Ready to head to Istanbul?
The good news is, Istanbul has more means of public transport than most other cities. The buses and metro are nothing out of the ordinary. But hey, here, there is a combination of the two – metrobus, in addition to funiculars, ferries, cable cars and Marmaray – a train line that runs, in part, underground and which crosses the Bosphorus, connecting the city’s European and Asian sides.
More good news – you don’t need a separate ticket for all of these. If you get an Istanbul transport card (Istanbul kart) and add credit to it, you will be good to go.
You can buy the card in any of the automated machines available at all airports. Alternatively, you can try a newsagent. The card was formerly known as Akbil – if you see a kiosk with this sign, head for it.
The card currently costs 6 TL; newsagents sometimes sell it with credit already loaded on to it. For instance, they may sell it for 20 TL – 6 TL for the card itself, plus 14 TL of credit.
This is the most convenient and cheapest public transport option in Istanbul. Do not get single tickets (Bir geç) – they cost 5 TL each. With the card, a single journey on any form of transportation is 2.60 TL. If you make a connection within a certain time period, you will pay a reduced rate.
To buy the card from an automated machine, please choose the option shown below:
Then, you will have 10 seconds to insert a note as shown:
Bear in mind that notes that are suspicously new may be rejected 🙂 If that happens, find a worn-out note and try again. Once you make a sucessful payment, the card will be issued.
When you run out of credit, you will need to reload your card. The automated machines do show many different language options, but, in my experience, these rarely work. The below video shows you how to add credit to your card. If you are struggling with Turkish, please enable the subtitles (available in English and Polish).
Purple Travel Path 