Bus Travel (Trip) in Turkey

Bus travel is still the easiest, cheapest and most popular way to travel in Turkey. There are thousands of different bus companies are offering different travel options and routes.

Most of these companies are operating their trips with luxury and comfortable buses. Almost all the buses, routing between cities have air-conditioning, entertainment systems, free WiFi connection, television, radio, steward, free drinks and snacks.

Bus companies are using this kind of buses.

Many Turks still prefer bus companies instead of flight-companies for short distances. Bus is a cheaper option for traveling to another city and the advantage is, you don’t need to spend time and money for airport shuttles.

Typical Turkish bus interior. Each seats have their own entertainment system for free

Typical Turkish bus interior. Each seat have it’s own entertainment system for free.

Turkish buses usually don’t have toilet facility inside. So use the toilets before your departure or during rest stops (mola). The buses are stopping for rest usually every 3-4 hours. Rest duration is usually 30 minutes but it’s good to ask someone around you, if they don’t announce in English.

Departures are frequent and fares are low. You can find a seat (even without reservation) from/to Istanbul to any location easily. But it’s better to book it before! You can ask your hotel for reservation.

For example, during a regular day you can find a bus ticket from/to big cities (Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Adana etc.) almost every 10 minutes.

Before and during the national & religional holidays of Turkey – it is hard to find a ticket for buses! For this reason, if you are planning to travel from Istanbul or to Istanbul with bus during a national holiday – book your tickets 1 week before your departure.

Buses have routes to everywhere and every city in Turkey, even to other close countries like Bulgaria, Romania, Azerbaijan etc. Bus companies obeying traffic rules and it’s good to know, their speed limit is 90km/h so you can approximately calculate your travel duration.

You can take a bus even for 2200 kilometers but it is a wearisome experience.

Turkey is quite easy to travel in with bus, but don’t forget – it’s a big country.

Turkey has the biggest land area (780.580 km²) in Europe. For example Spain’s area is 504.030km², Norway’s 385.199km², Germany’s 357,021km² and France’s 674.843km². Just to compare.

So bus travel might not be the best option always. You can make a combination of flight and bus to get your destination if there is no direct flight there.