Getting Around Istanbul: Istanbulkart, Ferries and the Metro

Istanbul is a city of sixteen million people split across two continents by a strait, and it moves on public transport. The system is clean, frequent, cheap and almost entirely signposted in English. Visitors still spend their week in taxis, mostly because nobody told them how the card works.

Start with the Istanbulkart

One card for everything: metro, tram, bus, ferry, funicular, Marmaray and the metrobus. Without it you pay more and some turnstiles will not take anything else.

• Where to buy: vending machines at every metro station and most tram stops, and kiosks marked İstanbulkart. The machines have an English option.
• How it works: buy the card, load credit onto it, tap at the turnstile. You can top it up at the same machines with cash or card.
• Sharing: one card can pay for several people on most buses, trams and the metro. Tap once per person.
• The transfer discount: this is the part nobody explains. Change between modes within about two hours and each subsequent leg costs less than the first. A journey involving a tram, a ferry and a metro costs far less than three separate fares.

Fares are low but change with inflation, so we are not printing a number that will be wrong by spring. The machine shows your balance at every tap.

What to use, and when

The ferries are the point

Here is the thing most visitors get wrong. They pay for a Bosphorus tourist cruise and never set foot on a public ferry, when the public ferries cover most of the same water for a fraction of the price, with a glass of tea and commuters reading newspapers.

Three worth taking just for the ride:

• Eminönü to Üsküdar. Twenty minutes, Europe to Asia, with the old city skyline behind you the whole way. Probably the best value sightseeing in Istanbul.
• Karaköy to Kadıköy. Lands you in the best eating neighbourhood on the Asian side.
• Eminönü to the Princes' Islands. Ninety minutes out into the Sea of Marmara, to a group of islands with no cars.

We compare the public ferries and the organised cruises properly in ferry vs cruise, because there are genuine reasons to pay for the cruise and it is worth knowing what they are.

Getting to and from the airports

Istanbul Airport (IST): the M11 metro connects it to the city, and Havaist buses run to Taksim, Sultanahmet and other central points. A taxi is expensive and, in traffic, not much faster.

Sabiha Gökçen (SAW): the metro now reaches it, and Havabüs coaches run to Taksim and Kadıköy. Allow much more time than the distance suggests.

And the point that costs people flights: these are two different airports on two different continents, roughly 70 km apart. Check the three-letter code on your booking, not the word Istanbul.

Taxis, and when they are wrong

Use the apps, BiTaksi or iTaksi, rather than hailing on the street. They log the journey, set the route and remove the argument about the meter. Taxis are genuinely useful late at night, with luggage, or to somewhere the rail network does not reach.

In daytime traffic across the old city they are the slowest option available, and the tram will beat them comfortably. A short hop that looks like five minutes on a map can take forty.

A few practical things

• Download an offline map before you arrive. Mobile data is easy to arrange, and we covered eSIMs and SIM cards separately.
• Rush hour is roughly 08:00 to 10:00 and 17:00 to 20:00. The Marmaray and metrobus in rush hour are an experience you do not need.
• Give up your seat for anyone elderly, pregnant or holding a child. This is not optional here.
• Keep the card. It does not expire, and if you come back it still works.

If you would rather not navigate any of this on a first visit, our Istanbul Grand Tour handles the moving around and leaves you free time in the places worth lingering in. But do buy a card anyway. The ferry at sunset costs about as much as nothing and is better than most things you will pay for.