Get around

By plane

Major cities are served by airlines as well, with reasonable prices, beating the bus travel experience especially over longer distances. Tickets can be conveniently bought at least at the Istanbul domestic terminal and local ticket offices of Turkish Airlines , Onur Air and Atlasjet among others . Many of the large cities have daily connections to the traffic hubs Ankara and Istanbul, some others will have flights on specific days only. Upon arrival at regional airports there will often be a connecting Havas bus, which is much, much cheaper than taking a taxi. They may wait for half an hour, but will be available after the arrival of major flights. In some spots a whole fleet of minibusses will be waiting for an important flight, they will head out for cities in the region. For instance, flying to Agri in the East a connecting minibus will head for Dogubeyazit within twenty,thirty minutes or so, so you don’t have to travel into Agri first, than wait for a Dogybeyazit bus. Do ask for such easy connections upon arrival!

By bus

Turkey has a good long-distance bus network with comfortable air-conditioned buses, reserved seats and generally good service quality, at least with the big operators. See the external links below for more information on bus travel.

Travel by bus is a joy in this country. Go to the Otogar in any of the major cities and find you can travel to almost any destination within half an hour, or a couple of hours at the utmost. Busses are staffed by good drivers, and a number of assistants. On long haul travel a second driver will take over when the first gets exhausted. During the ride you will be offered free drinks, a bite or two, and stops will be made every two hours and a half or so at well-stocked road restaurants. The further East you travel, the less frequent busses will be, but even places as far as Dogubeyazit or Van will have regular services to many places hundreds of kilometers away. And a town must be real small not to have a bus straight to Istanbul or Izmir at least once every two days.

Finding the right bus quickly does require some help and thus some trust, but don’t overdo it. Touts will be waiting for you, and some may assist you in buying a ticket to a bus that won’t depart in the next two hours. Sometimes there simply is no other bus, but on other occassions you will be sitting there while other busses with the same destination start well ahead. So if you have some time to spare: check the departure (and arrival) times of other companies, that may save you time overall. Still if you indicate you really want to leave NOW (use phrases like “hemen” or “shimdy”, or “adjelem var” - I am in a hurry ), people will realize you are in hurry, and off you go on the next bus departing for your destination.

If you have several operators to choose from, ask for number of seats in the buses you compare. Roughly, a larger capacity implies a greater comfort. Also inquire your friends or other travellers you meet on their experiences with different operators: even big operators have different standards of service, and even with the same operator the standards may vary from region to region.