General Information and Getting Around
Travel between Istanbul Airports and Taksim square – There is a good coach service every 30 minutes from both Istanbul Ataturk and Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen Airports to Taksim square. It costs 10 Lira (about $5). Look for the Havaş buses once you exit the arrivals lounge or just ask anyone for the Havaş Bus to Taksim.
There are two hubs on the European side of Istanbul:
- Sultanahmet - where a lot of the historical sites are located (Sultanahmet Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, etc)
- Taksim - where shops, café’s, bars and nightlife are concentrated. Taksim is also a short taxi or bus journey from Ortaköy which is another nice area of the city to walk around (mentioned in the notes below).
- After recently seeing the impact another area had on a friend of mine who visited Istanbul, I have decided to also include Nisantasi as a hub. This is probably the most European and upmarket area in the city, but I think it is slightly underserved in terms of hotels. You can reach Nisantasi by metro (go to Osmanbey, then walk down Rumeli Caddesi).
You can travel between the 2 centres quite easily using public transport. To go from Taksim to Sultanahment:
- Take the funicular from Taksim Metro station to Kabataş.
- At Kabataş, take the tram to Sultanahmet.
Taxis:
All the taxis are metered but about half of them will attempt to rip you off by taking a much longer route than necessary.
Also beware when paying the fare: if you hand over a 50 lira note, a common trick is for the driver to claim that you only gave him a 5 lira note. Both notes are the same colour and look very similar and you can easily mix them up.