TripHip - Travel Tips and Advice for Traveling on a Budget

When you think of Turkey, your mind might turn to caravans and camels far more easily than it would to high-speed public transportation. But not only are those imaginings slightly geographically incorrect, they're also far behind the times - Turkey's system of public transportation is one of the easiest, safest, and most modern in the world!

First of all, there's the railway. Slow, and not quite as convenient as buses, there are nevertheless some lines worth taking. There are night trains on electrified lines from Istanbul to Thessaloniki in neighboring Greece, as well as to Ankara, Turkey's capital and one of its more modern, industrialized cities. (There's also a night-train between Konya and Istanbul). There are also slower, intercity lines that still run on diesel.

But the best way to get around is by bus. Affordable (10-20 euro for a long-haul multi-hour journey), air-conditioned, and reasonable comfortable (although travelers should not that the seats are even more narrow than those on economy class in airplanes), buses run to and from all cities in Turkey. Go to the Otogar (Istanbul's is enormous - with restaurants, service shops, and miles of bus lines, it's practically a city in and of itself) and you're bound to find a bus leaving relatively soon on one of the competing company lines to wherever you want to go. Exercise caution, though, and ask around; to keep you from going on a competitor's bus line, a "helpful" worker might tell you to wait hours for the "next" bus to Canakkale or Selcuk on his line rather than the one that leaves in five minutes....Also, buses tend to drop you off on the highway near a town, or at otogars outside the city centre, be prepared to shell out a few YTL on a taxi, or a few less on a shuttle bus, to reach your final destination.

There's also the smaller dolmus, or minibus, which goes through cities and to and from neighboring cities, such as those in Cappadocia.