, major carriers fly into Atatürk, while low-cost carriers fly into Sabiha Gökçen.
I mention this fact because unless you have the cash to shell out for legacy carrier fares in and out of Atatürk, you’re far better of checking out low-cost airlines you can fly into Sabiha Gökçen — in most cases.
When I visited Istanbul in September 2010, I flew in with FlyDubai, a low-cost carrier that connects Sabiha Gökçen airport with Middle Eastern cities such as Beirut, Muscat and Amman (my origin) via its hub at Dubai International Airport. Other low-cost airlines that serve the airport include Air Arabia to Casablanca, Morocco and Alexandria, Egypt, Germanwings to Berlin, Cologne, Dortmund and Stuttgart and a Turkish start-up called Pegasus, which flies just about everywhere in Europe.
Flying a low-cost carrier into Sabiha Gökçen airport saves money for fun Istanbul activities, such as feeding birds at the Golden Horn.
On the way out, I lucked into a cheap fare to Zürich on Swiss International Airlines by purchasing it through codeshare partner Turkish Airlines. Of course I didn’t have much choice: no European low-cost carriers flew to Zürich from either of Istanbul’s airports at the time (Pegasus now serves the Swiss financial capital via Sabiha Gökçen). Although it is possible to find acceptable fares on legacy carriers such as Swiss and Turkish, I would recommend searching for fares such airlines only when no other option exists.
Havas Bus
Once you arrive at either of Istanbul’s airports, your first order of business is getting to the city center. Cabs are uniformly expensive — you can expect to pay the Turkish new lira equivalent of 30 euros from Atatürk or a whopping 50 from Sabiha Gökçen, which at least partially offsets the amount of money you saved flying in.
An alternative option — and, in my opinion, the best of them — is to take any of the Havas buses waiting outside the terminal building. No matter your arrival airport, Havas buses bound for Taskim Square, the heart of Istanbul, are there to serve you.
Havas buses take you directly to Taksim Square, from which you can access Istiklal, Istanbul’s main pedestrian thoroughfare.
A late arrival time isn’t inhibitive to using Havas buses, although prior to my nearly-midnight arrival I feared it would be. Thankfully, add I had to do to quell my fears was to read the fine print: the official Havas website lists the departure time for the last Taskim-bound bus from Sabiha Gökçen as 12:00 a.m. — and just below, states that Havas buses continue to serve the airport until the last flight arrives.
Havas buses, which cost 13,5 TL one-way as of July 2011, are also available from Taksim Square to either airport. Outbound times are less accommodating for extremely late or early departures, however, so check the Havas website before you depart to make sure a bus is available when you need it.
Trains
Trains are a great way to get around Turkey once you’re inside the country, although options for train travel to points outside Turkey are nonexistent, now that neighboring Greece has imposed a moratorium on international train services.
Turkey’s rail network is a gateway to the country’s Aegean coast.
In addition to high-speed services between Istanbul and the Turkish capital of Ankara, routes exist between Istanbul and the coastal city of Izmir and several other tourist destinations. For a comprehensive list of train destinations and times within Turkey, check out the “Train Travel in Turkey” page on Seat61.com, which is probably the best all-around rail travel resource on the entire Internet.
Robert Schrader is a travel writer and photographer who’s been roaming the world independently since 2005, writing for publications such as “CNNGo” and “Shanghaiist” along the way. His blog, Leave Your Daily Hell, provides a mix of travel advice, destination guides and personal essays covering the more esoteric aspects of life as a traveler.
