Getting Around Turkey: How to Navigate the BIG Country!

Everything you need to know about getting around Turkey! Turkey has such an INCREDIBLE diversity in history and landscape and, thus, has a LOT to see. However, a lot of these amazing places are QUITE spread out.

Compared to most European countries, you have a lot more ground to cover to see the best sites.

So here are your transportation options and the best ways to get around Turkey including your transportation options and details on each!

Most of the time when planning a trip, we typically utilize one (MAYBE two) forms of transportation. We either decide to rent a car and take a road trip or decide that we can navigate our itinerary via train and/or bus.

But Turkey isn’t really that straight-forward. Especially if you decide to do more than just Istanbul and Cappadocia.

The sites get really spread out and the miles between destinations stretch long and wide.

Turkey is just a bit bigger than the size of Texas or more than 3x the size of the UK.

You have four major ways of getting around Turkey: plane, train, bus and car.

Despite the size of Turkey, they do a good job of making sure people can navigate the country.

So where can you fly to in Turkey?

You really have options for each corner of the country. There are over 50 airports in Turkey and 30+ of those are international!

You can fly close to Cappadocia to the city of Kayseri. If you want to visit the historic city of Ephesus, you can fly to Izmir, then bus or drive to Selçuk. If you want to visit the Black Sea area of Turkey, you can fly to Trabzon.

If you want to visit the Turkish Riviera (which I have heard is amazing!), you will fly to Antalya.

Of course, you can fly to the capital city of Ankara, which can be a gateway to other flights or forms of transportation.

The point is, since Turkey is so large, it has done a great job of making sure you can fly to just about any corner of the country you want!

Again, since Turkey is so large, it also has a good train system. They offer normal intercity trains, high-speed trains as well as long-distance overnight trains.

The only problem is, not every larger city has every choice of train.

For instance, the high-speed train system doesn’t connect to the west coast where the ancient city of Ephesus is found. If you want to get to Izmir from Istanbul, you will either have to fly or take the high speed train from Istanbul to Denizli and then bus to Izmir.

Along the same lines, there are just a few routes of overnight train routes as well. These are typically slower trains that have several stops along the way before they reach their destination.

There are 5 major overnight train routes:

• Izmir to Ankara (İzmir Mavi Treni)
• Kurtalan to Ankara (Guney Kurtalan Express)
• Tatvan to Ankara(Vangölü Express)
• Kars to Ankara (Doğu Express)
• Istanbul to Ankara (Ankara Express)

Most of these trains connect cities that are in the far east of Turkey that just have to cover a lot of miles to get back into the center of the country.

What is It Like Riding An Overnight Train in Turkey?

While in Turkey, we took an overnight train from Izmir to Ankara, which is around 13 hours.

Though the trains aren’t luxury, they are certainly clean and livable.

The cabins are either 2 or 4 sleeper that have couches by “day” and then fold out to a bed when you are ready to go to sleep.

We had a 2 person cabin which came with overhead storage, a private sink, coat hooks and a mini refrigerator. I’ve rode in a 4 person overnight train in another country and they typically have pull down beds on either side, so they tend to have a little less storage than the 2 person cabins.

Everything to know about taking a sleeper train in Turkey!

I was a little worried about getting sleep on the train, but it was perfectly fine, even with the stops! The movement of the train even kind of rocked me to sleep.

The 13 hour ride really wasn’t bad. By the time you had some dinner and slept 8 hours, it was about time to wake up and dress for the next day of activities! (probably a little different for those 26 hour train rides 😅)

Getting Around Turkey via Bus

Bus is the one form of transportation we did not use in Turkey, so I don’t have first-hand experience with it.

However, as with many countries, you have the option of busing to/from most major cities in Turkey.

Major cities with bus stations are Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Antalya and Cappadocia.

The bus route from Istanbul to Ankara is one of the shorter ones at around 6-7 hours (around $20 USD); a bus to Cappadocia from Istanbul will be around 11-12 hours (around $45 USD.)

When you can take a direct train from Istanbul to Ankara in about 4.5 hours ($20-30 USD) and fly to Cappadocia from Istanbul in an hour and a half for ~$100, you have to weigh the pros and cons.

If the flight or train schedules aren’t adding up or if you are booking last minute and buses are cheaper, then sure, a bus may be best.

But the vast majority of the time, there will be a quicker option for not a whole lot more money.

Getting Around Turkey via Car

Another option for navigating Turkey is to rent a car. If you are wanting to venture outside the major cities, there are certainly perks to having a car to get around the smaller towns.

However, as big as Turkey is, there is no way you are going to want to utilize ONLY a car unless you have an extended period of time in Turkey (which I never do 🙃.)

If you rent a car in Turkey, it will likely be best utilized in combination with another form of transportation.

After all that explosion of information, you probably just want to know the best way to get around Turkey.

With many things, the answer is “it depends.” It depends on if your best way is the cheapest way or the most efficient way. It depends on if you are comfortable renting a car or not. It depends on how much time you will have in Turkey.

Several things will factor into which form of transportation you should choose.

But here is a little help.

Getting Around Turkey Efficiently

The most efficient way to get from city to city is going to be via airplane 99% of the time. This is especially true if you are just visiting Istanbul and Cappadocia.

But it is also true if you plan to visit places on the west coast like Selçuk/Ephesus, the Turkish Riviera or the far eastern part of Turkey.

Sometimes an overnight train is another efficient way to travel. It allows you to travel during your downtime rather than taking up daylight hours to travel.

You just have to make sure that a) the time of the train doesn’t make it less efficient (for example some of the overnight trains from the far east of Turkey will take 20+ hours!) or b) that the train gets you close enough to your destination to where you don’t have to utilize another form of transportation.

For example, we trained from Izmir to Ankara, but we weren’t staying in Ankara. So then we had to drive on to Cappadocia, which is not the most efficient way to get from Izmir to Cappadocia usually (depending on flight times.)

Bus and car are rarely going to be your most efficient way to get around the country. There are just too many miles to navigate from city to city.

Cheapest Way to Get Around Turkey

If price is your biggest concern, then YOUR best transportation may be different.

MOST of the time, bus is going to be your cheapest form of transportation. You can bus long distances for $20-50 USD.

HOWEVER, you should compare prices. Because sometimes flights can be as low as $50 and it doesn’t make sense to take a longer form of transportation for the same price.

Can you Get Around Turkey without Renting a Car?

You can definitely get around Turkey without renting a car, but it is just going to take a bit more planning and logistics.

In Istanbul you are 1000% fine without a car (you don’t need one at all.)

However, once you get into the smaller towns as well as Cappadocia, it can get a little more tricky.

For example, if you want to visit Ephesus, the quickest way to get there from Istanbul is to fly to Izmir and then bus to Selçuk (which is only about 45 minutes.) Then, to get to the ancient city of Ephesus, you will either have to bus again from Selçuk OR take a guided tour (which would probably be your best bet as the history is amazing there!)

A 7 Day Itinerary to Turkey Full of History, Culture and Views!

You can utilize local minibuses within most of the cities in Turkey.

If you are planning to visit Cappadocia and don’t want to rent a car, you will want to base yourself in a popular area (Göreme would be best, Ürgüp second) to where you can walk/hike to many of the popular sites or be able to catch a tour to some of the further areas.

There are minibuses that travel between small the towns within Cappadocia. BUT they do not go to fairy chimney fields or trailheads that are further from the main towns.

Therefore, if you want to venture out a little more you will be limited without a car unless you opt to take guided tours.

Bottom line, if you don’t want to rent a car in Turkey BUT you want to see the smaller towns of Turkey you will have to be comfortable using the mini buses and tours or you may be limited on what you can do and see.

The Reality of the Best Way to Get Around Turkey

In my humble opinion, the best way to get around Turkey is going to be utilizing a few forms of transportation.

If I were planning a trip to Turkey that included Istanbul, Selçuk/Ephesus and Cappadocia I would:

• Fly into Istanbul and explore via walking and tram
• Fly to Izmir and rent a car
• Drive to Selçuk and explore Selçuk and some of the surrounding areas on my own
• Drive back to Izmir to fly from Izmir to Nevşehir Kapadokya Airport (closer to Göreme but smaller with less options) or Kayseri Erkilet Airport (further from Göreme but bigger hub)
• Rent a car at the airport in order to explore Cappadocia and all the towns it has to offer efficiently
• Then, drive back to the airport and fly back to Istanbul or straight home if flights work out that way

If you want to add in the Pamukkale’s Pools to your itinerary, you will want to add in either a train or bus to get to the pools before continuing on to Cappadocia.