Planning Istanbul: Step One, Figuring Out Transportation Before Experiencing the City

I really can’t wait to share the cultural observations I had while walking through Istanbul’s neighborhoods! But before getting into those experiences, I had to figure out how to move through the city first.

Table of Contents

• Logistics

  • How to get to the downtown from Istanbul Airport ( …

  • How many transport card do you need?

Logistics

How to get to the downtown from Istanbul Airport (IST)

Istanbul Airport is quite far from the downtown, it takes more than 1.5 hours to get there. You’ll have to take metro first and then tram/bus, depending on your final destination. But this route applies generally:

1. Take M11 metro bounding for Gayrettepe at the airport

2. Transfer to M2 metro bounding for Yenikapı

3. Take a tram/bus to your final destination

💡 There some tips while traveling:

1. When transferring to M2, you don’t need to go outside of the metro, but you’ll need an Istanbul city card to take M2.

2. I don’t recommend taking a bus to your final destination because…well, I witnessed the vibrance of the traffic in downtown Istanbul 😄

3. Try Google map’s route option, and check off Subway/ Tram and light rail/ Best route, so you can avoid bus and get an optimized route.

4. I took T1 at Laleli-İstanbul Üniversitesi to my final destination - Sırkecı, which is such a good location to stay!

5. If you are guided to take the Marmaray (rails), make sure you have enough amount in your Istanbul City Card. I am not sure about the rule, but according to my experience, 2/3 time pass isn’t enough for a Marmaray ride. I guess avoid a 3-time pass would help. (It’s also not cost-effective to buy a 3-time pass anyway, because you’d need to use transport a lot)

How many transport card do you need?

At the airport metro, it sells 2 kinds: Ptt and Istanbul City Card. Ptt card seems to serve as a debit card as well cuz there are 4 set of 4-digits and chips on it, so you can probably buy things with it (but not at the tax-free shops at the airport! I tried 🥲) ; Istanbul City card is the card you need when traveling in the city, like taking a tram/bus/ferry/Marmaray (rails) or going to a public paid restroom (so I guess it’s important to have this card 😂🫣).

We had an issue using the Ptt card bought at the airport metro while attempting to transfer to M2, and learned from a passenger that start from the point, we need an Istanbul city card. So we bought from a machine there.

💡 I learned that Istanbul City Card actually allows you to take M11 as well, which means we can just buy it rather than a Ptt card at the beginning. Lesson learned: no need to buy a Ptt card. Just buy Istanbul City Card is enough!

Getting around Istanbul can be a bit rough, but the street dynamics quickly changed my mood. The city’s rhythms and the gender dynamics I kept noticing left a stronger impression than the transport ever did.